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The Cenozoic is just as much the age of savannas, the age of co-dependent flowering plants and insects, and the age of birds. [40] Grasses also played a very important role in this era, shaping the evolution of the birds and mammals that fed on them. One group that diversified significantly in the Cenozoic as well were the snakes.
The Quaternary (/ k w ə ˈ t ɜːr n ə r i, ˈ k w ɒ t ər n ɛr i / kwə-TUR-nə-ree, KWOT-ər-nerr-ee) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the Phanerozoic eon. [3]
A third factor which played a role in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic radiation was the K-Pg extinction, which marked the end of the dinosaurs and, surprisingly, resulted in a massive increase in biodiversity of terrestrial tetrapods, which can almost entirely be attributed to the radiation of mammals. There are multiple things which could have caused ...
Evolutionary radiations during the Phanerozoic.. An evolutionary radiation is an increase in taxonomic diversity that is caused by elevated rates of speciation, [1] that may or may not be associated with an increase in morphological disparity. [2]
They also produced a number of familiar-looking body types that represent examples of parallel or convergent evolution: one-toed Thoatherium had legs like those of a horse, Pachyrukhos resembled a rabbit, Homalodotherium was a semibipedal, clawed browser like a chalicothere, and horned Trigodon looked like a rhinoceros.
A Cenozoic chronology based on mammal taxa has been defined on all the continents except Antarctica. [4]: 939 Because the continents have been separated through most of the Cenozoic, each continent has its own system. [5] Most of the units are based on assemblage zones, layers of strata that contain three or more distinctive fossils.
Amniote Paleobiology: Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds and Reptiles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-09478-2 and ISBN 978-0-226-09478-6. This new book describes paleobiological research into land vertebrates of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Robert B. Eckhardt (2000). Human Paleobiology. Cambridge Studies in ...
Tertiary (/ ˈ t ɜːr. ʃ ə. r i, ˈ t ɜː r. ʃ i ˌ ɛr. i / TUR-shə-ree, TUR-shee-err-ee) [1] is an obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic Era, and extended to the beginning of the Quaternary glaciation at ...