Quaternary
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| Eon | Era | Period | Epoch | Start Million years ago | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phanerozoic | Cainozoic | Quaternary | Holocene | 0.0117 | |
| Pleistocene | 2.588 | ||||
| Tertiary | Neogene | Pliocene | 5.333 | ||
| Miocene | 23.03 | ||||
| Palaeogene | Oligocene | 33.9 | |||
| Eocene | 56 | ||||
| Palaeocene | 66 | ||||
| Mesozoic | Cretaceous | Upper Cretaceous | 100.5 | ||
The Quaternary is a geological period. It is the second period of the Cainozoic era. It contains two stages:
-
- Pleistocene (the Ice age)
- Holocene (the present stage, after the last ice age)
The status of the Quaternary as a period has recently been confirmed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).[1] The Quaternary now follows the Tertiary, and the Neogene is the second and last sub-period of the Tertiary.
During the Quaternary, there were the extinctions of many large mammalian species, due to climate change and hunting by humans.[2]
Other pages [change]
References [change]
- ↑ See the 2009 version of the ICS geologic time scale
- ↑ Martin P.S. and Klein R.G. eds 1984. Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution. Arizona, Tucson AZ.
| Precambrian (4.567 gya – 541 mya) | |
|---|---|
| In the left column are Eons, bold are Eras, not bold are Periods. gya = billion years ago, mya = million years ago | |
| Hadean (4.567 gya – 4 gya) | |
| Archaean (4 gya – 2.5 gya) | |
| Proterozoic (4 gya – 2.5 gya) | Palaeoproterozoic (2.5 gya – 1.6 gya)
Mesoproterozoic (1.6 gya – 1 gya) Neoproterozoic (1 gya - 541 mya) Tonian (1 gya – 850 mya) Cryogenian (850 mya – 635 mya) Ediacaran (635 mya – 541 mya) |
| Source | International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2013. International Commission on Stratigraphy, retrieved 8 April 2013. Divisions of geologic time – major chronostratigraphic and geochronologic units USGS, retrieved 8 April 2013. |
