Einwilligung zur Nutzung.

Pleistocene (2,500,000 – 10,000 years ago)

For 2.5 million years, the Earth's climate has been subject to severe fluctuations. Irregularities in solar irradiation are assumed to be the cause. During a cold period, snow collects at the Earth's poles, and sea levels drop.

As the climate changes, so do plants and animals.

In warm periods, such as the one we are experiencing at present, our region is covered in mixed deciduous forest, which is replaced in cooler periods by loose coniferous forest (taiga). In periods of extreme cold, vegetation is reduced to that of a steppe (tundra).

Humans first reached central Europe around 600,000 years ago. They are thought to have belonged to the species Home erectus originating in Africa. Around 250,000 years ago, a form of human adapted to cold climates called Neanderthal evolved from them. Originating also in Africa, humans of our own species – Homo sapiens – arrived around 40,000 years ago.