The Paleogene was the period in Earth's history that occurred just after the dinosaurs went extinct. Come explore some of the interesting geological and biological events of the time by playing my quiz. Interesting facts from the quiz can be found below:
1. After the extinction of the dinosaurs, many ecological niches were left vacant. This allowed small mammals to evolve into larger beings during the Paleogene. The Paleogene roughly covers 65-24 million years ago. It is technically a sub-period of the Tertiary Period, which covers a large portion of the Cenozoic Era. The beginning of the Cenozoic marked both the ending of the Mesozoic Era and the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years ago. The Tertiary is split up into the Paleogene (65-24 mya) and the Neogene (24-1.8 mya), which are in turn divided into Epochs. Epochs of the Paleogene are the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene.
2. Cetaceans are large aquatic mammals like whales, dolphins, and porpoises. They are thought to share a common ancestry with ungulates, the family of mammals that evolved into horses, pigs, rhinos, cattle, giraffes, and hippos. Cetaceans are thought to have evolved from an early prototype of this group. The closest land-dwelling mammal they are related to are hippos. They were likely spawned by an isolated community that continually had to swim through water in order to survive.
3. Grass had been around since the late Paleozoic, but it took as long as the Oligocene for it to grow outside of woodland areas. The grazing of mammals caused grass seeds to expand from the forests and grow on the prairies of the Earth. Due to intensive grazing, grass could only survive by altering its method of reproduction. It needed a much more efficient way to multiply, so it evolved to be pollinated by wind instead of insects. The wind would carry it as far as it could, scattering its seeds over all the prairies of the world, which in turn allowed even more development for grazing mammals.
4. The Mediterranean Sea is much smaller than its predecessor, the Tethys Sea. The African continental plate pushing up against Europe caused the Tethys to shrink throughout the Paleogene. As the Mediterranean formed, many mountain chains in the region were caused by the African plate colliding with Europe. These include the Alps, Pyrenees, Pennines, Carpathians, and Caucasus ranges. Similarly, the collision of the Indian plate with Asia is thought to have created the Himalayan Mountains in roughly the same time period.
5. Australia and Antarctica were the last two continents to break apart from each other. They were part of a landmass that separated from Gondwana during the Jurassic Period. Together they drifted toward the South Pole before starting to break apart, anywhere from 80-130 million years ago. It was a very slow process; it wasn't until the Paleogene (30-50 million years ago) that they separated completely.
6. With a name meaning "near the hornless beast", Paraceratherium was one of the largest land-dwelling mammals that ever existed. Thought to have evolved with the rhinoceros, the name is a reference to Aceratherium, a genus of hornless rhinos that it co-existed with. Paraceratherium was much larger than its sister species; it looked like a cross between a rhino and a giraffe. Being a herbivore, it had a long neck that enabled it to reach leaves high up in the trees. Fossils of the species have been found all across Eurasia, but by 2015 nobody had found a complete set of bones. The cause for its extinction is unknown.
7. The Paleogene was inhabited by many species that looked like hybrids of modern day mammals. Yet there are some mammals, such as rodents and bats, that bear a solid resemblance to those of the period, such as Icaronycteris. Icaronycteris is Greek for "Icarus night flyer", which doesn't make much sense to me, seeing as bats are nocturnal and Icarus flew too close to the sun. The first known bats lived in the early Eocene, some 50-55 million years ago. They were about the same size as modern bats, and even used echolocation to capture prey.
8. During the Oligocene, the formation of the southern circumpolar current may have affected the global climate all the way to our present age. Before Australia broke away from Antarctica, the circumpolar current surrounding it was able to reach latitudes where warm water kept temperatures higher than they are today. After the split, the current could no longer reach these latitudes, enabling Antarctica to grow its huge ice sheet and keep the Southern Ocean cooler than it used to be. This may have had an effect on surface temperatures everywhere, as oceanic currents strengthened and distributed heat away from the tropics. In addition to being the only current that goes around the whole world, it is notorious for causing havoc among sailors.
9. Cats and dogs can trace their lineage back to a group of species that existed during the Paleogene. Among the first of the order Carnivora, they had a name that means "mother animal", called miacins. About 40 million years ago, these small mammals branched off into caniforms and feliforms. Caniforms would eventually evolve into dogs, bears, pinnipeds (sea lions, otter, walrus), foxes, and weasels. Feliforms would become felines, hyenas, civets, and the now extinct Saber-toothed Tiger. After 40 million years of separation, no wonder they can't get along!
This quiz was inspired by a picture book called "The Atlas of Life on Earth", printed by Barnes & Noble Books. The Paleogene makes up only a fraction of the material.
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