Cenozoic climates: evidence from the North Atlantic

Cenozoic biostratigraphy and climatology of the North Atlantic and adjacent land areas reflects the continuing fragmentation of Eurasia and concomitant changes on ocean-continent geometry. A latitudinal (zonal) Mesozoic circulation pattern evolved into a predominantly longitudinal (meridional) pattern during the Cenozoic in which the development of oceanic gateways and barriers gradually decreased the efficiency of poleward heat transfer resulting in the progressive climatic change which has taken place over the past 50 million years. Cenozoic distributional data from the North Atlantic and adjacent land areas will be reviewed from the following fields: a) terrestrial vertebrates and floras: b) marine calcareous microplankton and benthic foraminifera; c) other marine invertebrates. Available data suggests that the present climate in the northern hemisphere has resulted from a gradual, but inexorable, strengthening of latitudinal and vertical temperature gradients punctuated by several brief intervals of accelerated change. The absence of evidence for northern hemisphere polar glaciation prior to the late Neogene does not preclude seasonal cooling near the freezing point in post-Eocene time. Evidence for early Paleogene cold climates is not reflected in the fossil record.