Cenozoic


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Cenozoic

, Caenozoic, Cainozoic
of, denoting, or relating to the most recent geological era, which began 65 000 000 years ago: characterized by the development and increase of the mammals
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Cenozoic

[¦sen·ə¦zō·ik]
(geology)
The youngest of the eras, or major subdivisions of geologic time, extending from the end of the Mesozoic Era to the present, or Recent. Also spelled as Cainozoic.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
Oil shale resources deposited in the Mesozoic, Cenozoic and Late Paleozoic are estimated at approximately 818, 105 and 55 billion tons, respectively.
It is likely, the study says, Upper Cretaceous strata were present across all of Arctic Alaska before it was eroded during the Tate Cretaceious or Cenozoic eras.
The following aims have been reached in this work: a) to achieve a more precise understanding of the Iberian intraplate lithospheric strength by reducing uncertainties and selecting results consistent with the geological and geodynamic evidences, b) to identify the relative contribution of crust and mantle in the behaviour of the lithosphere, and c) to relate the strength estimates to the Cenozoic evolution and the current seismicity.
The middle Cenozoic case-hardened rocks of the White Limestone Group discouraged detailed study until Donovan Blissett, a UWI graduate who completed his Ph.D.
Early in the Cenozoic, following the extinction of the dinosaurs as the dominant life form, the planet was dominated by relatively small fauna, including small mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
Between late Eocene and late Oligocene time, the New Zealand land area was reduced to a minimum for the Cenozoic, perhaps to a series of islands occupying an area between 20,000 [km.sup.2] (about the size of New Caledonia) and 50,000 [km.sup.2] (about the size of Tasmania) (Lee et al., 2001).
The Cenozoic covers Earth's history from 65.5 million years ago until the present day, focusing both on rocks and fauna.
This drainage pattern was disrupted by glacial erosion and glacial meltwater drainage channels during the late Cenozoic.