Timeline: Cenozoic mammals

Measured by today's species numbers, the “age of mammals” is not a superiority in mere diversity. This is only about half the diversity of lizards, including snakes, or even birds. Nonetheless, the term is informative if understood as a contrast to the age of dinosaurs: The ecological roles of large herbivores and large predators were vacated 66 million years ago and occupied anew by previously successful, but almost exclusively small mammals. Long before the famous protagonists of the Ice Age (Mammuthus, Smilodon), there were gigantic, long-legged rhinos (Paraceratherium), the ancient horselets (Propalaeotherium), the bony horned brontotheres (Megacerops) or primitive whales (Ambulocetus).

digital painting, 2024

Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP Burg Lichtenberg (Pfalz)