Editing Eocene (section)

==Flora==

[[File:Clarno-Nut-Beds-Mural-Large.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.5|Eocene vegetation of the Clarno Nut Beds in [[John Day Fossil Beds National Monument]] was humid subtropical forest vegetation of high diversity dominated by [[Flowering plant|angiosperms]].]]

During the early-middle Eocene, forests covered most of the Earth including the poles. Tropical forests extended across much of modern Africa, South America, Central America, India, South-east Asia and China.  Paratropical forests grew over North America, Europe and Russia, with broad-leafed evergreen and broad-leafed deciduous forests at higher latitudes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Briggs |first=John |title=Global Biogeography |publisher=Elsevier |year=1995 |isbn=0-444-88297-9 |at=p116 Fig 40}}</ref>

Polar forests were quite extensive. [[Fossil]]s and even preserved remains of trees such as [[Cupressaceae|swamp cypress]] and [[Metasequoia|dawn redwood]] from the Eocene have been found on [[Ellesmere Island]] in the [[Arctic]]. Even at that time, Ellesmere Island was only a few degrees in latitude further south than it is today. Fossils of [[subtropical]] and even tropical trees and plants from the Eocene also have been found in Greenland and [[Alaska]]. [[Tropical rainforest]]s grew as far north as northern [[North America]] and [[Europe]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[Palm tree]]s were growing as far north as Alaska and [[northern Europe]] during the early Eocene, although they became less abundant as the climate cooled.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wing |first1=Scott L. |last2=Greenwood |first2=David R. |title=Fossils and fossil climate: the case for equable continental interiors in the Eocene |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |date=28 August 1993 |volume=341 |issue=1297 |pages=243–252 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1993.0109}}</ref> Dawn redwoods were far more extensive as well.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jahren |first1=A. Hope |title=Fossils and fossil climate: the case for equable continental interiors in the Eocene |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences |date=28 August 1993 |volume=341 |issue=1297 |pages=243–252 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1993.0109}}</ref>

The earliest definitive ''[[Eucalyptus]]'' fossils were dated from 51.9 Ma, and were found in the Laguna del Hunco deposit in [[Chubut province]] in [[Argentina]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Gandolfo | first1=M.A. | last2=Hermsen | first2=E.J. | last3=Zamaloa | first3=M.C. | last4=Nixon | first4=K.C. | last5=González | first5=C.C. | year=2011 | title=Oldest Known Eucalyptus Macrofossils Are from South America | journal=[[PLOS ONE]] | volume=6 | issue=6| page=e21084 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0021084 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...621084G | pmid=21738605 | pmc=3125177 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

Cooling began mid-period, and by the end of the Eocene continental interiors had begun to dry, with forests thinning considerably in some areas. The newly evolved [[grasses]] began to expand during the climatic cooling and drying following the extreme warmth of the EECO, with subhumid [[Savanna|savannas]] being known from South America since the Middle Eocene.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bellosi |first=Eduardo |last2=Genise |first2=Jorge F. |last3=Zucol |first3=Alejandro |last4=Bond |first4=Mariano |last5=Kramarz |first5=Alejandro |last6=Sánchez |first6=M. Victoria |last7=Krause |first7=J. Marcelo |date=June 2021 |title=Diverse evidence for grasslands since the Eocene in Patagonia |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895981121002042 |journal=[[Journal of South American Earth Sciences]] |language=en |volume=108 |pages=103357 |doi=10.1016/j.jsames.2021.103357 |access-date=1 February 2025 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref>

The cooling also brought [[season]]al changes. [[Deciduous]] trees, better able to cope with large temperature changes, began to overtake [[evergreen]] tropical species.{{Sfn|Briggs|1995|p=118}} By the end of the period, deciduous forests covered large parts of the northern continents, including North America, [[Eurasia]] and the Arctic, and rainforests held on only in equatorial [[South America]], [[Africa]], [[India]] and [[Australia]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[Antarctica]] began the Eocene fringed with a warm temperate to sub-tropical [[rainforest]]. Pollen found in [[Prydz Bay]] from the Eocene suggest [[taiga]] forest existed there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bender |first=Michael |title=Paleoclimate |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2013 |pages=108}}</ref> It became much colder as the period progressed; the heat-loving tropical [[flora (plants)|flora]] was wiped out, and by the beginning of the Oligocene, the continent hosted deciduous forests and vast stretches of [[tundra]].{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

<gallery class=center mode=nolines widths=130 heights=160>
File:Nuphar carlquistii seeds 01b.jpg|''[[Nuphar]]'' seeds, [[Nymphaeaceae]], [[Ypresian]] 
File:Iodes sp. seed, Icacinaceae, London Clay pyrite fossil, by Omar Hoftun.png|''[[Iodes]]'' tree seed, [[Icacinaceae]], [[London Clay]]
File:Mastixia sp. seed, Nyssaceae, London Clay pyrite fossil, by Omar Hoftun.jpg|''[[Mastixia]]'' tree seed, [[Nyssaceae]], London Clay
File:Ocotea sp. fruit, Lauraceae, London Clay pyrite fossil, by Omar Hoftun.png|''[[Ocotea]]'' tree seed, [[Lauraceae]], London clay
File:Macginitiea wyomingensis Houston Museum of Natural Science - DSC01946.jpg|''[[Macginitiea]]'' leaf, [[Platanaceae]], [[Clarno Formation]], Oregon
File:Eocene fossil flower, Clare Family Florissant Fossil Quarry, Florissant, Colorado, USA - 20100807.jpg|Flower,<!--?family?,--> [[Florissant Formation]], Colorado
</gallery>