Northgrippian

The Northgrippian is an important time period in Earth's history. It is the middle part of the Holocene Epoch, which is the current geological time period in which we live today. The Northgrippian was officially recognized in June 2018 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, along with two other periods called the Greenlandian and the Meghalayan.

This period gets its name from the North Greenland Ice Core Project, a major scientific effort to study ice from Greenland. The Northgrippian began around 8,276 years ago, close to a big climate change event known as the 8.2-kiloyear event. It ended when the Meghalayan period began, around 4,200 years ago, near another climate event called the 4.2-kiloyear event. Studying these periods helps scientists understand how Earth’s climate has changed over time.

Stratotype

The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) that marks the start of the Northgrippian age is an ice core taken from near central Greenland by the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NorthGRIP or NGRIP). This ice core comes from a drill site at 75°06′N, 42°19′W and shows a big drop in temperature that happened around 8,200 years ago.

Climate

After a cooler period, the Earth's climate warmed up again and reached its highest temperatures during the Holocene. This warm time was called the Holocene climatic optimum. There were some small changes in weather during this time.

Around the year 2250 BC, the climate got cooler for a short time. This cooler period marked the end of the Northgrippian and the start of the Meghalayan Age. During the warm period, there were changes in wind patterns and rain, and the polar ice caps were smaller than at any other time in the Holocene.

Main article: Holocene climatic optimum

Further information: Meghalayan Age

Paleofauna

The giant ground sloth, Megatherium americanum, was one of the largest known land mammals. It weighed up to 4 tons and measured up to 6 meters from head to tail. It lived in Argentina before going extinct around 5370 BC. Another large animal was the deer called Megaloceros giganteus, which became extinct in the Urals and western Siberia around 4866 BC.

Prehistory

The Northgrippian was a time when many parts of the world began to change from hunting and gathering to farming and raising animals. This shift marked the start of what is called the Neolithic period, a big step in how people lived. Only a few places invented farming on their own, and from there, these new ways of living spread to other areas. By the end of this period, most of Eurasia had moved on from hunting and gathering to more settled ways of life.