What was the last ice age on Earth

The Pleistocene era began about 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. At the end of this era, the last ice age to date has passed, when glaciers covered vast areas of the Earth's continents. Since the beginning of the Earth’s formation 4.6 billion years ago, at least five documented major ice ages have passed on it. The Pleistocene is the first era in which Homo sapiens evolved: by the end of the era, people settled almost throughout the planet. What was the last ice age?

World-sized ice rink

It was during the Pleistocene that the continents settled on Earth in the way we are used to. At some point in the ice age, ice sheets covered all of Antarctica, most of Europe, North and South America, as well as small areas of Asia. In North America, they extended across Greenland and Canada and parts of the northern United States. Remains of glaciers of this period can still be seen in some parts of the world, including Greenland and Antarctica. But the glaciers didn’t just “stand still”. Scientists note about 20 cycles when the glaciers advanced and retreated, when they melted and grew again.

In general, the climate then was much colder and drier than today. Since most of the water on the Earth’s surface was icy, there was little rainfall — about half as much as today. At peak periods, when most of the water was frozen, global average temperatures were 5 -10 ° C below today's temperature standards. However, winter and summer still succeeded each other. True, in those summer money you would not be able to sunbathe.

Life during the ice age

While Homo sapiens began to develop the brain in a difficult situation of eternal cold temperatures in order to survive, many vertebrates, especially large mammals, also courageously endured the harsh climatic conditions of this period. In addition to the well-known woolly mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths and mastodons roamed the Earth during this period. Although many vertebrates became extinct during this period, mammals lived on Earth in those years, which can be found today: including monkeys, cattle, deer, rabbits, kangaroos, bears, and members of the canine and cat family.

There were no dinosaurs, except for a few early birds, in the ice age: they became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, more than 60 million years before the Pleistocene era. But the birds themselves at that time felt good, including relatives of ducks, geese, hawks and eagles. The birds had to compete with mammals and other creatures for limited supplies of food and water, since much of it was frozen. Crocodiles, lizards, turtles, pythons and other reptiles also lived in the Pleistocene period.

The vegetation was worse: in many areas it was difficult to find dense forests. Often there were individual conifers, such as pines, cypress and yews, as well as some broadleaf trees, such as beech and oak.

Mass extinction

Unfortunately, about 13,000 years ago, more than three quarters of large animals of the ice age, including woolly mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and giant bears, became extinct. Scientists argue for many years about the reasons for their disappearance. There are two main hypotheses: human resourcefulness and climate change, but both cannot explain planet extinction.

Some researchers believe that here, like with dinosaurs, it could not do without extraterrestrial intervention: recent studies show that an extraterrestrial object, possibly a comet about 3-4 kilometers wide, could explode over southern Canada, almost destroying the ancient Stone Age culture, and also megafauna like mammoths and mastodons.

Based on materials from Livescience.com