The successive environmental changes during the ice age, the decrease and fluctuations in the Earth’s average temperature, and the reduction in precipitation had a significant impact on wildlife. Certain species owe their existence to these changes, while others went extinct because of them. Among the surviving and newly born species, some saw their range reduced to a minimum, while others conquered vast habitats and migrated to other continents.
Apart from fluctuations, the imaginary balance is tipping toward species dying out, meaning, that a wave of extinction has begun that continues to this day. In addition to species extinction related to environmental changes, another factor contributing to this is the appearance of humans during the Ice Age.
During the Ice Age, there were several instances of speciation and extinction events. From time to time, numerous new species appeared. On exceptional occasions, the number of newly appearing species exceeded the number of disappearing ones, but overall, the process shifted toward extinction. This phenomenon had already begun earlier: since the end of the Miocene of the Tertiary period, or more precisely, for more than 5 million years, the Earth’s flora and fauna have been steadily declining in species diversity.