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The Eocene-Oligocene planktic foraminiferal transition: extinctions, impacts and hiatuses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Eustoquio Molina ,
Concepción Gonzalvo  and
Gerta Keller
Eustoquio Molina
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología (Paleontología), Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Concepción Gonzalvo
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología (Paleontología), Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Gerta Keller
Affiliation:
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Biostratigraphic study and re-examination of 22 late Eocene to early Oligocene sections provides data in support of three and possibly a fourth late Eocene impact events in the G. index Zone during a period of about 1 Ma of the middle Priabonian between 34.7 and 35.7 Ma. No major species extinctions or significant species abundance changes directly coincide with these impact events. Species extinctions are gradual and selective, affecting primarily cool-temperature-intolerant surface dwellers. These extinctions began with the onset of global cooling during the early middle Eocene and culminated near the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. The global cooling was associated with the isolation of Antarctica as Australia moved northward, the development of a circum-Antarctic circulation, growth of Antarctic ice sheet beginning by late middle Eocene time and a change from a thermospheric to thermohaline circulation. We find no evidence that the multiple late Eocene impact events directly contributed to the climatic deterioration already in progress.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 130 , Issue 4 , July 1993 , pp. 483 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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