The Neogene Period

Abstract

The Neogene oceans and continents were mosaicked to form a paleogeography similar to today and exposed to the warm conditions of the mid Neogene to the cooling toward the glacial Quaternary. Antarctic ice sheets stabilized, then Northern Hemisphere ice sheets grew and thickened. Tectonics continued to shape the continents and ocean floor. High rising mountains, such as the Himalaya, altered atmospheric patterns and climate, and land bridges were exposed, as at the end of the Miocene when the Mediterranean was isolated and nearly completely desiccated; or in the early Pliocene when the emerging Isthmus between South and North America influenced the oceanic circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. Tectonic and climate changes influenced the evolution of fauna and flora, and species were forced to adapt or became extinct.