Recent Life

 

65 to 7 Million Years Ago

 
 

The Age of Mammals

After millions of years of subdued existence, in a period of only two or three million years, mammals suddenly moved into the dominant positions vacated by the dinosaurs.  In what is called Earth's "most recent" era, almost all our familiar mammals evolved, new fruiting plants and grasses flourished and at the same time the continents and mountains we know today assumed their modern shape.

Most momentously, primates, and then hominoids, evolved.  Hominoids weren't human - but they were the patriarchs of the family into which Homo sapiens ultimately was born.

New Mammals

65 million years ago

After the dinosaurs, mammals quickly dominaed Earth.   By 50 million years ago, some of the largest land mammals that have ever existed had evolved but many species we know were miniatures then.  Their very smallness might be why many survived.  The warm weather of the previous 200 million years was coming to an end and the smaller animals were often better able to adapt to the cold.

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First Primates

60 million years ago

Proto primates (prosimians) appeared quite soon after the dinosaurs died.  Originally tree dwellers they had flat nails instead of claws, opposable thumbs for getting a good grip, and binocular vision.  They developed a brain with a posterior lobe which increased their information processing capacities, and their anatomies made them accomplished at the acrobatics handy for tree travel.  These are our very very ancient ancestors.

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First Apes

45 million years ago

By 45 million years ago, today's primates had evolved.  They spread across many continents and split into several distinct groups.  Humans eventually evolved from a group called Old World primates in Africa.  Originally scientists thought our evolution could be traced straight back to them.  Now scientists often don't know into which category a fossil may belong or by what circuitous route it may be related to us or its contemporaries.

Olive Baboon. Public domain graphic from US Govt. source.

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Grasslands and Prairie Animals

35 million years ago
Elk, Banff National Park. Copyrght P.L. Sissons. For conditions of use see Copyright and Acknowledgemnts link on the Home page.

 

A long term cooling trend began to change plant life 35 million years ago.  Oaks, conifers and maples replaced northern tropical vegetation and new grasses appeared on the prairies, savannahs and steppes.  Grazing mammals like giraffes, antelopes and ancestors of the gazelle, buffalo, bison and yak fed on the lush grasses along with smaller animals like beavers and rabbits.

 

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The Human Super-family

23 million years ago

The super-family of hominoids, the most intelligent man-like apes, appeared in Africa 23 million years ago and by 18 million years ago they were living in Europe and Asia.  Today the super-family of hominoids includes humans (who as far as we know at the moment are all Homo Sapiens), the great apes, our closest known living relatives, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons.

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The background picture to the page title is of tall grass prairie by J.T. Lokemoen of the U.S. Geological Survey

 

  

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