The Middle Pleistocene, more specifically referred to as the Ionian stage, is a period of geologic time from ca. 781 to 126 thousand years ago.
The base of the Ionian Stage succeeds the Calabrian Stage (the beginning of the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal) and precedes the Tyrrhenian Stage or Upper Pleistocene, which in turn spans from the beginning of the last interglacial (Marine isotopic stage 5) to the base of the Holocene (~10.5 ka).
Although experts are not yet in agreement on how to subdivide the stages of the Pleistocene epoch, a possible international consensus on one subdivision of the Pleistocene epoch called the Ionian Stage exists. The Ionian stage includes all of the European Sicilian Stage and the first part of the Tyrrhenian Stage.
Read more about Middle Pleistocene: Origin, Faunal Stages
Famous quotes containing the word middle:
“Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men’s faces or their humors do.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)