Thelongcontroversyovertheterm‘Quaternary'asachronostratigraphicunitmaybereachinganapotheosis,judgingfromrecentpapers(PillansandNaish,2004;Gibbardetal.,2005;andreferencestherein).Thedebateisnolongercenteredonwhetherthereshouldbeaplaceinthegeologicaltimescaleforaunittermed‘Quaternary'-despiteitsdubiouspast,itcannotbedeniedthatalargebodyofearth-historicalresearchisstronglyidentifiedwiththisterm.ThechallengenowconcernsanappropriaterankanddefinitionofQuaternarywithregardtootherchronostratigraphicunits.Severaloptionshavebeenproposed(PillansandNaish,2004),andGibbardetal.(2005)encourageadebateonthesebeforedecisionisreached.Inthisbriefnote,wedescribeanarrangementnotpreviouslyconsideredthatseemsadvantageous.Itisinstructive,however,tofirstreviewthePleistoceneSeriesandNeogeneSystem,thetwounitsthataredirectlyaffectedbyintroductionoftheQuaternaryintothechronostratigraphichierarchy.
