Tertiary+Era+by+dlw106

Tertiary Period by dlw106 The t ertiary period was the beginning of the Cenozoic era that smoothed out the rough edges forming what we now know as the earth. Fresh off of the mass- extinction suffered by the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period, and the appearance of flowering plants, the tertiary period took up where the c retaceous period left off. In the tertiary era, several mountain ranges formed, as well as the ancestors of modern horses, elephants, bears, and chimpanzees. In the period after the tertiary, the quaternary, Homo sapiens develop as the ice ages start to end.

The tertiary period was right when everything was starting to come together, including the continents and climate. Such elements are known as the abiotic, and the biotic depends on the abiotic. Massachusetts was quite close to it's present day position, and gaining some of it's key features including Cape Cod. Like wise, the continents were in their final stages of from Pangaea and into where they are now. The climate rose and dropped through millions of years, ending in ice ages that shaped our land.

==== ==== ====The tertiary period shaped several important landforms and mountain ranges including the Tibetan plateau and the Rockies, Alps, Himalayas, and Andes. You can find rocks from the period most places in the world, but you can count on finding sediment from the tertiary period in the more recently developed land. There was so much life in the tertiary era, so it's fossils are rather common. Equus Simplicidens was a zebra living in North America, and is now the state fossil of where it was found, Idaho. Macginitiea Wyomingensis, one of the earlier Angiosperms, or flowers was a great discovery in Colorado as it proved the presence of flowers in the Tertiary period. Lastly, Pulalius Vulgaris, a fossilized crab from the tertiary period shows that not only were mammals evolving, but also that other creatures remained. ====

[[image:dlw106magnolias.jpg width="140" height="90" align="left" caption="Magnolias, which were dominant flowers during the Tertiary Period. "]]
====The biotic was incredible during the tertiary period, as several new life forms developed into the ancestors of many modern day animals. It's not all about the animals, as the first grass appeared during the tertiary period, as well as the first seaweed fields in the oceans. Flowering plants continued to dominate, Magnolia's especially, although researchers still don't know how exactly they came to be. These flowering plants created an up tick in insects, and thus in return more plants due to the increased pollination. ====

 ====Mammals were quite present throughout the tertiary period, as the ancestors of chimpanzees, horses, and rodents began to develop. Ungulates, the class in which horses are included, split into two groups of 2-hooved and 3-hoofed mammals. Sharks may have dominated the oceans, but they definitely steered clear of the whales. During the Pliocene Epoch, our ancestors the first Hominids appeared, evolving into what we are today. Mammals were not the only animals though, as birds did quite well too, as they were very dominant until the mammals split into so many species and adapted to the birds hunting styles. While arthropods, amphibians, and reptiles continued to live, their advancements did not compare to those of the mammals. The tertiary period was not just the first part of the Cenozoic Era, but was also the beginning of everything we know in our world today. ====

=**__Reflection __**= ====This was a great experience for me, as I learned not only about the tertiary period, but also about every time period throughout history through my classmates. I chose the tertiary period to see the development of new lifeforms and the shaping of the Earth, and how such changes are present today. The tertiary period is when we first started to see the ancestors of several modern day mammals, and the resemblance can still be seen today. This was close to the end of the tertiary period, as the continents separated from Pangaea and into their current positions. If you would like to learn more about the tertiary period, here's my bibliography with all of the sources I used. ====

= __Geology Report__ =

I chose to do my project on the Tertiary Era, as it shows the beginnings of Earth as we know it today. During the Tertiary era the ancestors of modern day mammals such as horses, bears and primates evolved, as did homo-sapiens. The terrain was shaped into it's current form, and the continents fell into place. This was the reign of the mammals, and soon they returned to the oceans as dolphins and whales.