ABSTRACT
The Tertiary Epochs are the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene; the Quaternary Epochs are the Pleistocene and the Holocene. There are three Pleistocene Ages: the Early, the Middle, and the Late Pleistocene. Towards the end of the Villafranchian, and especially in the earliest part of the Middle Pleistocene, the warm oscillations have a pattern typical of real interglacials. Villafranchian fauna is mainly of Tertiary type, but at this time people also find the first evidence of climatic oscillations of a type suggestive of the Ice Age. The geological sediments give important information on the climatic conditions under which they were formed, both by their own nature and that of the fossil organic material that they may contain. Many mammals are important as climatic indicators. In the interglacials southern forms like hippopotami and monkeys may invade Europe, but mainly our interglacials are characterized by a temperate-type fauna with deer, boar, elephants and rhinoceroses of woodland type.
