Abstract
The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a short-term global warming event with rapid onset. A negative carbon isotope excursion dated to 55.5 million years (Ma) suggests a massive injection of biogenic methane into the ocean/atmosphere system. The clathrate gun hypothesis (Kennet et al. 2003) proposes that changes in the temperature of intermediate seawater led to a destabalization of methane hydrates, produced by anaerobic chemotrophic archeabacteria, on upper continental slopes. Rising temperatures and changing sea levels sustained the release of CH4 from seafloor reservoirs and positive feedback resulted in rapid warming. The PETM coincided with significant changes in marine and land biota, including the most severe mass extinction of benthic foraminifera in the past 90 Ma. Concurrent were rapid rates of speciation in planktic foraminifera, dinoflagellate blooms, and increase of diversity in nonmarine molluscan fauna in the western interior of North America. The dispersal of northern hemisphere plants and land mammals, including perissodactyla, artiodactyla, and primates, at this time marked a fundamental faunal reorganization at the end of the Paleocene.
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