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Quaternary

third and current period of the Cenozoic Era
Thing system Q26185
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Summary

Quaternary is a system[1]. Quaternary ranks in the top 2% of system entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (11,291 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Instance of: period[3]
  • Named after: 4[4]
  • Follows: Neogene[5]
  • Part of: Cenozoic[6], ICS Standard Global Chronostratigraphic (Geochronologic) Scale[7]
  • Commons category: Quaternary[8]
  • SRGB color hex triplet: F9F97F[9]
  • Has part(s): Pleistocene[10], Holocene[11]
  • Time of discovery or invention: 1829[12]
  • Start time: -2580000-00-00T00:00:00Z[13]
  • Topic's main category: Category:Quaternary[14]
  • Described by source: Otto's encyclopedia[15], Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 1[16], Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1926–1947)[17]
  • Topic has template: Template:Quaternary (period)[18], Template:Quaternary footer[19]
  • Studied by: Quaternary science[20]
  • Named by: Jules Desnoyers[21]
  • On focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4[22]

Why It Matters

Quaternary has Wikipedia articles in 30 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[23] Quaternary is known by 87 alternative names across languages and contexts.[24]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . stratigraphy.org. stratigraphy.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2023/09. wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [23] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [24] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Quaternary. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/quaternary
MLA “Quaternary.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 14 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/quaternary.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_quaternary_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Quaternary}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/quaternary}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-14}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Quaternary — https://4ort.xyz/entity/quaternary (retrieved 2026-10-14)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 13w ago · Nyuhn · 2026-07-10 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14541 → j3Uh7
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/40849|batch #40849]]: ZGBK ID"
  2. 17w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-06-12 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Svkkl authority id → 0252239-ctvrtohory
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Svkkl authority id: 0252239-ctvrtohory, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/259494|batch #259494]]"
  3. 21w ago · Twofivesixbot bot · 2026-05-19 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Named by → Jules Desnoyers
    Follows → —
    Start time → -2580000-00-00T00:00:00Z
    Topic has template → Template:Quaternary (period), Template:Quaternary footer
    + 15 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbsetclaim-update-qualifiers:1||1|4 */ Yso id: 13113, mv to monolingual text names on YSO statements"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.