Cenozoic Era: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	Kainozoic Era

Photos

Cenozoic migration routes

A detailed geologic time scale chart displaying Earth's history from the Hadean Eon over 4.5 billion years ago to the present, organized by eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages with color-coded columns and corresponding dates in millions of years.

Map of the northern United States illustrating the extent of Pleistocene ice sheets, with shaded and outlined areas showing the maximum reach of the Wisconsinan, Illinoian, Kansan, and Nebraskan glaciations. The map uses different colors and line styles to distinguish each glacial advance and includes a labeled Driftless Area that remained unglaciated.

A timeline chart shows major events in plant evolution alongside the geologic time scale, with illustrations of algae, mosses, ferns, ginkgoes, conifers, cycads, and flowering plants marking their first appearances from the Ordovician to the Cenozoic era. Key milestones such as the emergence of early vascular plants and seed plants are labeled with approximate millions of years ago.

A colorful diagram of the geologic time scale shows major eons, eras, and periods, with illustrations of key prehistoric life forms such as bacteria, jellyfish, trilobites, fishes, dinosaurs, mammals, and humans, spanning from 4,000 million years ago to the present. Measurement bars at the top and bottom indicate the passage of time in millions of years, and each section is color-coded to highlight evolutionary milestones.

Geochronology. Table 22: Comparison of SOme Cenozoic Classification Schemes.

A geologic time scale chart details the Neogene period of the Cenozoic era, listing its epochs (Miocene and Pliocene) and stages with corresponding ages in millions of years ago, ranging from 23.03 to 2.58 million years ago.

Chart showing the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic era on the geologic time scale, listing its epochs-Oligocene, Eocene, and Paleocene-each divided into stages with corresponding ages in millions of years ago.

A geologic time scale chart showing the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era, divided into the Holocene and Pleistocene epochs with corresponding stages and ages, alongside a timeline in millions of years ago.

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Topics

Tertiary Period Quaternary Paleogene Period Neogene Period Cenozoic Erathem Apennine orogeny fossil Creodonta litoptern Notoungulata Mesozoic Era Paleozoic Era

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Key People

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George Gaylord Simpson

American paleontologist