The Pliocene Epoch spans a time when the Earth experienced a transition from relatively warm conditions to a cooling climate that heralded the high magnitude glacial-interglacial oscillations of the Pleistocene Epoch. The warm interglacial climates of the Pliocene may be plausible comparative scenarios for interpreting the path of future climate warming during the 21st century

We seek contributions to this session from those actively constructing datasets of Pliocene faunal or floral distributions in the oceans or on land, those exploring and developing new environmental proxies, for example, to establish seasonality across a range of latitudes from the tropics to the poles, and those seeking to ground truth models of Pliocene climate (including the 'mid Piacenzian' warm interval) with proxy and fossil data.

Invited speakers to this session will include Alan Haywood (Leeds), Harry Dowsett (USGS) and Marci Robinson (USGS)