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.
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
0
15
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
0
10
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
0
118
Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a new method which could help scientists perform large-scale climate simulations at a fraction of the cost and time needed compared to traditional climate models. The ...
Earth Sciences
May 13, 2026
0
9
Between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, many of the world's largest mammals disappeared. Picture creatures like saber-toothed cats with 7-inch fangs and elephant-sized sloths. Woolly mammoths whose curved tusks grew longer than ...
Ecology
Apr 27, 2026
0
220
As Earth shifts to climates not seen for several hundred thousand years, we may need to look at ancient environments for clues about what could happen next.
Ecology
Apr 24, 2026
0
20
Scientists at the University of Melbourne have uncovered for the first time how Australia's iconic Twelve Apostles were formed, finding tectonic plate movements over millions of years lifted and tilted the giant structures ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 23, 2026
0
162
Paleontologists have used an Ice Age fossil found 120 years ago in an underground cave to reveal that extinct giant echidnas roamed southeastern Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch, filling a major knowledge gap in the ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 13, 2026
0
69
A recent study by Dr. John Moretti of the University of Texas and local caver John Young uncovered the remains of Ice Age megafauna, revealing an entirely new ecosystem that once thrived on the Edwards Plateau. Among the ...
For modern residents of the Levant, the "Red Sea Trough" usually brings a brief, dusty transition between seasons. But 127,000 years ago, this same weather pattern may have been the literal key to human history. A new study, ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 18, 2026
0
49
