Late Pleistocene leopards across Europe – northernmost European German population, highest elevated records in the Swiss Alps, complete skeletons in the Bosnia Herzegowina Dinarids and comparison to the Ice Age cave art

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 167-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cajus G. Diedrich
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
German Population ◽  
Cave Art

Palaeolithic Cave Art at Creswell Crags in European Context

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Southern France ◽  
European Context ◽  
The World ◽  
Cave Art ◽  
Illustrated Book

Cave art is a subject of perennial interest among archaeologists. Until recently it was assumed that it was largely restricted to southern France and northern Iberia, although in recent years new discoveries have demonstrated that it originally had a much wider distribution. The discovery in 2003 of the UK's first examples of cave art, in two caves at Creswell Crags on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border, was the most surprising illustration of this. The discoverers (the editors of the book) brought together in 2004 a number of Palaeolithic archaeologists and rock art specialists from across the world to study the Creswell art and debate its significance, and its similarities and contrasts with contemporary Late Pleistocene ("Ice Age") art on the Continent. This comprehensively illustrated book presents the Creswell art itself, the archaeology of the caves and the region, and the wider context of the Upper Palaeolithic era in Britain, as well as a number of up-to-date studies of Palaeolithic cave art in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy which serve to contextualize the British examples.

Emergence of critical climate states during the Pleistocene

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Golledge
Keyword(s):  
Dynamical Systems ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Dominant Frequency ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Glacial Cycles ◽  
Pleistocene Climate ◽  
System Nodes ◽  
Systems Framework

<p>During the Pleistocene (approximately 2.6 Ma to present) glacial to interglacial climate variability evolved from dominantly 40 kyr cyclicity (Early Pleistocene) to 100 kyr cyclicity (Late Pleistocene to present). Three aspects of this period remain poorly understood: Why did the dominant frequency of climate oscillation change, given that no major changes in orbital forcing occurred? Why are the longer glacial cycles of the Late Pleistocene characterised by a more asymmetric form with abrupt terminations? And how can the Late Pleistocene climate be controlled by 100 kyr cyclicity when astronomical forcings of this frequency are so much weaker than those operating on shorter periods? Here we show that the decreasing frequency and increasing asymmetry that characterise Late Pleistocene ice age cycles both emerge naturally in dynamical systems in response to increasing system complexity, with collapse events (terminations) occuring only once a critical state has been reached. Using insights from network theory we propose that evolution to a state of criticality involves progressive coupling between climate system 'nodes', which ultimately allows any component of the climate system to trigger a globally synchronous termination. We propose that the climate state is synchronised at the 100 kyr frequency, rather than at shorter periods, because eccentricity-driven insolation variability controls mean temperature change globally, whereas shorter-period astronomical forcings only affect the spatial pattern of thermal forcing and thus do not favour global synchronisation. This dynamical systems framework extends and complements existing theories by accomodating the differing mechanistic interpretations of previous studies without conflict.</p>

scholarly journals Palynological profile and depositional environment of the Ishim formation (upper Miocene) in Tobol-Ishim interfluve, Western Siberia

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 103-123
Author(s):  
O. B. Kuzmina ◽  
I. V. Khazina ◽  
P. V. Smirnov ◽  
A. O. Konstantinov ◽  
A. R. Agatova
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Organic Substance ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Quaternary Sediments ◽  
Upper Miocene ◽  
Neogene Sediments ◽  
First Time

For the first time some outcrops of the Upper Miocene Ishim Formation on the south of Tyumen Area near Pyatkovo, Masali and Bigila villages are studied by palynological method in detail. A series of mineralogical analyzes of these sediments and radiocarbon analysis of the Quaternary sediments overlying the Ishim Formation are done. Four palynocomplexes (PC) are established in the Ishim Formation: PC1 with Botryococcus; PC2 with Botryococcus, Sigmopollis; PC3 with Alnus, Polypodiaceae, Botryococcus, Sigmopollis; PC4 with Betula, Alnus, Corylus. The layers with PC1, PC2 и PC3 are traced in two outcrops near Masali and Bigila Villages. PC4 is revealed from the sands and aleuropelits of the outcrop near Pyatkovo Village, it is characterized by a significant content of diverse pollen of temperate termophylic broad-leafed taxa and by the presence of rare typical Miocene elements (Таxodiaceae, Nyssa, Tsuga). The PC3 and PC4 are compared with the complexes well known from the Neogene sediments of Western Siberia. PC5 with Betula, Herbae, Fungi is revealed from the bedded silts overlying the Ishim Formation in Masali outcrop. Previously, these sediments were attributed to the Late Miocene Pavlodar Formation. The composition and the structure of PC5 allowed making an assumption about Quaternary age of the enclosing sediments. Radiocarbon analysis of the organic substance from the silts showed, that these sediments were accumulated in the Late Pleistocene (Sartan Ice Age). For the first time the information about microphytoplankton (Botryococcus, Pediastrum, Zygnemataceae, Sigmopollis) and other nonpollen palynomorphs, contained in Ishim Formation (Upper Miocene) and in Pleistocene sediments, is given. On palynological data, some stages of development of the Late Miocene Ishim Basin and the type of vegetation surrounding this basin are considered. The depositional environment of Pleistocene sediments (Masali outcrop) is reconstructed.

