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35-734: The core of the Cromerian is the first half of the Middle Pleistocene stage (Ionian) approximately 800-500 ka ago, just before the Anglian glaciation . In terms of Marine isotope stages (MIS) this corresponds to MIS 19 to MIS 13. Some authors instead put the start at MIS 22, corresponding to a start 900 ka ago, which includes the last 100 ka of the Calabrian stage , after the Beestonian Stage . Some sources today correlate

70-686: A British geologist and palaeontologist , discovered 1.5 million-year-old prehistoric human teeth and part of a jaw indicating that ancient people , intelligent hominins dating as far back as 1,500,000 ybp Acheulean period, lived in the Pinjore region near Chandigarh . Quartzite tools of the lower Paleolithic period were excavated in this region extending from Pinjore in Haryana to Nalagarh ( Solan district in Himachal Pradesh). The lands of Gujarat has been continuously inhabited from

105-799: A number of other new varieties, such as Homo rhodesiensis and Homo cepranensis about 400,000 years ago. Homo heidelbergensis is a candidate for first developing an early form of symbolic language . Whether control of fire and earliest burials date to this period or only appear during the Middle Paleolithic is an open question. Also, in Europe, a type of human appeared that was intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens , sometimes summarized under archaic Homo sapiens , typified by such fossils as those found at Swanscombe , Steinheim , Tautavel , and Vertesszollos ( Homo palaeohungaricus ). The hand-axe tradition originates in

140-560: Is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy , being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. The Chibanian name was officially ratified in January 2020. It is currently estimated to span the time between 0.770 Ma (770,000 years ago) and 0.129 Ma (129,000 years ago), also expressed as 770–126 ka. It includes the transition in palaeoanthropology from

175-525: Is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the Balkans to appear relatively densely in southeast Asia . Many Mousterian finds in the Middle Paleolithic have been knapped using a Levallois technique, suggesting that Neanderthals evolved from Homo erectus (or, perhaps, Homo heidelbergensis ; see below). Monte Poggiolo , near Forlì , Italy,

210-567: Is roughly 700,000 years old. In Europe, the Olduwan tradition (known in Europe as Abbevillian ) split into two parallel traditions, the Clactonian , a flake tradition, and the Acheulean , a hand-axe tradition. The Levallois technique for knapping flint developed during this time. The carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly Homo erectus . This type of human

245-538: Is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age . It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record , until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan ("mode 1") and Acheulean ("mode 2") lithics industries. In African archaeology, the time period roughly corresponds to

280-595: Is the location of an Acheulian littoral handaxe industry dating from 1.8 to 1.1 million years ago. The advent of technology and both verbal and non-verbal communication due to transition to group hunting and gathering resulted in the expansion of the parts of the brain associated with these, as well as greater cognition due to it being interlinked with the two. Later, behavioral adaptations to further social life, uncertain food distribution (resulting in need to find and secure food and remember where it could be found) and ecological changes brought about by Homo led to

315-564: The Early Stone Age , the earliest finds dating back to 3.3 million years ago, with Lomekwian stone tool technology, spanning Mode 1 stone tool technology, which begins roughly 2.6 million years ago and ends between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago, with Mode 2 technology. The Middle Paleolithic followed the Lower Paleolithic and recorded the appearance of the more advanced prepared-core tool-making technologies such as

350-618: The Elster glaciation to MIS 10 instead of MIS 12, while keeping the Cromerian running up to the start of the Elsterian. The result is an end to the Cromerian stage in continental Europe at the end of MIS 11 (400 ka ago), and that the continental Cromerian continues beyond its end in Britain and Ireland and runs in parallel to the Anglian and Hoxnian Stages (MIS 12-11). In the Alpine region

385-781: The Lower to the Middle Paleolithic over 300 ka. The Chibanian is preceded by the Calabrian and succeeded by the proposed Tarantian . The beginning of the Chibanian is the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal , when the Earth's magnetic field last underwent reversal. Its end roughly coincides with the termination of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the onset of the Last Interglacial period (corresponding to

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420-584: The Mid-Pleistocene Transition had changed the glacial cycles from an average 41,000 year periodicity present during most of the Early Pleistocene to a 100,000 year periodicity, with the glacial cycles becoming asymmetric, having long glacial periods punctuated by short warm interglacial periods. Millennial-scale climatic variability continued to be highly sensitive to precession and obliquity cycles. In central Italy,

