Miocene

Rare card · No. 47205

The Miocene ( MY-ə-seen, -⁠oh-) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from approximately 23 to 5 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell and comes from Ancient Greek μείων (meíōn), lit. 'less', and καινός (kainós), lit. 'new' or 'recent', and thus means "less recent", because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans and enabling the interchange of fauna between the continents, including the dispersal of proboscideans and...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Scotese, Christopher R.; Vérard, Christian; Burgener, Landon; Elling, Reece P.; Kocsis, Ádám T., CC BY 4.0