Calabrian (stage)

Calabrian is a subdivision of the Pleistocene Epoch of the geologic time scale, defined as ~1.8 Ma.—781,000 years ago ± 5,000 years, a period of ~1.019 million years.

The end of the stage is defined by the last magnetic pole reversal (781 ± 5 Ka) and plunge into an ice age and global drying possibly colder and drier than the late Miocene (Messinian) through early Pliocene (Zanclean) cold period. Originally the Calabrian was a European faunal stage primarily based on mollusk fossils. It has become the second geologic age in the Early Pleistocene. Many of the mammalian faunal assemblages of the Early Pleistocene start in the Gelasian. For example, the Platygonus and other Blancan fauna appear first in the Gelasian.