Tertiary
Events of the Cenozoic
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Phanerozoic
An approximate timescale of key Cenozoic events.
Axis scale: Ma before present.
Axis scale: Ma before present.
Tertiary is the former term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.58 million years ago, a time span that lies between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary. The Tertiary is no longer recognized as a formal unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, but the word is still widely used. The traditional span of the Tertiary has been divided between the Paleogene and Neogene Periods and extends to the first stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, the Gelasian age.