Pleistocene megafauna megafauna which are now extinct: giant lizards ("Gallotia goliath"), giant rats ("Canariomys bravoi" and "Canariomys tamarani") and giant tortoises ("Geochelone burchardi" and "Geochelone vulcanica"), among others. Pleistocene megafauna Pleistocene megafauna is the set of large animals that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch and became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event. Megafauna is a term used to describe animals with an adult body weight of over 44 kg (97 lbs). The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the 'Ice Age', spanned 125,000 to 14,500 years ago and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age
Plio-Pleistocene Plio-Pleistocene The term Plio-Pleistocene refers to an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5 mya to about 12 kya. Nominally, the Holocene epoch—the last 12 thousand years—would be excluded, but most Earth scientists would probably treat the current times as incorporated into the term "Plio-Pleistocene"; see below. In the contexts of archaeology, paleontology, and paleoanthropology, the Plio-Pleistocene is a very useful period to which scientists may assign the long and continuous run in East Africa of datable