Late Pleistocene
Final Pleistocene subepoch (~0.129–0.0117 Ma); its corresponding stage is not ratified.
Language and route: English ordinal adjective late + already established Pleistocene epoch name. English ordinal adjective late + already established Pleistocene epoch name. English positional term / inherited scientific epoch name.
Literal gloss: late part of the Pleistocene
The name and its history
No single original coiner; IUGS ratified formal rank on 30 January 2020 · formal rank ratified 30 January 2020 (not original word use)
- What does the word literally mean?
- late part of the Pleistocene
- What did the original author mean?
- Late means younger relative position, historically often connected to the last interglacial and glacial cycle, not a Greek-coded environmental event.
- Why was the name needed?
- European Eemian and other regional last-interglacial terminology did not provide a fully ratified global stage base.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Marine Isotope Stage 5 and the penultimate deglaciation provide an approximate age near 129 ka, but candidate GSSP sections remain under evaluation.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- The Upper/Late Pleistocene subepoch was formalised in January 2020 in NAME only; it remains distinct from any proposed but unratified Tarantian/Tarentian stage.
Further historical context
Late means younger relative position, historically often connected to the last interglacial and glacial cycle, not a Greek-coded environmental event.
European Eemian and other regional last-interglacial terminology did not provide a fully ratified global stage base.
Marine Isotope Stage 5 and the penultimate deglaciation provide an approximate age near 129 ka, but candidate GSSP sections remain under evaluation.
The Upper/Late Pleistocene subepoch was formalised in January 2020 in NAME only; it remains distinct from any proposed but unratified Tarantian/Tarentian stage.
Editorial qualification
30 January 2020 establishes formal rank, not first use of 'late'; time is Early/Late and strata are Lower/Upper. The Upper Pleistocene stage remains unnamed.
Related names
Middle Pleistocene · Pleistocene · Tarentian / Tarantian · Holocene
Sources
- ICS, International Chronostratigraphic Chart v2026/06 — Governing classification, chronological sequence and numerical reference ages; not naming priority
- Head et al. (2021), Formal ratification of Pleistocene subseries, Episodes — Documents January 2020 ratification of Lower and Upper Pleistocene subepochs and unratified Upper stage
- ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Major divisions — Institutional history of Quaternary stages, GSSPs, and reassignment of the Gelasian
- Negri et al. (2015), potential GSSP for Tarentian Stage, Quaternary International — Original 2015 Tarentian proposal contrasting earlier Tarantian spelling; not a ratified ICS unit
- ICS, International Stratigraphic Guide: Chronostratigraphic Units — Stage/age, series/epoch and subseries/subepoch distinctions