Chapter 24

The Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras

Cover

Mesozoic Era

Jacks

Three

Triassic Environment Present-day _______ Mountains

begin to formRocky

Jurassic Environment

-modern ________ Ocean opening and Tethys Sea closing

-____________ cover much of North America

-Gulf of Mexico forms

-terrane collisions along _____ coast

Atlantic

Shallow seas

west

Triassic and Jurassic Life

________ – seed plants without flowers

Conifers

Ferns

cycads

______ biloba – present day species leaf nearly identical to Mesozoic ancestor

Ginko

Cretaceous Life First _____________ (flowering

plants) Coevolution of pollinating _________

angiosperms insects

Cretaceous Environment Steady drop in global

______________ Widespread continental _____ _____________ climate Gulf coast _____ deposits form

temperature

seasWarm, moist oil

___________ Crater -___ million years ago

-_____________ impact 10k diameter

-massive volcanism

-both created ________ rich rock found worldwide at Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

-___________ radiation; greenhouse warming; already stressed ecosystem

-79% marine;15% land species ___________

Chicxlub 65

meteorite

iridium

ultraviolet

extinct

Queens

(Neogene and Paleogene are often grouped together as _________ Period)

Two

Tertiary

Paleocene Environment

-Tethys Sea closes

-before ________ collided with _________ the Tethys Sea separated them

Africa

Eurasia

Eocene Life-_____________ Formation, Wyoming

-large basins formed adjacent to ________ Mts and filled with river sediments

-produced large deposits of low-sulfur ______

-enormous gas and oil deposits formed in Middle East

Green River

Rocky

coal

Oligocene Environment

-Badlands of South Dakota

-golden age of ________mammals

Oligocence and Miocene Epochs

_________________Province in Nevada, Utah, and Mexico

-___________ mountains form from tensional forces in southwest US

Basin and Range

Fault block

Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs -______________,

_______________,____________ evolved ability to survive cold

-series of major ice ages in the _____________-hominids appear ________ mya-modern humans appear _____ mya

Woolly mammothdire wolf

sabre-toothed cat

Pleistocene

4 to 5

.3

Holocene Epoch Great Lakes form Last continental _________ retreat

from United States Faulting in Basin and Range

Province ____________ activity in Cascades

and Yellowstone San Andreas Fault movement

glaciers

Volcanic

Holocene Epoch (continued) Burning of ____________ and removal

of large _________ increases carbon dioxide levels and global temperature three degrees C since 1880

Human ________________ begins to deplete food sources, mineral and fossil fuel resources, and decrease biodiversity

fossil fuelsforests

overpopulation

Evolution

How are these animals similar and how are they different?

What causes them to evolve?

environmental change