Last Ice Age
Cretaceous | Last Ice Age | 30,000 B.C.
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The Last Ice Age, referred to in technical terms as the Last Glacial Period and commonly called the Ice Age, is the most recent glacial period in Earth's history. It spans the later part of the Quaternary Period (a time period from 2.58 million years ago to the present day), starting from circa 115,000 years ago during the later part of the Pleistocene Epoch. The greatest extent of the glaciation came to an end around 11,500 years ago at around the beginning of the Holocene Epoch. As Earth in the present day still has glaciers on its surface in areas such as around mountains and in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, as well as the presence of ice caps on the poles, the Last Ice Age is ongoing, and the Earth is still in an icehouse climate.[1]
In the real world
- Following the Last Interglacial, the Ice Age begins. Considerable glaciation occurs, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, with ice sheets surging south across much of North America, Europe, and Asia. The Bering Strait is closed off due to global sea-level drops, forming a land bridge between Russia and Alaska which numerous kinds of animals from both continents cross, expanding their ranges.
- Alongside a large number of species of animals that are alive today, many varieties of famous megafauna roam the land, including the woolly and Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius and M. columbi, respectively) and the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), as well as mastodons (Mammut spp.), glyptodonts, and ground sloths; alongside them roam carnivores such as the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus), two species of saber-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis from North America and S. populator from South America), and terror birds. Multiple species of hominins live during this time as well, including Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens).
- Around 60,000 to 90,000 years ago, modern humans steadily expand their range out of Africa and across Eurasia. A population native to East Asia eventually reach the Americas by crossing the Bering Land Bridge around 16,500 years ago, becoming the ancestors of Native Americans.
- The Ice Age ends as global temperatures rise, causing ice sheets to recede and glaciers to melt, leaving behind much of the modern world's characteristics.
- The end of the Ice Age would also see the extinction of many of the megafauna and other mammals of the Ice Age. The causes are thought to be either the changing climate and environment, overkill hunting tactics employed on megafauna by early humans of the time, or possibly both. However, a wide variety of different species of animals and plants that evolved before or during the Ice Age period survive the end of the glaciation, including the modern world's most iconic charismatic mammalian megafauna, such as the big cats, the gray wolf (Canis lupus), elephants, bears and non-human great apes (chimpanzees (Pan spp.), gorillas (Gorilla spp.) and orangutans (Pongo spp.)).
- The Neanderthals, as well as a number of other hominin species such as the Denisovans, are rendered extinct around the end of the Ice Age, leaving Homo sapiens as the only extant australopithicene hominin. The reasons for this are unclear, but direct competition and climate change has been implicated as contributing factors.
- The Neanderthals may have vanished as a result of hybridization with anatomically modern humans rather than as a direct result of competition or hostility between the two species, as analysis of the human genome has found the presence of Neanderthal DNA, indicating that interbreeding occurred where both species co-existed.
In fiction
- The reptilian kaiju Gorosaurus and Anguirus rest, sealed away in ice. (Godzilla: Rulers of Earth)
- Shimo triggers the Ice Age. The Hollow Earth Iwi retain this knowledge on hieroglyphics. (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire)
References
This is a list of references for Last Ice Age. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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