Abstract. The Paleogene sedimentary records from southern China hold important clues to the impacts of the Cenozoic climate changes on low-latitudes. However, although there are extensive Paleogene terrestrial archives and some contain abundant fossils in this region, few are accurately dated and have a temporal resolution adequate to decipher climate changes. Here we present a detailed stratigraphic and paleomagnetic study of a fossiliferous late Paleogene succession in the Maoming Basin, Guangdong Province. The succession consists of oil shale of the Youganwo Formation (Fm) in the lower part and massive pebbly coarse sandstones of the overlying Huangniuling Fm in the upper part. The conformable transition from oil shale to sandstones represents a major depositional environmental change from a lacustrine to a deltaic environment. The substantially refined chronostratigraphic framework is established based on the litho-, bio-, cyclo-, and magnetostratiphic data that place the environmental transition at 33.88 Ma, coinciding with the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition (EOT) at ~ 33.7 to ~ 33.9 Ma. We suggest that the transition from a lacustrine to deltaic environment in Maoming Basin represents terrestrial responses to the EOT and indicates a significant reduction in hydrodynamics in low-latitude regions during the global cooling at EOT.