Geography

In this post, we will talk about the geography of the Neogene Period. The Neogene Period was a time when the continents were crashing into each other. Mountains pushed up in many places. India continued its push into Asia. This created the Himalayan Mountain Range. Italy moved north into Europe raising the Alps. Spain crashed into France to form the Pyrenees. The Rocky Mountains and the Andes Mountains formed in North and South America during this time. Sea levels were lower due to the effects of continental collision. The North and South Poles began to have ice caps. During the Neogene Period, the polar ice thickened and took up more space in the ocean. The new mountains trapped water as snow and ice. All of this ice formation caused sea levels to drop even more. The drop in sea levels opened up land bridges between continents. This allowed animals to migrate between continents. South America moved to the north. By the Pliocene Epoch it merged with North America forming the Isthmus of Panama. This caused armadillos, porcupines, ground sloths and opossums to migrate from South America to North America and Dogs, cats, bears, and horses from North America crossed into South America.

As we stated in our previous post, the climate continued to cool. Many of the areas that had been covered by forests were changing to grasslands. Grasses were better suited to the cool dry weather. But grasses had less nutrition than the forest plants of the Paleogene Period. It took more effort to get the nutrients out. Grasses were made of chemicals that were hard on teeth. Chewing wore the teeth down. Animals that ate grasses needed stronger teeth. Changes in the plants meant that the animals had to adapt or die. Many of the forest dwellers became extinct and new animals developed that could live on the grasses. Horses had long, flat-topped teeth that were especially good at grinding the grasses. Their teeth grew longer and kept pushing up through their gums to keep up with the wear that came from chewing.

Other animals developed new ways to digest the grasses inside their bodies. These animals had more than one stomach. They are called ruminants. They were efficient at getting nutrients from the grasses. This new type of animal, the artiodactyl, developed into many familiar species: camels, bison, sheep and giraffes.