TERTIARY PERIOD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Tertiary period mean? 

• TERTIARY PERIOD (noun)
  The noun TERTIARY PERIOD has 1 sense:

1. from 63 million to 2 million years ago

  Familiarity information: TERTIARY PERIOD used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TERTIARY PERIOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

From 63 million to 2 million years ago

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Tertiary; Tertiary period

Instance hypernyms:

geological period; period (a unit of geological time during which a system of rocks formed)

Meronyms (parts of "Tertiary period"):

Pliocene; Pliocene epoch (from 13 million to 2 million years ago; growth of mountains; cooling of climate; more and larger mammals)

Miocene; Miocene epoch (from 25 million to 13 million years ago; appearance of grazing mammals)

Oligocene; Oligocene epoch (from 40 million to 25 million years ago; appearance of sabertoothed cats)

Eocene; Eocene epoch (from 58 million to 40 million years ago; presence of modern mammals)

Paleocene; Paleocene epoch (from 63 million to 58 million years ago; appearance of birds and earliest mammals)

Holonyms ("Tertiary period" is a part of...):

Age of Mammals; Cenozoic; Cenozoic era (approximately the last 63 million years)

 Context examples 

An epoch of the early Tertiary period, found in-between the Oligocene and the Pliocene eras.

(Miocene epoch, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)