Third of the major eras of Earth history, and the interval of time during which the continents assumed their modern configurations and geographic positions.
It was also the time when the Earth's flora and fauna evolved toward those of the present. The Cenozoic, from the Greek for "recent life," began с 65 million years ago and is divided into two periods, the Tertiary (65–1.8 million years ago) and the Quaternary (1.8 million years ago to the present).