Late Pleistocene

The Late Pleistocene is a geochronological age of the Pleistocene Epoch and is associated with Upper Pleistocene or Tarantian stage Pleistocene series rocks. The beginning of the stage is defined by the base of the Eemian interglacial phase before the final glacial episode of the Pleistocene 126,000 ± 5,000 years ago. The end of the age is defined as 11,700 calendar years b2k (before AD 2000).^[1] The age represents the end of the Pleistocene epoch and is followed by the Holocene epoch.

Much of the Late Pleistocene age was dominated by glaciation (the Wisconsin glaciation in North America and corresponding glacial periods in Eurasia). Many megafauna became extinct over this age, a trend that continued into the Holocene. Also, human species other than modern humans died out during the Pleistocene. Humanity spread to every continent except for Antarctica during the Late Pleistocene.

North America

According to internationally renowned archaeologist George Carr Frison, Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus, an extinct subspecies of the smaller present-day bison, survived the Late Pleistocene period, between about 12,000 and 11,000 years ago. Plains and Rocky Mountain First Nations depended on these bison as their major food source.^{[2][Notes 1]}

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Paleoclimatology stages

• Younger Dryas
• Allerød
• Older Dryas
• Bølling
• Oldest Dryas

North American Land Mammal Ages within the Late Pleistocene: Rancholabrean age 0.3 Ma. Upper boundary 0.011 Ma.