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Pliocene Epoch: Quick Facts

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American mastodon (Mammut americanum)
Black-and-white image of a human skull, slightly deteriorated
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 details the Neogene period of the Cenozoic era, listing its epochs (Miocene and Pliocene) and stages with corresponding ages in millions of years ago, ranging from 23.03 to 2.58 million 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.
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Maurice-Irénée-Marie Gignoux
French geologist