Science word of the day: Cenozoic
What does 'Cenozoic' mean?
Science word of the day: Cenozoic
Pronunciation: See-noh-ZOH'-ihk
What it means: The ascendency of mammals, the birth of the Himalayas, the diversification of birds — Earth's in its Cenozoic era, baby!
The Cenozoic is the geological era happening right now. It started 66 million years ago with the abrupt mass extinction known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, when a massive asteroid hit Earth and wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs. It's been a busy few tens of millions of years, ushering in such hits as Earth's first cacti, whales and most (if not all) of the Grand Canyon.
How to use it in a sentence: The Cenozoic is called the Age of Mammals, but the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley would like you to know it could have been called the Age of Teleost Fish, if mammals weren't so dang self-centered.
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Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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