The large mammals from Tuozidong (eastern China) and the Early Pleistocene environmental availability for early human settlements

Abstract The Miocene-Pliocene (Turolian-Ruscinian) transition represents a fundamental interval in the evolution of Euro-Mediterranean paleocommunities. In fact, the paleoenvironmental changes connected with the end of the Messinian salinity crisis are reflected by a major renewal in mammal faunal assemblages. An important bioevent among terrestrial large mammals is the dispersal of the genus Sus, which replaced all other suid species during the Pliocene. Despite its possible paleoecological and biochronological relevance, correlations based on this bioevent are undermined by the supposed persistence of the late surviving late Miocene Propotamochoerus provincialis. However, a recent revision of the type material of this species revealed an admixture with remains of Sus strozzii, an early Pleistocene (Middle Villafranchian to Epivillafranchian) suid, questioning both the diagnosis and chronological range of P. provincialis. Here we review the late Miocene Suidae sample recovered from the Casino Basin (Tuscany, central Italy), whose taxonomic attribution has been controversial over the nearly 150 years since its discovery. Following a comparison with other Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene Eurasian species, the Casino Suidae are assigned to P. provincialis and the species diagnosis is emended. Moreover, it is recognized that all the late Miocene (Turolian) European Propotamochoerus material belongs to P. provincialis and that there is no compelling evidence of the occurrence of this species beyond the Turolian-Ruscinian transition (MN13-MN14).

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Early human occupation in mainland East Asia: Implication for climate change and human evolution

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12194 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Rixiang Zhu

Keyword(s):

East Asia ◽

Southern China ◽

Human Migration ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Human Flourishing ◽

Old World ◽

Northern Latitudes ◽

Early Humans ◽

Early Human

<p>East Asia is a key area for early human migration and evolution in the Old World. During the early Pleistocene, humans began to spread out of Africa. Detailed magnetostratigraphic dating coupled with high-precision isotopic chronology of early humans in mainland East Asia, western and southeastern Asia has provided insights into our understanding of early human adaptability to a variety of environments in the eastern Old World. Before the Middle Pleistocene, early humans occupied over a broad latitudinal range, from temperate northern China (e.g., the Nihewan Basin and the Loess Plateau) to subtropical southern China (e.g., the Yuanmou Basin). Thus oldest recorded human dispersal to East Asia apparently culminated in the ability to adapt diverse environments. Around the Middle Pleistocene Climate Transition, when the climate of Earth underwent profound changes in the length and intensity of its glacial-interglacial cycles with the dominant periodicity of high-latitude climate oscillations changing from 41 kyr to 100 kyr, there is a prominent early human flourishing in the high northern latitudes of East Asia and geographic expansion from low, through middle, to high northern latitudes of the area. The improved ability to adjust to diverse environments for early humans could have benefited from the increasing variability of global, regional and local paleoclimates and paleoenvironments and from the innovation of diet, e.g., the use of animal tissues.</p>

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Middle to late Holocene environmental evolution of the Pisa coastal plain (Tuscany, Italy) and early human settlements

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2013.03.030 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 303 ◽

pp. 93-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

A. Amorosi ◽

M. Bini ◽

S. Giacomelli ◽

M. Pappalardo ◽

C. Ribecai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Coastal Plain ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Environmental Evolution ◽

Human Settlements ◽

Early Human

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A new species of dog from the Early Pleistocene site of Venta Micena (Orce, Baza Basin, Spain)

Comptes Rendus Palevol ◽

10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a17 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bienvenido MARTINEZ-NAVARRO ◽

Saverio BARTOLINI LUCENTI ◽

Paul PALMQVIST ◽

Sergio ROS-MONTOYA ◽

Joan MADURELL-MALAPEIRA ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Dietary Habits ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Large Mammals ◽

Fossil Material ◽

The Creation ◽

Venta Micena ◽

The Town ◽

A New Species

The site of Venta Micena (Orce, Spain), c. 1.6 Ma, preserves one the best paleontological records of the early Pleistocene large mammals fauna in Europe. Here we describe the specimens of the genus Canis Linnaeus, 1758 in the context of the late Villafranchian and Epivillafranchian fossil dogs from Eurasia. Anatomical and metric data suggest that the Venta Micena Canis form differs from the classical records of Canis etruscus Forsyth Major, 1877 and Canis arnensis Del Campana, 1913, and that it forms part of the younger Canis mosbachensis Soergel (1925) lineage, also recorded in two slightly younger sites of the Orce site complex, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3, dated to c. 1.4 Ma. The anatomy of the Venta Micena fossil material shows features that resemble the Canis forms from the Caucasian site of Dmanisi, dated to 1.8 Ma, and Canis ex gr. C. mosbachensis. Nevertheless, dental peculiarities support the creation of a new chrono-species, Canis orcensis n. sp., from the town of Orce. Morphological and paleoecological data suggest that this species probably consumed more vertebrate flesh than other similar sized early Pleistocene canids (i.e., a trend to hypercarnivory), which had more omnivorous dietary habits.

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The Genome Landscape of Tibetan Sheep Reveals Adaptive Introgression from Argali and the History of Early Human Settlements on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau

Molecular Biology and Evolution ◽

10.1093/molbev/msy208 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 283-303 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Xiao-Ju Hu ◽

Ji Yang ◽

Xing-Long Xie ◽

Feng-Hua Lv ◽

Yin-Hong Cao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Human Settlements ◽

Adaptive Introgression ◽

Tibetan Sheep ◽

History Of ◽

Early Human

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Evolution of Waterways and Early Human Settlements in the Eastern Baltic Area: Radiocarbon-Based Chronology

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200042442 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 527-542 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

P M Dolukhanov ◽

A M Shukurov ◽

Kh A Arslanov ◽

D A Subetto ◽

G I Zaitseva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Karelian Isthmus ◽

Human Settlements ◽

The North ◽

Ladoga Lake ◽

Initial Settlement ◽

Neva River ◽

Baltic Area ◽

Early Human ◽

Eastern Baltic ◽

Rapid Regression

Newly obtained radiocarbon measurements are used to suggest that the initial settlement of the northeastern Baltic area was largely controlled by the Ladoga-Baltic waterway in the north of the Karelian Isthmus, which emerged ∼11,500 cal BP and remained in action for ∼7000 yr. The transgression of Ladoga Lake started ∼5000 cal BP and reached its maximum at ∼3000 cal BP (∼1100–1000 cal BC). The formation of a new outlet via the Neva River led to a rapid regression of the lake that stimulated the spread of farming populations.

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