The Quaternary Period, the last period in the Cenozoic Era, was when the first humans appeared with mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and mastodons. The Quaternary Period started around 2.6 million years ago, during this time the continents were split apart into the regions they are today. Meanwhile in the seas, sharks and whales controlled the ocean and were on top of the food chain. As for land, mammals such as rhinos, mammoths, oxen, and bison roamed the chilliest stretches.
Many animals and species who existed in the Quaternary period are now extinct, and they have not lived for over a million years. During this period Mammoths roamed the lands along with cattle, deer, and of course, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens. A new rise in species had appeared onto the planet, humans. The Quaternary is often referred to the “Age of Humans”. The race first started in Africa at the beginning of the period. As time passed humans began to evolve growing bigger brains and a higher intelligence. The first modern humans evolved in Africa about 190,000 years ago and have migrated to Europe, Asia, Australia, and then on to the Americas.
Since the middle of the l9th century geologists realised that during the most recent period of geological time known as The Ice Age, there had been large changes in the landscape and the environment. Modern scientific techniques have given us great insight into the scale and timing of the climatic changes that led to the expansion of the global ice caps to three times their present extent. Climatic changes over the last two and a half million years have made the once cool earth warm.
Where are the animals? To this day we are still in the Cenozoic Era and during the Quaternary Period many animals have disappeared. Scientists have been doing research on this. "Between 50,000 and 3,000 years before present (BP) 65% of mammal species weighing over 44kg went extinct, together with a lower proportion of small mammals," said lead author Dr David Nogues-Bravo from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate in University of Copenhagen. Species on earth are having a hard time staying alive its the survival of the fittest.
Survival is key, and our main goal as humans, but after long periods of time species seem to die off. This has already happen many times in history to dinosaurs, mammoths, and saber toothed cats, but us humans are gifted with slight advantages over those animals by being able to adapt to different climates and environments. We need to make better choices in keeping our planet healthy and stop polluting if we want to live on.