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Cenozoic Era
66 - 0 million years ago
Events of the Cenozoic
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An approximate timescale of key Cenozoic events.
Axis scale: Ma before present.

The Cenozoic Era (pronunciation: /ˌsnəˈzɪk, ˌsɛ-/;[1][2] also Cænozoic, Caenozoic or Cainozoic pronunciation: /ˌknəˈzɪk, ˌk-/;[3][4] meaning "new life", from Greek καινός kainos "new", and ζωή zoe "life"[5]) is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras, following the Mesozoic Era and covering the period from 66 million years ago to present day.

The Cenozoic is also known as the Age of Mammals and the Age of Birds, because of the large mammals and birds that dominated, such as Entelodont, Paraceratherium, Gastornis and Basilosaurus. The extinction of many large Diapsid groups such as non-avian dinosaurs, Plesiosauria and Pterosauria allowed the mammals and birds to greatly diversify and be the predominant fauna, even to the present day.

Early in the Cenozoic, following the K-Pg event, the planet was dominated by relatively small fauna, including small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. From a geological perspective, it did not take long for mammals and birds to greatly diversify in the absence of the large reptiles that had dominated during the Mesozoic. Some flightless birds grew larger than the average human. These species are sometimes referred to as "terror birds," and were formidable predators. Mammals came to occupy almost every available niche (both marine and terrestrial), and some also grew very large, attaining sizes not seen in most of today's terrestrial mammals.

The Earth's climate had begun a drying and cooling trend, culminating in the glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch, and partially offset by the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The continents also began looking roughly familiar at this time and moved into their current positions.


The Cenozoic is divided into three periods: the Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary; and seven epochs: the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene. The Quaternary Period was officially recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy in June 2009,[6] and the former Tertiary Period was officially disused in 2004 because of the necessity to divide the Cenozoic into periods more like that of the previous Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.[7][why?] The common use of epochs during the Cenozoic helps paleontologists better organize and group the many significant events that occurred during this comparatively short interval of time. There is also more detailed knowledge of this era than any other because of the relatively young, well-preserved rocks associated with it.

Paleogene Period[edit]

The Paleogene spans from the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, to the dawn of the Neogene, 23.03 million years ago. It features three epochs: the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene.

The Paleocene ranged from 66 million to 56 million years ago. The Paleocene is a transitional point between the devastation that is the K-T extinction, to the rich jungles environment that is the Early Eocene. The Early Paleocene saw the recovery of the earth. The continents began to take their modern shape, but all the continents and subcontinent India were separated from each other. Afro-Eurasia was separated by the Tethys Sea, and the Americas were separated by the strait of Panama, as the isthmus had not yet formed. This epoch featured a general warming trend, with jungles eventually reaching the poles. The oceans were dominated by sharks as the large reptiles that had once ruled became extinct. Archaic mammals filled the world such as creodonts and early primates that evolved during the Mesozoic, and as a result, there was nothing over 10 kilograms. Mammals were still quite small.[8]

The Eocene Epoch ranged from 56 million years to 33.9 million years ago. In the Early-Eocene, life was small and lived in cramped jungles, much like the Paleocene. There was nothing over the weight of 10 kilograms.[9] Among them were early primates, whales and horses along with many other early forms of mammals. At the top of the food chains were huge birds, such as Gastornis. It is the only time that birds ruled the world (excluding their ancestors, the dinosaurs). The temperature was 30 degrees Celsius with little temperature gradient from pole to pole. In the Mid-Eocene, the circum-Antarctic current between Australia and Antarctica formed which disrupted ocean currents worldwide and as a result caused a global cooling effect, shrinking the jungles. This allowed mammals to grow to mammoth proportions, such as whales which, by that time, were almost fully aquatic. Mammals like Andrewsarchus were at the top of the food-chain and sharks were replaced by whales such as Basilosaurus as rulers of the seas. The Late Eocene saw the rebirth of seasons, which caused the expansion of savanna-like areas, along with the evolution of grass.[10][11]

