PLEISTOCENE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH VERTEBRATE FAUNA

From 1985 to 1987, four new localities with abundant fossil mammals were discovered by Cao, Tian and others in the Zhoukoudian (Choukoutien) area, Beijing. They are the East, West, Shangdian and Donglingzi caves. The East Cave fauna consists of 28 speices of mammals and its age is middle Early Pleistocene. The East Cave assemblage shows that a temperature–falling event took place at around 1.20 Ma B.P. at Zhoukoudian. Sixteen species of mammals were collected from the West Cave, which are mainly forms of late Early Pleistocene age. The West Cave fauna represents a transitional fauna from the East Cave fauna (dry–cold) to the fauna (warm) at locality 9. The Shangdian Cave fauna is composed of four forms, being Middle Pleistocene in age. The Donglingzi Cave fauna contains 21 Late Pleistocene forms. In the cave two fossil horizons may be distinguished. The age of the lower horizon is early Late Pleistocene, which is equivalent to that of the New Cave fauna; while the fauna of the upper horizon may be correlated with the Upper Cave fauna.

Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe

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.

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 deposits which have been analyzed lie on the coast between West Runton and Corton. No single pollen diagram shows the complete vegetational history of the period during which the Cromer Forest Bed Series was laid down, but, when considered together, the diagrams show evidence of a sequence which has been divided tentatively into three zones. The first of these (zone a) shows a predominance of Betula and then Pirns ; pollen of other trees is either absent or insignificant, and the non-arboreal pollen values are very high in the early part of the zone. Alnus is strongly represented throughout zone b, which shows the rise and subsequent decline of mixed-oak forest trees and a similar but later change in Picea . The mixed-oak forest trees disappear in zone c, Alnus and Picea decrease and probably disappear and Betula and Pinus return to dominance. It is possible that these three zones represent a sequence in time; if so, the changes reflect a climatic change from cool or cold conditions through a warm period to increasing cold. The pollen zones could not be related satisfactorily to the divisions of the Cromer Forest Bed Series which were established by Clement Reid. The vegetational zones of the Cromer Forest Bed Series are compared with those of other deposits which are believed to be of the same age or to belong to subsequent interglacials. It appears that the Cromerian diagrams have a number of features in common which may be used to distinguish them from diagrams referred to deposits of other interglacials. The non-marine molluscs found in the Cromer Forest Bed Series at West Runton are listed by Mr B. W. Sparks, who considers that they indicate the formation of that part of the deposit in a marsh cut by sluggish drainage channels.

The species Cervus elaphus is characterised by its significant and very swift ability to adapt to the broad woodland-related range of environments in the northern hemisphere, as can be seen by the large number of distinct populations and living subspecies. From studies on the phenotypic plasticity and adaptative capability of living populations of red deer, we can hypothesise that environmental conditions influenced the spread and the evolution of the species, especially in changing landscapes like those of the Italian peninsula during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. In fact, Cervus elaphus occurs on the Italian peninsula from the Middle Pleistocene, a period characterised by a particularly wide variety of environments determined by changeable palaeoclimatic and palaeogeographical conditions that are in all cases more significant in the late Middle Pleistocene and in the Late Pleistocene. If we observe the various fossil subspecies and apply the principle that present features like phenotypic plasticity are important keys to understanding the past, we must reconsider the Pleistocene red deer in evolutionary and taxonomic terms. This reappraisal also provides new data on the biochronological importance of the various red deer subspecies widespread in Italy during the Middle and Late Pleistocene.

Rodent palaeofaunas from Biśnik Cave (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Poland): Palaeoecological, palaeoclimatic and biostratigraphic reconstruction

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.

Middle Pleistocene Pongo from Ganxian Cave in southern China with implications for understanding dental size evolution in orangutans

A reappraisal of the Early to Middle Pleistocene Italian Bovidae

Quaternary marine transgressions in eastern China

If we restrict the use of Homo sapiens in the fossil record to specimens which share a significant number of derived features in the skeleton with extant H. sapiens, the origin of our species would be placed in the African late middle Pleistocene, based on fossils such as Omo Kibish 1, Herto 1 and 2, and the Levantine material from Skhul and Qafzeh. However, genetic data suggest that we and our sister species Homo neanderthalensis shared a last common ancestor in the middle Pleistocene approximately 400-700 ka, which is at least 200 000 years earlier than the species origin indicated from the fossils already mentioned. Thus, it is likely that the African fossil record will document early members of the sapiens lineage showing only some of the derived features of late members of the lineage. On that basis, I argue that human fossils such as those from Jebel Irhoud, Florisbad, Eliye Springs and Omo Kibish 2 do represent early members of the species, but variation across the African later middle Pleistocene/early Middle Stone Age fossils shows that there was not a simple linear progression towards later sapiens morphology, and there was chronological overlap between different 'archaic' and 'modern' morphs. Even in the late Pleistocene within and outside Africa, we find H. sapiens specimens which are clearly outside the range of Holocene members of the species, showing the complexity of recent human evolution. The impact on species recognition of late Pleistocene gene flow between the lineages of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans is also discussed, and finally, I reconsider the nature of the middle Pleistocene ancestor of these lineages, based on recent morphological and genetic data.This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.

Analysis of 13 spore-pollen assemblage zones reflecting environmental changes since the later middle Pleistocene showed the seccession of paleovegetation and the paleogeographic changes in the Bohai Basin and circumjacent area. Paleoclimatic variations here can obviously be divided into 5 cold and 5 warm periods: 2 cold and 1 warm periods in 200,000–100,000 a B.P.(late middle Pleistocene) 3 cold and 3 warm periods in 100,000–12,000 a B.P.(late Pleistocene), and 1 warm period since 12,000 a B.P. Late Pleistocene climate tended to become colder and colder. The coldest period was in the later stage of late Pleistocene, when the study area was a periglacial zone. The mean annual temperature then was about 10°C lower than it is now. In the middle stage of late Pleistocene, climate became warm; the mean annual temperature then was about 3–4°C higher than it is now. By applying principles of climatic stratigraphy, the authors deduced through sporo-pollen analysis, that the boundary between middle and late Pleistocene should be at 178–181 m, and that between Pleistocene and Holocene should be at 12.8 m. The results of climatic stratigraphy are consistent with those of magnetic stratigraphy.

Ecological transitions — But for whom? A perspective from the Pleistocene

A palynological investigation was undertaken on the upper 29 m of sediment at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 887, spanning the last 430 000 years (i.e., isotopic stages 12 to 1). Pollen and dinocyst assemblages reveal a major ecostratigraphical boundary at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition. The Middle Pleistocene pollen data document the occurrence of a spruce forest vegetation in the source area, likely located on the adjacent Alaskan coast, whereas the Late Pleistocene is marked by higher inputs of pine, shrub, and herb taxa, suggesting predominant inputs from a more open landscape. The Middle Pleistocene is characterized by a low diversity in dinocyst assemblages, which are dominated by Operculodinium centrocarpum, whereas the Late Pleistocene is marked by the significant occurrence of Pentapharsodinium dalei, Pyxidinopsis reticulata, and by high percentages of Brigantedinium spp. Such assemblages suggest open oceanic and cool temperate conditions during the Middle Pleistocene, changing toward generally colder and less saline conditions during the Late Pleistocene. In addition, large fluctuations in the dinocyst assemblages during the Late Pleistocene are recorded in phase with the main shifts in the isotopic stratigraphy. A new dinocyst taxon, Spiniferites alaskensis sp. nov., exclusively recorded in sediments of the isotopic substage 5e, is described herein.