The late Paleogene witnessed a major change of climate coupled with a profound faunal turnover and flora changes. This interval was marked by such events as slowly closing of the Paratethys ocean, continued collision of the Indian craton with continental Asia, resulting in the Himalayan orogeny and subsequent intensification of monsoon circulation, and probably the most fateful of these; the isolation of Antarctic, by establishing Antarctic convergence that led to the glaciation of this continent.

A pivotal point from the standpoint of the biotic changes was the Eocene–Oligocene Transition (EOT), starting at ca. 34 Ma. In Europe this was followed by a major turnover in mammalian fauna, the so called “Grande Coupure” [‘Great Divide’] of Stehlin (1910), which marked the demise of older Eocene assemblages, paralleled in Asia by the “Mongolian remodeling”. This profound biotic reorganization eventually led to shaping of ecosystems of modern aspect.

This Research Topic aims to explore the complexity of the Eocene–Oligocene Transition (EOT, or the Eocene–Oligocene Boundary [EOB] in a broad sense) and its directly preceding and following events. The EOT was a time of major climatic changes that triggered faunal remodeling and changes of flora. We welcome research that shows the gradual changes in the paleoenvironment and paleocommunities as they approached the EOT, what happened to the biosphere at the EOB, and the aftermath.

We focus on terrestrial environments, but our goal is not only to present the faunal and floral response to the EOT, but to place them in stratigraphic, climatic, paleogeographic, and geochemical contexts, which gives to our topic the inter-and cross disciplinary flavor.

This Research Topic encourages contributions addressing (but not restricted to):
• The evolution of faunal assemblages during the late Eocene to early Oligocene;
• The evolution of particular lineages/groups during the given time, including phylogenetic analyses;
• Regional stratigraphic and biostratigraphic analyses of with implications for the global correlations or paleogeography;
• Paleoecological studies;
• Paleosols formation;
• Analyses of flora diversity/abundance during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, including palynology and megaflora;
• Climate change in terrestrial ecosystems during the late Eocene to early Oligocene interval based on isotope analyses.

*The image above shows a sediment series of the famous late Eocene/early Oligocene locality of Erden Obo (Nei Mongol, China) and is used with permission from Prof. Qian Li.

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