Late Pleistocene

Late/Upper Pleistocene
0.129 – 0.0117 Ma
Chronology
Etymology
Name formalityInformal
Proposed name(s)Tarantian
Usage information
Celestial bodyEarth
Regional usageGlobal (ICS)
Time scale(s) usedICS Time Scale
Definition
Chronological unitAge
Stratigraphic unitStage
Time span formalityFormal
Lower boundary definitionNot formally defined
Lower boundary definition candidatesMarine Isotope Substage 5e
Lower boundary GSSP candidate section(s)None
Upper boundary definitionEnd of the Younger Dryas stadial
Upper boundary GSSPNGRIP2 ice core, Greenland
75°06′00″N 42°19′12″W / 75.1000°N 42.3200°W / 75.1000; -42.3200
Upper GSSP ratified14 June 2018 (as base of Greenlandian)
Millennia:
Centuries:
  • 110th century BC
  • 109th century BC
  • 108th century BC
  • 107th century BC
  • 106th century BC
  • 105th century BC
  • 104th century BC
  • 103rd century BC
  • 102nd century BC
  • 101st century BC
Violet: Extent of the Alpine ice sheet in the Würm glaciation. Blue: Extent in earlier ice ages.

The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago. The late Pleistocene equates to the proposed Tarantian Age of the geologic time scale, preceded by the officially ratified Chibanian (commonly known as Middle Pleistocene). The beginning of the Late Pleistocene is the transition between the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the beginning of the Last Interglacial around 130,000 years ago (corresponding with the beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 5). The Late Pleistocene ends with the termination of the Younger Dryas, some 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began.

The term Upper Pleistocene is currently in use as a provisional or "quasi-formal" designation by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). Although the three oldest ages of the Pleistocene (the Gelasian, the Calabrian and the Chibanian) have been officially defined, the late Pleistocene has yet to be formally defined.

Following the brief Last Interglacial warm period (~130-115,000 years ago), where temperatures were comparable to or warmer than the Holocene, the Late Pleistocene was dominated by the cool Last Glacial Period, with temperatures graduate lowering over the course of the period, reaching their lowest during the Last Glacial Maximum around 26-20,000 years ago.

Among the stages of the Pleistocene, the Late Pleistocene (Stage 4) is important because this period witnessed the spread of modern humans outside Africa and the extinction of most megafauna. The origins of modern human behaviour is first shown during the Upper Paleolithic (UP) transition in western Asia and Europe about 45 Ka and later in southern and eastern Asia, Australia and Africa

In palaeoanthropology, the late Pleistocene contains the Upper Palaeolithic stage of human development, including the early human migrations of modern humans outside of Africa, and the extinction of the last remaining archaic human species.

Most of the world's large (megafaunal) animals became extinct during the Late Pleistocene as part of the Late Pleistocene extinctions, a trend that continued into the Holocene. This period is also important in the study of human origins because this was when the human ancestry began to evolve shown in genetic and fossil evidence from Africa dated back to 300Ka. There is also a significant amount of evidence showing the evolution of a Eurasian species called the Neanderthal.

Last Ice Age

The proposed beginning of the late Pleistocene is the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period (PGP) 126 ka when the Riß glaciation (Alpine) was being succeeded by the Eemian (Riß-Würm) interglacial period. The Riß-Würm ended 115 ka with the onset of the Last Glacial Period (LGP) which is known in Europe as the Würm (Alpine) or Devensian (Great Britain) or Weichselian glaciation (northern Europe); these are broadly equated with the Wisconsin glaciation (North America), though technically that began much later.

The Last Glacial Maximum was reached during the later millennia of the Würm/Weichselian, estimated between 26 ka and 19 ka when deglaciation began in the Northern Hemisphere. The Würm/Weichselian endured until 16 ka with Northern Europe, including most of Great Britain, covered by an ice sheet. The glaciers reached the Great Lakes in North America. Sea levels fell and two land bridges were temporarily in existence that had significance for human migration: Doggerland, which connected Great Britain to mainland Europe; and the Bering land bridge which joined Alaska to Siberia.

