QRA Outreach: Useful web sites

This site developed by Natural England contains various maps of England on which are referenced all NNRs, SSSIs and other designated areas of geological or ecological importance. In addition to showing the location of such areas, the site also contains linked descriptions and photos. Many of the designated areas on the map have Quaternary significance.

This link is for the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. It contains links to the recent documentation associated with the 2009 revision to the geological timescale in which the base of the Quaternary Period and the Pleistocene Epoch are now officially recognised at 2.6 million years ago.

This link contains a wide range of information on the prehistory of Britain from the middle Pleistocene up to Holocene times.

This link provides an up-to-date, accessible, and illustrated account of the main events of human evolution from early hominins to the expansion of Homo sapiens across the globe.

The Ice Ages online exhibit includes introductory information on the nature and causes of glacial/interglacial cycles, and includes images of Pleistocene environments for Illinois (and the mid-west in general) that can be used in teaching. The exhibit also includes photographs of Quaternary fossils and sediments, as well as photographs of cave excavations. There is a strong emphasis on Pleistocene animals of the mid-west prior to the Late Pleistocene extinctions.

This is part of an online course on climate change produced by scientists at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California San Diego. It offers a comprehensive introduction to climate change on various timescales, as well as the nature of Quaternary environments, written in an accessible way for the non-specialist. It is particularly good for the history of the ideas.

This link introduces some of the remarkable mammals that lived during the Pleistocene, including mammoths, woolly rhinos, and sabre-toothed cats.

This link contains several short power point slide shows, with commentary, on various aspects of past climatic change and methods of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. They provide succinct summaries of different areas of Quaternary research, and can be easily incorporated into school-level and undergraduate-level teaching. The NOAA photos and images are in the public domain.

The European Science Foundation website for the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA).