This conference, Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene 2026 (CBEP2026), is the latest in a series of international conferences on the Paleogene occurring at irregular intervals of 1-4 years. CEBP grew out of international interest in biotic events and climatic changes around the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, and in the formalization of the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. In Washington, DC in 1989, at the 28th International Geological Congress, a Working Group on the Paleocene-Eocene boundary was formed as International Geoscience Programme Project 308 of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. As discussions and research under that Working Group proceeded it became clear that in addition to those working to formalize the Paleocene-Eocene boundary with a global stratotype and section point, many scientists were attracted to the meetings to report on their research about earth system and ecological transitions in the Paleogene.

For the most recent CBEP in Bremen, our informal historian Jerry Dickens wrote:

Should one read through documents on past CBEP meetings, an oddity appears. From inception to the Bilbao meeting in 2006, CBEP stood for “Climate and Biota of the Early Paleogene”. However, for the Wellington meeting in 2009, this was changed to “Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene”, even though most work presented concerned the Paleocene and Eocene, and a rationale for the name change was never stated. The 2011 Salzberg meeting returned with the original definition, which then left the scientific committee for the 2014 Ferrara meeting in an awkward position: what does CBEP actually stand for? At a somewhat humorous level, all became a consideration as to whether the CBEP community was married to or divorced from the Oligocene; after all, the latter was mostly cold and icy for over ten million years. At a deeper scientific level, however, the remarkable transition from greenhouse to icehouse conditions, and the ensuing changes in Earth surface processes and its climate and biota, remain outstanding puzzles. So, since 2014, our community has “warmly” embraced our newfound relationship with the Oligocene, and CBEP represents “Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene”.

The organizers of CBEP2026 add that we welcome contributions on the latest Cretaceous and the Miocene, which have been topics of presentations at the two previous CBEP conferences.

Previous CBEP conferences have been: