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The Quaternary Period (935 words) |
 | The Quaternary Period is most noted for its intervals of glacial and interglacial ages as well as the emergence of man. The Quaternary Period (aka the Great Ice Age) is subdivided into the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8mya-10,000 years ago) and the Holocene Epoch (10,000ya-present). |
 | During the Quaternary period, glacier ice was spread over more than 1/4 of the land surface of the planet. |
 | The Quaternary Period allowed for rapid evolutionary advances as a result of adaptive radiation stimulated by the extreme climatic and environmental changes. |
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Quaternary Period - ninemsn Encarta (753 words) |
 | Quaternary Period, former division of the geological timescale, spanning the last 1.8 million years of the Earth's history, up to the present day. |
 | The Quaternary is no longer regarded as a formal division of the geological timescale, though the term remains in common informal use. |
 | Temperature fluctuations during the Quaternary appear to show a regular periodicity, which may be caused by cyclical irregularities in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. |