Pleistocene

(adjective)

of a geologic epoch within the Neogene period from about 2.6 million to 11,000 years ago; marked by the evolution of humans and the extinction of the large mammals

Related Terms

Examples of Pleistocene in the following topics:

  • The Pleistocene Extinction

    • Biodiversity loss, especially the disappearance of megafauna, during the Pleistocene Extinction has been linked to the arrival of humans.
    • The Pleistocene Extinction is one of the lesser extinctions and a relatively-recent one.
    • In general, the timing of the Pleistocene extinctions correlated with the arrival of humans and not with climate-change events, which is the main competing hypothesis for these extinctions.
    • The giant sloths disappeared, along with the mammoths, mastodons, and many other large animals, at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch.

  • Homo sapiens

    • Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominin that lived throughout most of the Pleistocene, with the earliest first fossil evidence dating to around 1.8 million years ago and the most recent to around 143,000 years ago

  • Genus Homo

    • The multiregional hypothesis holds that humans first arose near the beginning of the Pleistocene two million years ago and subsequent human evolution has been within a single, continuous human species.