Crossword clues for miocene
miocene
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Miocene \Mi"o*cene\ (m[imac]"[-o]*s[=e]n), prop. a. [Gr. mei`wn less + kaino`s new, fresh, recent.] (Geol.) Of or pertaining to the middle division of the Tertiary. -- n. The Miocene period. See Chart of Geology.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"pertaining to the geological period between the Oligocene and Pliocene," 1831, irregular formation from Greek meion "less" + -cene.\nA typical example of the monstrosities with which scientific men in want of a label for something, and indifferent to all beyond their own province, defile the language. The elements of the word are Greek, but not the way they are put together, nor the meaning demanded of the compound. [Fowler]
Wikipedia
The Miocene (; symbol M) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words (, “less”) and (, “new”) and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch.
The earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, with the climate slowly cooling towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regional boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene.
The apes arose and diversified during the Miocene, becoming widespread in the Old World. By the end of this epoch, the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path. As in the Oligocene before it, grasslands continued to expand and forests to dwindle in extent. In the Miocene seas, kelp forests made their first appearance and soon became one of Earth's most productive ecosystems. The plants and animals of the Miocene were fairly modern. Mammals and birds were well-established. Whales, seals, and kelp spread. The Miocene is of particular interest to geologists and palaeoclimatologists as major phases of the Himalayan orogeny had occurred during the Miocene affecting monsoonal patterns in Asia, which were interlinked with glaciations in the northern hemisphere.
Miocene, also typeset as {MIOCENE}, was a British progressive/experimental metal band from London, England.
Usage examples of "miocene".
The scraper of the Esquimaux and the Andaman islanders is but an enlarged and improved edition of the Miocene scraper.
The Origin of Species, many scientists found incised and broken bones indicating a human presence in the Pliocene, Miocene, and earlier periods.
The Miocene deposits found within twelve degrees, or a little more than seven hundred miles, of the north pole, and fairly within the realm of lowest temperature which now exists on the earth, show by the plant remains which they contain that the conditions permitted the growth of forests, the plants having a tolerably close resemblance to those which now freely develop in the southern portion of the Mississippi Valley.
For example, there is an almost total absence of fossils linking the Miocene apes such as Dryopithecus with the Pliocene ancestors of modern apes and humans, especially within the span of time between 4 and 8 million years ago.
Even if anatomically modern humans were found to have lived a million years ago, 4 million years after the Late Miocene disappearance of Dryopithecus, that would be enough to throw out the current accounts of the origin of humankind.
Even if we were to propose that some primitive creature like Homo habilis made the Miocene tool, that would still raise big questions.
The Silurian period follows the Ordovician, and the Miocene epoch follows the Oligocene as surely as Wednesday follows Tuesday.
At one point in the history of paleoanthropology, several scientists who believed in evolution actually accepted the Thenay Miocene tools, but attributed them to a precursor of the human type.
Dyals, huge birds closely resembling the Phororhacos, the Patagonian giant of the Miocene, remains of which have been found on the outer crust.
The first fossil evidence of a brain of even vaguely human aspects dates back to eighteen million years to the Miocene Period, when an anthropoid ape which we call Proconsul or Dryo-pithecus appeared.
We saw the huge Miocene pig Dinohyus, as tall as a man and almost as massive as a hippopotamus, the largest of land-dwelling swine.
This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, great mosasaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharks’ teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as palaeotheres, Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and titanotheres.
This was my first word of the discovery, and it told of the identification of early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms, remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, great mosasaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing bones, Archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharks' teeth, primitive bird skulls, and other bones of archaic mammals such as palaeotheres, Xiphodons, Eohippi, Oreodons, and titanotheres.
Finally, VIII and IX, the Oligocene and Miocene Epochs of the Tertiary Period, mark the emergence of man's earliest ancestors.
From the flora and fauna on the tapes, she would have placed Klairos somewhere in the late Tertiary period on the Terran-based geological time scale: late Miocene or early Pliocene.