Cenozoic Era
The age of mammals
Paleogene Period
Paleocene Epoch
The Paleocene is the beginning of the age of mammals. It is a period of time spanning about 65 to 59 million years ago and, along with the preceding Cretaceous Period, delineates the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. It also marks the beginning of the Tertiary Period. The dinosaurs, now extinct, have left their niches vacant. The mammals, who were living in the shadow of the dinosaurs, now occupy previously dinosaur dominated habitats. This acted as a catalyst for mammalian evolution. Mammals, who reached no larger than a dog in size, flourished and diversified in the Paleocene Epoch. The New Mexico Paleocene is used as the international standard for Paleocene mammals. The Torrejoneon and Puercan land mammal ages were named after Torrejon Wash and The Rio Puerco respectively, both in New Mexico. The Nacimiento Formation has produced many important mammal remains. David Baldwin collected in this formation in New Mexico for E. D. Cope in the late 1800s. Mammals that occur in this formation, all of which I have collected, include Deltatherium, Pantolambda, Taeniolabis (all segregated into faunal zones bearing their names), Periptychus, Psittacotherium, Mioclaenus, Promioclaenus, Mixodectes, Arctocyon, Tetraclaenodon, and others. Turtle and crocodile fossils are also abundant in this formation.
Eocene Epoch
The classic beds of the Eocene San Jose formation are well known for the mammals they contain including the Coryphodon quarry, the first horse called Hyracotherium, the small mammal Meniscotherium and the giant, flightless bird named Diatryma. In the Eocene, mammals were taking on a more modern appearance. In 1874 E. D. Cope collected in this formation in New Mexico and made many new discoveries of the time. In Cope’s own words:
As soon as we picketed the horses, we began to find fossil bone! The first thing was a turtle and then Bathmodon (Coryphodon) teeth! and then everything else rare and strange till by sundown I had 20 species of Vertebrates! all of the lowest Eocene… The most important find in geology I ever made… (from Kues, 1982, p. 185).
Oligocene Epoch
Oligocene fossils include plant fossils, titanotheres, artiodactyls and creodont carnivores.
Neogene Period
Miocene Epoch
The Miocene sediments of the Santa Fe Group in the Espanola Basin are famous for the mammal fauna they contain. The American Museum of Natural History collected from these deposits for forty field seasons. Some of these fossils can be seen on exhibit at this museum in New York. Fossils collected from the Santa Fe Group in the Espanola Basin include the rhino Teleoceras, the horses Merychippus and Pliohippus, the camels Stenomylus and Rakomylus, the “dog-bear” Hemicyon, dogs, cats, tortoises, and many other animals.
Pliocene Epoch
Pliocene animals include horses, camels, giant armored armadillo-like glyptodonts, sloths, moles, mammoths, mastodons, giant tortoises and many other fossils.
Quaternary Period
Pleistocene Epoch
Fossils from the Pleistocene or more popularly known as the Ice Age, are well represented in New Mexico in cave deposits, gravel pits, etc. Blackwater Draw near Clovis, New Mexico is a famous kill site of Pleistocene mammals, notably the Columbian mammoth. A famous find from Aden crater in New Mexico, yielded a large, complete ground sloth with hair intact and its stomach still containing its last meal.
Saber-toothed Cat
Holocene Epoch
It includes the time from the end of the Pleistocene to the present.
The age of mammals
Paleogene Period
Paleocene Epoch
The Paleocene is the beginning of the age of mammals. It is a period of time spanning about 65 to 59 million years ago and, along with the preceding Cretaceous Period, delineates the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. It also marks the beginning of the Tertiary Period. The dinosaurs, now extinct, have left their niches vacant. The mammals, who were living in the shadow of the dinosaurs, now occupy previously dinosaur dominated habitats. This acted as a catalyst for mammalian evolution. Mammals, who reached no larger than a dog in size, flourished and diversified in the Paleocene Epoch. The New Mexico Paleocene is used as the international standard for Paleocene mammals. The Torrejoneon and Puercan land mammal ages were named after Torrejon Wash and The Rio Puerco respectively, both in New Mexico. The Nacimiento Formation has produced many important mammal remains. David Baldwin collected in this formation in New Mexico for E. D. Cope in the late 1800s. Mammals that occur in this formation, all of which I have collected, include Deltatherium, Pantolambda, Taeniolabis (all segregated into faunal zones bearing their names), Periptychus, Psittacotherium, Mioclaenus, Promioclaenus, Mixodectes, Arctocyon, Tetraclaenodon, and others. Turtle and crocodile fossils are also abundant in this formation.
Eocene Epoch
The classic beds of the Eocene San Jose formation are well known for the mammals they contain including the Coryphodon quarry, the first horse called Hyracotherium, the small mammal Meniscotherium and the giant, flightless bird named Diatryma. In the Eocene, mammals were taking on a more modern appearance. In 1874 E. D. Cope collected in this formation in New Mexico and made many new discoveries of the time. In Cope’s own words:
As soon as we picketed the horses, we began to find fossil bone! The first thing was a turtle and then Bathmodon (Coryphodon) teeth! and then everything else rare and strange till by sundown I had 20 species of Vertebrates! all of the lowest Eocene… The most important find in geology I ever made… (from Kues, 1982, p. 185).
Oligocene Epoch
Oligocene fossils include plant fossils, titanotheres, artiodactyls and creodont carnivores.
Neogene Period
Miocene Epoch
The Miocene sediments of the Santa Fe Group in the Espanola Basin are famous for the mammal fauna they contain. The American Museum of Natural History collected from these deposits for forty field seasons. Some of these fossils can be seen on exhibit at this museum in New York. Fossils collected from the Santa Fe Group in the Espanola Basin include the rhino Teleoceras, the horses Merychippus and Pliohippus, the camels Stenomylus and Rakomylus, the “dog-bear” Hemicyon, dogs, cats, tortoises, and many other animals.
Pliocene Epoch
Pliocene animals include horses, camels, giant armored armadillo-like glyptodonts, sloths, moles, mammoths, mastodons, giant tortoises and many other fossils.
Quaternary Period
Pleistocene Epoch
Fossils from the Pleistocene or more popularly known as the Ice Age, are well represented in New Mexico in cave deposits, gravel pits, etc. Blackwater Draw near Clovis, New Mexico is a famous kill site of Pleistocene mammals, notably the Columbian mammoth. A famous find from Aden crater in New Mexico, yielded a large, complete ground sloth with hair intact and its stomach still containing its last meal.
Saber-toothed Cat
Holocene Epoch
It includes the time from the end of the Pleistocene to the present.
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