Middle Pleistocene Xenocyon lycaonoides Kretzoi, 1938 in northeastern China and the evolution of Xenocyon-Lycaon lineage

The current study focuses on the emblematic Myopus/Lemmus species complex (tribe Lemmini) in the European Pleistocene fossil record. The members of the two genera occupy distinct ecological niches and have different external appearances, but they are remarkably similar in their dental morphology, so that they were commonly thought of as undistinguishable in the fossil record. Thus, more or less all European Lemmini fossils have been assigned to the genus Lemmus. In the Early Pleistocene site of Schernfeld (Germany), the species Lemmus kowalskii had been described. It was thought by some authors that all Lemmini from Early to late Middle Pleistocene belong to this species.In the current study, we investigated Lemmini molar morphology from Western and Central European sites including Schernfeld (Early Pleistocene), Sackdillinger Höhle (Sackdilling Cave), and Koněprusy C718 (both early Middle Pleistocene), as well as other fossil localities with fewer specimens, formerly assigned to Lemmus kowalskii. Using an extensive modern referential material of Lemmus and Myopus, this study proposes to re-evaluate taxonomic status of the Middle and Early Pleistocene Lemmini. This modern referential also allows a better understanding of the morphology of Lemmus kowalskii specimens and its variability.Our results highlight the very high variation within fossil populations, as well as significant statistical differences between populations of the Early and Middle Pleistocene localities. A large part of these fossil specimens is firmly identified as Myopus sp., including the L. kowalskii holotype. Our identifications demonstrate that in most Early and Middle Pleistocene sites considered in this study, both genera (Lemmus and Myopus) are present. Possible interpretations and consequences for current view of lemming history are discussed, as well as some of the paleoecological and paleoenvironmental implications.

Taxonomical revision of fossil Canis in Middle Pleistocene sites of Zhoukoudian, Beijing, China and a review of fossil records of Canis mosbachensis variabilis in China

Morphological description and comparison of the dental remains from Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos site (Spain)

Discovery of Enhydrictis (Mustelidae, Carnivora, Mammalia) cranium in Puwan, Dalian, Northeast China demonstrates repeated intracontinental migration during the Pleistocene

The Guadix-Baza Basin (GBB) in Andalucía, Spain, comprises palaeontological and archaeological sites dating from the Early Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene, including some of the earliest sites with evidence for the presence of early humans (Homo sp.) in Europe. Thus, the history of climate and environments in this basin contributes significantly to our understanding of the conditions under which early humans spread into Europe during the Early Pleistocene. Here we present estimates of precipitation and primary productivity in the GBB from the Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene based on dental ecometrics in fossil communities of large herbivorous mammals, and perform an ecometrics-based distribution modelling to analyse the environmental conditions of Early and Middle Pleistocene human sites in Europe. Our results show that Early Pleistocene humans generally occupied on average relatively diverse habitats with ecotones, such as woodlands and savannas, but avoided very open and harsh (cool or dry) environments. During the Middle Pleistocene in Europe, humans occupied a comparatively much broader range of environments than during the Early Pleistocene, but were on average more concentrated in environments where the dental ecometric of mammals indicate wooded palaeoenvironments. In the earliest human occupation sites of the GBB, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3, the mean annual precipitation and net primary production estimates indicate climatic conditions close to modern Mediterranean sclerophyllous woodland environments, but with slightly higher primary productivity, indicating some similarity with East African woodlands. On the other hand, the environments did not resemble African grassland savannas. The browse-dominated diets of ungulates from Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 further suggest palaeoenvironments where grasses were a minor component of the vegetation. In the slightly older site of Venta Micena that has no evidence for the presence of hominins, dental ecometric estimates indicate climate and environments similar to Mediterranean “forest steppe” environments existing in the surroundings of Baza today. Grasses were prevalent in the diet of some taxa, especially equids, in Venta Micena, but most of the species show browse-dominated diets even there.

The aim of this study is to explore the root and root canal morphology of Homo fossil occupying China during the Middle Pleistocene period. Human occupation and evolutionary dynamics in East Asia during the Middle Pleistocene period is one of the most intriguing issues in paleoanthropology, with the coexistence of multiple lineages and regional morphs suggesting a complex population interaction scenario. Although premolar root and canal morphology has certain phylogenetic, taxonomic, and functional implications, its morphological diversity, possible evolutionary trend and characteristics regarding Middle Pleistocene hominins inhabiting East Asia are still insufficiently understood; where these populations fits within the Homo lineage (with respect to root and pulp canal structure) needs to be explored. Using microtomography, we directly observed and assessed the nonmetric variability of root and canal forms in maxillary and mandibular premolars of Chinese Middle Pleistocene Homo (N = 19), and compared our observed variations with Eurasian Early Pleistocene specimens from the Asia continent (N = 1) and Java (N = 2), as well as with Neanderthals (N = 28) and recent modern humans (N = 67). A total number of nine types of root-canal forms were recorded. As a whole, the Chinese Middle Pleistocene record shows an evolutionary trend toward a modern human-like condition (a reduction of root/canal number and a simplification of root surface structure). We documented primitive signals like high percentage of Tomes' root in lower premolars. A considerable occurrence of incompletely separated root branches and bifid root and canal apices, representing evolutionary transformation from multi-root to single-root condition was also noticed. The results were compared with previous publications on Early and Middle Pleistocene Homo in East Africa, North Africa, and Eurasia. This work provides new original data, incorporates the latest human fossil discoveries and suggests that analyzing the variation of premolar root structural organization, notably integrating together root/canal form and number, could possibly contribute to taxonomic and phylogenetic assessments. The mid-Middle Pleistocene populations, or "classic" Homo erectus, in our study show closer affinity to Early and Middle Pleistocene hominins in Eurasia, than to East African early Homo, which supports the suggestion that at least some of the Early Pleistocene hominin groups in Eurasia contribute to the later population; on the other hand, it is still difficult to clearly trace the evolutionary fate of those late Middle Pleistocene populations (roughly assigned as archaic Homo sapiens through a craniodental perspective). More comparable materials from the Early to Middle Pleistocene period as well as precise chronological framework is needed to further explore the evolutionary trends of archaic hominins in the Asian continent before the arrival of modern humans.

