Geology Smore
Cenozoic Era
The last Era
The Cenozoic era has been around since 65 million years ago till today, making it the last era! It has two periods; the Quaternary (1.8 million years ago-today), and the Tertiary (65 million years ago-1.8 million years ago). The Cenozoic era was generally divided into three periods: the Paleogene, Neogene, and the Quaternary, but the periods are more traditionally known as Quaternary and the Tertiary.
The Epochs
Quaternary:(period)
Holocene(11,000 years-today)
Pleistocene(1.8 million years ago-11,00)
Tertiary:(period)
Pliocene(5-1.8 million years ago)
Miocene(23-5 million years ago)
Oligocene(38-23 million years ago)
Eocene(54-37 million years ago)
Paleocene(65-54 million years ago)
The Age of the Mammals
The dinosaurs died at the end of the end of the Cretaceous(the Cretaceous is a period located in the Mesozoic era) and the mammals started taking over. As the mammals got bigger in numbers and diversity, so did basically everything else, such as birds, reptiles, fish, insects and a bunch of other stuff. Flowering plants strongly influenced birds and herbivores. Some animals that could not eat much of the grasses died out, or ate other animals. Whales porpoises, fish, and octopus took over the ocean. Bats and birds controlled the sky, and the saber-tooth cats, giant sloths, rhinos and much more were on the land at this time.
A few mammals
A woolly-mammoth
Birds
Some birds at this time period were bigger then humans today
Saber-tooth cat
A saber-tooth cat head fossil
Humans
a human skull fossil
Mammals chilling
A few facts
- During this era the continents split up to its current, shape, and size
- During the last two million years of the Cenozoic era (Pliocene epoch, Tertiary period) humans started to appear.