Palaeocene
/ˈpalɪə(ʊ)siːn
/ /ˈpeɪlɪə(ʊ)siːn/(US Paleocene)
adjective Geology
1Relating to or denoting the earliest epoch of the Tertiary period, between the Cretaceous period and the Eocene epoch.Terrestrial deposits contain fossils ranging from Paleocene leaf imprints to Cretaceous dinosaur remains....
- Initiation of a cold, upwelling current off the west coast of South America dates back to latest Cretaceous to earliest Palaeocene times.
- This trend is evident at a coarse scale in a comparison of the combined rarefaction curves for sites from the uppermost 15 m of the Cretaceous against all Paleocene sites.
1.1 (as noun the Palaeocene) The Palaeocene epoch or the system of rocks deposited during it.
The Paleocene epoch lasted from 65.0 to 56.5 million years ago. It was a time of sudden diversification among the mammals, probably as a result of the mass extinctions (notably of the dinosaurs) which occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period (see Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary).
Origin
Late 19th century: from palaeo- + Greek kainos 'new'.