Plio-Pleistocene
The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined
epochs—marking from about 5 Mya to about 12 kya. Nominally, the Holocene epoch—the last 12 thousand years—would be excluded, but most Earth scientists would probably treat the current times as incorporated into the term "Plio-Pleistocene";[1]
see below.
In the contexts of
anatomically modern humans
.
The term is also useful in
Earth sciences because the greater Plio-Pleistocene period covers the gradual but prolonged long-term cooling of the Earth's atmosphere from the generally warmer temperatures of the late Oligocene / early Neogene times to and continuing through the Late Pleistocene—and indeed continuing through current times, if the present interglacial warming is considered as merely superimposed on the longer trend of cooling.[2] Beginning about 3 Mya, the late Pliocene saw the start of glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere,[3]
and many authors may informally use the term "Plio-Pleistocene" as a synonym for the period during which the Northern Hemisphere has been glaciated.
See also
- Australopithecine, straddle the Plio-Pleistocene