On land, species adapted to seasonally dryhabitats flourishedClimates deteriorated worldwide during the MioceneEpoch, when cooler, seasonally drier conditions causedforests to shrink. This fl oral change had a profound effecton terrestrial animals. The geographic and evolutionarymodifi cations of biotas preserved in the fossil record helpus to reconstruct these changes.Further cooling of Antarctica Since early in the Oligocene,the temperature of the deep ocean has refl ectedthe temperature in polar regions, where dense, cold watersinks and spreads over the entire deep-sea fl oor (see Figure4-23). Oxygen isotope ratios in skeletons of foraminiferansthat occupied the deep-sea fl oor and have beencollected from sediment cores refl ect both the deep-seatemperature and the total volume of Earth’s glacial ice(p. 223). A plot of these ratios shows that a combinationof warming and shrinking of the Antarctic ice sheet occurrednear the end of Oligocene time; the new conditionspersisted until mid-Miocene time, about 14 millionyears ago. Subsequently oxygen isotopes in deep-sea foraminiferansbecame progressively heavier, refl ecting polarcooling and glacial expansion (Figure 19-2).The Miocene cooling, like the cooling of Late Eocenetime (p. 444), issued from the region of Antarctica.The appearance in the southeastern Pacifi c Ocean of iceraftedcoarse sediments shows that during the MioceneEpoch large Antarctic glaciers had begun to fl ow to theFIGURE 19-1 Reconstruction of the marine faunarepresented by fossils of the Middle Miocene Calvert Formationof Maryland. Representing the whale family were early baleenwhales (Pelocetus), which strained minute zooplankton from theseawater (center); long-snouted dolphins (Eurhinodelphis, lowerleft); and short-snouted dolphins (Kentriodon, upper right).Sharks include the six-gilled shark Hexanchus (lower right).
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