Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Paleolithic began with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, about 3.3 million years ago, and ended at the close of the Pleistocene epoch, approximately 11,650 years before the present. It represents almost the entire span of human prehistoric technology.
Archaeologist John Lubbock coined the term "Palaeolithic" in 1865. It derives from the Greek words palaios, meaning "old," and lithos, meaning "stone," giving it the meaning "Old Stone Age."
The earliest Paleolithic stone tool industry was the Oldowan, which began around 2.6 million years ago and produced choppers, burins, and stitching awls. It was replaced around 250,000 years ago by the more complex Acheulean industry, first developed by Homo ergaster around 1.8-1.65 million years ago.
The first humans set foot in Australia by about 50,000 years before the present. By the end of the Upper Paleolithic, humans had crossed the Beringia land bridge and expanded throughout the Americas continents.
The earliest known undisputed burial of a shaman dates to about 30,000 years before the present, in what is now the Czech Republic. The earliest known Paleolithic shaman is also notable for being female.
The entire population of Europe between 16,000 and 11,000 years before the present likely averaged around 30,000 individuals. Between 40,000 and 16,000 years before the present, the population was even lower, estimated at just 4,000-6,000 people across the entire continent.