Plio-Pleistocene

The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago 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 sedimentary layers and their contents. These contents collectively present a focused view of the continuous evolution of the region's large vertebrates, especially the evolution of some African apes to the earliest hominins; and then the development of the early humans and their toolmaking cultures.

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