Miocene

The Miocene (/ˈmaɪ.əsiːn, -oʊ-/ MY-ə-seen, -⁠oh-) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23 to 5 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell and comes from Ancient Greek μείων (meíōn), lit. 'less', and καινός (kainós), lit. 'new' or 'recent', and thus means "less recent", because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans and enabling the interchange of fauna between the continents, including the dispersal of proboscideans and hominoids into Eurasia. During the late Miocene, the connections between the Atlantic and Mediterranean closed, causing the Mediterranean Sea to almost completely evaporate. This event is referred to as the "Messinian salinity crisis". Then, at the Miocene–Pliocene boundary, the Strait of Gibraltar opened, and the Mediterranean refilled. That event is referred to as the "Zanclean flood".