Cromerian Stage

The core of the Cromerian is the first half of the Middle Pleistocene stage (Ionian) approximately 800-500 ka ago, just before the Anglian glaciation. In terms of Marine isotope stages (MIS) this corresponds to MIS 19 to MIS 13. Some authors instead put the start at MIS 22, corresponding to a start 900 ka ago, which includes the last 100 ka of the Calabrian stage, after the Beestonian Stage. Some sources today correlate the Elster glaciation to MIS 10 instead of MIS 12, while keeping the Cromerian running up to the start of the Elsterian. The result is an end to the Cromerian stage in continental Europe at the end of MIS 11 (400 ka ago), and that the continental Cromerian continues beyond its end in Britain and Ireland and runs in parallel to the Anglian and Hoxnian Stages (MIS 12-11). In the Alpine region the corresponding stage is called Günz. The Cromerian had been equated to the Aftonian in North America. However, the Aftonian, along with the Yarmouthian (Yarmouth), Kansan, and Nebraskan, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian. At this time, the Cromerian is correlated with the period of time, which includes the Pre-Illinoian C, Pre-Illinoian D, and Pre-Illinoian E glaciations of North America. == Glacial cycles ==

Based on a lack of glacial evidence in Western Europe for the Middle Pleistocene (Ionian) before the Anglian glaciation, the Cromerian was originally thought to be a period without major glaciations. However, there is evidence for ice-rafting of material across the North Sea from this period. == Fossils ==

In 1990 the West Runton Mammoth skeleton was found, the best example of the species Mammuthus trogontherii to be unearthed so far. A significant fossil site, with animal remains dating about 600,000 years ago, is the Mosbach Sands in Germany, named after an abandoned village near Wiesbaden, Germany. == See also ==