Lesson 3.

Life during the Cenozoic

Period

General Biology 2
[1/2]
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
The ice age is one of
the most famous eras
in Earth’s history.

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 Many people knows ice age due to animated
films, but what really happened during the ice
age?

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What is ice age? What did the
Earth look like during this era?

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Learning Competency
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Describe general features of the history of life

on Earth, including generally accepted dates
and sequence of the geologic time scale and
characteristics of major groups of organisms
present during these time periods
(STEM_BIO11/12-IIIc-g-8).

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 Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to do the following:

● Describe Earth’s condition during the Cenozoic

era.

● Enumerate possible life forms present during the

Cenozoic era.

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 Earth’s Geologic Time Scale

● The Cenozoic Era is considered as the most recent of

the major subdivisions of animal history within Earth’s
geologic time scale.

● Some of the scientists also referred to Cenozoic as the

“Age of Mammals” since this time is highly dominated
by large mammals.

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Earth’s Geologic Time Scale

Divisions of the
Cenozoic era

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 The Current Continents

The Arrangement of Continental Plates During the

Late Cretaceous Period

Movement of the continents

into their current positions.

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 The Current Continents

The Current Arrangement of Continental Plates

Modern day
continents

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 Cenozoic Era

Environment

● Earth's climate was

warm and wet, but it
is followed by a
series of cooling for
most of the rest of
the era.

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 Cenozoic Era

Environment

● The cooling trend led

to the ice age that
approximately
started 3 million
years ago until 12
thousand years ago.

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Cenozoic Era

Period Environment Life Forms

Temporary warming
Extinction of
trend, with thick
Paleogene non-avian
forests eventually
dinosaurs
reaching the poles

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Cenozoic Era

Period Environment Life Forms

Large and small

The climate mammals together
Neogene continued to grow with other phyla of
cooler and drier organisms like
insects and birds

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Cenozoic Era

Period Environment Life Forms

Glaciation periods
Evolution of
Quaternary culminating to ice
human genera
age

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What do you think is the general
effect of long-term cooling of the
Earth on the entire diversity of
organisms present on the
planet?

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Life Forms During Cenozoic Era

Mammals evolved
significantly during
the Cenozoic era.

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 Life Forms During Cenozoic Era

● The appearance of wide savannas and grasslands paved

way to further diversification of mammals.

● Human ancestors may have evolved around 1 million

years ago, where the current human species, Homo
sapiens was probably formed 50,000 years ago. ‘

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Paleogene Period

Timeline of the
Paleogene Period

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 Paleocene Epoch

Mammals were heavily present during the Paleocene,

but all of them were still quite small.
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 Eocene Epoch

Grasses had evolved forming grasslands that replaced forests.

Initially, the birds were the dominant animals, but they were
eventually replaced by mammals
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Oligocene Epoch

Some mammals grew

very large like the
extinct
Paraceratherium that is
being considered as
the largest land
mammal that ever
lived.
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 Neogene Period

● The Neogene Period lasted from 23 million to about 2.6

million years ago.

● It can be further subdivided into two epochs: the

Miocene and Pliocene epochs.

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Miocene Epoch

The observed forests

kept shrinking, while
the grasslands spread
over a large portion of
the world.

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Pliocene Epoch

Appearance of
Australopithecines in
African savannas,
which is considered as
a close human
ancestor.

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 Quaternary Period

● The Quaternary or also known as the Anthropocene

period began about 2.6 million years ago and continues
today.

● It is subdivided into two epochs: the Pleistocene and

Holocene epochs.

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 Pleistocene Epoch

Pleistocene megafauna is considered highly diverse.

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Pleistocene Epoch

Evolution of
modern man

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Holocene Epoch

Evolution of
human
civilization

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How do you think human
civilizations affected the
diversity of organisms during
the late Cenozoic era?

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Remember

Anthropogenic activities like hunting

and farming shaped the diversity that
we have until now due to the fast rate
of extinction of species caused by loss
of habitat. A lot of species continuously
go extinct due to the recent industrial
revolution, which began in the
mid-1700s.
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 Check Your Understanding

Complete the table below by providing the important

events that happened during the given time period.

Period Earth’s Environment Life Forms Important

Topography Events
Paleogene

Neogene

Quaternary

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 Check Your Understanding

Complete the table by separately arranging the

organisms according to their order of appearance from
the Precambrian to the Cenozoic Era. Write numbers 1 to
5, with 1 being the earliest and 5 being the most recent.

Animals Order Plants Order

Dinosaurs
Fishes and early amphibians
Mammals and early humans
Early reptile forms
Protozoans and sponges
Ferns and fern allies
Flower-bearing plants or angiosperms
Cone-bearing plants or gymnosperms
Cyanobacteria and algae
First terrestrial green plant
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 Let’s Sum It Up!

● The Cenozoic Era is considered as the most

recent of the major subdivisions of animal history
within Earth’s geologic time scale.

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 Let’s Sum It Up!

● The Cenozoic era spans a total of 65 million years.

It followed the Cretaceous Period, where the
extinction of non-avian dinosaurs occurred. Some
of the scientists also referred to Cenozoic as the
“Age of Mammals” since this time is highly
dominated by large mammals.

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 Let’s Sum It Up!

● The Paleogene Period started from the

extinction of the dinosaurs (65 million years ago)
to the start of the Neogene Period (23 million
years ago). This time scale includes three epochs:
the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene Epochs.

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 Let’s Sum It Up!

● The Neogene Period lasted from 23 million to

about 2.6 million years ago. It can be further
subdivided into two epochs: the Miocene and
Pliocene epochs.

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 Let’s Sum It Up!

● The Quaternary or also known as the

Anthropogene period began about 2.6 million
years ago and continues today. It is subdivided
into two epochs: the Pleistocene and Holocene
epochs.

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Let’s Sum It Up!

Evolution of
Earth’s fauna and
flora until the
Cenozoic era

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Challenge Yourself

The spread of grassland affected the

diversity and evolution of faunas
during the Cenozoic era, how do you
think it affected animals during that
time scale?

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Photo Credits

● Slide 11: Moropus and Daphoenus cropped, by Abyssal is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via
Wikimedia Commons.

● Slide 20: Titanoides by Smokeybjb is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

● Slide 25: MEH Australopithecus afarensis 29-04-2012 11-30-00 2521x3223 by Nachosan is

licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

● Slide 27: Ice age fauna of northern Spain - Mauricio Antón by Mauricio Antón is licensed under
CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.

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