Early and Middle Pleistocene of North America

These papers show how new research in the classic areas and Germany, but particularly in Eastern Europe, is radically altering views of the stratigraphy and palaeocology of the early-middle Pleistocene period, showing that major glaciations did not begin only in the late- middle Pleistocene.

New Light on the Earliest Hominid Occupation in East Asia

The mammalian faunas of Pakefield/Kessingland and Corton, Suffolk, UK: evidence for a new temperate episode in the British early Middle Pleistocene

The Boiano Basin is one of the largest Quaternary intermontane basins of the central‐southern Apennines within one of the most tectonically active areas of the Mediterranean region. In order to reconstruct its entire Quaternary stratigraphic, tectonic, and palaeoenvironment evolution, lithofacies and palaeomagnetic analyses have been performed on a 900 m‐deep borehole (CP1) drilled in the southwestern sector of the basin. The Quaternary succession consists of an alternating of alluvial fan and fluvial–marshy deposits for a total thickness of 240 m, unconformably laying on Lower Miocene deposits of the Sannio Unit, thrusted on upper Miocene deposits of the Molise Flysch. In addition, the stratigraphic study and facies distribution of 29 intermediate and shallow wells drilled in the basin, allowing us to define the thickness and lithofacies variations of the Quaternary sedimentary units inside the entire Boiano Basin in the sector of Campochiaro alluvial fan. Our results demonstrate that the Boiano Basin infilling started during the late Early Pleistocene (c. 1.1 Ma) and developed with variation in lithofacies distribution and thickness. The first depositional unit (Early Pleistocene–early Middle Pleistocene in age) was palustrine and fluvial–marshy, the second (Middle Pleistocene in age) was characterized by the occurrence of the first cycle of alluvial fan deposition, the third (late Middle Pleistocene in age) was newly palustrine and fluvial marshy and, finally, the fourth recorded two cycles of alluvial fan deposition (late Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene in age, respectively), interspersed by short periods of palustrinity, tephra layers deposition, and palaeosols development. The study allows the hypothesizing that the Quaternary infilling was accommodated within a graben (or semigraben) structure, affected mainly by extensional fault systems localized in the inner part of the basin and secondly by fault systems bounding the basin.

The Middle and Late Pleistocene mammalian faunas of Japan are described with new opinions on their succession and relation to the continental faunas. Although fossil materials assignable to early Middle Pleistocene are seemingly scarce in Japan, the fauna of that time is considered to have been transitional between the Early and Middle Pleistocene ones. On the other hand, fossil records which are younger than early Middle Pleistocene are abundant from the mainlands of Japan; viz. the Honshu-Shikoku-Kyushu area.In the middle Middle Pleistocene, the fauna of this area contained a considerable number of taxa which are extant today in the area (about 50%). It was also characterized by a high proportion of endemic species and the predominance of temperate forest elements. From this time to the late Middle Pleistocene, several species disappeared from the fauna; at the same time, immigrants from the continent were scarce. The faunal characters of the late Middle Pleistocene were basically identical with those of the preceding time.In the early Late Pleistocene, no mammal seems to have immigrated from the neighboring continent, and faunal composition was almost consistent with that of the late Middle Pleistocene. The elements of that fauna still persisted in the late Late Pleistocene, apart from the extinction of a few forms. In addition to the fact mentioned above, immigration from the northern part of the continent was recognized in the late Late Pleistocene, although it was restricted to a few large herbivore forms and to a short time duration.The introduction of the continental faunas to the mainlands of Japan during Middle and Late Pleistocene times was not so remarkable as previously inferred. Therefore it becomes doubtful that the faunas of the area were drastically replaced by the immigration of the Choukoutien, Wanhsien and Loess faunas of China during those times.

Pleistocene mammals of Mediterranean islands

Continuity versus discontinuity of the human settlement of Europe between the late Early Pleistocene and the early Middle Pleistocene. The mandibular evidence

New material of the Early Pleistocene spiral horned antelope spirocerus (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from North China and discussion on its evolution