455-556: The Mousterian . Whether the earliest control of fire by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question. The Lower Paleolithic began with the appearance of the first stone tools in the world. Formerly associated with the emergence of Homo habilis , some 2.8 million years ago, this date has been pushed back significantly by finds of the early 2000s, the Oldowan or Mode 1 horizon, long considered

490-615: The West Runton Mammoth skeleton was found, the best example of the species Mammuthus trogontherii to be unearthed so far. A significant fossil site, with animal remains dating about 600,000 years ago, is the Mosbach Sands in Germany, named after an abandoned village near Wiesbaden , Germany. Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian , more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name),

525-685: The marrow . The move from the mostly frugivorous or omnivorous diet of hominin Australopithecus to the carnivorous scavenging lifestyle of early Homo has been explained by the climate changes in East Africa associated with the Quaternary glaciation . Decreasing oceanic evaporation produced a drier climate and the expansion of the savannah at the expense of forests. Reduced availability of fruits stimulated some proto- australopithecines to search out new food sources found in

560-527: The notoungulate family Mesotheriidae , Mesotherium , has its last records around 220,000 years ago, leaving Toxodontidae as the sole family of notoungulates to persist into the Late Pleistocene. During the late Middle Pleistocene, around 195,000-135,000 years ago, the steppe bison (the ancestor of the modern American bison ) migrated across the Bering land bridge into North America, marking

595-614: The Americas into the Late Pleistocene. There was a major extinction of carnivorous mammals in Europe around the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition, including the giant hyena Pachycrocuta . The mid-late Middle Pleistocene saw the emergence of the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ), and its replacement of Mammuthus trogontherii , with the replacement of M. trogontherii in Europe by woolly mammoths being complete by around 200,000 years ago. The last member of

630-489: The Cromerian complex have become quite confusing. Great potential for a full breakdown has been provided by the extensive, continental series at Gorleben . Based on a lack of glacial evidence in Western Europe for the Middle Pleistocene (Ionian) before the Anglian glaciation , the Cromerian was originally thought to be a period without major glaciations. However, there is evidence for ice-rafting of material across

665-779: The Middle Pleistocene by an Ionian Age based on strata found in Italy. In November 2017, however, the Chibanian (based on strata at a site in Chiba Prefecture , Japan) replaced the Ionian as the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy's preferred GSSP proposal for the age that should replace the Middle Pleistocene sub-epoch. The "Chibanian" name was ratified by the IUGS in January 2020. By early Middle Pleistocene,

700-555: The Middle Pleistocene, around 430,000 years ago. This is the oldest found, as of 2016 . After analyzing 2,496 remains of Castor fiber (Eurasian beaver) and Trogontherium cuvieri found at Bilzingsleben in Germany, a team of scientists concluded that, around 400 ka, hominids in the area hunted and exploited beavers . They may have been targeted for their meat (based on cut marks on the bones) and skin. Lower Paleolithic Fertile Crescent : Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic )

735-567: The North Sea from this period. Investigations in the 1950s of oxygene isotopes in deep sea core samples revealed five glacial cycles during MIS 22 - MIS 13. The Mid-Pleistocene Transition to the 100,000 year glacial cycle became established during the Cromerian. Four of the glaciations (MIS 22, MIS 20, MIS 18, MIS 14) were moderate, probably involving low-land glaciation in Scandinavia, but not spreading to England and northern Germany. One of

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770-649: The Pleistocene (the Gelasian), and fall into the late Pliocene (the Piacenzian ). The early members of the genus Homo produced primitive tools, summarized under the Oldowan industry, which remained dominant for nearly a million years, from about 2.5 to 1.7 million years ago. Homo habilis is assumed to have lived primarily on scavenging , using tools to cleave meat off carrion or to break bones to extract

805-654: The beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 5 ). The term Middle Pleistocene was in use as a provisional or "quasi-formal" designation by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). While the three lowest ages of the Pleistocene, the Gelasian , Calabrian and Chibanian have been officially defined, the Late Pleistocene has yet to be formally defined. The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) had previously proposed replacement of

840-508: The beginning of the Rancholabrean faunal stage. Around 500,000 years ago, the last members of the largely European aquatic frog genus Palaeobatrachus and by extension the family Palaeobatrachidae became extinct. The Chibanian includes the transition in palaeoanthropology from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic : i.e., the emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens between 300 ka and 400 ka. The oldest known human DNA dates to

