Pleistocene Epoch & Last Glacial Maximum

Quaternary epoch (2.58 Ma – 11.7 ka) of repeated Milankovitch glacial cycles, continental ice sheets, and hominin evolution.

Specifications & Metrics

type: Standard Stratigraphic Chronology
timespan: 2.58 Ma – 11,700 years BP (Gelasian, Calabrian, Chibanian, and Late Pleistocene ages)
defining boundary: Gauss–Matuyama magnetic reversal (2.58 Ma) to end of Younger Dryas in NGRIP2 ice core (11.7 ka)
proponents or Body: Charles Lyell (coined 1839); Louis Agassiz (Ice Age theory, 1837); Milutin Milanković
key evidence: Laurentide & Fennoscandian moraines, marine δ¹⁸O stage cycles, 120 m sea-level drop, Beringia

Coined by Charles Lyell in 1839 ('most new'), the Pleistocene spans from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago and encompasses repeated glacial–interglacial oscillations paced by 41,000-year obliquity and 100,000-year orbital eccentricity cycles.
At the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 years ago), ice sheets up to 3 km thick (including the Laurentide and Fennoscandian sheets) covered 30% of Earth's land area and locked up enough water to lower global sea levels by ~120 meters, exposing the Beringia and Doggerland land bridges.
The epoch saw the evolution and global dispersal of the genus Homo across Afro-Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, concluding with the Late Pleistocene extinction of most large terrestrial megafauna outside Africa.