Zanclean Stage

Refilling of the Mediterranean Sea

The Zanclean Stage (5.33–3.60 Ma) is the first age in the Pliocene, occurring after the Messinian (Miocene), and before the Piacenzian.

Water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the Mediterranean basin.
A channel opened from the Atlantic Ocean, through the modern-day Gibraltar Strait, and carried ocean water over a distance of over 200 km.
The Mediterranean Sea was filled over a period estimated between several months and two years.
Earliest records of Australopithecus africanus from 3.9 million years old.