PALEOCENE EPOCH

Paleocene Epoch

Major Event

Throughout this epoch, two major events happened, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction (KT extinction) . During the PETM the Earth's temperatures raised from 5 to 8 °C and the oceans rapidly acidified. Many deep sea organisms went extinict the the exact cause of this event is still unclear but many scientists predict it was the result of the release of methane hydrates from ocean sediments that was set off by a volcanic eruption. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction was a mass extinction in which 75 percent of all living species on Earth were wiped out. It was said to be one of the, "most devasting events in the history of life" (Schulte). Scientists state that this event was caused by an astriod however this is still heavily debated and researched today.

What the world was like

During this epoch, many modern plant species we have today appeared (ex: catci, palm trees). The warm temperatures helped give rise to the dense, thick forests that littered the world. The American Museum of Natural History stated that mammals became more diverse and many of them evolved into a larger body size. However, these mammals are only remotly similar to the mammals of today and they retained primal teeth and skeletons.

Facts

- One of the places where fossils from the Paleocene epoch are most abudant is the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming. - Grasses originated early in the Paleocene and became an immensly fundamental group to later epoch ecologies. - Bats, which are the only mammals that can freely fly lived in abudance during this epoch, espically towards the beginning when there was not many predators. - This epoch actually set the stage for the evolution of homosapians, this is due to the mass reduction in predator species during this ttime, which allowed for land mammals rto flourish and dominante.

References (cited) Schulte, P., Alegret, L., Arenillas, I., Arz, J. A., Barton, P. J., Bown, P. R., Bralower, T. J., Christeson, G. L., Claeys, P., Cockell, C. S., Collins, G. S., Deutsch, A., Goldin, T. J., Goto, K., Grajales-Nishimura, J. M., Grieve, R. Á. F., Gulick, S. P. S., Johnson, K. R., Kiessling, W., … Willumsen, P. S. (2010). The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. Science, 327(5970), 1214–1218. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40544375 “Paleocene.” Paleocene | Perissodactyl, American Museum of Natural History, research.amnh.org/paleontology/perissodactyl/concepts/deep-time/paleocene.

Time

This point in time was an epoch, it took place within the Paleogene Period, the Cenozoic Era, and finally the Phanerozoic Eon. It lasted from about 65 to 55 million years ago and was followed by the Eocene Epoch.