User:Alpiniste17/sandbox
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The physical landscape was the primary factor influencing the initial peopling of the North American continent during the Late Pleistocene epoch. This was the ending stages of the Pleistocene; a geologic time period that began 2.58 Ma and ended around the terminus of the Younger Dryas climatic period around 11.8 ka BP[1]. During this time, the North American continent experienced the maximum extent of ice sheets during its most recent glaciation, the Wisconsin Glacial Episode, with glaciers extending from the northern Canadian Arctic south to present-day Washington state, Minnesota, and Wisconsin[2]. This northern ice was part two massive ice sheets, the Laurentide ice sheet and the Cordilleran ice sheet. During this glacial period, it's thought the North American continent was absent human populations[3]. The questions of when humans first arrived in North America, how they got here, and what their cultures were like has long been a field of intense research and speculation[4]. Researchers have highlighted 4 primary environmental factors that affected the migration and landscape viability of Late Pleistocene peoples in both Beringia and those migrating southwards: variations in climate, extent of ice sheets and glaciers, changes in sea level, and landscape vegetation[3][5][6].