Editing Paleolithic (section)

== Paleogeography and climate ==
{{Main|Pleistocene#Paleogeography and climate|Pliocene climate|Pliocene#Paleogeography}}
{{Human timeline}}
[[File:Homo heidelbergensis. Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|A skull of early ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'', [[Miguelón]] from the [[Lower Paleolithic]] dated to 430,000&nbsp;BP.]]
[[File:20191021 Temperature from 20,000 to 10,000 years ago - recovery from ice age.png|thumb|290px |right |Temperature rise in Antarctica marking the end of the Paleolithic, as derived from ice core data.]]
<!--[[File:AntarcticaDomeCSnow.jpg|thumb|left|The Paleolithic climate consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods.]]-->
The Paleolithic overlaps with the [[Pleistocene]] epoch of geologic time. Both ended 12,000 years ago although the Pleistocene started 2.6&nbsp;million years ago, 700,000 years after the Paleolithic's start.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/pleistocene.php |title=The Pleistocene Epoch |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824111711/http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/pleistocene.php |archive-date=24 August 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies.

During the preceding [[Pliocene]], continents had continued to [[plate tectonics|drift]] from possibly as far as {{cvt|250|km|lk=on|abbr=off}} from their present locations to positions only {{cvt|70|km}} from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the [[Isthmus of Panama]], bringing a nearly complete end to South America's distinctive [[marsupial]] fauna. The formation of the isthmus had major consequences on global temperatures, because warm [[equator]]ial ocean currents were cut off, and the cold Arctic and Antarctic waters lowered temperatures in the now-isolated Atlantic Ocean.

Most of [[Central America]] formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas.<ref name=UCMPPliocene>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/pli.html |title=University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pliocene epoch |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=31 January 2010}}</ref> Africa's collision with Asia created the Mediterranean, cutting off the remnants of the [[Tethys Ocean]]. During the [[Pleistocene]], the [[continent]]s were essentially at their modern positions; the [[tectonic plate]]s on which they sit have probably moved at most {{cvt|100|km}} from each other since the beginning of the period.<ref name=Scotese>{{cite web|url=http://www.scotese.com/lastice.htm |first=Christopher |last=Scotese |title=Paleomap project |access-date=23 March 2008 |work=The Earth has been in an Ice House Climate for the last 30 million years |author-link=Christopher Scotese}}</ref>

Climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. [[Ice sheet]]s grew on [[Antarctica]]. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3&nbsp;million years ago is signaled by an abrupt shift in [[oxygen]] [[isotope]] ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North [[Pacific Ocean]] beds.<ref name="Andel">{{cite book|last=Van Andel |first=Tjeerd H. |title=New Views on an Old Planet: A History of Global Change |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1994 |location=Cambridge |page=[https://archive.org/details/newviewsonoldpla00vana/page/454 454] |isbn=978-0-521-44243-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/newviewsonoldpla00vana/page/454}}</ref> Mid-latitude [[glacier|glaciation]] probably began before the end of the epoch. The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of [[grassland]]s and [[savanna]]s.<ref name=UCMPPliocene/>

The [[Pleistocene]] climate was characterized by repeated glacial cycles during which [[continental glacier]]s pushed to the 40th [[parallel (latitude)|parallel]] in some places. Four major glacial events have been identified, as well as many minor intervening events. A major event is a general glacial excursion, termed a "glacial". Glacials are separated by "interglacials". During a glacial, the glacier experiences minor advances and retreats. The minor excursion is a "stadial"; times between stadials are "interstadials". Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets {{cvt|1500–3000|m|ft|lk=on|abbr=off}} deep, resulting in temporary sea level drops of {{cvt|100|m}} or more over the entire surface of the Earth. During interglacial times, drowned coastlines were common, mitigated by isostatic or other emergent motion of some regions.
[[File:Ice age fauna of northern Spain - Mauricio Antón.jpg|thumb|left|Many giant mammals such as [[woolly mammoth]]s, [[woolly rhinoceros]]es, and [[Panthera leo fossilis|cave lions]] inhabited the [[mammoth steppe]] during the Pleistocene.|253x253px]]
The effects of glaciation were global. [[Antarctica]] was ice-bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene. The [[Andes]] were covered in the south by the [[Patagonia]]n ice cap. There were glaciers in New Zealand and [[Tasmania]]. The decaying glaciers of [[Mount Kenya]], [[Mount Kilimanjaro]], and the [[Ruwenzori Range]] in east and central Africa were larger. Glaciers existed in the mountains of [[Ethiopia]] and to the west in the [[Atlas Mountains]]. In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one. The [[Cordilleran Ice Sheet]] covered the North American northwest; the [[Laurentide]] covered the east. The Fenno-Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps. Scattered domes stretched across [[Siberia]] and the Arctic shelf. The northern seas were frozen. During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) {{c.|18,000}}&nbsp;BP, the [[Beringia]] land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice,<ref name=Scotese/> which [[Clovis culture#Evidence of human habitation before Clovis|may have prevented]] early [[Paleo-Indian]]s such as the [[Clovis culture]] from directly crossing [[Beringia]] to reach the Americas.

