Pleistocene Mammals Research Articles

Multiproxy record of late Quaternary climate change and Middle Stone Age human occupation at Wonderkrater, South Africa

Here we provide a multiproxy record of climate change and human occupation at Wonderkrater, a spring and peat mound site situated in the interior of southern Africa. Recently extracted sediment cores yielded a number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) artefacts, prompting exploratory excavation of the sediments to understand better the geomorphology of the site, age of the sediments, cultural lithic sequence, vegetation and faunal remains, and to try to establish whether human use of the site was to some extent climatically driven. Excavations yielded late Pleistocene mammal fauna and flora, and three small MSA lithic assemblages with age estimates of 30 ka, >45 ka and 138.01 ± 7.7 ka. The upper layers comprise peat that preserves macrobotanical and faunal remains, implying local fen conditions in Acacia savanna woodland at 12 ka. Below the upper peat layers, a 1 m-thick layer of white sand yielded two MSA lithic assemblages in association with faunal remains dated to between 30.8 ± 0.7 ka and >45 ka. Clay underlying the sand has an OSL age of 63.1 ± 5.8 ka, and sandy peat below it has an Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) age of 70 ± 10 ka. Faunal remains in the lower sand levels, and dental stable carbon isotope analysis of herbivores, indicate a substantial grassland component in the landscape during late MIS 3 (>45 ka). Charcoal, phytolith and pollen data show a change from moderately warm and dry grassy savanna woodland in the lower sand levels, to cooler and wetter grassland with woody shrubs in the uppermost levels by 30 ka. The conditions that resulted in the deposition of the sand also attracted people to the site, but whether it served as an oasis in an arid landscape, or was occupied during wet phases, is unclear. The composition of the lithic assemblages, which include many tools suitable for cutting, suggest that the peat mound may have been used as a place to harvest reeds, process plant materials and butcher animals that were either deliberately or accidentally trapped in mud or peat.

Mamíferos del Pleistoceno Terminal de la localidad de El Hatillo, Panamá

Late Pleistocene mammals from the El Hatillo locality on the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, originally reported by C. L. Gazin in 1957, are documented here for the first time. The following taxa are present: Hoplophorinae?, Glyptotherium floridanum, Eremotherium laurillardi, Paramylodon harlani, Equus conversidens, Platygonus sp., Odocoileus sp., Mixotoxodon larensis and Cuvieronius hyodon. This is a characteristic assemblage of late Pleistocene mammals from Central America that is dominated by fossils of Eremotherium in association with fossils of Mixotoxodon and Equus. I refer to such associations as EME assemblages and posit that most of these assemblages from Central America are of Late Pleistocene age. EME assemblages represent a mixed fauna of grazers and browsers that was common across Central America during one or more of the Late Pleistocene interstadials.

Origin of British and Irish mammals: disparate post-glacial colonisation and species introductions

Origin of British and Irish mammals: disparate post-glacial colonisation and species introductions

Terra incognita: The Palaeolithic record of northwest Europe and the information potential of the southern North Sea

AbstractFor major parts of the Palaeolithic substantial areas of the current southern North Sea and what later became the English Channel were dry land. Those areas, now covered by tens of metres of sea, were occasionally core areas for large herds of herbivores and the animals that preyed upon them, including Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. This is demonstrated by the large amounts of Pleistocene mammal fossils, artefacts and a Neanderthal fossil recovered during the last one and a half centuries. Any consideration of the Pleistocene occupation history of northwest Europe needs to deal with the fact that a major part of the landscape available to Pleistocene hunter-gatherers is currently submerged under the waters of the North Sea, one of the most prolific Pleistocene fossil-bearing localities world-wide. One also needs to take into account the complex landscape evolution of the southern North Sea basin, with geographically varying successions of marine, lacustrine, fluvial and glacial sedimentation and erosion. This paper gives a short overview of the occupation history of northwest Europe, from its earliest traces at the very end of the Lower and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene up to the middle part of the Upper Palaeolithic, when this part of Europe became deserted for a period of about 10,000 years. Tentative interpretations and questions raised by the overview will be situated in the context of the information potential of the deposits in the southern North Sea and the Channel area.

