But the description also matches Earth a little over 3 million years ago, in the middle of the geologic epoch known as the Pliocene ... giant camels and other animals roamed.

So they looked to the Pliocene epoch, (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago ... "OMZs act as a 'floor' for marine animals -- they get squished to the surface," Davis says. "So fishermen may suddenly ...

The evidence collected is from 30 fragments of a leg bone, dating to about three-and-a-half million years ago from the mid-Pliocene Epoch ... group of cloven-hoofed animals known as arteriodactyls ...

Animals and plants would have looked familiar ... The absence of human life during the Pliocene Epoch has offered ammunition to those who question anthropogenic, or human-caused, climate change.

One day during the Pliocene Epoch, a young adult ape died in the ... to knee-joint surfaces — an adaptation that helps bipedal animals balance while walking. Her knee joints also show signs ...

Animals and plants would have looked familiar ... The absence of human life during the Pliocene Epoch has offered ammunition to those who question anthropogenic, or human-caused, climate change.

"This is particularly important during the Pliocene epoch, in which global surface temperatures and CO2 levels were higher than present and which is considered analog for current anthropogenic ...