The Quaternary period (2.5 million years ago – present)

By the time the Quaternary Period began nearly two million years ago, the continents had moved to their current positions, and massive glaciers had formed at the poles. Earth had entered an intense ice age that continues today.

An ice age is more than just a big freeze. When you hear the term “ice age,” you may think of a frozen, lifeless Earth. But while temperatures do drop during an ice age, the Earth is anything but barren. An ice age is simply a long time—thousands or millions of years—when conditions are cold enough that large masses of ice form and stay on the planet.

Woolly mammoths were driven to extinction by climate change and human impacts.

An ice age isn’t constantly cold.
It’s actually a series of two-part cycles:

Part One is a glacial period, with colder winters and shorter summers, and ice extending well beyond the poles.

Part Two is an interglacial period, with warmer seasons and longer summers, and ice mostly confined to the poles (like today).

By studying fossils, rocks, and glaciers, scientists know that much happens during an ice age. Temperatures rise and fall, glaciers expand and shrink—and life perseveres. Just look around you. We’re in an ice age right now.

The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros native to the northern steppes of Eurasia that lived during the Pleistocene epoch and survived the last glacial period.

The Meadow during ice age experienced repeated glaciations. The glaciers advanced from the north, scraping all the rocks on their way and making a rich paste that we now call clay. Originally these clay deposits may have been miles thick.

The changing climate affected mammal diversity. Big, better-insulated bodies are an advantage in cold climates, and during the ice age, many mammals evolved to be massive. These mammals spread across the globe as new land bridges connected continents. Humans moved among them, affecting other species in ways that would soon change the planet forever. Life on Earth was starting to look like life today.

Between the glaciations climate on the Meadow was much warmer and creatures such as the hippopotamus, lion and elephant were indigenous to Britain and could have probably be seen on the Meadow.  During colder periods woolly mammoths roamed the hills and valleys of Hampshire.

Powerful water flows began to erode the clay deposits as the glaciers retreated and the ice melted. As the flow reduced, the rivers meandered across the valley floors, flattening them. The Test valley of today was formed.