Young Pleistocene

system	series	step	≈ age ( mya )
quaternary	Holocene	Meghalayum	0 ⬍ 0.012
		Northgrippium
		Greenlandium
	Pleistocene	Young Pleistocene (Tarantium)	0.012 ⬍ 0.126
		Middle Pleistocene (Ionian)	0.126 ⬍ 0.781
		Calabrium	0.781 ⬍ 1.806
		Gelasium	1,806 ⬍ 2,588
deeper	deeper	deeper	older

The Young Pleistocene (also Upper Pleistocene , Late Pleistocene or Tarantian ) is the youngest and at the same time shortest section of the Pleistocene , the age of changing warm and ice ages . It began 127,000 / 126,000 years ago and ended 11,784 (± 69) years ago with global warming, the Holocene , which continues to this day. The Young Pleistocene includes the Eem Warm Age and the Last Ice Age .

In terms of human history , the end of the New Pleistocene roughly coincides with the beginning of the Neolithic , the transition from hunter and gatherer cultures to settled farmers.

Naming and GSSP

The term is translated into English as "Late Pleistocene" or "Upper Pleistocene". A drilling at Amsterdam Airport (Netherlands) is being discussed as a “Global Stratotype Section and Point” ( GSSP roughly corresponds to a type profile), which completely covered this section of the earth's history. According to the plans of the " International Commission on Stratigraphy ", the stage is expected to be named Tarantium.

definition

The lower limit was defined by the INQUA Congress in 1932 with the beginning of the Eem warm period , which also coincides with the base of the marine oxygen isotope level 5e. The best age determination today is given by the warvated Lago Grande di Monticchio in southern Italy, with a dating of the Eem beginning at 127.2 ka BP .

The upper limit of the Young Pleistocene is marked by the end of the Younger Dryas with the transition to the Holocene.

Characteristic for the Young Pleistocene in Europe are the Weichsel / Würm glacial periods (here compared to the older Saale / Riss complex). The glacier advances were interrupted by warmer periods during which the archaic people of Europe (the Neanderthals as the successor to Homo heidelbergensis ) spread beyond the permafrost limit to the north and northeast. From around 40,000 BC. The modern Cro-Magnon humans colonized these areas.

The northern hemisphere during the New Pleistocene

The glaciation phase on the continents of the northern hemisphere following the Eem warm period is geographically differentiated into

Würm Ice Age for the glaciations in the area of the Alps and the Alpine foothills (approx. 115,000 to 10,000 years before today)

Vistula glacial period for the glaciation phase in Northern Europe (approx. 115,000 to 11,700 years ago)

Wisconsin Ice Age in North America

in the area of the British Isles the glaciation phase is called Devensian glaciation , the warm period before that as Ipswichian interglacial .

Fauna changes during the Young Pleistocene

The Young Pleistocene is characterized by the extinction of many large (mainly) mammal species , especially at the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. The Neanderthals also died out during this period. The New Pleistocene also saw the advance of anatomically modern humans on all continents with the exception of Antarctica. For prehistoric archeology , the more recent cultural sections of the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Palaeolithic as subdivisions of the Paleolithic fall in this period .

literature

Felix Gradstein, Jim Ogg, Jim & Alan Smith: A Geologic timescale. Cambridge University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-521-78673-7
Wighart von Koenigswald: Living Ice Age. Climate and fauna in transition. Theiss-Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1734-3

Web links

German Stratigraphic Commission (Ed.): Stratigraphische Tisch von Deutschland 2002 . Potsdam 2002, ISBN 3-00-010197-7 ( Online [PDF; 6.6 MB ; accessed on December 29, 2016]).
The Stratigraphic Table of Austria (sedimentary layer sequences) (PDF, 380 kB) , Commission for the paleontological and stratigraphic research of Austria of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Ed.), 2004
International Chronostratigraphic Chart 2012 (PDF)

Individual evidence

↑ First explanations on this are published in Episodes , Volume 31 (2)
^ Website of the "International Commission on Stratigraphy"
↑ Thomas Litt, Philip Gibbard: A proposed Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Upper (Late) Pleistocene Subseries (Quaternary System / Period). Episodes Vol. 31 No.2 (June 2008)
↑ Mike Walker et al., The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series / Epoch (Quaternary System / Period) in the NGRIP ice core. Episodes Vol. 31 No.2 (June 2008)

[1] First explanations on this are published in Episodes , Volume 31 (2)

[2] Website of the "International Commission on Stratigraphy"

[3] Thomas Litt, Philip Gibbard: A proposed Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Upper (Late) Pleistocene Subseries (Quaternary System / Period). Episodes Vol. 31 No.2 (June 2008)

[4] Mike Walker et al., The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Holocene Series / Epoch (Quaternary System / Period) in the NGRIP ice core. Episodes Vol. 31 No.2 (June 2008)