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Pleistocene Epoch: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As newer Pliocene Epoch

Photos and Videos

Map showing the extent of the Laurentide, Cordilleran, and Greenland ice sheets during the Wisconsin glaciation, roughly 100,000 to 11,000 years ago. The Laurentide Ice Sheet covers most of present-day Canada and parts of the northern United States in light blue, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet covers the Pacific Northwest in teal, and the Greenland Ice Sheet is marked in purple. Modern international and state or provincial boundaries are outlined for reference.
Map of the Pacific Ocean showing the age of selected regions of the seafloor, with color-coded bands representing different geological ages from Cretaceous (136 million years ago) to Pleistocene (0 million years ago). The map highlights mid-ocean ridges, deep ocean trenches, and fracture zones, with arrows indicating the direction of crustal plate spreading. Major trenches such as the Mariana, Peru-Chile, and Aleutian Trenches are labeled.
A detailed geologic time scale chart displaying Earth's history from the Hadean Eon over 4.5 billion years ago to the present, organized by eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages with color-coded columns and corresponding dates in millions of years.
A geologic time scale chart showing the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era, divided into the Holocene and Pleistocene epochs with corresponding stages and ages, alongside a timeline in millions of years ago.
A geologic time scale chart highlighting the Quaternary period, showing the Pleistocene, Holocene, and proposed Anthropocene epochs, with divisions by age and corresponding millions of years ago.
A man with a surprised expression gestures toward two photos: one of a preserved wolf head above him and one of a preserved woolly rhinoceros below, with blue arrows pointing to each.
Will cloning bring the woolly mammoth back to life?
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Key People

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Eduard Brückner
Austrian geographer and climatologist
Penck, Albrecht
Albrecht Penck
geographer
Zittel, Karl Alfred, Ritter von
Karl Alfred, knight von Zittel
German paleontologist
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Loren Eiseley
American anthropologist