What did the Earth look like in the Eocene？ скачать в хорошем качестве

What did the Earth look like in the Eocene？

Since you have all come to visit our channel again, let us continue our journey into the Old Age today. This time we have a trip to the Eocene for you all. This is one of the most interesting periods in paleontology! There you will meet the distant ancestors of mankind and the unique monsters that have already perished. The Earth in the Eocene period In paleontological terms, the Eocene is a period that began 56 million years ago and ended 33.9 million years ago. The period before that was the Paleocene, which immediately followed the extinction of large species such as dinosaurs. Species diversity, which had been severely lost during the "mass extinction between the Cretaceous and Paleogene," gradually recovered during the Paleocene. The Era destroyed not only dinosaurs and large reptiles, but also other species. On the flip side, with the demise of their main rivals, mammals and birds had the opportunity to become the new rulers of the biosphere. By the beginning of the Eocene, the loss of biodiversity due to mass extinctions had been recovered to a significant degree. This was possible because, among other things, by the end of the preceding Paleocene, a mild, warm climate prevailed across the globe, and conditions were stable. The temperature difference between the equator and the poles was about one-half that of today. The climate of the Arctic and Antarctic regions corresponds to the temperate zone in today's global climate classification, and glaciers never descended below the tops of the mountains. The climate of the area now classified as temperate was almost subtropical, with tropical rain forests growing below 45 degrees latitude. This means that if the Earth's climate were the same today as it was in the Eocene, Korea, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and most of the United States would be covered with jungles. The reason the climate was like this may have to do with the fact that in the early Eocene, there were no cold currents flowing in the oceans, only warm currents. 46 million years ago, the Earth's climate was very warm, but it cooled somewhat during the next 4 million years. By the end of the Eocene, however, the Earth warmed again. While the map of the Earth in the Eocene is similar to that we know, there are some minor differences. For example, at the beginning of the Eocene, the continents of Australia and Antarctica were connected and still one continent. About 45 million years ago, they separated into two continents. On the contrary, the North and South American continents were separated. There were several islands in what is now Central America. The World of Beasts and Birds In the Eocene, mammals and birds fully occupied the ecological position vacated by the extinction of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles. These animals were diverse in size and ecology. In South America, giant flightless birds have taken the ecological position previously occupied by dinosaurs. The Phorusrhacidae family of birds. The Phorusrhacidae birds had only emerged in the Eocene, but by the Eocene, they were already quite prosperous and could be divided into several groups. Phorusrhacos looked somewhere between an ostrich and a dinosaur. In the view of some researchers, the bird was a cruel predator, hunting down and capturing its prey with its powerful legs and pecking it with its huge beak. Other researchers believe that the large Phorusrhacos were carrion eaters, feeding on the flesh of animals that had already died. In either case, we know that this giant bird appeared in the Eocene, passed through several eras, and thrived until the Pleistocene. In North America, there were birds of the family Bathornithidae, somewhat similar to the Phorusrhacidae. In Europe, the new ecological status was given to a bird called Gastornis, which seems to have been the largest and most dangerous ground animal in the area it inhabited. A species close to Gastornis, Diatryma, also succeeded in "conquering" other parts of the globe, especially Asia. According to researchers, it was during the Eocene that primates finally "came into their own," that is, became what they are today. Now, look at Purgatorius, which lived in the Paleocene, before the Eocene. It still looks more like a squirrel than a monkey. By the Eocene, however, Darwinius and Ardipithecus which lived at that time, already somewhat resemble today's lemurs. The first ancestor of Hominoidea is known to have emerged in the early Oligocene, which followed the Eocene. Propliopithecus. Propliopithecus may have already appeared by the end of the Eocene. The End of the Eocene As the Eocene drew to a close, the world began to change again. Cold currents were created in the oceans, one of which completely surrounded Antarctica, which settled into its present position. There, the ice cap began to form. There began the formation of glaciers that never melted, which affected not only the climate but also the height of the sea level. Sea levels began to drop...