There was a similar spike in carbon and temperatures in the Eocene- some 15 millions after.

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The fossils ranged from small Eocene swimmers imprinted on rock to the remains of late-Cretaceous dinosaurs.

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It has a proposed total depth of 29, 000 feet targeting the Eocene and Paleocene objectives below the salt weld.

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The trouble is that if the genetics researchers are right, these modern groups did not actually originate in the Eocene.

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Though the Cretaceous asteroid cleared the stage, mammals did not really get going until 10m years later, in the Eocene epoch.

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It was during the Eocene, which began 56m years ago, following the Palaeocene, that the ancestors of mammals around today are supposed to have diversified.

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One theory is that a cooling event at the end of the Eocene dried up swamps and rivers, forcing animals out on to the land.

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The researchers, who report their findings in a Sept. 19 paper in the journal PLoS ONE, say the site of the Panda pipe was covered with a forest of Metasequoia, similar to today's dawn redwoods, during the early Eocene.

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