Cetopirus complanatus (Cirripedia: Coronulidae) from the late Middle Pleistocene human settlement of Pinnacle Point 13B (Mossel Bay, South Africa)

The late Middle Pleistocene cave site of Pinnacle Point 13B (PP13B, South Africa) has provided the archaeologically oldest evidences yet known of human consumption of marine resources. Among the marine invertebrates recognised at PP13B, an isolated whale barnacle compartment was tentatively determined as Coronula diadema and regarded as indirect evidence of human consumption of a baleen whale (likely Megaptera novaeangliae). In this paper we redetermine this coronulid specimen as Cetopirus complanatus. This record significantly extends the fossil history of C. complanatus back by about 150 ky, thus partially bridging the occurrence of Cetopirus fragilis in the early Pleistocene to the latest Quaternary record of C. complanatus. Since C. complanatus is currently known as a highly specific phoront of right whales (Eubalaena spp.), we propose that the late Middle Pleistocene human groups that inhabited PP13B fed on a stranded southern right whale. Therefore, the whale barnacle from PP13B suggests the persistence of a southern right whale population off South Africa during the predominantly glacial MIS 6, thus evoking the continuity of cetacean migrations and antitropical distribution during that global cold phase. Interestingly, the most ancient evidence of humans feeding on a whale involves Eubalaena, historically the most exploited cetacean genus, and currently still seriously threatened with extinction due to human impact.

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Cosmogenic burial dating of in cave-deposited alluvium: unravelling long-term incision rates and complex speleogenesis in multi-level cave systems

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19598 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gilles Rixhon ◽

Didier L. Bourlès ◽

Régis Braucher ◽

Alexandre Peeters ◽

Alain Demoulin

Keyword(s):

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Fluvial Terrace ◽

Base Level ◽

Cave System ◽

River Incision ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

History Of ◽

Multi Level

Multi-level cave systems record the history of regional river incision in abandoned alluvium-filled phreatic passages which, mimicking fluvial terrace sequences, represent former phases of fluvial base-level stability. In this respect, cosmogenic burial dating of in cave-deposited alluvium (usually via the nuclide pair 26Al/10Be) represents a suitable method to quantify the pace of long-term river incision. Here, we present a dataset of fifteen 26Al/10Be burial ages measured in fluvial pebbles washed into a multi-level cave system developed in Devonian limestone of the uplifted Ardenne massif (eastern Belgium). The large and well-documented Chawresse system is located along the lower Ourthe valley (i.e. the main Ardennian tributary of the Meuse river) and spans altogether an elevation difference exceeding 120 m.The depleted 26Al/10Be ratios measured in four individual caves show two main outcomes. Firstly, computed burial ages ranging from ~0.2 to 3.3 Ma allows highlighting an acceleration by almost one order of magnitude of the incision rates during the first half of the Middle Pleistocene (from ~25 to ~160 m/Ma). Secondly, according to the relative elevation above the present-day floodplain of the sampled material in the Manants cave (<35 m), the four internally-consistent Early Pleistocene burial ages highlight an &#8220;anomalous&#8221; old speleogenesis in the framework of a gradual base-level lowering. They instead point to intra-karsting reworking of the sampled material in the topographically complex Manants cave. This in turn suggests an independent, long-lasting speleogenetic evolution of this specific cave, which differs from the per descensum model of speleogenesis generally acknowledged for the regional multi-level cave systems and their abandoned phreatic galleries. In addition to its classical use for inferring long-term incision rates, cosmogenic burial dating can thus contribute to better understand specific and complex speleogenetic evolution.

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Immature remains and the first partial skeleton of a juvenile Homo naledi, a late Middle Pleistocene hominin from South Africa

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0230440 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. e0230440 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Debra R. Bolter ◽

Marina C. Elliott ◽

John Hawks ◽

Lee R. Berger

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene ◽

Partial Skeleton

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Genus Apodemus in the Pleistocene of Central Europe: when did the extant taxa appear?

