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Pliocene

Pliocene

1 9.9
A time about 5 to 2 million years ago when the climate became cooler and mammals spread
  • noun
  • /ˈplaɪoʊsiːn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : plioceno
  • These were some of the mammals we had in the Pliocene era, Sabre tooth tiger and the woolly mammoth.

Examples

  • This scale stands in stark contrast with that of the Earth, which had entered a Pliocene climate in half a millennium, as the narrator tells us right after the journal (187).

    Academic text (2018)
  • But it'd be worth reading a couple papers on the Pliocene to see to what extent they if you just Google Pliocene climate, you can quickly.

  • 4. Back to the early Pliocene!

    Blog text (33)
  • Prepare to adapt to Pliocene-like conditions or warmer.

    Blog text (34)
  • There's the old Pliocene cliffs, but they're a long, long way from the coast now.

  • This phase lag is adjusted during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene from 5 to 15 kyr from 3.0 to 1.5 to represent the increasing ice mass during this interval.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The team demonstrated that only a relatively small rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) was associated with a period of substantial warming in the mid- and early-Pliocene era, between three to five million years ago, when temperatures were approximately 3 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer than they are today.

    Blog text (4)
  • They are not hiding out in literal islands, but inhabit ecological equivalents of islands—patches of the once great Pliocene savanna.

    Academic text (1993)
  • The discovery of new fossils in Idaho dates back to the Pliocene epoch, revealing significant insights into ancient ecosystems.

  • During the Pliocene, many new species of mammals emerged as the climate began to cool.

Synonyms

Pliocene epoch
vsPliocene
  • Specialized
9.6

A period about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago when the climate cooled, mountains rose, and mammals spread

has identical meaning but is the shorter form without the noun epoch

Compounds

Pliocene epoch
  • Specialized
9.6

A period about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago when the climate cooled, mountains rose, and mammals spread

How Old

Paleocene
  • Specialized
1 9.9
Eocene epoch
  • Specialized
9.9
Oligocene
  • Specialized
9.9
Miocene
  • Specialized
1 9.9
Pliocene
  • Specialized
1 9.9
Pleistocene
  • Specialized
1 9.9
Holocene
  • Specialized
1 9.1

Surface Forms

Pliocene singular
Pliocenes plural

Morphology

Pliocene = plio + cene

The word is formed from technical combining forms (plio- + -cene) that are not standalone English words and whose meanings are specialized geological terms, so the composition is not predictable for an average learner.

Etymology

Pliocene comes from Greek roots plio- meaning 'more' and -cene from a word meaning 'new'. So Pliocene literally means 'more new' and is a way to remember it is the geologic time a little more recent than the Miocene, about 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago.