CHELLIAN  , the name given by the

French anthropologist G. de Mortillet to the first epoch of the Quaternary period when the earliest human remains are discoverable . The word is derived from the French town Chelles in the department of Seine-et-Marne . The climate of the Chellian epoch was warm and humid as evidenced by the wild growth of fig-trees and laurels . The animals characteristic of the epoch are the Elephas antiquus, the rhinoceros, the cave-bear, the hippopotamus and the striped hyaena . Man existed and belonged to the Neanderthal type . The implements characteristic of the period are flints chipped into leaf-shaped forms and held in the hand when used . The drift-beds of St Acheul (Amiens), of Menchecourt (Abbeville), of Hoxne (Suffolk), and the detrital laterite of Madras are con- sidered by de Mortillet to be synchronous with the Chellian beds .