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| - The Tertiary is a an out-of-date term for a geologic period 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Quaternary period. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, at start of the Cenozoic era, spanning to beginning of the most recent Ice Age, at the end of the Pliocene epoch.
- The Tertiary was once one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, lasting from the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago, to the start of the Quaternary, about 1.6 million years ago. The use of the designation Tertiary was widespread and while it still continues(2006); the International Commission on Stratigraphy no longer endorses it as part of the formal stratigraphic nomenclature. Instead, the Paleogene and Neogene periods are recommended as the primary subdivisions of the Cenozoic era. In common usage, the Tertiary included five geologic epochs -- the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene.
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| abstract
| - The Tertiary was once one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, lasting from the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago, to the start of the Quaternary, about 1.6 million years ago. The use of the designation Tertiary was widespread and while it still continues(2006); the International Commission on Stratigraphy no longer endorses it as part of the formal stratigraphic nomenclature. Instead, the Paleogene and Neogene periods are recommended as the primary subdivisions of the Cenozoic era. In common usage, the Tertiary included five geologic epochs -- the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. The Tertiary covers roughly the time span between the demise of the dinosaurs and beginning of the most recent ice age. At the beginning of the period mammal replaced reptiles as the dominant vertebrates. Each epoch of the Tertiary was marked by striking developments in mammalian life. The earliest recognizable hominoid relatives of humans, Proconsul and Australopithecus, appeared. Modern types of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates either were already numerous at the beginning of the period or appeared early in its history. Modern families of flowering plants evolved. Marine invertebrates and non-mammal marine vertebrates experienced only modest evolution. Continental drift was modest. Gondwana finally split completely apart, and India collided with the Eurasian plate. South America was connected to North America toward the end of the Tertiary. Antarctica -- which was already separate -- drifted to its current position over the South Pole. Widespread volcanic activity was prevalent. Climates during the Tertiary slowly cooled, starting off in the Paleocene with tropical-to-moderate worldwide temperatures and ending up with extensive glaciations at the end of the period. The term Tertiary was first used by Giovanni Arduino in the 1700's. He classified geologic time into primitive (or primary), secondary, and tertiary periods based on observations of geology in northern Italy. Later a fourth period, the Quaternary, was applied. In 1828, Charles Lyell incorporated a Tertiary period into his own, far more detailed system of classification. He subdivided the Tertiary period into four epochs according to the percentage of fossil mollusks resembling modern species found in those strata. He used Greek names: Eocene, Miocene, Older Pliocene and Newer Pliocene. Although these divisions seemed adequate for the region to which the designations were originally applied (parts of the Alps and plains of Italy), when the same system was later extended to other parts of Europe and to America it proved to be inapplicable. Therefore, later the use of mollusks was abandoned from the definition and the epochs were renamed and redefined.
- The Tertiary is a an out-of-date term for a geologic period 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Quaternary period. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, at start of the Cenozoic era, spanning to beginning of the most recent Ice Age, at the end of the Pliocene epoch.
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