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Cenozoic Era
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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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Cenozoic Era: References & Edit History

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The Cenozoic Era is treated in such general geologic histories as Donald R. Prothero, Interpreting the Stratigraphic Record (1989); N.J. Snelling (ed.), The Chronology of the Geological Record (1985); Steven M. Stanley, Earth and Life Through Time, 2nd ed. (1989); and Michael O. Woodburne (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy (1987). Other sources include Stephen Jay Gould, Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (1987); Maurice Gignoux, Stratigraphic Geology (1955; originally published in French, 4th ed., 1950); M.J. Hambrey and W.B. Harland (eds.), Earth’s Pre-Pleistocene Glacial Record (1981); A.M. Spencer (ed.), Mesozoic-Cenozoic Orogenic Belts (1974); and William J. Frazier and David R. Schwimmer, Regional Stratigraphy of North America (1987). Studies of the environment of this interval of Earth history include John M. Armentrout, Mark R. Cole, and Harry Terbest, Jr., Cenozoic Paleogeography of the Western United States (1979); and B.M. Funnell and W.R. Riedel (eds.), The Micropalaeontology of Oceans (1971). Flora and fauna of the period are studied in Charles B. Beck (ed.), Origin and Early Evolution of Angiosperms (1976); Donald E. Savage and Donald E. Russell, Mammalian Paleofaunas of the World (1983); and R.J.G. Savage, Mammal Evolution: An Illustrated Guide (1986).

William A. Berggren

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  • Rasoul Shiri

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Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Modified link of Web site: K12 LibreTexts - Cenozoic Era. Oct 27, 2026
Add new Web site: PNAS - Cenozoic climate change shaped the evolutionary ecophysiology of the Cupressaceae conifers. Aug 07, 2026
Add new Web site: Academia - Cenozoic Era: Geomagnetic polarity time-scale (PDF). Feb 27, 2025
Add new Web site: National Park Services - Cenozoic Era. Dec 31, 2024
Add new Web site: Rutgers University - Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences - Cenozoic chronostratigraphic terminology: In defense of formal subseries. Jul 01, 2024
Add new Web site: Nature - Evolution of tropical cyclone genesis regions during the Cenozoic era. Apr 26, 2024
Add new Web site: PNAS - Cenozoic climate change shaped the evolutionary ecophysiology of the Cupressaceae conifers. Jun 09, 2023
Add new Web site: United States Geological Survey - Cenozoic. Mar 16, 2023
Corrected display issue. Nov 16, 2020
Add new Web site: K12 LibreTexts - Cenozoic Era. Feb 15, 2019
Add new Web site: Palaeos - The Cenozoic. May 08, 2017
Add new Web site: LiveScience - Cenozoic Era: Facts About Climate, Animals & Plants. May 05, 2017
Cross-references added. Oct 02, 2015
Updated boundary years for geologic time periods. Oct 02, 2015
Map of Pleistocene ice ages added. Oct 02, 2015
New text noting that the era is currently divided into three periods added. The geological epochs assigned to each period are also listed. Jul 31, 2009
Added new Web site: Window To The Universe - Happenings During the Cenozoic. Apr 24, 2009
Added new Web site: Virtual Fossil Museum - Cenozoic Era. Feb 27, 2008
Added new Web site: Bobainsworth.com - The Cenozoic Era. Jan 21, 2008
Added new Web site: Western Kentucky University - Cenozoic and Mesozoic Era. Jan 21, 2008
Article revised and updated. Nov 16, 2007
Added new Web site: University of California Museum of Paleontology - The Cenozoic Era. Jan 11, 2007
Added new Web site: University of California, Berkeley: Museum of Paleontology - Introduction to the Cenozoic. Jun 27, 2006
Article added to new online database. Jul 26, 1999
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