Late Pleistocene
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) and succeeded by the officially ratified Greenlandian. The estimated beginning of the Tarantian is the start of the Eemian interglacial period (Marine Isotope Stage 5). It is held to end with the termination of the Younger Dryas, some 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began.
| Late/Upper Pleistocene | |||||||||
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| Chronology | |||||||||
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| Etymology | |||||||||
| Name formality | Informal | ||||||||
| Proposed name(s) | Tarantian | ||||||||
| Usage information | |||||||||
| Celestial body | Earth | ||||||||
| Regional usage | Global (ICS) | ||||||||
| Time scale(s) used | ICS Time Scale | ||||||||
| Definition | |||||||||
| Chronological unit | Age | ||||||||
| Stratigraphic unit | Stage | ||||||||
| Time span formality | Formal | ||||||||
| Lower boundary definition | Not formally defined | ||||||||
| Lower boundary definition candidates | Marine Isotope Substage 5e | ||||||||
| Lower boundary GSSP candidate section(s) | None | ||||||||
| Upper boundary definition | End of the Younger Dryas stadial | ||||||||
| Upper boundary GSSP | NGRIP2 ice core, Greenland 75.1000°N 42.3200°W | ||||||||
| Upper GSSP ratified | 14 June 2018 (as base of Greenlandian) | ||||||||
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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, along with consideration of a proposed Anthropocene sub-division of the Holocene.
The main feature of the late Pleistocene was glaciation, for example the Würm glaciation in the Alps of Europe, to 14 ka, and the subsequent Younger Dryas. Most of the world's large (megafaunal) animals became extinct during the Late Pleistocene as part of the Quaternary extinction event, a trend that continued into the Holocene. 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.