Rise of angiosperms as a factor in long-term climatic cooling

By Late Cretaceous or early Tertiary time, the diversification and proliferation of angiosperm-deciduous ecosystems resulted in higher rates of mineral weathering. This increase in the global average weathering rate would have caused a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide and, hence, global cooling. This cooling may vary from a few degrees up to 10°C. In this way, deciduous ecosystems with high rates of mineral weathering could have contributed to the evolution during the past 100 m.y. of a cooler Earth and thus were a factor in producing conditions that enhanced their global proliferation. -from Author