In the geologic time scale a unit of time less than an era and greater than an epoch. Example: The Tertiary period was the earliest period in the Cenozoic era and included, among others, the Eocene epoch
Iowa State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Glossary of Geologic Terms (based on the glossary in Earth: An Introduction to Geologic Change, by S. Judson and S.M. Richardson, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1995), Iowa, USA 2004. http://www.ge-at.iastate.edu/courses/Geol_100/old_ files/glossary.v2.html, (ND/ Geol - Amer) {111}