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The Tertiary in Nunavut, Canada

Tertiary in Nunavut map

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Quaternary
Tertiary
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Tertiary Fossils

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Paleontology and geology

Throughout the Tertiary, most of Nunavut was above sea level, and deposition was restricted to lakes, rivers, and low-lying areas. Baffin Bay opened up as Greenland rotated and collided with islands in the north. This collision folded, faulted, and pushed up some areas into mountains, while other areas dropped down into basins. The land was covered with forests and wetlands of pine, spruce, and fir, as well as many plants that now grow only in warmer areas, such as sycamore, birch, walnut, chestnut, alder, larch, and sweetgum. Fossilized remains of these forests, with stumps of some trees over one meter in diameter, are preserved on two northern islands. The lakes and wetlands were home to various species of fish, frogs, insects, molluscs, aquatic birds, and beavers. An ancient beaver dam preserves some of the animals that lived in the nearby forests, including rabbits, shrews, horses, deer, bears, badgers, and of course, beavers. Other fossil sites have also yielded brontotheres, primates, turtles, alligators, and lizards. By the end of the period, the climate became cooler, temporary ice caps developed to the north, and forests were pushed south. Additional exposures may be included in the undifferentiated Cenozoic rocks on this map and may appear on other more detailed maps.


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