The depression has a topographic rim 25 – 30 m high, while the centre displays a slight circular rise about 1 km in diameter and 5 m high exposing strongly deformed and steeply dipping bedrock interpreted as a central uplift .< sup >,</ sup > Sedimentary rocks comprising the rim are of Early Cretaceous to Palaeogene age, while uplifted rocks in the centre are likely of Early Permian age, all part of the Canning Basin ; the impact event itself is inferred to be of Paleocene ( early Paleogene ) age or later .< sup >,</ sup >

The Paleogene is notable in the context of offshore oil drilling, and especially in Gulf of Mexico oil exploration, where it is usually referred to as the " Lower Tertiary ".

The Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, often referred to as the Cretaceous – Tertiary extinction event, occurred approximately 65. 5 million years ago ( Ma ) at the end of the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period.

In the abbreviated versions of the Cretaceous – Paleogene boundary, the K is the traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous Period derived from the German name Kreidezeit, the Pg is the abbreviation for the Paleogene Period, and T is the abbreviation for the Tertiary Period ( comprising the Paleogene and Neogene ).

With " Tertiary " being discouraged as a formal time or rock unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the K – T extinction event is now called the Cretaceous – Paleogene ( or K – Pg ) extinction event by many researchers.

For example, the discovery by Luis Alvarez and Walter Alvarez of an iridium-rich layer at the Cretaceous – Tertiary boundary made asteroid impact and volcanism the most favored explanations for the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event.

The terms ' Paleogene System ' ( formal ) and ' lower Tertiary System ' ( informal ) are applied to the rocks deposited during the ' Paleogene Period '.

The Tertiary is no longer recognized as a formal unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, its traditional span being divided between the Paleogene and Neogene Periods of the Cenozoic Era.

K is the traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous Period derived from the German name Kreidezeit, and T is the abbreviation for the Tertiary Period ( a historical term for the period of time now covered by the Paleogene and Neogene periods ).

" Tertiary " being no longer recognized as a formal time or rock unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the K-T event is now called the Cretaceous — Paleogene ( or K-Pg ) extinction event by many researchers.

From the outset of his career, when he started to investigate the geology of Skye and other of the Western Isles, he took a keen interest in volcanic geology, and in 1871 he brought before the Geological Society of London an outline of the Paleogene ( then termed Tertiary ) volcanic history of Britain.

In 1980, a team of researchers led by Nobel prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez, his son geologist Walter Alvarez and chemists Frank Asaro and Helen Michels discovered that sedimentary layers found all over the world at the Cretaceous – Paleogene boundary ( Cretaceous – Tertiary boundary or K – T boundary ) contain a concentration of iridium hundreds of times greater than normal.

In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic era.

The impact of a meteorite or comet is today widely accepted as the main reason for the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event.

Also known as the K – T extinction event, it is associated with a geological signature known variously as the K – T boundary, the Cretaceous – Paleogene boundary or the K – Pg boundary, usually a thin band of sedimentation visible wherever rocks of this age are exposed.

The only bird group known for certain to have survived the K – T boundary is the Neornithines ( though one Paleogene species, Qinornis paleocenica, may represent a surviving non-neornithine bird ).

The Cenozoic is divided into three periods: The Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary ; and seven epochs: The Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene.

The researchers claiming that this feature is an impact crater suggest that the impact may have been the triggering event for the Deccan Traps as well as contributing to the acceleration of the Indian plate in the early Paleogene.

The Eocene ( symbol E < sub > O </ sub >) epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago ( to ), is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era.

The K – T event is now officially called the Cretaceous – Paleogene ( or K – Pg ) extinction event in place of Cretaceous-Tertiary.

For example, the boundary between the Cretaceous period and the Paleogene period is defined by the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, which marked the demise of the dinosaurs and many other groups of life.

One of these possible events is an asteroid impact like the one which may have resulted in the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event.

The era began in the wake of the Permian-Triassic event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction which is known for having killed off non-avian dinosaurs, as well as other plant and animal species.

The upper ( Cretaceous ) boundary is set at the Cretaceous-Tertiary ( KT ) extinction event ( now more accurately called the Cretaceous – Paleogene ( or K – Pg ) extinction event ), which may have been caused by the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula.

One of the leading theories for the cause of the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event that included the dinosaurs is a large meteorite impact.

The second period in the Cenozoic Era, it follows the Paleogene Period and is succeeded by the Quaternary Period.

The Oligocene ( symbol O < sub > G </ sub >) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ).

* European Mammal Paleogene zones, a unit of the geologic time scale

The most recent, the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately 65. 5 million years ago ( Ma ), was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time.

They appeared in the middle Jurassic period, and lasted until the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event wiped them out at the end of the Cretaceous.

The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic Era, spanning to the beginning of the most recent ice age at the end of the Pliocene Epoch.

Recent molecular evidence suggests that pinnipeds evolved from a bearlike ancestor about 23 million years ago during the late Oligocene or early Miocene epochs, a transitional period between the warmer Paleogene and cooler Neogene period .< ref >

The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene.

Some 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau.

The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene period .< ref >

Additional fossils from North America and Europe suggest that the family was spread across the globe during the late Paleogene period.

Additional fossils from North America and Europe suggest that the family was spread across the globe during the late Paleogene period.

Following the volcanic activity, a basin formed in the northeast, with deposition in a brackish lake — producing the siltstones and chert of Tung Ping Chau, which have been dated from the early Paleogene period.

The family appears in Late Cretaceous but the further diversification and shifts to the typical habit occurred later in the same period and continued after the K-T boundary in Paleogene.

The Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event was a large-scale mass extinction of animal and plant species in a geologically short period of time, approximately ( Ma ).

The trona near Green River, Wyoming is the largest known deposit in the world and lies in layered evaporite deposits from below ground, where the trona was deposited in a lake during the Paleogene period.

* Mammal Paleogene zone 4, a division of the Paleogene period