Constraint envelope analyses of macroecological patterns reveal climatic effects on Pleistocene mammal extinctions

Quantitative analysis of macroecological patterns for late Pleistocene assemblages can be useful for disentangling the causes of late Quaternary extinctions (LQE). However, previous analyses have usually assumed linear relationships between macroecological traits, such as body size and range size/range shift, that may have led to erroneous interpretations. Here, we analyzed mammalian datasets to show how macroecological patterns support climate change as an important driver of the LQE, which is contrary to previous analyses that did not account for more complex relationships among traits. We employed quantile regression methods that allow a detailed and fine-tuned quantitative analysis of complex macroecological patterns revealed as polygonal relationships (i.e., constraint envelopes). We showed that these triangular-shaped envelopes that describe the macroecological relationship between body size and geographical range shift reflect nonrandom extinction processes under which the large-bodied species are more prone to extinction during events of severe habitat loss, such as glacial/interglacial transitions. Hence, we provide both a theoretical background and methodological framework to better understand how climate change induces body size-biased species sorting and shapes complex macroecological patterns.

Splendid oddness: revisiting the curious trophic relationships of South American Pleistocene mammals and their abundance

The South American Pleistocene mammal fauna includes great-sized animals that have intrigued scientists for over two centuries. Here we intend to update the knowledge on its palaeoecology and provide new evidence regarding two approaches: energetics and population density and relative abundance of fossils per taxa. To determine whether an imbalance exists, population density models were applied to several South American fossil faunas and the results compared to those that best describe the palaeoecology of African faunas. The results on the abundance study for Uruguay and the province of Buenos Aires during the Lujanian stage/age reveal that bulk-feeding ground sloths (Lestodon and Glossotherium) were more represented in the first territory, while the more selective Scelidotherium and Megatherium were more abundant in the second. Although the obtained values were corrected to avoid size-related taphonomic biases, linear regressions of abundance vs. body mass plots did not fit the expected either for first or second consumers. South American Pleistocene faunas behave differently from what models suggest they should. Changes in sea level and available area could account for these differences; the possibility of a floodplain in the area then emerged could explain seasonal changes, which would modify the calculations of energetics and abundance.

Ecological Structure of Recent and Last Glacial Mammalian Faunas in Northern Eurasia: The Case of Altai-Sayan Refugium

Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologically distinct natural zones. These features were probably the result of the unique environmental conditions of ice age ecosystems. To analyze the ecological structure of Last Glacial and Recent mammal communities we classified the species into biome and trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in ecological structure between Recent eastern Altai-Sayan mammalian assemblages and comparable Pleistocene faunas. The composition of Last Glacial and Recent eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages were characterized by the occurrence of large herbivore and predator species associated with steppe, desert and alpine biomes. These three modern biomes harbor most of the surviving Pleistocene mammals. None of the analyzed Palearctic Last Glacial faunas showed affinity to the temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region could be considered a refugium of the Last Glacial-like mammalian assemblages. Glacial fauna seems to persist up to present in those areas where the forest belt does not separate alpine vegetation from the steppes and deserts.

Primitive Mammoth Hunters and the Earliest Breed of Dog

Primitive man have managed to survive in the rigorous climatic conditions of the arctic regions in northeast Asia owing to the hunting for mammoth, bison, wooly rhinoceros and other Pleistocene mammals with the assistance of the laika, a domesticated wolf. This is how the colonization of the Arctic began. The domestic dog appeared in this region about 25 - 30 thousand years ago as a result of the severe climatic conditions in which both hunting tribes and the ancestors of the domestic dog had to live. A wolf is a predator, an able hunter. Therefore, most likely wolves were originally trained to hunt with humans—the leaders of the hunting pack. Thus, in northeast Asia, there was a direct relationship between man’s colonization of the Arctic, the appearance of the hunting dog, and a decrease in the number of mammoth, bison, and other large animals in the region, as a result of hunting when whole herds were killed.

Cave bears (Carnivora, Ursidae) from the Middle and Late Pleistocene of Serbia: A revision

Cave bear remains are known from 36 caves and other karst features, and from one open-air site in Serbia. The sites vary greatly by their morphology and size, position, altitude, stratigraphy and diversity of the fossil fauna. The cave bear stands out as a dominant species at the majority of the sites; at a number of sites it is the single species found. There are only few sites where herbivores' or predators' remains exceed those of the cave bears. The majority of cave bear remains originate from the Late Pleistocene deposits. Previously, they have been identified as Ursus spelaeus.We present a morphology and metric study of cave bears from three sites: two recently discovered localities of Middle Pleistocene age, and the Risovača cave, which may be regarded as the reference site for the Late Pleistocene mammals in the region based on a large number of collected remains and published data. The remains of the Middle Pleistocene spelaeoid bears are described from Mala Balanica cave (Eastern Serbia) and an open-air site at Ruma brickyard (Northern Serbia) for the first time. Considering the size and morphology of cheek teeth and metapodial bones, these cave bears are identified as Ursus spelaeus deningeroides. The cheek teeth morphology and size, as well as metapodial bones' metric, relate the cave bear from the Risovača cave to the advanced evolutive type of the cave bear established in Central and Eastern Europe Ursus spelaeus ingressus.

Mitochondrial DNA diversity and evolution of the Pleistocene cave bear complex

Cave bears are among the most well known extinct Pleistocene mammals. Their biogeography and taxonomy, along with the factors that led to their extinction, have been subject to long-standing controversy. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeography as well as the temporal and spatial population dynamics of cave bears across their range using mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from 77 published as well as 65 new cave bear samples, Our analyses reveal a dramatic loss of genetic diversity in cave bear populations after 30,000 years before present and provide evidence for a range decline from east to west towards the onset of the last glacial maximum. Our results also suggest that the three major haplogroups within cave bears, which may correspond to distinct species, were previously more widespread, with relict populations in remote and alpine areas still harbouring haplotypes that have disappeared from most of their previous range. Applying a phylogenetic dating approach, we estimated the age of the oldest of our samples, originating from the Yana River region in north-eastern Siberia, to be around 178,000 years, which confirms a previous estimate of a Middle Pleistocene age based on its stratigraphic position. Our results extend our knowledge about the evolutionary history of cave bears, but they also show that to unravel the complexities of cave bear evolution future ancient DNA studies on this Pleistocene species will need to go beyond short mitochondrial DNA fragments, including full mitochondrial genomes as well as nuclear DNA sequences.

ESR dating of Pleistocene mammals and marine shells from the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil

The Coastal Plain of Rio Grande do Sul state (CPRS), in southern Brazil, encompasses four barrier-lagoon depositional systems formed by marine highstands during the Quaternary, but the ages of the Pleistocene systems older than ∼125 ka are not precisely known due to the lack of numerical dates. In order to refine the chronology of these deposits, several fossils of terrestrial mammals collected in the fluvial facies of the Lagoon System III and fossil shells from the marine facies of the Barrier System II, exposed in the southern sector of the CPRS, were subject to dating by electron spin resonance (ESR). The ages of the mammalian remains range from 90 ± 10 to 43 ± 3 ka, thus representing the last glacial cycle (MIS 4 and 3). The mean EU age of the shells is 224 ± 24.6 ka, but this value is considered younger than the ‘real’ age because of excessive Uranium uptake observed among the younger shells. An estimated mean age of some 235–238 ka would agree with other ESR and TL ages obtained for fossils and sediments collected from beds overlying the shells, and would be consistent with the sea-level highstand at the early MIS 7 (substage 7e). The presence of bivalves and foraminifers that indicate ocean temperatures higher than at present seems to corroborate this estimate, given that MIS 7e was characterized by hypsithermal conditions.

Paleontology to policy: the Quaternary history of Southeast Asian tapirs (Tapiridae) in relation to large mammal species turnover, with a proposal for conservation of Malayan tapir by reintroduction to Borneo

The Southeast Asian zoogeographical region is divided into Indochinese, Sundaic and Philippine subregions. Two clades of tapirs, Tapirus spp., have been recognized in Quaternary Southeast Asia. A review of sites at which they occurred shows that representatives of both clades, one of which was the ancestral Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus, co-existed with a diversity of other Pleistocene mammal megafauna. The process of replacement of archaic large mammals was progressive and prolonged through the Quaternary. Zooarcheological investigation has extended knowledge of the former occurrence and distribution of tapirs and other large mammals of the region, with discoveries beyond the outer limits of their previously known ranges. These large mammals were subjected to paleoenvironmental changes as a consequence of the Quaternary cycles of glacial and interglacial periods. Archeological evidence suggests that hunting pressure has intensified the effects of altered environments, leading ultimately to the local disappearance of the Malayan tapir in most of Southeast Asia, including Borneo. The survival of the Malayan tapir through the Quaternary until the present shows that the species is both resilient to environmental change and flexible in its ecological re'uirements and, given proper protection, could continue to inhabit tropical Southeast Asia. To assist the species conservation, reintroduction is proposed from the remaining range of Malayan tapir in the wild, to suitable sites of past occurrence in Borneo, where these ancient survivors of the Quaternary megafauna can be accommodated and safeguarded alongside other forms of land usage.

