The Anthropozoic era revisited

Abstract

This paper explains in some detail the poorly known proposal of Stoppani (1873) regarding the Anthropozoic era, whose beginning was defined by the first traces of human presence on Earth. This author set the stratigraphical bases for the definition of the ‘human era’, but the proposal had two main weaknesses: the dismissal of biological evolution and the lack of an absolute chronology. Further developments in radiometric/palaeomagnetic dating and the elucidation of the main trends and timing of human evolution have provided the necessary information to update the original Anthropocene proposal in chronological terms, maintaining Stoppani’s original definition and stratigraphic markers. This updated proposal follows the rules of the International Stratigraphic Guide and situates the beginning of the Anthropozoic era at the beginning of the Quaternary, the time at which the first human fossils, corresponding to the first species of the genus Homo and corresponding cultural manifestations have been identified and dated. Therefore, the new Anthropozoic era would follow the Cenozoic era, which ended with the Neogene period. Defined in this way, the Quaternary period and its Pleistocene and Holocene epochs would be situated in the new Anthropozoic era. The main strengths and weaknesses of the updated Anthropozoic version are discussed. It is suggested that the updated Anthropozoic proposal might be fully elaborated to evaluate whether it should be submitted to the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences for formalization. © 2020 Lethaia Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd