Rock deposits from the Cenozoic Era (Torre Sant'Andrea, Salento, Italy)
Chronology
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P h a n e r o z o i c
Mesozoic
C e n o z o i c
Quaternary
Paleogene
Neogene
An approximate timescale of the Cenozoic.
Axis scale: millions of years ago.
Etymology
Name formality
Formal
Nickname(s)
Age of Mammals
Usage information
Celestial body
Earth
Regional usage
Global (ICS)
Time scale(s) used
ICS Time Scale
Definition
Chronological unit
Era
Stratigraphic unit
Erathem
Time span formality
Formal
Lower boundary definition
Iridium enriched layer associated with a major meteorite impact and subsequent K-Pg extinction event.
Lower boundary GSSP
El Kef Section, El Kef, Tunisia 36°09′13″N8°38′55″E / 36.1537°N 8.6486°E / 36.1537; 8.6486
Lower GSSP ratified
1991
Upper boundary definition
N/A
Upper boundary GSSP
N/A
Upper GSSP ratified
N/A
The Cenozoic (/ˌsiːnəˈzoʊ.ɪk,ˌsɛn-/SEE-nə-ZOH-ik, SEN-ə-;[1][2] lit.'new life') is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, birds, conifers, and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three geological eras, preceded by the Mesozoic and Paleozoic. The Cenozoic started with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, when many species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct in an event attributed by most experts to the impact of a large asteroid or other celestial body, the Chicxulub impactor.
The Cenozoic is also known as the Age of Mammals because the terrestrial animals that dominated both hemispheres were mammals – the eutherians (placentals) in the northern hemisphere and the metatherians (marsupials, now mainly restricted to Australia and to some extent South America) in the southern hemisphere. The extinction of many groups allowed mammals and birds to greatly diversify so that large mammals and birds dominated life on Earth. The continents also moved into their current positions during this era.
The climate during the early Cenozoic was warmer than today, particularly during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. However, the Eocene to Oligocene transition and the Quaternary glaciation dried and cooled Earth.
^"Cenozoic". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 23 November 2021.
The Cenozoic (/ˌsiːnəˈzoʊ.ɪk, ˌsɛn-/ SEE-nə-ZOH-ik, SEN-ə-; lit. 'new life') is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66 million years...
of these groups co-existed with rich mammalian faunas for most of the Cenozoic Era. Terror birds and bathornithids occupied carnivorous guilds alongside...
The Late Cenozoic Ice Age, or Antarctic Glaciation, began 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary and is ongoing. It is Earth's current ice...
beginning of the Neogene Period 23.03 Mya. It is the first part of the Cenozoic Era of the present Phanerozoic Eon. The earlier term Tertiary Period was...
many more environments than the older geological record. By dividing the Cenozoic Era into three (arguably two) periods (Paleogene, Neogene, Quaternary)...
eras since complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the...
Retrieved 14 April 2019. Graham, Alan (2003). "Geohistory Models and Cenozoic Paleoenvironments of the Caribbean Region". Systematic Botany. 28 (2):...
on 6 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010. Van Ufford AQ & Cloos M. 2005 Cenozoic tectonics of New Guinea AAPG Bulletin 89: 119–140 "Earthquake History,...
ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene...
(2021-11-13). "Extinct crane-like birds (Eogruidae and Ergilornithidae) from the Cenozoic of Central Asia are indeed ostrich precursors". Ornithology. 138 (4): ukab048...
Kazakhstan and Arkagala in Russia. Beetle fossils are abundant in the Cenozoic; by the Quaternary (up to 1.6 mya), fossil species are identical to living...
The avian brain is the central organ of the nervous system in birds. Birds possess large, complex brains, which process, integrate, and coordinate information...
ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek Ἠώς (Ēṓs, "Dawn") and...
temperate Cenozoic assemblages and 31% of tropical ones. Infaunal animals made up 4% of soft substrate Palaeozoic communities but about 47% of Cenozoic communities...
entire Black Hills uplift. This core is rimmed by Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. The stratigraphy of the Black Hills is laid out like...
ornamental trees. The subfamily reached its peak of dominance during the early Cenozoic. The three redwood subfamily genera are Sequoia from coastal California...
faunal assemblages, capable of attacking dinosaurs. In the early-to-mid-Cenozoic, the dominant predator forms were mammals: hyaenodonts, oxyaenids, entelodonts...
associated with the mass extinction that lies between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. The Cretaceous as a separate period was first defined by Belgian...
ago, when the area was under the sea. During the Cenozoic Era, the chalk was uplifted (see Cenozoic Era). When the last ice age ended, sea levels rose...
Triassic period, but achieved their wide diversity more recently in the Cenozoic era, which began 66 million years ago. Some highly successful insect groups...
continental fragments that were assembled during the Mid-Palaeozoic and Cenozoic. This process can be divided into three phases of rifting along Gondwana's...
"entirely new". The suffix '-cene' is used for all the seven epochs of the Cenozoic Era. The International Commission on Stratigraphy has defined the Holocene...
eruptions have created formation of basaltic lava plateaus during the Cenozoic. The plateaus are of different ages with the older –of Neogene and Paleogene...
highland called Gaema Heights. This highland was mainly raised during the Cenozoic orogeny and partly covered by volcanic matter. To the south of Gaema Gowon...
birds were often able to compete with mammals in the early Cenozoic. Later in the Cenozoic, however, they were displaced by advanced carnivorans and died...
the first during the Carboniferous period, others as recently as the Cenozoic. One group of amniotes diverged into the reptiles, which includes lepidosaurs...
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