Mio-Pleistocene Zanda Basin biostratigraphy and geochronology, pre-Ice Age fauna, and mammalian evolution in western Himalaya

The Pliocene (5.3–2.6Ma) of Tibet witnessed the drying of the northern Tibetan Plateau and the approach to the Pleistocene Ice Age within the background of intensifying Indian and East Asian monsoons. Yet little is known about Pliocene mammals living on the high Tibetan Plateau despite the fact that fossil mammals elsewhere constitute an important knowledge base for terrestrial environments. The late Miocene to Pleistocene Zanda Basin at the northern foothills of the Himalayas affords a welcome opportunity to evaluate the biological response to environmental change at high elevations. Abundant, well-preserved fossil mammals and fish from an 800-m continuous section of fine- to coarse-grained sediments thus open a rare window into a past biological world. For example, the discovery of an ancestral wooly rhino from Zanda Basin that was the precursor of its late Pleistocene megafaunal descendants leads to our “out-of Tibet” hypothesis, suggesting that the high Tibetan Plateau was a Pliocene cradle for Ice Age cold adaptations.In this paper, we document in detail the mammalian biostratigraphy, chronology, and paleozoogeography based on Zanda Basin fossil mammals. Our high-resolution biostratigraphy and biochronology offer for the first time independent constraints that both support and modify recent magnetostratigraphic correlations. Using characteristic Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals, particularly the small mammal assemblages in the lower part of the section and monodactylid Equus from the upper section, we propose a correlation to C1n to C3An.1r, with an age range of ~400Ka to 6.4Ma.Within the 800-m Zanda section, the lower 0–150m is of latest Miocene age, spanning 6.4–5.3Ma. Sparsely fossiliferous, the lower section has produced five taxa so far: Ochotona, Panthera, Qurliqnoria, Palaeotragus, and Hipparion—all are consistent with a late Miocene age. The middle 150–620m section spans the entire Pliocene. This section is by far the most fossiliferous, including such typical Pliocene small mammals as Prosiphneus, Mimomys, Apodemus, and Trischizolagus, as well as large mammals such as Coelodonta thibetana, Hipparion zandaense, Chasmaporthetes, Nyctereutes, Meles, Antilospira, and others. In the upper 620–800m section the fossils are rare, but do include characteristic Pleistocene taxa such as Equus.Zoogeographically Zanda Basin mammals are a mixture from two major sources. Taxa such as Mimomys, Prosiphneus, Trischizolagus, Chasmaporthetes, Nyctereutes, Meles, and Xenocyon are commonly found in north China or east Asia. In contrast, several forms, such as unique species of pikas (Ochotona), squirrels (Aepyosciurus), and ancestral Tibetan antelope (Qurliqnoria), seem to belong to an indigenous Tibetan fauna evolved within the plateau. A lack of shared taxa with the Oriental Realm suggests a formidable barrier by the Himalayas despite a short distance (~100km) between Zanda Basin and the Indian subcontinent.

Equus (Amerhippus) neogaeus Lund, 1840 (Perissodactyla, Equidae) no Quaternário do Estado do Paraná, Brasil

EQUUS (AMERHIPPUS) NEOGAEUS LUND, 1840 (PERISSODACTYLA, EQUIDAE) FROM THE QUATERNARY OF PARANA STATE, BRAZIL. The fossil record of Equidae in southern Brazil is restricted to Rio Grande do Sul State and is represented by isolated teeth and fragmentary cranial and postcranial remains. This paper describes Equus (Amerhippus) neogaeus Lund from Parana State, where Pleistocene mammals are poorly known. The material is a left dentary with cheek teeth and was found in the Mangueirinha Municipality in a small alluvial terrace, associated with some remains of Gomphoteriidae and Megatheriidae. The presence of E. (A.) neogaeus suggests an open paleoenvironment with xerofitic vegetation, and could indicate a Lujan Age/Stage (late Pleistocene/early Holocene) for the assemblage fauna.