875-548: The climate became noticeably more arid from 600 ka to 400 ka. The late Middle Pleistocene was a time of regional aridification in the Levant , with a shallow lake covering what is now the Shishan Marsh drying and developing into a marsh. Eastern Africa's hydroclimate was governed primarily by orbital precession, although modulated significantly by the 100 kyr eccentricity cycle. Along the northwestern Australian coast,

910-853: The corresponding stage is called Günz . The Cromerian had been equated to the Aftonian in North America . However, the Aftonian, along with the Yarmouthian (Yarmouth) , Kansan , and Nebraskan, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian . At this time, the Cromerian is correlated with the period of time, which includes the Pre-Illinoian C, Pre-Illinoian D, and Pre-Illinoian E glaciations of North America. Proposals for structuring

945-452: The drier savannah ecology. Derek Bickerton (2009) has designated to this period the move from simple animal communication systems found in all great apes to the earliest form of symbolic communication systems capable of displacement (referring to items not currently within sensory perception) and motivated by the need to "recruit" group members for scavenging large carcasses. Homo erectus appeared by about 1.8 million years ago, via

980-580: The further expansion of the brain in the areas of problem-solving, memory etc., ultimately leading to the great behavioral flexibility, highly efficient communication, and ecological dominance of humanity. The biological pre-adaptations of the great apes and earlier primates allowed the brain to expand threefold within just 2 to 2.3 million years of the Pleistocene , in response to increasingly complex societies and changing habitats. The appearance of Homo heidelbergensis about 600,000 years ago heralds

1015-571: The glaciations, Marine Isotope Stage 16 (MIS 16), is globally as strong as the most recent glaciations, MIS 6 (main Saale ) and MIS 2 ( Weichsel/Devensian ). There is plenty of evidence in Russia for a major glaciation during this stage, which is called the Don Glaciation and believed to correspond to MIS 16. It is not clear why western Europe seems so unaffected by this major glacial. In 1990

1050-674: The intensification of the Leeuwin Current resulted in an expansion of reefs coincident with the Great Barrier Reef's formation. The Early-Middle Pleistocene boundary saw the migration of true horses out of North America and into Eurasia. Also around this time, the European mammoth species Mammuthus meridionalis became extinct and was replaced by the Asian species Mammuthus trogontherii (the steppe mammoth). This

1085-500: The oldest type of lithic industry, is now considered to have developed from about 2.6 million years ago, with the beginning Gelasian ( Lower Pleistocene ), possibly first used by australopithecine forebears of the genus Homo (such as Australopithecus garhi ). However, even older tools were later discovered at the single site of Lomekwi 3 in Kenya , in 2015, dated to as early as 3.3 million years ago. As such, they would predate

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1120-499: The ranks of omnivorous predators (and possibly became hypercarnivores before Homo sapiens again transformed into hypocarnivores ). As active hunters, they came in opposition to other, quadruped predators and started living in large groups. Homo erectus migrated out of Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. Stone tools in Malaysia have been dated to be 1.83 million years old. The Peking Man fossil, discovered in 1929,

1155-966: The same period. The intermediate may have been Homo heidelbergensis , held responsible for the manufacture of improved Mode 2 Acheulean tool types, in Africa, after 600,000 years ago. Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however, spread to a different range in the east. It appears in Arabia and India , but more importantly, it does not appear in southeast Asia. From about 300,000 years ago, technology, social structures and behaviour appear to grow more complex, with prepared-core technique lithics, earliest instances of burial and changes to hunting-gathering patterns of subsistence. Homo sapiens first appeared about 300,000 years ago, as evidenced by fossils found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. Guy Ellcock Pilgrim ,

1190-583: The transitional variety Homo ergaster . Homo erectus moved from scavenging to hunting , developing the hunting-gathering lifestyle that would remain dominant throughout the Paleolithic into the Mesolithic . The unlocking of the new niche of hunting-gathering subsistence drove a number of further behavioral and physiological changes leading to the appearance of Homo heidelbergensis by some 800,000-600,000 years ago. As such, Homo rose to

1225-522: Was coincident with the migration of the elephant genus Palaeoloxodon out of Africa and into Eurasia, including the first appearance of species like the European straight-tusked elephant ( Palaeoloxodon antiquus ). With the extinction of Sinomastodon in East Asia at the Early-Middle Pleistocene boundary, gomphotheres became completely extinct in Afro-Eurasia, but continued to persist in

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