Fossil Imprint ◽

10.2478/if-2017-0024 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 73 (3-4) ◽

pp. 460-481 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Markéta Knitlová ◽

Ivan Horáček

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

Taxonomic Status ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Morphometric Characteristics ◽

Variation Pattern ◽

Fossil Species ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

Extant Species ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene

Abstract The extant species of the genus Apodemus represent the most common small mammals of Central Europe. Unfortunately, their phylogenetic past is only poorly known. With the aid of detailed biometric analyses we tried to identify the first appearance of the phenotypic patterns characterizing the extant populations. We examined dental material of Apodemus from 53 community samples from the territory of the Czech Republic and Slovakia dated from the early Villanyian (MN 16/17) to the late Middle Pleistocene (Q 3) with particular respect to their correspondence with the morphometric characteristics of the extant species. While the Toringian (Q 3) interglacial samples invariably include forms identical with the extant taxa A. flavicollis, A. sylvaticus and supposedly A. uralensis (including the items corresponding to A. maastrichtiensis), the samples of Early Pleistocene age (MN 17 – Q 2) exhibited clear differences in the variation pattern which results in questioning the possibility of their co-identification with the respective extant species. In most instances they varied within the limits in resembling A. sylvaticus but exceeded its variation ranges in some non-metric characters. Regarding serious doubts on real taxonomic status of other named fossil species we propose to denote these Plio-Pleistocene sylvaticus-like phenotypes provisionally with the prior name A. atavus Heller, 1936.

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Extirpations and extinctions: a plant microfossil-based history of the demise of rainforest and wet sclerophyll communities in the Lake George basin, Southern Tablelands of NSW, south-east Australia

Australian Journal of Botany ◽

10.1071/bt19076 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 68 (3) ◽

pp. 208 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mike Macphail ◽

Brad Pillans ◽

Geoff Hope ◽

Dan Clark

Keyword(s):

Water Levels ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Temperate Rainforest ◽

Late Pliocene ◽

Eastern Australia ◽

History Of ◽

Lake George ◽

Plant Microfossil

Sites recording the extinction or extirpation of tropical–subtropical and cool–cold temperate rainforest genera during the Plio–Pleistocene aridification of Australia are scattered across the continent, with most preserving only partial records from either the Pliocene or Pleistocene. The highland Lake George basin is unique in accumulating sediment over c. 4 Ma although interpretation of the plant microfossil record is complicated by its size (950km2), neotectonic activity and fluctuating water levels. A comparison of this and other sites confirms (1) the extinction of rainforest at Lake George was part of the retreat of Nothofagus-gymnosperm communities across Australia during the Plio–Pleistocene; (2) communities of warm- and cool-adapted rainforest genera growing under moderately warm-wet conditions in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene have no modern analogues; (3) the final extirpation of rainforest taxa at Lake George occurred during the Middle Pleistocene; and (4) the role of local wildfires is unresolved although topography, and, elsewhere, possibly edaphic factors allowed temperate rainforest genera to persist long after these taxa became extinct or extirpated at low elevations across much of eastern Australia. Araucaria, which is now restricted to the subtropics–tropics in Australia, appears to have survived into Middle Pleistocene time at Lake George, although the reason remains unclear.

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Rediscovering Lutra lutra from Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) in the framework of the puzzling evolutionary history of Eurasian otter

PalZ ◽

10.1007/s12542-021-00553-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Beniamino Mecozzi ◽

Alessio Iannucci ◽

Fabio Bona ◽

Ilaria Mazzini ◽

Pierluigi Pieruccini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Lutra Lutra ◽

