After this follows the Neogene Period. The Neogene encompasses two epochs, beginning with the Miocene (23.03-5.33 Mya) and followed by the Pliocene (5.33-1.806 Mya).
The Pleistocene (the "Ice age", 1.806-0.0115 Mya) and the current epoch, the Holocene, beginning eleven thousand five hundred years ago are now (2009) included in the Quaternary Period.
Though traditionally the Holocene is treated separately, it may in fact just be the latest interglacial of the Pleistocene. This display includes the Miocene through the Pleistocene Epochs of the Neogene and Quaternary Periods.
The Neogene Period started with the replacement of vast areas of forest by grasslands and savannahs.
New food sources and niches on the grasslands and savannahs fostered further evolution of mammals and birds. Whales diversified in the seas, and sharks reached their largest size during the Miocene.