The Pleistocene is a geologic epoch within the Quaternary Period, spanning roughly 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, characterized by repeated glacial–interglacial cycles driven by orbital (Milankovitch) forcing and associated feedbacks in the climate system. It encompasses major expansions of continental ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere, large sea-level fluctuations, and pronounced shifts in atmospheric composition and global temperature. Stratigraphically, its base is defined near the Gauss–Matuyama magnetic reversal, and its end is marked by the transition to the Holocene following the last glacial termination. The Pleistocene is critical for understanding late Cenozoic climate dynamics and associated environmental changes.
For the first time, researchers have discovered a new species of extinct amphibian from Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits: a spadefoot toad they have named Spea labreae. Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian ...
Ecology
Aug 5, 2026
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A new study provides quantitative data on cranial vault thickness in Homo antecessor, based on the analysis of three parietal fragments recovered from the Gran Dolina site in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain.
Evolution
Aug 3, 2026
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Analyzing ancient DNA from more than 500 mammoth bones, an international team of researchers found that Ice Age humans selectively targeted female woolly mammoths. The results of the study, published in Current Biology, show ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 30, 2026
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Ancient footprints preserved along the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana are reshaping scientists' understanding of one of humanity's extinct relatives. A paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 27, 2026
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A new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews dates the dramatic collapse of one of the largest glaciers ever documented in the Himalayas. The findings overturn a long-held assumption about what sustains wet-climate ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 9, 2026
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Many of the boulders scattered across the Swiss landscape did not originate where they now stand. Instead, they were carried by ice nearly 24,000 years ago. For the first time, researchers at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 2, 2026
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To understand where Earth might be headed, it's important to know where it has been. Throughout its existence, especially over the past couple of million years, Earth has experienced periodic cold and warm intervals, known ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 25, 2026
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The wooly mammoth from Taimering (Bavaria, Germany), discovered in 2020, was buried in a former Ice Age pond after its death. Pollen findings and radiocarbon dating confirm that the mammoth lived and died during the harsh ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 3, 2026
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18
A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience by researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea shows that the Antarctic ice sheet became more sensitive to climate ...
Earth Sciences
May 28, 2026
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Buffalo's legendary snowfall totals are largely the result of one unlucky geographic reality: the city sits east of the Great Lakes instead of west. Anyone who has lived through a winter in Buffalo, Cleveland or any snowbelt ...
Earth Sciences
May 13, 2026
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