According to [[Mark Lynas]] (through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous [[El Niño]] with [[trade winds]] in the south [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] weakening or heading east, warm air rising near [[Peru]], warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the [[Indian Ocean]] to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers.<ref>{{cite AV media|publisher=[[National Geographic Channel]] |title=Six Degrees Could Change The World Mark Lynas interview <!--|access-date=14 February 2008-->}}</ref>

The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer. This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the [[Pleistocene megafauna]], although it is also possible that the late [[Quaternary extinction event|Pleistocene extinctions]] were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/ple.html |title=University of California Museum of Paleontology website the Pleistocene epoch(accessed March 25) |publisher=[[University of California Museum of Paleontology]] |access-date=31 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207061412/http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/quaternary/ple.html |archive-date=7 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Johnson>{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080401-mammoth-extinction.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405041532/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080401-mammoth-extinction.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 5, 2008 |first=Kimberly |last=Johnson |work=[[National Geographic]] news |access-date=4 April 2008 |title=Climate Change, Then Humans, Drove Mammoths Extinct from National Geographic}}</ref> New research suggests that the extinction of the [[woolly mammoth]] may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting.<ref name=Johnson/> Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink, resulting in a drop in population. The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans.<ref name=Johnson/> The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the [[Holocene]] may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible.<ref name=Johnson/> Small populations of woolly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, [[Saint Paul Island (Alaska)|Saint Paul Island]] and [[Wrangel Island]], until {{c.|3700}}&nbsp;BP and {{c.|1700|lk=no}}&nbsp;BP respectively. The Wrangel Island population became extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Walker's Mammals of the World |url=https://archive.org/details/walkersmammalsof0001nowa |url-access=registration |last=Nowak |first=Ronald M. |year=1999 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=Baltimore |isbn=978-0-8018-5789-8}}</ref> There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BP were found on the nearby [[Aleutian Islands]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~wsoon/HoloceneClimate+Optimum10-d/Enketal09-midHoloceneMammothStPaulIslandAlaska.pdf |title=Phylogeographic Analysis of the mid-Holocene Mammoth from Qagnax Cave, St. Paul Island, Alaska |publisher=[[Harvard University]]}}{{Dead link|date=February 2025}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center;"
|+ Classifications of Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes<ref>{{cite book|last=Gamble |first=Clive |date=1990 |title=El poblamiento Paleolítico de Europa |language=es |trans-title=The Paleolithic settlement of Europe |location=Barcelona |publisher=Editorial Crítica|isbn=84-7423-445-X}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
!Age <br />(before)!![[North America|America]]!![[Atlantic Europe]]!![[Maghreb]]!![[Mediterranean Europe]]!![[Central Europe]]
|-
|| 10,000 years ||Flandrian interglacial ||Flandriense ||''Mellahiense'' ||''Versiliense'' ||[[Flandrian interglacial]]
|-
| 80,000 years ||'''Wisconsin''' || '''Devensiense'''||Regresión || Regresión||'''[[Wisconsin glaciation|Wisconsin Stage]]'''
|-
|| 140,000 years ||Sangamoniense ||Ipswichiense ||''Ouljiense'' ||''Tirreniense II y III'' ||[[Eemian Stage]]
|-
|| 200,000 years ||'''Illinois''' ||'''Wolstoniense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Wolstonian Stage]]'''
|-
|| 450,000 years ||Yarmouthiense ||Hoxniense ||''Anfatiense'' ||''Tirreniense I'' ||[[Hoxnian Stage]]
|-
| 580,000 years ||'''Kansas''' ||'''Angliense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Kansan glaciation|Kansan Stage]]'''
|-
|| 750,000 years ||Aftoniense ||Cromeriense ||''Maarifiense'' ||''Siciliense'' ||[[Cromer Forest Bed|Cromerian Complex]]
|-
|| 1,100,000 years ||'''Nebraska''' ||'''Beestoniense''' ||Regresión ||Regresión ||'''[[Beestonian stage]]'''
|-
|| 1,400,000 years ||interglacial ||Ludhamiense ||''Messaudiense'' ||''Calabriense'' ||Donau-Günz
|}