Charles Lyell (later Sir Charles) gave the Pliocene its name in Principles of Geology (volume 3, 1833).
The word pliocene comes from the Greek words πλεῖον (pleion, "more") and καινός (kainos, "new" or "recent")

 ...

In the official timescale of the ICS, the Pliocene is subdivided into two stages. From youngest to oldest they are:
• Piacenzian

 ...

The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene (3.3–3 mya) was 2–3 °C higher than today, carbon dioxide levels were the same as today, and global sea level was 25 m higher. The northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of

 ...

Continents continued to drift, moving from positions possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current locations. South Americabecame

 ...

Both marine and continental faunas were essentially modern, although continental faunas were a bit more primitive than today. The first recognizable hominins, the australopithecines, appeared in the Pliocene.
The land mass collisions

 ...

Oceans continued to be relatively warm during the Pliocene, though they continued cooling. The Arctic ice cap formed, drying the climate and increasing cool shallow currents in the North

 ...

The change to a cooler, dry, seasonal climate had considerable impacts on Pliocene vegetation, reducing tropical species worldwide.

 ...