The Lovely of February The Cenozoic Era

The KT Event set the stage for the Cenozoic Era Cenozoic Era that began 65 million years ago. As the dinosaurs perished at the end of the Cretaceous, the mammals took center stage. Even as mammals increased in numbers and diversity, so too did the birds, reptiles, fish, insects, trees, grasses, and other forms of life. Species changed as the epochs of the Cenozoic Era rolled by, with the mammals eventually becoming the largest land animals of the Era, as the dinosaurs had been during the Mesozoic. Flowering plants strongly influenced the evolution of both birds and herbivors throughout the Cenozoic era by providing a rich abundance of food. Those that could adapt to the changes in the environment survived; those that could not were doomed to extinction. A rich fossil record in rocks relatively undisturbed by geological forces reveals the history of both. The Cenozoic is when the continents moved to their current positions. Australia-New Guinea that split from Gondwana during the early Cretaceous drifted north eventually collidedine Asia. Antarctica moved into its current position over the South Pole. The Atlantic Ocean widened and South America became attached to North America.