Azraq Basin fossils reveal mammals shrank during Pleistocene-Holocene climate shift

Earth's climate changed dramatically during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene 130,000 to 7,000 years ago, when cold glacial cycles transitioned into the current warmer interglacial. Such a climatic evolution had considerable effects on the ecosystem and the organisms inhabiting it, with many large mammals going extinct and others experiencing reductions in body size.