Handbook of Paleontology 441 



also disappeared from the St Lawrence and Hudson val- 

 leys, leaving New York State as it is today. 



Life of the Cenozoic 



The Cenozoic era is known as the Age of Mammals 

 and of Flowering Plants. Mammals developed rapidly 

 and reached their culmination in the appearance of man 

 in the latter part of the Tertiary. Mammals attained their 

 greatest size and variety in the Pliocene and Pleistocene 

 Amphibians and reptiles have taken on a modern appear- 

 ance. Fishes were abundant in the Tertiary and very 

 similar to those in the sea today. Foraminifera among 

 the invertebrates were very abundant and locally in the 

 Tertiary built huge deposits of limestone (Nummulites). 

 Brachiopods and crinoids were rare through the Ter- 

 tiary ; coral reefs by later Tertiary had much the distribu- 

 tion of today ; gastropods and pelecypods were abundant 

 and the most numerous of the large invertebrates ; cepha- 

 lopods were represented by the Nautilus and squid. In- 

 sects were numerous, the preserved record probably giv- 

 ing no idea of their total numbers. The vegetable king- 

 dom reached its culmination in flowering plants. The 

 general aspect of the forests was much the same as to- 

 day. Grasses were a very important element in the vege- 

 tation because of the part they played in the develop- 

 ment of the hoofed animals, the most important branch 

 of the mammals. 



In New York State, besides the Pleistocene shells that 

 occur in the marine deposits, fossil mammal remains are 

 found though in no large numbers. These remains in- 

 clude species of fox, bear, seal, giant beaver, peccary, 

 deer, elk, caribou, moose, American bison, horse and 

 mastodon and mammoth. 



