Cainozoic

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/cainozoic

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the era name?Cainozoic
2. What is the approximate start date?66.0 million years before present
3. Why did mammals become so many after the dinosaurs died?After the dinosaurs died in a big event, mammals had no big competitors, so they could grow, change, and fill many places on Earth.
4. How did the climate change during the Cainozoic?The climate first was very warm, then it cooled a lot, even forming ice ages in the Pleistocene.

Adaptive Radiation: The rapid diversification of a lineage into new forms occupying different ecological niches.
K-Pg Extinction Event: A mass extinction event that occurred approximately 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous period.
Hominins: The group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species, and all our immediate ancestors.