Late middle to late Pleistocene paleoecology and paleoenvironments in the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul State, Southern Brazil, from stable isotopes in fossils of Toxodon and Stegomastodon

Stable isotopes (δ13C, δ18O) in teeth of extinct mammals have been used as indicators of diets and climate conditions, which in turn are used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The first analysis of stable isotopes in Pleistocene mammals from Southern Brazil is reported here. The analyzed taxa were the notoungulate Toxodon and the proboscidean Stegomastodon from Late Middle to Late Pleistocene fossiliferous beds exposed along Chuí Creek, in the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul State. The δ13C isotopes indicate that Toxodon was a mixed-feeder that fed mostly on C4 plants, while Stegomastodon was a browser to mixed-feeder with preference for C3 plants, with less C4 plants in the diet compared to modern African elephants. Comparison with carbon isotopic values in fossils of these taxa from other Late Quaternary localities in South America shows an increased proportion of C3 plants in the diets of both Toxodon and Stegomastodon in higher latitudes. The values of δ18O in both taxa seem to reflect the isotopic composition of the ingested water rather than the isotopic content in the plants of which they fed on, and the observed variations are likely to mirror variations of the patterns of precipitation. Paleoclimatic inferences and possible causes for the (pseudo)extinction of these taxa in southern Brazil are also discussed.

A New Primitive Species of the Flat-Headed PeccaryPlatygonus(Tayassuidae, Artiodactyla, Mammalia) From the Late Miocene of the High Plains

A new species of the Pliocene–Pleistocene flat-headed peccary,Platygonus pollenae, has been recovered latest Hemphillian (latest Miocene) localities from Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Texas. It can be distinguished from other tayassuids by its distally rounded wing-like zygomatic process, and its subzygodont cheek teeth. In contrast to more derived species ofPlatygonus, it is much smaller in size, its molars are relatively more bunodont, the talon and talonid cusps are retained on the premolars of most individuals, and the mandibular symphysis lacks a median keel on the chin. In these characters, it is the earliest and the most primitive species ofPlatygonusknown. It is more primitive than the typical Blancan species, or any of the species from the Pleistocene, and demonstrates the origin of this important Pleistocene mammal in the latest Miocene.

Climatic backdrop to the terminal Pleistocene extinction of North American mammals

Research Article| November 01, 2012 Climatic backdrop to the terminal Pleistocene extinction of North American mammals Victor J. Polyak; Victor J. Polyak 1Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, 200 Yale Boulevard, Northrop Hall, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Yemane Asmerom; Yemane Asmerom 1Earth & Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, 200 Yale Boulevard, Northrop Hall, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Stephen J. Burns; Stephen J. Burns 2Department of Geosciences, 233 Morill Science Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Matthew S. Lachniet Matthew S. Lachniet 3Department of Geosciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2012) 40 (11): 1023–1026. https://doi.org/10.1130/G33226.1 Article history received: 23 Jan 2012 rev-recd: 05 May 2012 accepted: 08 May 2012 first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share MailTo Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Victor J. Polyak, Yemane Asmerom, Stephen J. Burns, Matthew S. Lachniet; Climatic backdrop to the terminal Pleistocene extinction of North American mammals. Geology 2012;; 40 (11): 1023–1026. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G33226.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract North American terminal Pleistocene mammal extinctions are the subject of a long-running scientific debate. Although the role of climate has figured centrally, we lack clear knowledge of the timing and nature of terminal Pleistocene climate variability. Herein we document lengthy terminal Pleistocene drought in the southwestern United States (USA) using δ13C and δ234U effective moisture proxy data in speleothem calcite (stalagmite FS2) from Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico, supplemented with age data from pool basin shelfstone speleothems from the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern. This terminal Pleistocene drought, defined by a sharp rise in both δ13C and δ234U values, began just before 14.5 k.y. ago and lasted at least until 12.9 k.y. ago, when it was briefly and only mildly interrupted by the Younger Dryas. The timing and length of this drought (∼1500 yr) match the Northern Hemisphere Bølling-Allerød oscillation preserved in Greenland ice cores and exhibited in the δ18O record of stalagmite FS2. Rapid transition from cool moist Late Glacial to warm dry Holocene-like climatic conditions was likely unfavorable to many species of Pleistocene mammals in the southwestern USA. A climate-induced extinction implies that this last glacial cycle and its termination were more extreme than previous glacial cycles and/or glacial terminations. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

New remains of Late Pleistocene mammals from the Chuí Creek, Southern Brazil

The Chui Creek, located in the southernmost Brazil, is a fossiliferous outcrop known since the late 1960s, which bears important records of late Pleistocene mammals, other vertebrates and invertebrate fossils. The presence of some taxa (e.g. Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris Linnaeus, Tapirus terrestris Linnaeus, Ozotoceros bezoarticus Linneaus), although mentioned on the literature, is still to be confirmed. Specimens from Chui Creek belonging to several collections are reexamined and new excavations and geological surveys in the area are being conducted. The new records include isolated teeth of cf. Ursidae and Rodentia (Myocastor cf. M. coypus Molina); a complete and articulated skull and jaw of a tayassuid, Catagonus Ameghino, as well as a left dentary of a juvenile ground sloth, Eremotherium cf. E. laurillardi Lund. The ongoing systematic revision led to the confirmation of the presence of the glyptodont Doedicurus Burmeister, represented by a portion of the carapace; the cervid genera Antifer Ameghino and Morenelaphus Carette; and the equids Equus Linnaeus and Hippidion Owen, represented by cranial and dental remains. These findings expand the knowledge on the diversity of the extinct fauna found in the Chui Creek, and have biogeographic, biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental implications, which are herein discussed.

