关键词: 晚新生代, 红粘土, 三趾马

Abstract: A set of red clay which was characterized by teeming with Hipparion fossils has deposited in north China since the late Tertiary. It has already become the focus attaching much importance to the research on the sedimentary environment evolution of the late Cenozoic in northern China. The method of studying the red clay has developed from the simple strata dividing and comparing means in earlier time to the synthetical research with multi-approaches and from multi-viewpoints at present. These researches have been connected with the uplifting of the Tibet Plateau and even the global environmental events. Thus, the time of the eolian deposits in north China has been advanced constantly. But, there are still a great deal of divergences on the origin of the red clay, on the relation between late Tertiary eolian deposits and the lifting of the Tibet Plateau, and on the suitability of the indices, etc. So, detailed and systematical researches remain to be seen in the future. This article briefly introduced the history of the red clay research and mainly reviewed the red clay study achievements over the past ten years, and also discussed some problems in the red clay study. We expect this article will benefit to the research of the red clay in the future.

Key words: late Cenozoic, red clay, Hipparion