NEOGENE PERIOD

In the Neogene period, dolphins, seals, walruses appear - species that live in modern conditions.

At the beginning of the Neogene period in Europe and Asia there were many predatory animals: dogs, saber-toothed tigers, hyenas. Herbivores were dominated by mastodons, deer, and one-horned rhinos.

In North America, carnivores were represented by dogs and saber-toothed tigers, and herbivores by titanotheres, horses, and deer.

South America was somewhat isolated from North. Representatives of its fauna were marsupials, megateria, sloths, armadillos, broad-nosed monkeys.

In the Upper Miocene period, an exchange of fauna takes place between North America and Eurasia. Many animals moved from mainland to mainland. North America is inhabited by mastodons, rhinos, predators, and horses move to Europe and Asia.

With the onset of the Ligocene, hornless rhinos, mastodons, antelopes, gazelles, pigs, tapirs, giraffes, saber-toothed tigers, and bears settled in Asia, Africa, and Europe. However, in the second half of the Pliocene, the climate on Earth became cool, and animals such as mastodons, tapirs, giraffes move south, and bulls, bison, deer, and bears appear in their place.

In the Pliocene, the connection between America and Asia was interrupted. At the same time, communication between North and South America was resumed. The North American fauna migrated to South America and gradually replaced its fauna. Of the local fauna, only armadillos, sloths and anteaters remained, bears, llamas, pigs, deer, dogs, and cats spread.

Australia was isolated from other continents. Consequently, significant changes in the fauna did not occur there.

Among the marine invertebrates at this time, bivalves and gastropods predominate, sea ​​urchins. Bryozoans and corals form reefs in southern Europe. The Arctic zoogeographic provinces are traced: the northern one, which included England, the Netherlands and Belgium, the southern one - Chile, Patagonia and New Zealand.

The brackish-water fauna has spread strongly. Its representatives inhabited large shallow seas formed on the continents as a result of the advance of the Neogene Sea. Corals, sea urchins and stars are completely absent in this fauna. In terms of the number of genera and species, mollusks are significantly inferior to mollusks that inhabited the ocean with normal salinity. However, in terms of the number of individuals, they are many times greater than the ocean ones. The shells of small brackish-water mollusks literally overwhelm the sediments of these seas. Fish are no longer different from modern ones.

A cooler climate caused the gradual disappearance of tropical forms. Climatic zonation is already well traced.

If at the beginning of the Miocene the flora almost does not differ from the Paleogene, then in the middle of the Miocene palms and laurels already grow in the southern regions, conifers, hornbeams, poplars, alders, chestnuts, oaks, birches and reeds predominate in the middle latitudes; in the north - firs, pines, sedges, birches, hornbeams, willows, beeches, ash trees, oaks, maples, plums.

In the Pliocene period in the south of Europe there were still laurels, palm trees, southern oaks. However, along with them there are ash and poplar. In northern Europe, heat-loving plants have disappeared. Their place was taken by pines, spruces, birches, hornbeams. Siberia was covered with coniferous forests and walnuts were found only in the river valleys.

In North America, during the Miocene, heat-loving forms are gradually replaced by broad-leaved and coniferous ones. At the end of the Pliocene, tundra existed in the north of North America and Eurasia.

With deposits Neogene period connected deposits of oil, combustible gases, sulfur, gypsum, coal, iron ores, rock salt.

The Neogene period lasted 20 million years.

Similar information is contained in the Vishnu Purana, which says that the Jala Sea, located around the seventh, southernmost, Pushkar continent,borders on the land of the highest mountains of Lokaloka, which separates the visible world from the world of darkness. Beyond the mountains of Lokaloka lies the zone of eternal night.”
Such an arrangement of geographical zones could take place about (and) only when the earth's axis is close to the vertical position and the Earth rotates around it at a speed equal to its rotation around the Sun.
GivenTraditions definitely indicate that in certain periods of history, our planet, like the Moon and, to some extent, Venus, rotated at a small speed equal to the speed of its rotation around the Sun.As I showed in the works “Traditions and hypotheses about the moon rabbit, the churning of the ocean, the unwinding of the firmament, the origin of the moon and the connection of the moon with death and immortality - a description of the catastrophes at the turn of the Third and Fourth and Fourth and Fifth world epochs, the acquisition by the Earth of its modern form and the appearance modern man- Homo Sapiens "and" The most important catastrophe in the history of the Earth, during which humanity appeared. When did it happen? ”, in the Paleogene there was a single change in the orientation of the earth's axis from vertical to oblique. In the Quaternary period, the axis of rotation of the Earth, although constantly changing its orientation, remained always inclined.
Many other legends also tell about the similar nature of changes in the tilt of the earth's axis. One of them is the Greek legend about the son of the sun god Helios, Phaeton:
"The phaeton jumped on the chariot [father], and the horses raced along the steep road to heaven. Here they are already in the sky, now they leave the usual path of Helios and rush without a road. But Phaethon does not know where the road is, he is unable to control his horses.
Released Phaeton reins. Sensing freedom, then the horses rushed even faster. Now they will rise to the very stars, then, having descended, they rush almost above the Earth. The flame from the close-down chariot engulfs the Earth. Big, rich cities are dying, entire tribes are dying. Forested mountains are on fire. Smoke covers everything around; does not see Phaeton in thick smoke, where he rides. Water in rivers and streams boils. The earth cracks from the heat, and the rays of the sun penetrate into the gloomy kingdom of Hades. The seas begin to dry up, and the sea deities suffer from the heat ...
In deep sorrow, Phaethon's father Helios closed his face and did not appear on blue sky. Only the fire from the fire illuminated the earth.
The Pehuenche Indians living in Tierra del Fuego said that during the flood"The sun and the moon fell from the sky, and the world was left without light", and the Chinese - What “The planets have changed their path. The sun, moon and stars began to move in a new way. The earth fell apart, water gushed from its bowels and flooded the earth ... And the earth itself began to lose its appearance. The stars began to float away from the sky and disappear into a gaping void.
According to one of the few surviving authentic works of the Maya "Popol Vuh" (translated by R.V. Kinzhalov, 1959), after the death of the second generation of "wooden" people in Central America, there was eternal night:
“It was cloudy and gloomy then on the surface of the Earth. The sun didn't exist yet...
Heaven and earth, it is true, existed, but the faces of the Sun and Moon were still completely invisible...
The face of the Sun has not yet appeared, and the face of the Moon also; there were no stars yet, and the dawn had not yet dawned.
In the sacred book of Zoroastrianism "Bunda-hish" (modern Iran) one can also read:"When Angra Mainyu [leading the forces of darkness]sent a violent destructive frost, he also attacked the sky and threw it into disorder. This allowed him to take over"one third of the sky and cover it with darkness", while the creeping ice squeezed everything around.
According to German and Scandinavian legends, the giantess gave birth to a whole litter of wolf cubs, whose father was the wolf Fenrir. One of them chased the sun. Every year the wolf cub gained strength and finally swallowed it. The bright rays of the Sun went out one by one. It became a blood red hue, and then disappeared completely ... Another wolf swallowed the moon. Following this, the stars began to fall from the sky, earthquakes occurred, and a three-year cold (Fimbulvetr) set in in the world.
Quite a lot of similar legends are given in the ancient Indian Puranas and epic. They are also found in Greek, Slavic and other myths and written sources.

© A.V. Koltypin, 20 10

I, the author of this work, A.V. Koltypin, I authorize you to use it for any purposes not prohibited by the current legislation, provided that my authorship and a hyperlink to the site are indicatedor http://earthbeforeflood.com

Readmy works on the change in the position of the earth's axis and related events at the turn of the Oligocene and Miocene and in the Neogene "Traditions and hypotheses about the lunar rabbit ... a description of the catastrophes at the turn of the Third and Fourth and Fourth and Fifth world epochs, the acquisition by the Earth of its modern form and the appearance modern man - Homo Sapiens", "The most important catastrophe in the history of the Earth, during which mankind appeared. When it happened", "Disasters and climate change in the Miocene", "Catastrophe at the turn of the Miocene and Pliocene" and "Disasters and climate change in Pliocene"
Read also my works "Nuclear wars have already been and left many traces. Geological evidence of nuclear and thermonuclear military conflicts in the past" (together with P. Oleksenko) and "Who was the loser of a nuclear war 12,000 years ago? Legacy of the distant past in Australian lore"

Neogene system (Neogene period), Neogene(from Greek nyos - new and gnos - birth, age), - the second system of the Cenozoic era, corresponding to the second period of the Cenozoic era of the history of the Earth; in the stratigraphic scale follows the Paleogene system and precedes the Quaternary system. The beginning of the Neogene period, according to updated data, is determined by the radiometric method at 23.5 million years, and the end - at 0.7 million years (according to the scheme adopted by the Interdepartmental Stratigraphic Committee of the Academy of Sciences of the CCCP) or at 1.8 million years (according to the decision of the International Geological Congress in 1948) from the present. The total duration of the period is 22 and 23 million years, respectively. The name "Neogene system" was proposed in 1853 by the Austrian geologist M. Gernes for the two divisions identified in 1833 by the English geologist C. Lyell - the Miocene and the Pliocene.

Subdivisions of the Neogene system

The Neogene is subdivided into two divisions: the lower - Miocene and the upper - Pliocene. Subsequently, these divisions were divided into subdivisions and a number of tiers, established in the Mediterranean region and for some time considered tiers of the international scale. However, after the 1970s revisions, the tiers of the Mediterranean scale began to be considered only as regional. In 1975, at the congress of the Regional Committee for the Stratigraphy of the Mediterranean Neogene, three equivalent regional scales were adopted for the Mediterranean, Western and Eastern Paratethys. At the same time, when studying oceanic sediments, zonal scales were developed for planktonic foraminifera and nanoplankton, which are used in the correlation of the Neogene of oceanic regions, as well as in the comparison of regional scales of individual regions. Thus, there is no generally accepted international stage scale for the Neogene system. Regional tiers and biozones used in individual regions are distributed within divisions and subdivisions.

general characteristics

Neogene deposits are widespread under the cover of Quaternary deposits on all continents and at the bottom of the oceans. The Neogene period was one of the most geocratic stages in the development of the Earth, especially its 2nd half - the Pliocene. By the end of the Pliocene, the main features of the modern relief and water network were formed, the formation of numerous mountain systems - the Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkans, the Apennines, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Cordillera of the North and South America, island arcs - the Aleutian, Koryak-Kamchatka, Japanese, etc. Strengthening of the uplifts led to the formation of numerous internal depressions and deep-water internal and marginal basins. The rapid growth of mountain systems was accompanied by folded and folded formation and strong volcanic activity. The Neogene period as a whole was characterized by a significant cooling of the climate and the formation of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. The decrease in temperature led to a sharp differentiation of climate and, accordingly, landscape zones. Against this general background of climate deterioration, separate stages of warming were also observed. After the cold period of the 1st half of the Early Miocene, a significant warming occurred, known as the climatic optimum of the 2nd half of the Early - the beginning of the Middle Miocene. At that time, at high latitudes, thermophilic elements appeared among woody plants, freshwater mollusks, and terrestrial mammals on land, and a number of heat-loving forms among mollusks, foraminifera, and other groups of invertebrates appeared in the seas.

Starting from the 2nd half of the Middle Miocene, cooling again set in and aridization of the climate began, which continued into the Late Miocene. This led to the reduction of forests and the development of forest-steppe and steppe spaces. In Antarctica, a sheet of glaciation arose. In the Pliocene, cooling continued, against the background of which repeated fluctuations in the temperature regime occurred. In the 1st half of the Pliocene, sheet glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere appeared. During the Neogene period, the distribution of oceans, seas and land gradually approached the modern one, which was accompanied by a global (glacio-eustatic) lowering of the ocean level with individual fluctuations corresponding to the scale of glaciation. At the beginning of the Miocene, a large continental sea - Paratethys, formed in the Oligocene on the northern margin of the Tethys Ocean, lost contact with the boreal seas, retaining its connection with the Tethys, which was repeatedly interrupted in the Miocene. In the middle of the Miocene, Tethys finally broke up and the Mediterranean Sea separated from the Indo-Pacific. In the late Miocene, the Mediterranean Sea separated from the ocean due to the global drop in the level of the ocean, and powerful strata of evaporites formed in it (the Messinian salinity crisis). In the Pliocene, the Mediterranean Sea reconnected with the Atlantic, and Paratethys broke up, and the Azov-Black Sea and Caspian basins formed in its place. Transgressions of sea basins, which captured the marginal regions of the continents, were noted mainly in the 1st half of the Miocene, and in the Pliocene there were practically no seas with normal salinity within the modern continents. On the whole, transgressions of the Neogene seas and sedimentation on the continents took place against the background of a complex and rapidly changing tectonic and paleogeographic setting, which led to the diversity of the facies composition of the Neogene deposits in these areas. The most common were continental sandy-clayey and molasse formations; among marine sediments, the main role was played by sandy-argillaceous and carbonate-detrital; terrestrial-volcanogenic formations also had a significant distribution. Marine carbonate deposits and evaporites were relatively undeveloped. Biogenic sedimentation in the ocean has become more intense than before; three belts established for the modern ocean took shape: the equatorial, northern and southern belts of silicic and carbonate accumulation. Silica accumulation in the Neogene (more powerful than in the Cretaceous and Paleogene) occurred mainly due to diatoms. Terrigenous deposits predominated in near-continental regions.

