The term designates the ultimate phase of the last glaciation which began around 16,000 years ago, after the Upper Pleniglacial, and ended in around 10,000 years ago with the start of the Holocene and the beginning of the current interglacial. It was during theTardiglacial, a period of great climatic instability, that the Magdalenian, the Azilian and the Laborian developed.