摘要
The term Tertiary, subdivided into the Paleogene and Neogene, is traditionally used to represent the interval of geological time between the Cretaceous and Quaternary. In the 1990s, however, the Neogene and Paleogene were ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences as periods/systems of the Cenozoic Era/Erathem, leaving the Tertiary officially undefined. The Tertiary nonetheless remains a formal term that has never been officially eliminated, and its widespread use today implies a long future.