The Oligocene Epoch spans from 33.9 million to 23.03 million years ago. The Oligocene featured the expansion of grass which had led to many new species to evolve, including the first elephants, cats, dogs, marsupials and many other species still prevalent today. Many other species of plants evolved in this period too, such as the evergreen trees. A cooling period was still in effect and seasonal rains were as well. Mammals still continued to grow larger and larger. Paraceratherium, the largest land mammal to ever live evolved during this period, along with many perissodactyls in an event known as the Grande Coupure.[12]



The Neogene spans from 23.03 million to 2.58 million years ago, and is the shortest geological period in the Phanerozoic Eon. It features 2 epochs: the Miocene, and the Pliocene.[13]

The Miocene spans from 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago and is a period in which grass spread further across, effectively dominating a large portion of the world, diminishing forests in the process. Kelp forests evolved, leading to the evolution of new species, such as sea otters. During this time, perissodactyla thrived, and evolved into many different varieties. Alongside them were the apes, which evolved into a 30 species. Overall, arid and mountainous land dominated most of the world, as did grazers. The Tethys Sea finally closed with the creation of the Arabian Peninsula and in its wake left the Black, Red, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. This only increased aridity. Many new plants evolved, and 95% of modern seed plants evolved in the mid-Miocene.[14]

The Pliocene lasted from 5.333 to 2.58 million years ago. The Pliocene featured dramatic climactic changes, which ultimately led to modern species and plants. The Mediterranean Sea dried up for several million years. Along with these major geological events, Australopithecus evolved in Africa, beginning the human branch. The isthmus of Panama formed, and animals migrated between North and South America, wreaking havoc on the local ecology. Climatic changes brought savannas that are still continuing to spread across the world, Indian monsoons, deserts in East Asia, and the beginnings of the Sahara desert. The earth's continents and seas moved into their present shapes. The world map has not changed much since.[15][16]


The Quaternary spans from 2.58 million years ago to present day, and features modern animals, and dramatic changes in the climate. It is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene.

Megafauna of the Pleistocene (mammoths, cave lions, woolly rhino, Megaloceros, American horses)

The Pleistocene lasted from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. This epoch was marked by ice ages as a result of the cooling trend that started in the Mid-Eocene. There were at least four separate glaciation periods marked by the advance of ice caps as far south as 40 degrees N latitude in mountainous areas. Meanwhile, Africa experienced a trend of desiccation which resulted in the creation of the Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari deserts. Many animals evolved including mammoths, giant ground sloths, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, and most famously Homo sapiens. 100,000 years ago marked the end of one of the worst droughts of Africa, and led to the expansion of primitive man. As the Pleistocene drew to a close, a major extinction wiped out much of the world's megafauna, including some of the hominid species, such as Neanderthals. All the continents were affected, but Africa to a lesser extent. The continent retains many large animals, such as hippos.[17]

The Holocene began 11,700 years ago and lasts until to present day. All recorded history and "the history of the world" lies within the boundaries of the Holocene epoch.[18] Human activity is blamed for a mass extinction that began roughly 10,000 years ago, though the species becoming extinct have only been recorded since the Industrial Revolution. This is sometimes referred to as the "Sixth Extinction". Over 322 species have become extinct due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution.[19][20]


Geologically, the Cenozoic is the era when the continents moved into their current positions. Australia-New Guinea, having split from Pangea during the early Cretaceous, drifted north and, eventually, collided with South-east Asia; Antarctica moved into its current position over the South Pole; the Atlantic Ocean widened and, later in the era, South America became attached to North America with the isthmus of Panama.

India collided with Asia 55 to 45 million years ago creating the Himalayas; Arabia collided with Eurasia, closing the Tethys ocean and creating the Zagros Mountains, around 35 million years ago.[21]


The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum at about 55.5 million years ago was a significant global warming event; however, since the Azolla event of 49 million years ago, the Cenozoic Era has been a period of long-term cooling. After the tectonic creation of Drake Passage, when South America fully detached from Antarctica during the Oligocene, the climate cooled significantly due to the advent of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which brought cool deep Antarctic water to the surface. The cooling trend continued in the Miocene, with relatively short warmer periods. When South America became attached to North America creating the Isthmus of Panama, the Arctic region cooled due to the strengthening of the Humboldt and Gulf Stream currents,[22] eventually leading to the glaciations of the Quaternary ice age, the current interglacial of which is the Holocene Epoch. Recent analysis of the geomagnetic reversal frequency, oxygen isotope record, and tectonic plate subduction rate, which are indicators of the changes in the heat flux at the core mantle boundary, climate and plate tectonic activity, shows that all these changes indicate similar rhythms on million years’ timescale in the Cenozoic Era occurring with the common fundamental periodicity of ∼13 Myr during most of the time.[23]


