Description: The transition from the Paleocene to the Eocene epoch -- approximately 55 million years ago -- represents a critical moment in the earth's history, when the planet experienced the warmest climatic episode of the Cenozoic era. This sudden global warming resulted in a major turnover among the Earth's marine and terrestrial organisms. And although this epochal boundary has become one of the most popular areas of research in the geologic sciences in the past decade, there has not yet been a work that brings together the profusion of research findings in one volume. This new text offers by far the most comprehensive source of data on a critically important segment of the earth's history.

The editors have brought together the finest scholars working today on the study of the Paleocene-Eocene transition. Covering mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and plants as well as the spectrum of marine biota, the book documents both the well-established and the lesser-known turnovers, such as those of the calcareous nannoplankton and terrestrial mollusks. The volume is also notable for its integration of knowledge culled from a wide variety of disciplines, geographic settings, fossil groups, and paleoenvironments.

With twenty-one contributions and more than 180 illustrations, this book will be of great value as a reference source for a wide spectrum of scientists, from marine geologists and oceanographers to paleontologists, paleoclimatologists, and stratigraphers.

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