Flora and fauna

In the plant world of the Neogene period, the main role was played by the same groups as in the modern era. Higher plants dominated on land, and among them angiosperms and gymnosperms, ferns, bryophytes, etc., were distributed to a lesser extent. In temperate latitudes, Paleogene thermophilic elements were noted only in the 1st half of the Miocene, slightly expanding their area during the beginning of the Middle Miocene. The main component of forest vegetation is deciduous forms. In connection with the general cooling and aridization of the climate, latitudinal zonality manifested itself, and all currently existing vegetation zones and a floristic region took shape.

The vegetation of the seas and other bodies of water was represented by various algae (diatoms, golden, crimson, pyrrhophytes, etc.) and some higher plants.

In Eurasia at the beginning of the Miocene, the composition of mammals is still close to the Oligocene, and only in the 2nd half of the early Miocene did forms of the Miocene type appear - proboscis (gomphoteria, zygolophodons), etc. In the middle Miocene, along with proboscis (mastodons) and horses (anchitheria), bovids and other inhabitants of semi-open and dry spaces. In the late Miocene, communities of steppe grassy plains formed - the so-called. hipparion fauna (hipparions and various bovids - gazelles, paleoryxes, etc.), which existed until the end of the Miocene - the beginning of the Pliocene. In the Pliocene, on the territory of Eurasia, a change of mammalian faunas took place several times. At the border of the Pliocene and Pleistocene (0.7 million years), cold-loving and periglacial forms appeared - mammoth, musk ox, saiga, etc. The fauna of the Neogene mammals of Africa was close to Eurasian. The mammals of Australia were represented by orders of marsupials and monotremes. In South America in the Miocene, the main role was played by marsupials, edentulous (anteaters, sloths, armadillos), rodents and some endemic ungulates. In the Late Miocene an exchange of faunas between North America and Eurasia took place, and in the Pliocene there was a migration of mammals (predators, horses, etc.) from North America to South America.

Minerals

Numerous minerals are associated with the Neogene deposits. Of the sedimentary minerals, the most important are oil and gas deposits in the foothill and intermountain troughs of the Near and Middle East, California, Alaska, Japan, etc. In the former CCCP, oil and gas regions corresponding to large foothill troughs include the Carpathian, Azov-Kuban, Terek-Caspian; intermountain depressions - Transcarpathian, East Black Sea, South Caspian and Fergana; intrafold depressions - Sakhalin-Okhotsk, South Okhotsk and Anadyr. Quite numerous in the Neogene deposits are deposits of brown coals and lignites; bituminous coals. On the territory of Russia, deposits of the Far Eastern, Kolyma, Central Yakutsk, Amur, Baikal coal-bearing provinces and regions, the South Ural brown coal basin, etc. are being developed. foreign Europe lignite deposits are known in Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, etc. In Asia, the largest coal deposits are associated with the Anatolian lignite basin, coal deposits are also known in India, China, South-East Asia. The coal deposits of North and South America and Australia (the Latrobe Valley basins and others) have significant reserves. Sulfur deposits associated mainly with evaporite formations (Precarpathian, Apennine Peninsula, Sicily), as well as salt deposits (Precarpathian, Transcarpathian, Transcaucasian, middle Asia and etc.). Placer deposits of titanium, tin, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, etc., and many bauxite deposits of the tropical zone (Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, Ghana, Guinea) were formed. The deposits are also significant.

Adapted to new ecological niches opened up by global cooling, and some mammals, birds and reptiles have evolved to truly impressive sizes. The Neogene is the second period (66 million years ago - to the present), which was preceded (66-23 million years ago) and replaced by .

The Neogene consisted of two epochs:

• Miocene epoch, or Miocene (23-5 million years ago);
• Pliocene epoch, or Pliocene (5-2.6 million years ago).

