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An artist's impression of the last glacial period at glacial maximum [4]. The LGP is often colloquially referred to as the "last ice age", though the term ice age is not strictly defined, and on a longer geological perspective, the last few million years could be termed a single ice age given the continual presence of ice sheets near both poles.
At the end of the last ice age, cold-blooded animals, smaller mammals like wood mice, migratory birds, and swifter animals like whitetail deer had replaced the megafauna and migrated north. Late Pleistocene bighorn sheep were more slender and had longer legs than their descendants today. Scientists believe that the change in predator fauna ...
During the Last Glacial Maximum, much of the world was cold, dry, and inhospitable, with frequent storms and a dust-laden atmosphere. The dustiness of the atmosphere is a prominent feature in ice cores; dust levels were as much as 20 to 25 times greater than they are in the present.
To geologists, an ice age is defined by the presence of large amounts of land-based ice. Prior to the Quaternary glaciation, land-based ice formed during at least four earlier geologic periods: the late Paleozoic (360–260 Ma), Andean-Saharan (450–420 Ma), Cryogenian (720–635 Ma) and Huronian (2,400–2,100 Ma). [5] [6]
Late Cenozoic Ice Age, the geologic period of the last 33.9 million years Little Ice Age , a period of relative cold in certain regions from roughly 1450–1480 Pleistocene , a geologic epoch, often colloquially referred to as the "Ice Age", that includes the world's most recent repeated glaciations (2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago)
This area was covered by an ice field during the last ice age, and preliminary data from Hall’s research suggest the ice had collapsed back to its center by around 18,000 years ago.
The most obvious change associated with the termination of an ice age is the increase in temperature. Between 15,000 BP and 10,000 BP, a 6 °C increase in global mean annual temperatures occurred. This was generally thought to be the cause of the extinctions.
Prehistoric people occupied the site toward the end of the last ice age, and temperatures would have been 5 to 7 degrees Celsius colder than they are today, Pelton said.