Quaternary Geologic and Climatic Changes
Quaternary Geologic and Climatic Changes
The Quaternary was a time of dramatic evolutionary change, due to strong climatic latitudinal gradients. Oceanic biotic exchanges occurred between the Arctic, east Pacific, and from the equator, particularly in times of high sea levels. Prior to the cutoff of the Pacific from the Caribbean, due to the Isthmus of Panama (3 Ma), there was some transfer of fauna such as fishes in the Gobiidae (gobies) and Labridae (wrasses). Fossil evidence supports the west coast as an area that supported speciation throughout the Cenozoic. Comparatively, there has been less extinction on the west coast than the Atlantic or South America in the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
Keywords: Pleistocene, Quaternary, Rancho La Brea, Holocene
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