NEOGENE PERIOD

latest of the two divisions of the Cenozoic Era (66.4 million years ago to the present). The Neogene includes the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (23,700,000 to 1,600,000 years ago) and is considered by some to encompass the time up to the present. The Neogene, which means new born, was designated as such to emphasize that the marine and terrestrial fossils found in the strata of this time were more closely related to each other than to those of the preceding period called the Paleogene (q.v.). The term Neogene is widely used in Europe as a geologic division, but is generally not employed in North America, where the Cenozoic Era is simply divided into the Tertiary Period (66,400,000 to 1,600,000 years ago) and the Quaternary Period (1,600,000 years ago to the present).