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| Palaeogene Period |
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| Age : |
24 – 65 million
years ago |
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| Geography, environment
and climate |
Southern and south-east
England were occupied by a shallow sea with estuarine conditions
prevailing at times. Terrestrial habitats became more prevalent
as time progressed and most of the British Isles was land over
this period of time. The nature of the land surface is poorly
known but appears to have been subdued with wide plains and
large extensive river systems.
The regional climate was warm and similar to that of the sub-tropics
of Asia and was characterised by high levels of precipitation
and environmental stability. Britain continued its northward
migration into cooler latitudes. |
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| Key Events |
The Palaeogene period
is marked by the opening of the North Atlantic, which over the
next 50 million years or so had a profound effect on the climatic
evolution of the British Isles.
Mammals dominated the land fauna following the extinction of
the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.
Away from the shallow sea occurring over southern England, the
land supported dense tropical to sub-tropical and warm-temperate
forests, with mangrove swamps on the coasts. The overall character
of the recorded fossil flora shows affinities with the present-day
Malay Peninsula. |
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| Rock types and occurrence
in England |
| Rocks from this time
are represented by the marine clays and sands that occupy the
Hampshire Basin and the London Basin. These comprise a series
of sands, clays and limestones that outcrop in east Dorset,
Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, the wider Thames Valley,
Essex and North Kent. These sediments record fluctuating environmental
conditions from terrestrial/fluvial through to fully marine.
Formations such as the London Clay, the Barton Clay and the
Solent Group are very fossiliferous and contain the remains
of many groups of animals and plants that are familiar today. |
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