The Last Ice Age was followed by the Late Glacial Interstadial, a period of global warming to 12.9 ka, and the Younger Dryas, a return to glacial conditions until 11.7 ka. Palaeoclimatology holds that there was a sequence of stadials and interstadials from about 16 ka until the end of the Pleistocene. These were the Oldest Dryas (stadial), the Bølling oscillation (interstadial), the Older Dryas (stadial), the Allerød oscillation (interstadial) and finally the Younger Dryas.

The end of the Younger Dryas marks the boundary between the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs. Man in all parts of the world was still culturally and technologically in the Palaeolithic (Old Stone) Age. Tools and weapons were basic stone or wooden implements. Nomadic tribes followed moving herds. Non-nomadics acquired their food by gathering and hunting.

Africa

Due to the geological location of Africa and its landmass of over 30 million , it was able to support the spread of large terrestrial mammals, some of which has survived to this day. Africa plays a huge role in understanding human evolution and modern environments. This is where human evolution and the origins of modern humans were found. due to its warm and dry atmosphere rainfall patterns is what largely determines the vegetation patterns. Its present physical geography and climate has undergone changes over time caused by movement of tectonic plates and volcanoes but glacial cycles and sea level variation is a more significant effect on the vertebrate communities during the Late Pleistocene.

Southern Africa

Image of the extinct giant Warthog

Around 270 Ka certain modern fauna grew in southern Africa until Pleistocene - Holocene boundary (11.5ka). This timeline is referred to as the Florisian Land Mammal Age. At the Duinefontein 2 site in South Africa, deposits of modern fauna was dated to ca. 270ka using Optically-Simulated Luminescence. The Late Pleistocene was the time when most animals evolved to resemble modern-day animals and they managed to live through the Late mid-Pleistocene since there were no extinction events of megafauna until the end of the Late Pleistocene. The region housed a large number of grazing species like alcelaphines and equids compared to the late Holocene and historic fauna which means there were more feeders living during this period compared to the present. There were also Suidae and Bovidae fossil records. Some species which went extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene are the Giant Warthog, Long-horn buffalo, Southern Springbok, etc. These species were common because their distribution changed in response to climatic influences on vegetation. Canivores were more widespread due to their varying habitat requirements. Over hunting might have caused the next set of extinctions that happened in Southern Africa like the Blue Antelope which was last seen around 1880 and the Quagga which died around 1883.

Northern Africa

image of Nazlet Khater skeleton found in Upper Egypt showing early human culture dating back to aproximately 30-40 Ka

Most of the knowledge of the Late Pleistocene is gotten from regions like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, some coastal regions of Maghreb, Libya and Egypt. The only issue with interpreting the data from this region is due to the lack chronological information. The paleontological record shows some species which are found in Eurasia and some local species. the resemblance of Late Pleistocene species in Northern Africa to modern animals is the same as Southern Africa but its extremely difficult to date when these fauna came into place because the was a lack of reliable samples from the mid-Pleistocene. the presence of alcelaphines, gazelles and oryx signifies the presence of a dry atmosphere compared to the early Holocene which as moist. few species such as cervids and long-horned buffalo go extinct. Unfortunately the current data from the Maghreb can't be used to make any comparisons between glacial and interglacial cycles. Most of the significant fossil records are from the Maghreb because its geology which helps to create deep caves which is a good area for preserving fossils while the other sites are just open-air sites. data indicated that faunal communities where similar between the western and eastern region of North Africa.

In Egypt, the Late (or Upper) Palaeolithic began sometime after 30,000 BC. People in North Africa had relocated to the Nile Valley as the Sahara was transformed from grassland to desert. The Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and has been radiocarbon dated to between 30,360 and 35,100 years ago.

Eastern Africa

Most paleontological data from this region dated back to the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene due to the search for Hominin fossils. Even with more focus on finding evidence of human origins during this period, there is still little fossils of Large well-preserved fauna assemblages. There are species which were said to have migrated from South Africa through Central Africa to eastern Africa such as the Blesbok found at Redcliff.

West and Central Africa

Due to poor bone preservation from the West and Central Africa, there was little to no vertebrate record. but there has been recent discoveries of a number of sites in West Africa sowing signs of human activity during the Pleistocene. The observations noted in this paper still needs in depth analysis of the paleoenvironment to uncover the human-environment relationship during the Pleistocene.

