Holocene Epoch, formerly Recent Epoch, Latest interval of the Earth’s geologic

history,
. dating from about 11,700 years ago to the present. The younger of the two epochs
that constitute the Quaternary Period, the Holocene follows the last glacial stage of
the Pleistocene Epoch. It is characterized by relatively warm climatic conditions. During
this epoch, humans refined the skills that led to the present level of civilization.

Pleistocene Epoch, Earlier and longer of the two epochs that constitute
the Quaternary Period. The Pleistocene began c. 2.6 million years ago and
ended c. 11,700 years ago. It was preceded by the Pliocene Epoch of the Neogene Period
and followed by the Holocene Epoch. At the height of the Pleistocene glacial ages, more
than 30% of the land area of the Earth was covered by glacial ice; during the interglacial
stages, probably only about 10% was covered. The animals of the civilization Pleistocene
began to resemble those of today, and new groups of land mammals, including humans,
appeared. At the end of the epoch, mass extinctions occurred: in North America more than
30 genera of large mammals became extinct within a span of roughly 2,000 years. Of the
many causes that have been proposed for these extinctions, the two most likely are
changing environment with changing climate and disruption of the ecological pattern by
early humans

Pliocene Epoch, second of two major worldwide divisions of the Neogene Period,
spanning the interval from about 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago. The Pliocene follows
the Miocene Epoch (23 million to 5.3 million years ago) and is further subdivided into
two ages and their corresponding rock stages: the Zanclean (5.3 million to 3.6 million
years ago) and the Piacenzian (3.6 million to 2.6 million years ago). The Pliocene Epoch
precedes the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period.

Miocene Epoch (24-5.3 mya) Early in the Miocene, temperatures begin to rise.
Extensive mountain building in the Americas and Asia alters air circulation and weather
patterns, contributing to drier overall conditions. Antarctica's separation from South
America during the Oligocene, however, inhibits the mixing of warm, tropical waters with
cool, polar waters. Antarctica freezes, and global climate cools again. Marine mammals
like seals and whales flourish as deep, nutrient-rich waters are stirred up in the process.

Land bridges, which form as the oceans recede and as inland waters dry out, encourage
new waves of animal migration between continents. In the cooler, drier conditions,
grasslands begin to dominate the Americas and eastern Eurasia. Grassland habitats offer
plenty of food for evolving grazers, including deer and antelope. Horses, which first
appeared in the Eocene, grow considerably larger, and some now display a single toe on
each limb instead of three or four. Animals that do not adapt to the more severe climate
and coarser vegetation, such as giant camels, which feed on leafy trees much like a
giraffe, teeter on the verge of extinction.
Oligocene Epoch, Major division of the Paleogene Period, from c. 33.9 million to 23
million years ago. It follows the Eocene Epoch and precedes the Miocene Epoch. The term (from
the Greek for “few recent forms”) refers to the small number of modern animals that originated
during this epoch. Oligocene climates appear to have been temperate, and many regions were
nearly tropical. Grasslands expanded, and forested regions dwindled. The vertebrates of the
northern continents had an essentially modern aspect that is a result less of the appearance of
new forms than of the extinction of archaic vertebrates at the close of the Eocene.

Eocene Epoch The second geological epoch of the Tertiary period. It extended
from the end of the Palaeocene epoch, about 54 million years ago, to the beginning of
the Oligocene epoch, about 38 million years ago. The term was first proposed by Sir
Charles Lyell (1797–1875) in 1833. In some classifications of geological time
the Palaeocene is included as part of the Eocene. Mammals were dominant in the
Eocene: rodents, artiodactyls, carnivores, perissodactyls (including early horses), and
whales were among the groups to make their first appearance.

Paleocene Epoch or Palaeocene, the “old recent”, is a geologic epoch that lasted from
about 66 to 56 million years ago. It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern
Cenozoic Era. As with many geologic periods, the strata that define the epoch’s beginning
and end are well identified, but the exact ages remain uncertain.

The Paleocene Epoch brackets two major events in Earth’s history. It started with the mass
extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg)
boundary. This was a time marked by the demise of non-avian dinosaurs, giant marine
reptiles and much other fauna and flora. The die-off of the dinosaurs left unfilled ecological
niches worldwide. It ended with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. This was a
geologically brief (~0.2 million year) interval characterized by extreme changes in climate and
carbon cycling.

The Extinction of Dinosaurs fossil record shows that for the first 175 million
years of their existence, dinosaurs took on a huge variety of forms as the environment
changed and new species evolved that were suited to these new conditions. Dinosaurs that
failed to adapt went extinct.But then 66 million years ago, over a relatively short
time, dinosaurs disappeared completely (except for birds). Many other animals also died
out, including pterosaurs, large marine reptiles, and ammonites. Although the number of
dinosaur species was already declining, this suggests a sudden catastrophic event sealed
their fate - something that caused unfavourable changes to the environment to occur more
quickly than dinosaurs and other creatures could adapt.
First Dinosaurs approximately 230 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, the
dinosaurs appeared, evolved from the reptiles. Plateosaurus was one of the first large plant-
eating dinosaurs, a relative of the much larger sauropods. It grew to about 9 meters in
length. Plateosaurus probably walked on all four legs most of the time, occasionally rearing
up to eat from the tops of trees.

The Carboniferous or age of amphibians was a time of diverse marine

invertebrates. The Late Devonian Period experienced major extinctions within some marine
invertebrate groups, and Carboniferous faunas reflect a different composition from what had
prevailed earlier in the Paleozoic Era. Most notably, reef-forming organisms, such as
tabulate corals and stromatoporoids (large colonial marine organisms similar to
hydrozoans), were limited. Consequently, Carboniferous reefs were poorly developed because
of this lack of framework builders. Benthic, or sea-bottom, marine communities were
dominated by the crinoids, a group of stalked echinoderms (invertebrates characterized by
a hard, spiny covering or skin) that still lives today. These animals were solitary suspension
feeders that grew in such great profusion that they affected bottom currents and water
circulation. The calcareous (containing calcium carbonate) remains of these organisms are
significant rock-forming materials.