Climate and geography

As in the previous Paleogene, there was a trend towards global cooling during the Neogene period, especially at higher latitudes (it is known that immediately after the end of the Neogene in the Pleistocene epoch, the Earth underwent a series of ice ages mixed with warmer "interglacial epochs"). Geographically, the Neogene was important for land bridges that opened between different continents: it was during the late Neogene that North and South America were connected by the Central American isthmus; Africa was in direct contact with southern Europe through the dry basin of the Mediterranean; eastern Eurasia and western North America joined Siberia by land bridges; the slow collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia resulted in the formation of the Himalayan mountains.

Fauna of the Neogene

mammals

Global climatic trends, combined with the spread of various grasses, made the Neogene period the golden age of open prairies and.

These vast pastures stimulated the evolution of artiodactyls and equids, including prehistoric horses and (which originated in North America), as well as pigs and. During the later Neogene, the interconnections between Eurasia, Africa, and North and South America set the stage for an intricate web of species that led to the near extinction of the South American and Australian megafauna.

From a human point of view, the most milestone the Neogene period was the ongoing evolution of monkeys and hominids. In the Miocene era, a huge number of hominin species lived in Africa and Eurasia; during the subsequent Pliocene, most of these hominids (including direct ancestors modern people) were clustered in Africa. It was after the Neogene period, in the Pleistocene era, that the first human beings appeared (genus Homo) on the planet.

Birds

Some of the flying and non-flying bird species of the Neogene were truly huge (for example, Argentavis and Osteodontornis exceeded 20 kg). The end of the Neogene meant the extinction of most flightless birds of prey from South America and Australia. The evolution of birds has continued at a rapid pace, with most modern species well represented at the end of the Neogene.

reptiles

For much of the Neogene period, giant crocodiles dominated, not as large as their Cretaceous ancestors.

This 20 Ma period also saw the continued evolution of prehistoric snakes and (especially) prehistoric tortoises, the last group of which began to reach truly impressive sizes by the start of the Pleistocene epoch.

marine fauna

Although prehistoric whales began to evolve in the previous Paleogene period, they did not become exclusively marine creatures until the Neogene, which also indicated the continued evolution of the first pinnipeds (a family of mammals including seals and walruses), as well as prehistoric dolphins, with which whales are closely related. Prehistoric sharks have maintained their status at the top of the sea; for example, it already appeared at the end of the Paleogene and continued its dominance throughout the Neogene.

Flora of the Neogene

During the Neogene period, two main trends in plant life were observed. First, falling global temperatures have stimulated the growth of massive deciduous forests that have replaced jungles and rainforests in the high northern and southern latitudes. Second, the worldwide spread of herbs goes hand in hand with the evolution of herbivorous mammals, culminating in today's horses, cows, sheep, deer, and other grazing and ruminant animals.

The Neogene period is known for the fact that many Types of animals. It was in the Neogene that the first mammoths and musk oxen, cold-loving animals, appeared. The ancestors of horses, ungulates, marsupials, rodents, predators continue to develop. In general, the fauna of that time was very similar to the modern one, however, there were also such animals that became extinct with the passage of time and today are considered fossils. Such animals that existed in the Neogene, but later died out, include mammoths, mastodons (proboscis detachment, reached 3 meters in height), the ancestors of horses - hipparions, saber-toothed tigers, some large flightless birds and other animals.

Particular attention should be paid to the development of primates and human ancestors. In the Neogene era, they appeared and died out australopithecines. Australopithecus belong to the genus of higher primates, were able to walk on two legs, used stones, sticks, fragments of bones. There are several types of Australopithecus. They all evolved from a more primitive common ancestor, the primate. It is believed that only one of the Australopithecus species, afarensis, later split into two subspecies, one of the subspecies of which became the ancestor of man. Some of the later species of Australopithecus, which outlived other species and lived to almost 900 thousand years BC, were already able to create wooden and bone tools.

Scientists are still looking for clues - are Australopithecus and one of its subspecies a direct ancestor of humans? Some scientists believe that Neogene australopithecines are a sister branch of the human ancestor, that is, australopithecines and human ancestors originated from the same ancestor, but developed in parallel, independently of each other. However, most scientists still agree that man descended from one of the subspecies of the Neogene primate Australopithecus.

The ancestors of people, Homo habilis (Skillful Man), appeared at the very end of the Neogene period. It is believed that the very first representatives of the genus Homo appeared 2.8 million years ago.

The Neogene period is divided into two epochs:

1. (23.03-5.333 million years ago)

2. (5.333-2.588 million years ago)