Late Pleistocene Fossil assemblages found in Africa
Southern Africa Northern Africa Eastern Africa Western Africa
Wild cats, Lions and leopards Bears, red foxes, spotted hyenas Blesbok Korrigum
black-backed jackals Cervids, boars Gazelle roan antelope
hunting dog, caracals Barbary sheep, gazelle Burchell's zebra waterbuck
mustelids and viverids Aurochs Mountain reedbuck Warthog, Reedbuck
Baboons deer and European polecats. Oribi, Steenbok Bushbuck
Hippopotamuses hippopotamuses Bush duiker Bush duiker
Hares, Hyraxes eland and blue wildebeest. Warthog Dwarf antelope
Porcupines and Cape dune molerats. wildcats, leopards, sand cats, lions, wildebeest Bush pig
Black and white rhinoceroses white and Merek's Rhinoceroses hartebeest giant hog
giraffes, elephants Egyptian Mongoose leopards.

Eurasia

Neanderthal hominins (Homo neanderthalensis) inhabited Eurasia until becoming extinct between 40 and 30 ka. Towards the end of the Pleistocene and possibly into the early Holocene, several large mammalian species including the woolly rhinoceros, mammoth, mastodon and Irish elk became extinct.

Cave paintings have been found at Lascaux in the Dordogne which may be more than 17,000 years old. These are mainly of buffalo, deer and other animals hunted by man. Later paintings occur in caves throughout the world with further examples at Altamira (Spain) and in India, Australia and the Sahara.

Magdalenian hunter-gatherers were widespread in western Europe about 20 -12.500 cal BP years ago until the end of the Pleistocene. They invented the earliest known harpoons using reindeer horn.[better source needed]

The only domesticated animal in the Pleistocene was the dog, which evolved from the grey wolf into its many modern breeds. It is believed that the grey wolf became associated with hunter-gatherer tribes around 15 ka. The earliest remains of a true domestic dog have been dated to 14,200 years ago. Domestication first happened in Eurasia but could have been anywhere from Western Europe to East Asia. Domestication of other animals such as cattle, goats, pigs and sheep did not begin until the Holocene when settled farming communities became established in the Near East. The cat was probably not domesticated before c. 7500 BC at the earliest, again in the Near East.

A butchered brown bear patella found in Alice and Gwendoline Cave in County Clare and dated to 10,860 to 10,641 BC indicates the first known human activity in Ireland.

Far East

The very first human habitation in the Japanese archipelago has been traced to prehistoric times between 40,000 BC and 30,000 BC. The earliest fossils are radiocarbon dated to c. 35,000 BC. Japan was once linked to the Asian mainland by land bridges via Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island to the north, but was unconnected at this time when the main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku were all separate entities.

North America

Bison occidentalis skull at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

From about 28 ka, there were migrations across the Bering land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. The people became the Native Americans. It is believed that the original tribes subsequently moved down to Central and South America under pressure from later migrations.

In the North American land mammal age scale, the Rancholabrean spans the time from c. 240,000 years ago to c. 11,000 years ago. It is named after the Rancho La Brea fossil site in California, characterised by extinct forms of bison in association with other Pleistocene species such as the mammoth.

Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus, an extinct subspecies of the smaller present-day bison, survived the late Pleistocene period, between about 12 and 11 ka ago. Clovis peoples depended on these bison as their major food source. Earlier kills of camels, horses, and muskoxen found at Wally's beach were dated to 13.1–13.3 ka B.P.

South America

A large number of megafauna in South and North America went extinct during the Pleistocene. In North America, about 70% of mammals weighing about 44 kg went extinct during the time period of 13 -12 k cal BP. During this period there was a major cooling event called the Younger dryas and the Clovis culture of capturing game became more prominent. Diverse factors such as climate change may have triggered this extinctions but its still in debate what the major factors were.

The South American land mammal age Lujanian corresponds with the late Pleistocene.

Oceania

There is evidence of human habitation in mainland Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea and Tasmania from c. 45,000 BC. The finds include rock engravings, stone tools and evidence of cave habitation.


This page was last updated at 2024-03-19 23:54 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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