PLIOCENE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Pliocene mean? 

• PLIOCENE (noun)
  The noun PLIOCENE has 1 sense:

1. from 13 million to 2 million years ago; growth of mountains; cooling of climate; more and larger mammals

  Familiarity information: PLIOCENE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLIOCENE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

From 13 million to 2 million years ago; growth of mountains; cooling of climate; more and larger mammals

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Pliocene; Pliocene epoch

Instance hypernyms:

epoch (a unit of geological time that is a subdivision of a period and is itself divided into ages)

Holonyms ("Pliocene" is a part of...):

Tertiary; Tertiary period (from 63 million to 2 million years ago)

 Context examples 

An epoch of the early Tertiary period, found in-between the Oligocene and the Pliocene eras.

(Miocene epoch, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

"This is a game changer in our understanding of human evolution during the Pliocene (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago)," said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator, Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

(3.8-million-year-old fossil cranium unveils more about human ancestry, National Science Foundation)