P.672 - §6 5. The mammalian era occupies the last fifty million years. This recent-times era is known as the Cenozoic. |
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The cenozoic (kainos = new, zoe = life) era the last 65 million years since the mass extinction event at the so-called K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary. This was the mammalian era in which mammals diversified, eventually producing the human species. This era is subdivided into Tertiary and Quaternary periods. (see below) |
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Cenozoic era
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Quarternary period
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Holocene epoch (0.01 - 0), post-ice age, advent of Adam |
| Upper Paleolithic (0.06-0.01) | ||
| Middle Paleolithic (0.25 - 0.06) | ||
| Lower Paleolithic (0.50 - 0.25) | ||
Pleistocene epoch (1.8 - 0.01), end of ice age
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Tertiary period
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Pliocene epoch (5 - 1.8), mammalian migration | |
| Miocene epoch (23 - 5), elephants and horses | ||
| Oligocene epoch (34 - 23), advanced mammals | ||
| Eocene epoch (55-34), mammals | ||
| Paleocene epoch (65 - 55), early mammals |