Beringia as an Ice Age genetic museum

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Shapiro ◽  
Alan Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Landscape Mosaics ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractThousands of Late Pleistocene remains are found in sites throughout Beringia. These specimens comprise an Ice Age genetic museum, and the DNA contained within them provide a means to observe evolutionary processes within populations over geologically significant time scales. Phylogenetic analyses can identify the taxonomic positions of extinct species and provide estimates of speciation dates. Geographic and temporal divisions apparent in the genetic data can be related to ecological change, human impacts, and possible landscape mosaics in Beringia. The application of ancient DNA techniques to traditional paleontological studies provides a new perspective to long-standing questions regarding the paleoenvironment and diversity of Late Pleistocene Beringia.

Scandinavian Rock-engravings

Antiquity ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 11 (41) ◽  
pp. 56-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grahame Clark
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Made In ◽  
Cave Art

The discovery of the cave art of France and Spain did more than anything else to make the ordinary man aware of the immense significance of the discoveries made in the field of pleistocene man during the nineteenth century. In many ways the superior of the conventionally accepted ‘art’ of the day, the paintings and engravings captured the imagination of people to whom flints and bones meant little. They made real the existence of man in the ice age, and through them men could look into a primitive world, situated not in the distant places of the earth, but close to the centres of modern civilization.

Post-glacial dynamics of alpine Little Ice Age glacitectonized frozen landforms (Swiss Alps)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Wee ◽  
Reynald Delaloye ◽  
Chloé Barboux
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Sar Interferometry ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Permafrost Degradation ◽  
Mass Wasting ◽  
Ground Ice ◽  
Slope Movements ◽  
Glacier Ice

<p>Glaciers and frozen debris landforms have coexisted and episodically interacted throughout the Holocene, the former having altered the development, spatial distribution and thermal regime of the latter. In the Alps, the apogee of last interaction phase occurred during the Little Ice Age (LIA). Since then, due to glacier shrinkage, interactions between glaciers and LIA pre-existing frozen debris have gradually diminished and are leaning towards being non-existent. Post-LIA glacier forefields in permafrost environments, including associated glacitectonized frozen landforms (GFL) have shifted from a thermal and mechanical glacier dominant regime towards a periglacial or even post-periglacial regime. GFL are undergoing thermal and mechanical readjustments in response to both the longer-term glacier recession and the more recent drastic climatic warming. They can be expressed by a combination of mass-wasting processes and thaw-induced subsidence.</p><p> </p><p>In various regions of the Swiss Alps, slope movements occurring in a periglacial context have been inventoried in previous works using differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) (Barboux et al., 2014). In the scope of this study, and focusing solely on mass-wasting GFL, the former inventory allowed the identification of the latter under various spatial configurations within LIA glacier forefields. While most observed GFL are disconnected from the associated glacier, some are still connected. Additionally, ground ice occurs as interstitial or massive (buried) glacier ice. This potentially infers the ongoing of non-uniform morphodynamical readjustments.</p><p> </p><p>To understand the site-specific behaviour of GFL, the analysis of long-term time-series of permafrost monitoring and multi-temporal high-resolution Digital Elevation Models will allow the assessment of the recent evolution of the Aget and Ritord/Challand LIA glacier forefields (46°00’32’’ N, 7°14’20’’ E and 45°57’10’’ N, 7°14’52’’ E, respectively) and their associated GFL (i.e. push-moraines). Both glacier forefields present a contrasting spatial configuration, making their morphodynamical evolution to differ partly from one another. The Aget push-moraine is a back-creeping GFL, which has been disconnected from the Aget glacier since the 1940s at latest. For the last two decades, surface displacement velocities have decelerated in comparison to the accelerating regional trend (PERMOS, 2019). Additionally, a 30% decrease of the electrical resistivity of the frozen ground, combined with locally observed thaw-induced subsidence of up to 10 cm/year suggest an advanced permafrost degradation. The Ritord/Challand system presents a push-moraine disconnected from its glacier as well as several push-moraines connected to a still existing debris-covered glacier. Between 2016 and 2019, surface lowering up to 10 m attesting massive ice melt has been locally detected in the former where buried glacier ice was visually observed. Whereas in the latter, subtle surface displacements ranging from 10 to 30 cm/year occur. This confirms the heterogeneity of the morphodynamical processes occurring in GFL, expressed as a function of both their spatial configuration and ground ice properties.</p><p> </p><p>Barboux, C., Delaloye R. and Lambiel, C. (2014). Inventorying slope movements in an Alpine environment using DInSAR. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 39/15, 2087-2099.</p><p>PERMOS 2019. Permafrost in Switzerland 2014/2015 to 2017/2018. Noetzli, J., Pellet, C., and Staub, B. (eds.), Glaciological Report (Permafrost) No. 16-19 of the Cryospheric Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, 104.</p>

