A Brief Overview of the Pliocene Epoch for Middle School Science Classes

Earth history is a fascinating topic! It is also a massive topic! The reading passage below will teach you all about the Pliocene epoch. If you want to learn more (and why wouldn't you?!), you can check out my Earth History page. I also have all of my passages available at Teachers Pay Teachers. They come with so many extras to get your students thinking about the content! I also recommend scrolling to the bottom of the page to check out my digital picture book on the Pliocene epoch!

More New

The Pliocene epoch was the last epoch in the Neogene period. Like the Miocene epoch, the Pliocene epoch was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Pliocene means “more new” because there were more modern sea animals living during the Pliocene epoch than the Miocene epoch.

Climate

The climate cooled during the Pliocene epoch, but it was still about seven degrees warmer than it is today. Antarctica completely froze, and an ice cap formed over the Arctic. Grasslands and savannas covered the globe. Deserts appeared in Africa and Asia. The equator held the remaining tropical rainforests on Earth.

Animals

As the climate cooled, some of the animals on Earth went extinct. Alligators and crocodiles disappeared from Europe during the Pliocene epoch. The last of the terror birds, large, carnivorous, flightless birds similar to dinosaurs, also died out. Other animals evolved. Woolly mammoths lived in Europe, Asia, and North America. The saber-toothed tiger roamed the plains of North and South America.

Isthmus of Panama

During the Pliocene epoch, the Caribbean plate shifted to the east, creating a land bridge between North America and South America. This land bridge still exists today. We call it the Isthmus of Panama. For the first time, animals could travel between the two continents. The stronger mammals of North America dominated the mammals of South America. Many of them went extinct.

Australopithecus

The first early human genus, Australopithecus, appeared during the Pliocene epoch. The oldest fossils of Australopithecus were found in East Africa. The fossils were between 3.85 and 2.95 million years old. There were five species within the Australopithecus genus, but they are all extinct now.

Australopithecus was one link between apes and humans. Australopithecines had faces like apes and spent time climbing trees. They could also walk upright like humans. Their brains were about one-third the size of human brains, and they were smaller than modern humans.

Lucy

The most famous Australopithecus was Lucy. Her fossil was discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia. She lived around 3.4 million years ago during the Pliocene epoch. Lucy was the first Australopithecus afarensis ever found, but over three hundred other individuals have been found since then. Many of them were much older than Lucy.

End of the Epoch

The Pliocene epoch ended as glaciers began to cover the globe. The much colder Pleistocene epoch followed the Pliocene epoch.

Pliocene Epoch Picture Book

Looking for another way to learn about the Pliocene epoch? Check out this picture book version. The pages are a part of my Earth History bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Earth History Homepage

Hadean Eon

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Paleozoic Era

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Carboniferous Period

Permian Period

Mesozoic Era

Triassic Period

Jurassic Period

Cretaceous Period

Cenozoic Era

Paleogene Period

Paleocene Epoch

Eocene Epoch

Oligocene Epoch

Neogene Period

Miocene Epoch

Pliocene Epoch

Quaternary Period

Pleistocene Epoch

Holocene Epoch