User:Abyssal/Portal:Cenozoic

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Cenozoic Portal

Introduction

The Cenozoic (/ˌsiːnəˈzoʊ.ɪk, ˌsɛn-/ SEE-nə-ZOH-ik, SEN-ə-; lit. 'new life') is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66 million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds, and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three geological eras, preceded by the Mesozoic and Paleozoic. The Cenozoic started with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, when many species, including the non-avian dinosaurs, became extinct in an event attributed by most experts to the impact of a large asteroid or other celestial body, the Chicxulub impactor.

The Cenozoic is also known as the Age of Mammals because the terrestrial animals that dominated both hemispheres were mammals – the eutherians (placentals) in the northern hemisphere and the metatherians (marsupials, now mainly restricted to Australia and to some extent South America) in the southern hemisphere. The extinction of many groups allowed mammals and birds to greatly diversify so that large mammals and birds dominated life on Earth. The continents also moved into their current positions during this era.

The climate during the early Cenozoic was warmer than today, particularly during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. However, the Eocene to Oligocene transition and the Quaternary glaciation dried and cooled Earth. (Full article...)

Show new selections below (purge)

Selected article on the Cenozoic world and its legacies

Saadanius hijazensis

Saadanius is a genus of fossil primates dating to the Oligocene that is closely related to the common ancestor of the Old World monkeys and apes, collectively known as catarrhines. It is represented by a single species, Saadanius hijazensis, which is known only from a single partial skull tentatively dated between 29 and 28 million years ago. It was discovered in 2009 in western Saudi Arabia near Mecca and was first described in 2010 after comparison with both living and fossil catarrhines.

Saadanius had a longer face than living catarrhines and lacked the advanced frontal sinus found in living catarrhines. However, it had a bony ectotympanic and teeth comparable to those of living catarrhines. Its discovery provided new information about the early evolution of catarrhines. (Full article...)

Selected article on the Cenozoic in human science, culture and economics

Portrait of Cope, c. 1895

Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, he distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science, publishing his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations.

Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of U.S. Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope's financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s, forcing him to sell off much of his fossil collection. He experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying on April 12, 1897.

Though Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology. He was a prodigious writer with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals debated the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species, including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His proposal for the origin of mammalian molars is notable among his theoretical contributions. (Full article...)

Selected images

Image 1Stegotetrabelodon is an extinct genus of primitive elephant with gomphothere-like anatomical features from the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene of Africa and Eurasia
Image 2Mimoperadectes is an extinct genus of didelphimorph marsupial from the Eocene of North America
Image 3Proconsul is an extinct genus of primates that existed from 23 to 25 million years ago during the Miocene epoch
Image 4Morotopithecus bishopi is a species of fossil ape discovered in Miocene-age deposits of Moroto, Uganda.
Image 5Platybelodon ("flat-spear tusk") was a genus of large herbivorous mammals related to the elephant (order Proboscidea). It lived during the late Miocene Epoch in Asia and the Caucasus.
Image 6Adcrocuta is an extinct genus of terrestrial carnivore in the family Hyaenidae that lived during the Miocene period
Image 7Palaeotragus ("ancient goat") is a genus of very large, primitive, okapi-like giraffid from the Miocene of Africa, Eurasia.
Image 8Victoriapithecus macinnesi was a primate from middle Miocene central Africa
Image 9Fossil tooth of Hyainailurus, an extinct genus of hyaenodont mammal of the family Hyainailouridae that lived during the Miocene
Image 10Prolibytherium ("Before Libya's Beast") is an extinct climacoceratid artiodactyl ungulate native to Early Miocene North Africa and Pakistan
Image 11Deinotherium was a large prehistoric relative of modern-day elephants that appeared in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene
Image 12Indarctos is a genus of mammals of the bear family, Ursidae, endemic to North America, Europe and Asia during the Miocene