scholarly journals Morphology of Pleistocene elephant tracks on South Africa's Cape south coast and probable elephant trunk-drag impressions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Charles W. Helm ◽  
Martin G. Lockley ◽  
Lizette Moolman ◽  
Hayley C. Cawthra ◽  
Jan C. De Vynck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Coast ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Elephant Trunk ◽  
Mis 3 ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Unconsolidated Sand ◽  
Dinosaur Tracks ◽  
Repeated Use ◽  
Mis 5

Abstract Aeolianites and cemented foreshore deposits on South Africa's Cape south coast have the capacity to record and preserve events that transpired on them when they were composed of unconsolidated sand. Thirty-five Pleistocene elephant tracksites have been identified along this coastline. This abundance of sites along what was the margin of the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain allows for an appreciation of the forms that elephant tracks and traces can take in the context of the global proboscidean track record. They point to a significant regional elephant presence from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (~400 ka) through MIS 5 (~130–80 ka) to MIS 3 (~35 ka) and also indicate repeated use of certain dune areas. They buttress Holocene and historical evidence that elephants made use of open areas in the region, and that the remaining “Knysna elephants” retreated into dense afrotemperate forest for protection in recent centuries. Analogies can be drawn between Pleistocene elephant tracks and Mesozoic dinosaur tracks, and some of the Cape south coast elephant tracks are among the largest Cenozoic (and hence, Quaternary) tracks ever to be described. A newly identified tracksite in this area may provide the first reported evidence of elephant trunk-drag impressions.

scholarly journals Newly identified hominin trackways from the Cape south coast of South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 116 (9/10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Helm ◽  
Martin G. Lockley ◽  
Hayley C. Cawthra ◽  
Jan C. De Vynck ◽  
Mark G. Dixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
National Park ◽  
Nature Reserve ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
South Coast ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Track Record ◽  
The World ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage 5

Three new Pleistocene hominin tracksites have been identified on the Cape south coast of South Africa, one in the Garden Route National Park and two in the Goukamma Nature Reserve, probably dating to Marine Isotope Stage 5. As a result, southern Africa now boasts six hominin tracksites, which are collectively the oldest sites in the world that are attributed to Homo sapiens. The tracks were registered on dune surfaces, now preserved in aeolianites. Tracks of varying size were present at two sites, indicating the presence of more than one trackmaker, and raising the possibility of family groups. A total of 18 and 32 tracks were recorded at these two sites, respectively. Ammoglyphs were present at one site. Although track quality was not optimal, and large aeolianite surface exposures are rare in the region, these sites prove the capacity of coastal aeolianites to yield such discoveries, and they contribute to what remains a sparse global hominin track record. It is evident that hominin tracks are more common in southern Africa than was previously supposed.

A multiproxy record of sedimentation, pedogenesis, and environmental history in the north of West Siberia during the late Pleistocene based on the Belaya Gora section

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Vladimir Sheinkman ◽  
Sergey Sedov ◽  
Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh ◽  
Elena Bezrukova ◽  
Dmitriy Dobrynin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
West Siberia ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Partial Recovery ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Mis 3 ◽  
The North ◽  
Mis 5

Abstract Recent revision of the Pleistocene glaciation boundaries in northern Eurasia has encouraged the search for nonglacial geological records of the environmental history of northern West Siberia. We studied an alluvial paleosol-sedimentary sequence of the high terrace of the Vakh River (middle Ob basin) to extract the indicators of environmental change since Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Two levels of the buried paleosols are attributed to MIS 5 and MIS 3, as evidenced by U/Th and radiocarbon dates. Palynological and pedogenetic characteristics of the lower pedocomplex recorded the climate fluctuations during MIS 5, from the Picea-Larix taiga environment during MIS 5e to the establishment of the tundra-steppe environment due to the cooling of MIS 5d or MIS 5b and partial recovery of boreal forests with Picea and Pinus in MIS 5c or MIS 5a. The upper paleosol level shows signs of cryogenic hydromorphic pedogenesis corresponding to the tundra landscape, with permafrost during MIS 3. Boulders incorporated in a laminated alluvial deposit between the paleosols are dropstones brought from the Enisei valley by ice rafting during the cold MIS 4. An abundance of eolian morphostructures on quartz grains from the sediments that overly the upper paleosol suggests a cold, dry, and windy environment during the MIS 2 cryochron.

Continental Vertebrates During the Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) in Argentina

2016 ◽  
pp. 227-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germán Mariano Gasparini ◽  
Esteban Soibelzon ◽  
Cecilia Deschamps ◽  
Analía Francia ◽  
Elisa Beilinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Mis 3 ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage 3

scholarly journals Impact of abrupt climate change in the tropical southeast Atlantic during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Hessler ◽  
Stephan Steinke ◽  
Jeroen Groeneveld ◽  
Lydie Dupont ◽  
Gerold Wefer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Abrupt Climate Change ◽  
Mis 3

Marine Isotope Stage 3 paleotemperature inferred from reconstructing the Die Shan ice cap, northeastern Tibetan Plateau

2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 494-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hang Cui ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Beibei Yu ◽  
Zhenbo Hu ◽  
Pan Yao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Mis 3 ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

AbstractGlacial extent mapping and dating indicate that the local last glacial maximum (LLGM) of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau occurred during mid-Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. This is asynchronous with the global last glacial maximum (LGM) that occurred during MIS 2. The causes underlying this asynchronicity are the subject of ongoing debate, and paleoclimatic reconstructions are a key to advancing understanding of the climatic influence on the spatial and temporal patterns of paleoglaciation. We used multiple methods to reconstruct the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of the Die Shan paleo-ice cap on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, and to infer past temperature for ice maximum positions believed to be mid-MIS 3 in age, based on regional correlation. Geomorphic ELA reconstructions combined with an energy and mass balance model yield a paleo-ELA of 4117±31 m asl (786 m lower than present) with temperature depressions of 3.8 to ~4.6°C compared to the present. This is less than the LGM reconstruction of temperature depression inferred from other climatic proxy records on the Tibetan Plateau and suggests that the LLGM glacial advance was a product of lower temperatures and slightly reduced precipitation compared to present, whereas the LGM was a more restricted advance in which much colder conditions were combined with much lower precipitation.

The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2013: the seventh season of excavations in the Haua Fteah cave

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 163-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Farr ◽  
Ross Lane ◽  
Fadl Abdulazeez ◽  
Paul Bennett ◽  
James Holman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Southern Side ◽  
Short Season ◽  
Objective Being ◽  
Mis 5 ◽  
Deep Sounding ◽  
Cultural Data

AbstractThe paper reports the preliminary results from the short season of fieldwork that the Cyrenaican Prehistory Project was able to undertake with a small Anglo-Libyan team in September 2013. The work concentrated on continuing the excavation of Trench M down the southern side of the Middle Trench and of Trench D on the southern side of the Deep Sounding below it, the eventual objective being to link these so as to provide a high quality dataset of sedimentary and cultural data from the top to the bottom of the Pleistocene occupation deposit (some 12 m). The ~1 m of sediments investigated in Trench M in the 2013 fieldwork includes carbonate crusts possibly formed in oscillating sub-humid to arid climatic pulses, perhaps likely during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4, around 60,000–70,000 years ago. One of these crusts formed the base on which a hearth-like structure had been built. In Trench D evidence for human occupation appears to decline moving up the profile, coinciding with sedimentary evidence of more frequent disruptive climatic events possibly associated with latter stages of MIS 5.

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