<P> The effects of glaciation were global . Antarctica was ice - bound throughout the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene . The Andes were covered in the south by the Patagonian ice cap . There were glaciers in New Zealand and Tasmania . The now decaying glaciers of Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Ruwenzori Range in east and central Africa were larger . Glaciers existed in the mountains of Ethiopia and to the west in the Atlas mountains . In the northern hemisphere, many glaciers fused into one . The Cordilleran ice sheet covered the North American northwest; the Laurentide covered the east . The Fenno - Scandian ice sheet covered northern Europe, including Great Britain; the Alpine ice sheet covered the Alps . Scattered domes stretched across Siberia and the Arctic shelf . The northern seas were frozen . During the late Upper Paleolithic (Latest Pleistocene) c . 18,000 BP, the Beringia land bridge between Asia and North America was blocked by ice, which may have prevented early Paleo - Indians such as the Clovis culture from directly crossing Beringia to reach the Americas . </P> <P> According to Mark Lynas (through collected data), the Pleistocene's overall climate could be characterized as a continuous El Niño with trade winds in the south Pacific weakening or heading east, warm air rising near Peru, warm water spreading from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, and other El Niño markers . </P> <P> The Paleolithic is often held to finish at the end of the ice age (the end of the Pleistocene epoch), and Earth's climate became warmer . This may have caused or contributed to the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, although it is also possible that the late Pleistocene extinctions were (at least in part) caused by other factors such as disease and overhunting by humans . New research suggests that the extinction of the woolly mammoth may have been caused by the combined effect of climatic change and human hunting . Scientists suggest that climate change during the end of the Pleistocene caused the mammoths' habitat to shrink in size, resulting in a drop in population . The small populations were then hunted out by Paleolithic humans . The global warming that occurred during the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene may have made it easier for humans to reach mammoth habitats that were previously frozen and inaccessible . Small populations of wooly mammoths survived on isolated Arctic islands, Saint Paul Island and Wrangel Island, until c. 3700 BCE and c. 1700 BCE respectively . The Wrangel Island population became extinct around the same time the island was settled by prehistoric humans . There is no evidence of prehistoric human presence on Saint Paul island (though early human settlements dating as far back as 6500 BCE were found on the nearby Aleutian Islands). </P> <Table> Currently agreed upon classifications as Paleolithic geoclimatic episodes <Tr> <Th> Age (before) </Th> <Th> America </Th> <Th> Atlantic Europe </Th> <Th> Maghreb </Th> <Th> Mediterranean Europe </Th> <Th> Central Europe </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 10,000 years </Td> <Td> Flandrian interglacial </Td> <Td> Flandriense </Td> <Td> Mellahiense </Td> <Td> Versiliense </Td> <Td> Flandrian interglacial </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 80,000 years </Td> <Td> Wisconsin </Td> <Td> Devensiense </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Wisconsin Stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 140,000 years </Td> <Td> Sangamoniense </Td> <Td> Ipswichiense </Td> <Td> Ouljiense </Td> <Td> Tirreniense II y III </Td> <Td> Eemian Stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 200,000 years </Td> <Td> Illinois </Td> <Td> Wolstoniense </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Wolstonian Stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 450,000 years </Td> <Td> Yarmouthiense </Td> <Td> Hoxniense </Td> <Td> Anfatiense </Td> <Td> Tirreniense I </Td> <Td> Hoxnian Stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 580,000 years </Td> <Td> Kansas </Td> <Td> Angliense </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Kansan Stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 750,000 years </Td> <Td> Aftoniense </Td> <Td> Cromeriense </Td> <Td> Maarifiense </Td> <Td> Siciliense </Td> <Td> Cromerian Complex </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1,100,000 years </Td> <Td> Nebraska </Td> <Td> Beestoniense </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Regresión </Td> <Td> Beestonian stage </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1,400,000 years </Td> <Td> interglaciar </Td> <Td> Ludhamiense </Td> <Td> Messaudiense </Td> <Td> Calabriense </Td> <Td> Donau - Günz </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Was the ice age during the paleolithic era