HEADLINE: The Zanclean Flood, Dwarfed Island Life, and Transatlantic Rafting in the Miocene and Oligocene BOOK TITLE: Other Lands, a journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds GUEST AUTHOR NAME: Thomas Halliday 200-WORD SUMMARY: This segment covers the Miocen

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HEADLINE: The Zanclean Flood, Dwarfed Island Life, and Transatlantic Rafting in the Miocene and Oligocene
BOOK TITLE: Other Lands, a journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds

GUEST AUTHOR NAME: Thomas Halliday
200-WORD SUMMARY: This segment covers the Miocene and Oligocene eras. In the Miocene (5.3 million years ago), the Mediterranean basin dried out after losing its connection to the Atlantic at the Straits of Gibraltar. This basin was dramatically refilled during the spectacular Zanclean Flood, caused by an earthquake that allowed the Atlantic to surge back, resulting in a mile-high waterfall near Sicily. Before the flood, Gargano Island (now a peninsula in Italy) was home to dwarf fauna. Fossils recovered from its caves include Hoplomeryx, a deer-like organism characterized by saber teeth and five horns. Its main predators were giant birds, such as eagles and buzzard relatives. Moving to the Oligocene(33 million years ago), the discussion centers on South America as an island continent and the spread of grasslands. Grasses defended themselves with silica crystals, necessitating the evolution of specialized grazers with continually growing teeth, like early horses. A key evolutionary event was transoceanic rafting. African monkeys, rodents, freshwater fish, and amphibians crossed the Atlantic Ocean—which was two-thirds its modern width—on structurally sound fragments of land that detached during storms.

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