Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being the epoch of geologic time from 65 to 55 million years ago, the oldest epoch of the Tertiary Period. It is characterized by the formation of the Rocky Mountains and by the appearance of placental mammals.
  • noun The Paleocene Epoch.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geology, a term proposed by Schimper and Von Koenen, and adopted by many geologists, to designate those lowermost beds of Tertiary age whose fauna differs from that of the typical Eocene as widely as does the latter from that of the Oligocene.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective geology Of or pertaining to a geologic epoch within the Paleogene period from about 65 to 56 million years ago; marked by the rise of the first large mammals in a tropical climate.
  • noun geology The Paleocene epoch.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun from 63 million to 58 million years ago; appearance of birds and earliest mammals

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From paleo- + -cene

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Examples

  • He said the species lived during a period of abrupt global warming of about 5 degrees Celsius known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2008

  • The global warming of 55 million years ago, known as the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), emerged in less than 5,000 years, an instantaneous blip on geological time scales.

    Sound Politics: Please, no jokes about "global cooling" 2007

  • Scientists have been keen to unlock the mysteries of the Arctic when this last happened – an interval known as the Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum, or PETM.

    Unthreaded « Climate Audit 2006

  • For some years, scientists have known that a massive release of carbon into the atmosphere caused the ancient global warming event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum PETM that began about 55 million years ago.

    Unthreaded « Climate Audit 2006

  • This time interval is called the Paleocene - Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

    WN.com - Articles related to Global warming - It's already happening 2010

  • This time interval is called the Paleocene - Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

    WN.com - Articles related to Global warming - It's already happening 2010

  • A similarly massive release of carbon accompanied an extreme period of global warming 55 million years ago known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

    Mongabay.com News 2009

  • Rohrabacher was referencing a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene […] frank67 Says:

    Think Progress 2009

  • Presumably, Rohrabacher was referencing a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.

    Think Progress 2009

  • A similarly massive release of carbon accompanied an extreme period of global warming 55 million years ago known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

    Mongabay.com News 2009

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