Neogene

Neogene Period 23.03 – 0 million years ago PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Mean atmospheric O2 content over period duration	ca. 21.5 Vol %[1] (108 % of modern level)
Mean atmospheric CO2 content over period duration	ca. 280 ppm[2] (1 times pre-industrial level)
Mean surface temperature over period duration	ca. 14 °C[3] (0 °C above modern level)
Events of the Cenozoic view • discuss • edit -65 — – -60 — – -55 — – -50 — – -45 — – -40 — – -35 — – -30 — – -25 — – -20 — – -15 — – -10 — – -5 — – 0 — Neogene - Miocene       Cretaceous Paleocene Eocene Oligocene Pliocene Pleistocene       ← PETM ← N. Amer. prairie expands[4] ← First Antarctic permanent ice-sheets[5] ← K-Pg mass extinction ← Messinian salinity crisis[6] ← Holocene begins 11.5 ka ago P a l e o g e n e N e o g e n e Q  Cenozoic  Mesozoic An approximate timescale of key Cenozoic events. Axis scale: Ma before present.

The Neogene is a geologic period and system starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and lasting either until today or ending 2.588 million years ago with the beginning of the Quaternary.^[7] The Neogene Period follows the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era. Under the current proposal of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), the Neogene would consist of the Miocene and Pliocene epochs.^[8]

The terms Neogene System (formal) and upper Tertiary System (informal) describe the rocks deposited during the Neogene Period.

The Neogene covers roughly 23 million years. During the Neogene mammals and birds evolved considerably. Most other forms were relatively unchanged. Some continental motion took place, the most significant event being the connection of North and South America in the late Pliocene. Climates cooled somewhat over the duration of the Neogene culminating in continental glaciations in the Quaternary Period that follows, and that saw the dawn of the genus Homo.

Controversy

The Neogene traditionally ended at the end of the Pliocene Epoch, just before the older definition of the beginning of the Quaternary Period; many time scales show this division. However, there is a movement amongst geologists (particularly Neogene Marine Geologists) to also include ongoing geological time (Quaternary) in the Neogene, while others (particularly Quaternary Terrestrial Geologists) insist the Quaternary to be a separate period of distinctly different record. The somewhat confusing terminology and disagreement amongst geologists on where to draw what hierarchical boundaries, is due to the comparatively fine divisibility of time units as time approaches the present, and due to geological preservation that causes the youngest sedimentary geological record to be preserved over a much larger area and to reflect many more environments, than the older geological record.^[9] By dividing the Cenozoic Era into three (arguably two) periods (Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary) instead of 7 epochs, the periods are more closely comparable to the duration of periods in the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras.

The ICS once proposed that the Quaternary be considered a sub-era (sub-erathem) of the Neogene, with a beginning date of 2.588 Ma, namely the start of the Gelasian Stage. The International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) counterproposed that the Neogene and the Pliocene end at 2.588 Ma, that the Gelasian be transferred to the Pleistocene, and the Quaternary be recognized as the third period in the Cenozoic, citing key changes in Earth's climate, oceans, and biota that occurred 2.588 Ma and its correspondence to the Gauss-Matuyama magnetostratigraphic boundary.^[10] 2006 ICS and INQUA reached a compromise that made Quaternary a subera, subdividing Cenozoic into the old classical Tertiary and Quaternary, a compromise that was rejected by International Union of Geological Sciences because it split both Neogene and Pliocene in two.^[11]

References