The Cenozoic Era is the most recent of the four major divisions in animal history. This Era started 66 million years ago and extends to today. The Cenozoic Era is called the age of the mammals sometimes because the extinction of many groups allowed mammals to greatly diversify. This era gave witness to the rise of different mammals such as monkeys, apes, and marine animals.
Tertiary Period
The Cenozoic era included two periods; one of them was known as the Tertiary period. This period marks the beginning of the Cenozoic era and lasts for about 63 million years. During the start of this period, the climate was quite warm and moist. Most of the earth during that time period was tropical or subtropical. But towards the end of this period, the climate started to become cooler and by the end, the last ice age had started. This period is one of the most important time periods for mammals. Becoming dominant species on earth, mammals no longer faced much competition because of the extinction of dinosaurs. Birds also thrived during this period. Insects, bees, bass, and trout were also common animals. Plants also thrived around the earth as well. The plants during the Tertiary Period was very similar to ours today. Lots of grass and flowering plants covered most of the land. Over all, in the tertiary period, people became to be, mammals evolved, and there was an ice age at the end of the time
Quaternary Period
The following period after the tertiary period was known as the Quaternary period. This period is the most recent period that is known and it covers the last 1.8 million years. The climate was one of periodic environmental conditions with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude. The notable event in the Quaternary Period were the ice ages that began 2 Million Years ago. Life-forms during the Quaternary Period included the giant ground sloths, giant beavers, bison, mammoths, mastodons, saber-tooth cats, and human beings. But in the Later ages of the period, Mammoths became extinct because of the ice ages.
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