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‘Hyperthermals’ are intervals of rapid, pronounced global warming known from six episodes within the Palaeocene and Eocene epochs (∼65–34 million years (Myr) ago)^,,,,,,,,,,,,. The most extreme hyperthermal was the ∼170 thousand year (kyr) interval of 5–7 °C global warming during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56 Myr ago). The PETM is widely attributed to massive release of greenhouse gases from buried sedimentary carbon reservoirs^,,,,,,,, and other, comparatively modest, hyperthermals have also been linked to the release of sedimentary carbon^,,,,. Here we show, using new 2.4-Myr-long Eocene deep ocean records, that the comparatively modest hyperthermals are much more numerous than previously documented, paced by the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit and have shorter durations (∼40 kyr) and more rapid recovery phases than the PETM. These findings point to the operation …