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Tertiary Period
Tertiary Period
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Messinian Stage Eocene paleogeography geologic time Tertiary paleogeography Cenozoic migration routes Mediterranean Sea Perito Moreno Glacier near-Earth object: impact Diatryma Phenacodus
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Animals & Nature

Tertiary Period

geochronology
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Messinian Stage
Messinian Stage
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Category: Animals & Nature
Key People:
Alexandre Brongniart
Edward Drinker Cope
Jean-Baptiste-Julien d’ Omalius d’Halloy
Related Topics:
fossil
K–T extinction
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Paleogene Period
Neogene Period
See all related content →

Tertiary Period, former official interval of geologic time lasting from approximately 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. It is the traditional name for the first of two periods in the Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago to the present); the second is the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present). The Tertiary has five principal subdivisions, called epochs, which from oldest to youngest are the Paleocene (66 million to 55.8 million years ago), Eocene (55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago), Oligocene (33.9 million to 23 million years ago), Miocene (23 million to 5.3 million years ago), ...(100 of 9435 words)

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