The Cenozoic

The third and current era of the Phanerozoic Eon is the Cenozoic, which can be then divided into three periods: the Paleogene, the Neogene, and the Quaternary, which continues to the present day. This stretch of time, for now the briefest of the Phanerozoic, would, even so, not be devoid of important events. Synapsids would once again return to megafaunal niches, a position not occupied by them in significance since the Permian, but sauropsids would not be relegated to the backdrop, still occupying many important ecological positions, making their presence felt in the most varied environments. Angiosperms would continue their dominance, already started in the latter half of the previous era, assuming many forms quite familiar to us. Though no mass extinction has yet occurred in this era, it does not lack smaller extinction events and our species (Homo sapiens) is, right now, at the forefront of one, one which started thousands of years ago and now continues on a wider scale, as we become ever more capable of impacting and changing the surrounding biosphere.

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