"Elevation of the Andes and general continued uplift of continents" doesn't sound like much, does it? We're talking about the formation of the South American continent and the Pacific ocean. Nothing major.
Elevation of Andes
Present-day Forest Associations
The description of the Miocene is the same kind of circular reasoning that all of the rest of the geological timescale is built on. If sediment doesn't have an characteristics of the Miocene, it's not assigned to the Miocene.
Continental Uplifts and a Major Orogeny
How do we account for fossils when the fossils are older than the geographic features that they’re part of? “Marked world-wide continental uplifts and a major orogeny resulting in the rise of the Alps.“
August 24th
The Miocene is the Miocene because it's the Miocene. Anything that's not characteristic of the Miocene is assigned to something other than the Miocene. It's a little microcosm of circular reasoning.