The Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras

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Chapter 24

• The Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras

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Mesozoic Era
Cover
Jacks
Three
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Triassic Environment
Rocky

• Present-day _______ Mountains begin to form

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Jurassic Environment
Atlantic
-modern ________ Ocean opening and Tethys Sea
closing
-____________ cover much of North America
Shallow seas
-Gulf of Mexico forms
-terrane collisions along _____ coast
west
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Triassic and Jurassic Life
cycads
________ seed plants without flowers Conifers Fe
rns
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Ginko
______ biloba present day species leaf nearly
identical to Mesozoic ancestor
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Cretaceous Life
angiosperms

• First _____________ (flowering plants)
• Coevolution of pollinating _________

insects
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Cretaceous Environment
temperature

• Steady drop in global ______________
• Widespread continental _____
• _____________ climate
• Gulf coast _____ deposits form

seas
Warm, moist
oil
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___________ 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 marine15 land species
___________
Chicxlub
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meteorite
iridium
ultraviolet
extinct
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Queens
Two
(Neogene and Paleogene are often grouped together
as _________ Period)
Tertiary
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Paleocene Environment
-Tethys Sea closes -before ________ collided with
_________ the Tethys Sea separated them
Africa
Eurasia
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Green River
-_____________ 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
Eocene Life
Rocky
coal
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Oligocene Environment
-Badlands of South Dakota -golden age of ________
mammals
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Oligocence and Miocene Epochs
Basin and Range
_________________Province in Nevada, Utah, and
Mexico -___________ mountains form from tensional
forces in southwest US
Fault block
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Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs
Woolly mammoth
-______________, _______________,____________
evolved ability to survive cold
dire wolf
sabre-toothed cat
-series of major ice ages in the _____________
Pleistocene
-hominids appear ________ mya
4 to 5
-modern humans appear _____ mya
.3
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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
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Holocene Epoch (continued)
fossil fuels

• 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

forests
overpopulation
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Evolution
How are these animals similar and how are they
different?
What causes them to evolve?
environmental change