Compilation of Cenozoic temperature proxies for terrestrial and marine surface environments

We provide a globally distributed compilation of published surface temperature proxies for eight Cenozoic time periods that cover the range of paleoclimate states. The proxies have both a marine and terrestrial provenance and are compared to the annual temperature of the same location today. This data is then used to quantify long-term temperature changes on zonal and global levels. When coupled with recent estimates of atmospheric CO2 concentration, temperature data constrains the sensitivity of Earth's climate system to perturbation of the radiative balance, with possible implications for the future response to anthropogenic forcing. The dataset consists of an excel file with eight sheets for the eight selected timeslices, namely, • mid-Pliocene (3,0 - 3,3 Ma) • late Miocene (7,2 - 11,6 Ma) • mid-Miocene (14,7 - 17,0 Ma) • early Miocene (20,3 - 23,0 Ma) • early Oligocene (27,8 - 33,9 Ma) • late Eocene (33,9 - 37,8 Ma) • middle Eocene (42 - 46 Ma) • early Eocene (48 - 55 Ma)