THE CENOZOIC ERA

The Shaping of the Modern World

Themes of the Cenozoic

• Changes in Life
• Age of Mammals
• Make Way birds
• The Ascent of Humans

• Mountain Building in Western America continues

• Formation of the San Andreas Fault

• A Return to the Ice

• Several major glacial events

• Major Volcanic Eruptions

Early Cenozoic
• North America grows larger
• Formed due to a series of collisions between the North American
plate and small terranes in the Pacific

• The Interior Western Seaway retreats

and most of North America is above
sea level (very important event)

• The Appalachians are eroded

Early Cenozoic (65- 23 mya)
Early Cenozoic

• India begins its collision with Asia,

causing the Himalayas to be lifted

• “Ring of Fire” forms

• Australia separates from Antarctica

Early Cenozoic Era

• The demise of the dinosaurs allows

not only mammals, but birds to
diversify and flourish
• Birds got very large (to 10 feet tall) and were predatory
• Songbirds also develop in this time period

• First flowering plants develop -

angiosperms
Giant Birds
 Early Cenozoic
• The climate of the Paleogene was notably
drier than previous periods
• Also much warmer than it is currently
• Lead to more land being above sea level
• Allowed for the evolution of first grasses and
therefore, grazing mammals (like horses) evolve

• Mammals diversify and grow very large

• Mammals are an extremely varied group!
• All major mammal groups are in place by the middle
of the Cenozoic
Mammals of the Paleogene
 Marine Animals
• The marine mammals evolve at this
time
• Whales, dolphins, etc
• Relative of camels!!!
• Lose their visible limbs over time

• Sharks take over as the dominant predator in the

sea, filling the niche left by extinct mosasaurs and
pleisosaurs
Marine Animals
The Neogene: Middle of the Cenozoic to
Present (23 mya – Present)

• During the Neogene, the continents take

their modern shapes
• North and South America join
• Iceland emerges from the sea
• Polar Ice Caps form

• In North America, the San Andreas Fault

forms
(23 mya – Present)
The Pliestocene (1.6 mya –
10,000)
• The Pleistocene is often referred to as the
“Ice Age”
• about 4 major ice advances and 3 retreats
• Leads to sea level retreats and advances
• Great Lakes form
• Other major event includes the eruption of
the Yellowstone caldera and (even worse!)
the eruption of the Toba caldera
• Toba nearly wipes out humans
The Ice Ages
The Calderas of the Pleistocene
Pleistocene Megafauna
• Megafauna refers to the extreme large
mammals that dominated this time period
• Include the Mammoth, Mastodon, Saber-cat,
Giant Sloth and Giant Beaver (among others)
 Pleistocene Extinction
• At the end of the last Ice Age (about
18,000 - 12,000 ya) most of the large
mammals went extinct
• This extinction event only affected large mammals
• Probable causes include climate changes affecting
the web chain and overkill by early humans
• Still plenty of room for doubt
• One question – is this extinction event a thing of the
past, or is it continuing today?????