​20E: A Timeline
Late Pleistocene Significant Events

​By Thomas Thurman
​

​Source: 
A Warm Thermal Enclave in the Late Pleistocene of the South-eastern United States; Dale A. Russell, Frederick J. Rich, Vincent Schneider and Jen Lynch-Stieglitz; Biological Review, 2009, Cambridge Philosophical Society

2,700,000                    
Onset of significant Northern Hemisphere glaciation

1,350,000                      
Mammoths (Mammuthus) appear in North America; about 40 glacial cycles ago

210,000 to 160,000    
First appearance of the genus Bison south of 55 degrees North in    North America; about 2 glacial cycles ago. (Added by author: At about 200,000 years ago our species emerged.

130,000                          
Illinoian glacial interval ends, Sangamonian interglacial interval begins. (Glacial retreat)

118,000                           
Wisconsinan glacial interval begins (Glacial advance)

23,000 to 19,000       
Last Glacial Maximum

19,000                              
Abrupt 10 meter rise in sea levels due to glacial melting. Humans possibly present in Southeastern United States

14,500                               
Bølling-Allerød warming begins abruptly, onset of rapid glacial retreat,  (sea levels quickly rose by more than 100 meters or 328 feet); oldest credible evidence of humans in Florida; establishment of semi-permanent human settlements in the Near East.

13,400                             
Clovis hunters present in mid-latitude North America

12,800                              
Younger Dryas cooling event abruptly begins.

12,750                               
Extinction of megafauna essentially complete in mid-latitude North America.

12,000                             
Beringian isthmus flooded. (This is the Bering Sea land bridge between Alaska and Asia; now flooded it prevents further pedestrian access to North America from Asia) 

​11,570                             
​Younger Dryas cooling abruptly ends. Wisconsinan glacial interval ends, end of “Ice Age”