The Grotta di Cala dei Genovesi – New studies on the Ice Age cave art on Sicily

2013 ◽  
Vol 88 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiano Tusa ◽  
Gianpiero di Maida ◽  
Andreas Pastoors ◽  
Henny Piezonka ◽  
Gerd-Christian Weniger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Age ◽  
Cave Art

scholarly journals Ice-volume changes of selected glaciers in the Swiss Alps since the end of the 19th century

2007 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 145-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Bauder ◽  
Martin Funk ◽  
Matthias Huss
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Volume Changes ◽  
Thickness Change ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThe evolution of surface topography of glaciers in the Swiss Alps is well documented with high-resolution aerial photographs repeatedly recorded since the 1960s and further back in time with topographic maps including elevation contour lines first surveyed in the mid-19th century. In order to quantify and interpret glacier changes in the Swiss Alps, time series of volume changes over the last 100–150 years have been collected. The available datasets provide a detailed spatial resolution for the retreat period since the end of the Little Ice Age. The spatial distribution as well as temporal variations of the thickness change were analyzed. A significant ice loss since the end of the 19th century was observed in the ablation area, while the changes in the accumulation area were small. We found moderate negative secular rates until the 1960s, followed by steady to positive rates for about two decades and strong ice loss starting in the 1980s which has lasted until the present. An evaluation of 19 glaciers revealed a total ice volume loss of about 13km3 since the 1870s, of which 8.7 km3 occurred since the 1920s and 3.5 km3 since 1980. Decadal mean net balance rates for the periods 1920–60, 1960–80 and 1980–present are –0.29, –0.03 and –0.53ma–1w.e., respectively.

Pleistocene Images outside Europe.

1991 ◽  
Vol 57 (01) ◽  
pp. 91-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Bahn
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Central Basin ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Artistic Activity ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dating Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
Different Parts

At first sight it may seem a pointless exercise to produce a survey of late Pleistocene ‘artistic activity’ around the world, but there are two specific aims involved here: first, to show that human beings in different parts of the world were producing ‘art’ at roughly the same time, i.e. from about 40,000 BC onward, and particularly at the end of the Pleistocene, from about 12,0000 BC, and second, to show that the well known Ice Age art of Europe is no longer unique, but part of a far more widespread phenomenon (Bahn 1987; Bahn and Vertut 1988, 26–32). The European art remains supreme in its quantity and its ‘quality’ (i.e. its realism and its wide range of techniques), but that situation may well alter in the next decade or two as new discoveries are made elsewhere and new dating methods are refined and extended.Ironically, the first clue to Pleistocene art outside Europe was found as long ago as 1870, only a few years after Edouard Lartet's and Henry Christy's discoveries in southern France were authenticated. Unfortunately, the object in question was badly published, and dis-appeared from 1895 until its rediscovery in 1956, and consequently very few works on Pleistocene art mention it. This mineralized sacrum of an extinct fossil camelid was found at Tequixquiac in the northern part of the central basin of Mexico. The bone is carved and engraved (two nostrils have been cut into the end) so as to represent the head of a pig-like or dog-like animal (pl. 18a). The circumstances of its discovery are unclear, but it is thought to be from a late Pleistocene bone bed, and to be at least 11,000 or 12,000 years old (Aveleyra 1965; Messmacher 1981,94). At present it is on exhibit in Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology.

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