Over the course of the Pliocene, the global climate became cooler and more arid. The beginning of the epoch saw numerous fluctuations in temperature, which gave way to the general cooling trend towards the end of the Pliocene. This long term cooling, actually started in the Eocene and continued up to the ice ages of the Pleistocene. During the Pliocene, large polar ice caps started to develop and Antarctica became the frozen continent that it is today.