Early Paleogene climates in the southwest Pacific: Evidence from marine Mollusca and other invertebrates

Abstract

Molluscs suggest relatively cool conditions in New Zealand in the early Paleocene, but considerably warmer waters in the late Paleocene, possibly associated with movement into lower latitudes; however a cooler climatic regime probably persisted in south-east Australia throughout the late Paleocene. The early Eocene was probably hotter than any other time in the Cenozoic in New Zealand, but seems to have been terminated by a major cooling episode. Climatic recovery took place in the middle Eocene, but conditions apparently did not approach those in the rarly Eocene. Another cooling episode in the late middle Eocene is inferred to have caused the extinction of several distinctive molluscan taxa, but was followed by warming in the late Eocene.