The Quaternary period's the youngest of three periods of the Cenozoic era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. The Earth during the Quaternary The 2.6 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognizable humans existed. Over this short a time period, the total amount of continental drift was less than 100 km, which's largely irrelevant to palaeontology. Nonetheless, the geological record's preserved in greater detail than that for earlier periods, and's most relatable… (More on Quaternary)