Abstract
The interaction of plate movements and progressive climatic deterioration produced a constantly changing oceanic environment during the Cenozoic. The destruction of the Tethyan Seaway and the severing of low-latitude oceanographic connections during the past 65 Myr (ref. 1), coupled with the initiation of unrestricted circum-Antarctic circulation in the middle to late Oligocene2, provided the necessary boundary conditions for the development of a global ocean marked by steep latitudinal temperature gradients. This is in contrast to the rather mild climate of the Mesozoic, which was characterized by an ocean with a homogeneous thermal structure and weak latitudinal temperature gradients1. Throughout the Cenozoic, marine plankton were constantly adapting to major changes in the oceanic environment. This can be seen, for example, in the continual development of latitudinal provincialization as a response to polar coolings1,3. Here I attempt to evaluate the relationship between palaeotemperature change and planktonic foraminiferal speciation during the past 65 Myr.
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Thunell, R. Cenozoic palaeotemperature changes and planktonic foraminiferal speciation. Nature 289, 670–672 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/289670a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/289670a0
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