Everything about Tertiary Period totally explained
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The
Tertiary geological time interval covers roughly the time span between the demise of the non-
avian dinosaurs and beginning of the most recent
Ice Age, approximately 65 million to 1.8 million years ago.
At the beginning of the period,
mammals 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, also. Modern types of birds, reptiles,
amphibians,
fish, and
invertebrates were either 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.
Tectonic activity continued as
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.
Historical use of the term
The term Tertiary was first used by
Giovanni Arduino in 1759. 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. With current terminology, what was called the Tertiary began at the start of the Paleocene and lasted through the end of the Pliocene.
Climate
See:
Zachos 2001
Further Information
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