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The Quaternary prehistory Portal

Introduction

The Quaternary (/kwəˈtɜːrnəri, ˈkwɒtərnɛri/ kwə-TUR-nə-ree, KWOT-ər-nerr-ee) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the Phanerozoic eon. It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today); a proposed third epoch, the Anthropocene, was rejected in 2024 by IUGS, the governing body of the ICS.

The Quaternary is typically defined by the Quaternary glaciation, the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets related to the Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that they caused. (Full article...)

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Selected article on the Quaternary prehistory world and its legacies

Carletonomys cailoi is an extinct rodent from the Pleistocene of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Although known only from a single maxilla (upper jaw) with the first molar, its features are so distinctive that it is placed in its own genus, Carletonomys. Discovered in 1998 and formally described in 2008, it is part of a well-defined group of oryzomyine rodents that also includes Holochilus, Noronhomys, Lundomys, and Pseudoryzomys. This group is characterized by progressive semiaquatic specializations and a reduction in the complexity of molar morphology.

The single known molar is high-crowned (hypsodont) and flat-crowned (planar) and is distinctive in lacking the ridge that connects the front to the middle part of the molar, the anterior mure, and in the configuration of another ridge, the mesoloph. Carletonomys was probably herbivorous and lived in a wet habitat. (see more...)

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Selected article on the Quaternary prehistory in human science, culture and economics

Edward Drinker Cope (left) and Othniel Charles Marsh (right).

The Bone Wars is the name given to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. The two paleontologists used underhanded methods to out-compete the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and destruction of bones. The scientists also attacked each other in scientific publications, attempting to ruin the other's credibility and cut off his funding.

Originally colleagues who were civil to each other, Cope and Marsh became bitter enemies after several personal slights between them. Their pursuit of bones led them west to rich bone beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, both paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to procure services and fossils from dinosaur hunters. By the end of the Bone Wars, both men exhausted their funds in fueling their intense rivalry.

Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by their efforts to disgrace each other, but their contributions to science and the field of paleontology were massive; the scientists left behind tons of unopened boxes of fossils on their deaths. The feud between the two men led to over 142 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described. Several historical books and fictional adaptations have also been published about this period of intense paleontological activity. (see more...)

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A neanderthal skeletal mount at the American Museum of Natural History.
Photo credit: Claire Houck

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Did you know?

... that the New Zealand and the Chatham Coot were likely hunted to extinction by the Māori people?
... that Archaeoindris (pictured), a recently extinct giant lemur from Madagascar, was the largest known lemur, comparable in size to a male gorilla?
... that fossils of Eucommia constans are the youngest and most southerly examples of Eucommia in North America?
... that French paleontologist Charles Lamberton scathingly rebutted a theory claiming that some extinct, giant lemurs were aquatic and that one of them was an "arboreal-aquatic acrobat"?
... that the broad-fronted moose was probably the largest species of deer that has ever existed?