12 Facts About Eocene

Eocene Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.

The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek and (kainos, "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.

Term "Eocene" is derived from Ancient Greek eos meaning "dawn", and kainos meaning "new" or "recent", as the epoch saw the dawn of recent, or modern, life.

End of the Eocene was marked by the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, known as the Grande Coupure.

Eocene Epoch contained a wide variety of different climate conditions that includes the warmest climate in the Cenozoic Era, and arguably the warmest time interval since the Permian-Triassic mass extinction and Early Triassic, and ends in an icehouse climate.

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The warm temperatures during the early Eocene could have increased methane production rates, and methane that is released into the atmosphere would in turn warm the troposphere, cool the stratosphere, and produce water vapor and carbon dioxide through oxidation.

Recent analysis of and research into these hyperthermals in the early Eocene has led to hypotheses that the hyperthermals are based on orbital parameters, in particular eccentricity and obliquity.

Eocene is not only known for containing the warmest period during the Cenozoic; it marked the decline into an icehouse climate and the rapid expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet.

The end of the Eocene and beginning of the Oligocene is marked with the massive expansion of area of the Antarctic ice sheet that was a major step into the icehouse climate.

The Eocene oceans were warm and teeming with fish and other sea life.

Eocene birds include some enigmatic groups with resemblances to modern forms, some of which continued from the Paleocene.

Bird taxa of the Eocene include carnivorous psittaciforms, such as Messelasturidae, Halcyornithidae, large flightless forms such as Gastornis and Eleutherornis, long legged falcon Masillaraptor, ancient galliforms such as Gallinuloides, putative rail relatives of the family Songziidae, various pseudotooth birds such as Gigantornis, the ibis relative Rhynchaeites, primitive swifts of the genus Aegialornis, and primitive penguins such as Archaeospheniscus and Inkayacu.