Multidisciplinary Research ◽

Historical Collections ◽

Eurasian Otter ◽

History Of ◽

Early Late ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractA river otter hemimandible has been rediscovered during the revision of the historical collections of G.A. Blanc from Grotta Romanelli, complementing the ongoing multidisciplinary research fieldwork on the site. The specimen, recovered from the level G (“terre rosse”; early Late Pleistocene or late Middle Pleistocene), is here assigned to Lutra lutra. Indeed, morphological and morphometric comparisons with other Quaternary Lutrinae fossils from Europe allow to exclude an attribution to the relatively widespread and older Lutra simplicidens, characterized by distinctive carnassial proportions. Differences with Cyrnaonyx antiqua, which possessed a more robust, shellfish-feeding dentition, support the view of a successful niche repartition between the two species during the late Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe. The occurrence of Lutra lutra from the “terre rosse” of Grotta Romanelli suggests deep modifications of the landscapes due to the ecological adaptation of the taxon, and indicates that the Eurasian otter spread into Europe at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition.

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Human mandibular incisors from the late Middle Pleistocene locality of Hoedjiespunt 1, South Africa

Journal of Human Evolution ◽

10.1006/jhev.2001.0488 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 41 (5) ◽

pp. 369-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Deano D. Stynder ◽

Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi ◽

Lee R. Berger ◽

John E. Parkington

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene ◽

Mandibular Incisors

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Quaternary evolution of the Southern Apennines coastal plains: a review

Geologica Carpathica ◽

10.1515/geoca-2017-0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 68 (1) ◽

pp. 43-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Nicoletta Santangelo ◽

Paola Romano ◽

Alessandra Ascione ◽

Elda Russo Ermolli

Keyword(s):

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Coastal Plains ◽

Southern Apennines ◽

History Of ◽

Coastal Basins ◽

Campanian Plain ◽

Southwestern Margin ◽

Sele Plain ◽

Back Arc ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene

AbstractThe Quaternary evolution of the main coastal basins located along the southwestern margin of the Southern Apennines has been reconstructed by integrating the huge amount of existing stratigraphical and geomorphological data. The information produced in the last twenty years has shed new light on the recent (late Middle Pleistocene to Present) history of the Campanian and Sele plains or basins. During the early Quaternary, the analysed coastal basins originated as half-grabens in response to opening processes active since the late Tortonian in the southern Tyrrhenian back-arc basin. In some of these basins (e.g. the Campanian Plain), volcanism has also played an important role. In the inner sectors of the coastal basins, the complex interplay between block faulting, sedimentary inputs and glacioeustatic fluctuations gave rise to relative sea-level change and related coastline migrations, leading to the formation of the present-day coastal plains. In the Sele Plain basin, the construction of the present-day landscape mainly resulted from the substantial ceasing of subsidence in the final part of the Middle Pleistocene. Conversely, a strong contribution to the recent evolution of the Campanian Plain has been provided by abundant volcaniclastic aggradation, able to hinder the effect of the vertical motions that occurred in the last 100 ka.

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Fossil record of a Characiform in the Monte Hermoso Formation (lower Pliocene), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Palaeobiogeographical implications

Comptes Rendus Palevol ◽

10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a4 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sergio BOGAN ◽

Federico AGNOLIN ◽

Juan Marcos MIRANDE

Keyword(s):

Fossil Record ◽

Buenos Aires ◽

Indirect Evidence ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Buenos Aires Province ◽

Present Contribution ◽

Southern Boundary ◽

Pampean Region ◽

First Time ◽

Late Middle Pleistocene

The fossil record of fishes from the Farola de Monte Hermoso locality (lower Pliocene) in the southern Buenos Aires province, Argentina, shows an unusual composition. The locality at the southern boundary of the Brazilian Ichthyogeographic Realm. However, its fossil record is composed of fossil fishes that are not necessarily related to Brazilian lineages, namely indeterminate siluriforms, trichomycterid catfishes, and percomorphaceans. The aim of the present contribution is to describe and report for the first time isolated specimens belonging to Characidae fishes. In the Pampean region the fossil record of characids is restricted to Oligosarcus Günther, 1864 sp. from the late-middle Pleistocene. The present finding fills a temporal gap between the Paleogene and Quaternary reports and indicates that Brazilian fish lineages were present in the area by early Pliocene times, and may constitute an indirect evidence of the evolution of the basins in the southern Pampean Area.

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