Biota - Lifeforms

Mammals The Neogene was a golden age of grasslands and savannas due to global climate change and the spread of new grass species. These vast grasslands encouraged the evolution of prehistoric two-toed and one-toed mammals, including horses, camels, deer, pigs and rhinos. The interconnection of Eurasia, Africa and North and South America at the end of the Neogene disrupted the network of interspecific interactions, leading, for example, to the threatened extinction of the South American Australian marsupial megafauna.

The most important event of the Neogene for humans was the continuation of the evolution of apes and hominids. During the Miocene, hominids were found in large numbers in Africa and Eurasia, and during the Pliocene, most of the hominids, the ancestors of modern humans, were concentrated in Africa. And during the Pleistocene, just after the Neogene, humans appeared on Earth for the first time.

Reptiles. The Neogene was largely dominated by giant crocodiles, still not as large as their Cretaceous predecessors. During the last 20 million years, prehistoric snakes and prehistoric turtles also continued to evolve, reaching truly impressive sizes during the Pleistocene.

Prehistoric whales had begun to evolve in the earlier Paleogene, but the first pinnipeds (mammals such as seals and walruses) and prehistoric dolphins, which are closely related to whales, also continued to evolve, becoming marine animals only in the Neogene. Prehistoric sharks reigned at the top of the marine food chain, including the megalodon that appeared at the end of the Paleogene, and maintained their dominance until the Neogene.

There were two important trends in Neogene vegetation. First, low temperatures led to the emergence of extensive deciduous forests in high northern and southern latitudes, replacing forests and tropical rainforests. Second, the worldwide spread of grass species and the evolution of mammalian herbivores.