Cenozoic environmenal shifts and foraminiferal evolution
Date
2012
Authors
McGowran, B.
Editors
Talent, J.
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Book chapter
Citation
Earth and Life: Global Biodiversity, Extinction Intervals and Biogeographic Perturbations Through Time, 2012 / Talent, J. (ed./s), pp.937-967
Statement of Responsibility
Brian McGowran
Conference Name
Abstract
The dense record of Cenozoic foraminifera simultaneously supplies a mosaic of biostratigraphy, a rich field for evolutionary studies and the vehicles for geochemical environmental proxies. Four groups are discussed: the larger foraminifera on the warm-water shelves and platforms, the planktonics, the deep-sea faunas and the southern-extratropical benthics. The environmental trajectory from greenhouse in the later Cretaceous and earlier Paleogene to icehouse in the Neogene is not smooth but punctuated, and there are two particularly critical intervals, later Eocene and early-middle Miocene. The foraminiferal record is not smooth but chunky at 107 years’ scale. There are several good examples of two powerful synchroneities, one being between the faunas of the different realms and the other between the fossil record and the physical-environmental record.