What major events happened in the Cenozoic Era? Cenozoic Era major events including mass extinctions, the rise of mammals, changes in the climate, and the movement of continents into their present positions.

Additionally, the first forests appeared, and the first seeds and soils developed, allowing plants to reproduce on dry land. The oldest fossils of insects and spiders date to this time. Early tetrapods, ancestors of land-dwelling vertebrates, first appeared during the Devonian.

The Devonian saw major evolutionary advancements by fishes with diversification and dominance in both marine and fresh water environments—the Devonian is also known as the “Age of Fishes.” Jawless fish and placoderms (such as the giant 33 ft Duncleosteus) reach peak diversity and sharks, lobe-finned, and ray-finned …

Devonian Period, in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian Period and precedes the Carboniferous Period, spanning between about 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago.

The Geography of the Paleogene

Known as Euramerica, or Laurussia, it was created by the coming together of parts of North America, northern Europe, Russia, and Greenland. Red-colored sediments, generated when North America collided with Europe, give the Devonian its name, as these distinguishing rocks were first studied in Devon, England.

During this time, continental landmasses were low and sea levels were rising. This meant rich shallow sea ecosystems with new ecological niches. Silurian fossils show evidence of extensive reef building and the first signs that life beginning to colonize the new estuary, fresh water and terrestrial ecosystems.

The later half of the period experienced glaciations, low sea level, and mountain building as the continents collided to form Pangaea. A minor marine and terrestrial extinction event, the Carboniferous rainforest collapse, occurred at the end of the period, caused by climate change.

The Paleogene is most notable for being the time during which mammals diversified from relatively small, simple forms into a large group of diverse animals in the wake of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that ended the preceding Cretaceous Period.

During the Cretaceous, accelerated plate collision caused mountains to build along the western margin of North America. As these mountains were rising, the Gulf of Mexico basin subsided, and seawater began to spread northward into the expanding western interior. Marine water also began to flood from the Arctic region.

The Cenozoic Era is divided into two periods, the Paleogene and Neogene which are divided into epochs. The Cenozoic has seen the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and the rise of mankind. It is marked by the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period and the end of the Mesozoic Era.

See Article History. Alternative Title: Age of Fishes. Devonian Period, in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian Period and precedes the Carboniferous Period, spanning between about 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago.

Devonian Period, in geologic time, an interval of the Paleozoic Era that follows the Silurian Period and precedes the Carboniferous Period, spanning between about 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago. The Devonian Period is sometimes called the “Age of Fishes” because of the diverse, abundant, and, in some cases,

Late in the period the first four-legged amphibians appeared, indicating the colonization of land by vertebrates. During most of the Devonian Period, North America, Greenland, and Europe were united into a single Northern Hemisphere landmass, a minor supercontinent called Laurussia or Euramerica.