Science word of the day: Cenozoic<\/p>\n
Pronunciation: See-noh-ZOH’-ihk<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n What it means: The ascendency of mammals, the birth of the Himalayas, the diversification of birds \u202a\u2014\u202c Earth’s in its Cenozoic era, baby!<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n How to use it in a sentence: The Cenozoic is called the Age of Mammals, but the University of California Museum of Paleontology<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Can you crack our science word of the day puzzle, Chain Word<\/a>?<\/p>\n TOPICS<\/p>\n