Humans were contemporaneous with late Pleistocene mammals in Florida: evidence from rare earth elemental analyses

ABSTRACT In the early 20th century, human skeletal remains were excavated from the Vero Beach site in southeastern Florida in direct stratigraphic association with extinct late Pleistocene mammals, including giant ground sloths, armadillos, carnivores, camels, tapirs, and horses. Despite the demonstrable stratigraphic context, prominent scientists during the early 20th century, such as the anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička, dismissed these human remains from the Vero Beach site as younger, intrusive burials. Although several other important late Pleistocene/early Holocene sites have been found elsewhere in North America with human and extinct faunal association, the Vero Beach site remains significant because of the quality of preservation of the human skeletal remains, and its geographic location in the southeast. More recent attempts to provide age control at Vero, e.g., using direct 14C dating of associated fossil bones, have so far been unsuccessful, including in this study, almost certainly resulting from diagenesis. Here we establish the relative ages of the fossils from Vero Beach by comparing the relative uptake of REEs (rare earth elements) during fossilization. The human and late Pleistocene mammal specimens found in situ from the same stratigraphic levels (stratum 2 and the base of stratum 3) at Vero Beach have similarly high REE concentrations and patterns; the concentrations are significantly greater than those from a control group of modern mammals from the same area. We therefore interpret these data to indicate that the humans are contemporaneous with late Pleistocene mammals from the Vero Beach site in Florida.

Middle to Late Pleistocene hominin occupation in the Three Gorges region, South China

The contributions of the Chinese Paleolithic record to broader ranging paleoanthropological debates – have long been difficult to decipher. The primary problem that hinders many contributions that include or focus on the Chinese record is that relatively few regions outside of the main flagship sites/basins (e.g., Zhoukoudian, Nihewan Basin, Bose Basin) have been intensively researched. Fortunately, systematic archaeological survey and excavations in the Three Gorges region, South China over the past two decades has led to the discovery of a number of important hominin fossils and Paleolithic stone artifact assemblages that have contributed to rethinking of ideas about hominin adaptations in Pleistocene China. This paper provides a detailed review of the results of recent paleoanthropological, particularly Paleolithic archaeological, research from this region.The Three Gorges region is located in the transitional zone between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River (Changjiang River). Vertebrate paleontological studies indicate that the faunas from this region belong primarily to the Ailuropoda–Stegodon faunal complex, a group of taxa representative of a subtropical forest environment. Systematic field surveys identified sixteen Paleolithic sites in caves and along the fluvial terraces of the Yangtze River. Based on geomorphology, biostratigraphy, and geochronology studies, these sites were formed during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Follow up excavations at these sites led to the discovery of a large number of Paleolithic stone artifacts, Pleistocene mammal fossils, as well as some hominin fossils. Analysis of these materials has provided the opportunity to reconstruct hominin technological and mobility patterning in a restricted spatial point. The Paleolithic technology from the Three Gorges region is essentially an Oldowan-like industry (i.e., Mode 1 core and flake technologies) comprised of casual cores, whole flakes, fragments, and chunks as well as a low percentage of retouched pieces. The utilized stone raw material is primarily high sphericity cobbles and limestone, which were locally available along the ancient river bed and surrounding terraces. Most of the artifacts are fairly large in size. All flaking is by direct hard hammer in a single direction without core preparation. Unifacial choppers are the predominant core category, with fewer bifacial choppers, sporadic discoids, polyhedrons, and bifaces. The flake types demonstrate that the first stage of core reduction is represented by a low percentage of Type III and VI flakes. Some flakes are retouched unifacially by direct hard hammer percussion on the dorsal surface of the blanks. Archaic Homo sapiens and modern H. sapiens identified from some of the cave deposits are likely the hominins responsible for the production of the stone artifacts. Implications for Oldowan-like technological patterning in South China are discussed.