Brief notes on Tertiary (sub-era) and Quaternary (sub-era)

The last 62 my of the geological time scale has conveniently been grouped under (i) Tertiary – 61 my and (ii) Quaternary – last and recent 1 my.

Tertiary (sub-era):

This sub-era has been divided into five periods. The lower Tertiary includes Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene periods. During these periods, regression of sea was very prominent, though; transgression of sea took place in a few other regions.

The globe was dotted with active volcanoes. Most of the ancestors of modern mammals like elephant, horse, camel, rhinoceros, pig, cow and buffalo were roaming in the forests crowded with both flowering and non-flowering plants.

The upper Tertiary includes Miocene and Pliocene periods marked by the continued modern mammals. Continental uplift produced drier climates over areas and converted low swamps into grassy land, which helped ancestors of the present day mammals with grazing habits to flourish with small carnivores like dogs and saber-toothed tigers.

Ape creatures were quite common and many of the older type many became extinct. Towards the close of Pliocene times, which witness continued earth movements with the rise of mountain ranges like Alps Himalayas and appearance of most primitive ancestors of man.

Quaternary (sub-era):

This sub-era, includes Pleistocene and R periods. During Pleistocene period, which began about one million y ago, most part of the earth surface was covered with continental ice s’ of thousands of feet in thickness. This period has witnessed at least f glacial advances with intermittent inter-glacial periods.

Man emerge sometimes in this frozen world and witnessed the rise of the mod’ mountain ranges like Himalayas. With the repeated changes in climate conditions, there were large scale migration of the flora and fauna. Ma large mammals like wooly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene.

The globe experienced the last of the glacis retreat about 11,000 years ago and entered into the recent period of Geological time scale, in which we are living today. On one hand, the recent period is likely to be an inter-glacial period with fast approaching! Ice-age whiles on the other hand, the modern man’s boost for the technical development and scientific achievements and thinking of escaping the calamity by making the ‘outer space’ inhabitable. (?)