During the Cenozoic, mammals proliferated from a few small, simple, generalized forms into a diverse collection of terrestrial, marine, and flying animals, giving this period its other name, the Age of Mammals, despite the fact that there are more than twice as many bird species as mammal species. The Cenozoic is just as much the age of savannas, the age of co-dependent flowering plants and insects, and the age of birds.[24] Grass also played a very important role in this era, shaping the evolution of the birds and mammals that fed on it. One group that diversified significantly in the Cenozoic as well were the snakes. Evolving in the Cenozoic, the variety of snakes increased tremendously, resulting in many colubrids, following the evolution of their current primary prey source, the rodents.

In the earlier part of the Cenozoic, the world was dominated by the gastornithid birds, terrestrial crocodiles like Pristichampsus, and a handful of primitive large mammal groups like uintatheres, mesonychids, and pantodonts. But as the forests began to recede and the climate began to cool, other mammals took over.

The Cenozoic is full of mammals both strange and familiar, including chalicotheres, creodonts, whales, primates, entelodonts, saber-toothed cats, mastodons and mammoths, three-toed horses, giant rhinoceros like Indricotherium, the rhinoceros-like brontotheres, various bizarre groups of mammals from South America, such as the vaguely elephant-like pyrotheres and the dog-like marsupial relatives called borhyaenids and the monotremes and marsupials of Australia.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "Cenozoic". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. 
  2. ^ "Cenozoic". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 
  3. ^ "Cainozoic". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. 
  4. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition, 1989.
  5. ^ "Cenozoic". Online Etymology Dictionary. 
  6. ^ Gibbard, P. L.; Head, M. J.; Walker, M. J. C. (2010). "Formal ratification of the Quaternary System/Period and the Pleistocene Series/Epoch with a base at 2.58 Ma". Journal of Quaternary Science. 25 (2): 96–102. Bibcode:2010JQS....25...96G. doi:10.1002/jqs.1338. 
  7. ^ International Stratigraphic Chart
  8. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica. "Paleocene". Encyclopedia Britannica. 
  9. ^ University of California. "Eocene Epoch". University of California. 
  10. ^ University of California. "Eocene Climate". University of California. 
  11. ^ National Geographic Society. "Eocene". National Geographic. 
  12. ^ University of California. "Oligocene". University of California. 
  13. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica. "Neogene". Encyclopedia Britannica. 
  14. ^ University of California. "Miocene". University of California. 
  15. ^ University of California. "Pliocene". University of California. 
  16. ^ Jonathan Adams. "Pliocene climate". Oak Ridge National Library. 
  17. ^ University of California. "Pleistocene". University of California. 
  18. ^ University of California. "Holocene". University of California. 
  19. ^ Scientific American. "Sixth Extinction extinctions". Scientific American. 
  20. ^ IUCN. "Sixth Extinction". IUCN. 
  21. ^ Allen, M. B.; Armstrong, H. A. (2008). "Arabia-Eurasia collision and the forcing of mid Cenozoic global cooling". Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology. 265 (1–2): 52–58. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.04.021. 
  22. ^ "How the Isthmus of Panama Put Ice in the Arctic". Oceanus Magazine. 
  23. ^ Chen, J.; Kravchinsky, V.A.; Liu, X. (2015). "The 13 million year Cenozoic pulse of the Earth". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 431: 256–263. Bibcode:2015E&PSL.431..256C. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.09.033. 
  24. ^ "The Cenozoic Era". 


  • Geologic Time, by Henry Roberts.
  • After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals, by Donald R. Prothero, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-253-34733-6

External links[edit]

Preceded by Proterozoic Eon Phanerozoic Eon
Paleozoic Era Mesozoic Era Cenozoic Era
Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous Paleogene Neogene 4ry