Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus 1758 from the Middle Pleistocene of Quecchia Quarry (Brescia, Northern Italy)

During the Plio-Pleistocene the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus, 1758 was widely distributed throughout Europe and North Africa (Szalay and Delson, 1979; Delson, 1980; Rook et al., 2001), and it became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene (Elton and O’Regan, 2014). Nowadays this primate is still present in North Africa and a small population has been reintroduced at Gibraltar (Modolo et al., 2005). The taxonomy of the Plio-Pleistocene European macaques is still debated but many authors agree in considering all the fossils as belonging to the M. sylvanus lineage, while the Pleistocene endemic M. majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia (Italy) has been considered a distinct valid species (Rook and O’Higgins, 2005). The occurrence of this species is documented from Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene sites located in Northern and Central Italy. Here we describe unpublished dentognathic remains of Macaca sylvanus from the Middle Pleistocene site of Quecchia Quarry (Botticino, Brescia, North Italy)

Comparative analysis of range sizes in Helicidae s.l. (Pulmonata, Gastropoda)

I analysed the importance of shell size, shell shape, habitat preferences and availability, experienced climate, active dispersal and influence of Pleistocene glaciations for the range sizes of 37 Western Palaearctic Helicidae s.l. species for which a phylogeny was available. In both cross-species and phylogenetically controlled analyses, the range sizes were positively correlated to climatic tolerance, shell size, active dispersal and influence of Pleistocene glaciations. In addition, range sizes increased significantly with latitude. Multiple regression suggested that, predominantly, the influence of Pleistocene glaciations, tolerance to large annual temperature ranges and shell size influenced the distributional range sizes. Habitat preference, range and availability, active dispersal and shell shape explained no additional variance. The results suggest that the processes influencing species range size of the Helicidae s.l. are mainly related to the climatic shifts after the Pleistocene

Steppes, savannahs, forests and phytodiversity reservoirs during the Pleistocene in the Iberian Peninsula

A palaeobotanical analysis of the Pleistocene floras and vegetation in the Iberian Peninsula shows the existence of patched landscapes with Pinus woodlands, deciduous and mixed forests, parklands (savannah-like), shrublands, steppes and grasslands. Extinctions of Arctotertiary woody taxa are recorded during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, but glacial refugia facilitated the survival of a number of temperate, Mediterranean and Ibero-North African woody angiosperms. The responses of Iberian vegetation to climatic changes during the Pleistocene have been spatially and temporarily complex, including rapid changes of vegetation in parallel to orbital and suborbital variability, and situations of multi-centennial resilience or accommodation to climatic changes. Regional characteristics emerged as soon as for the Middle Pleistocene, if not earlier: Ericaceae in the Atlantic coast indicating wetter climate, thermo-mediterranean elements in the south as currently, and broad-leaf trees in the northeastern. Overall, steppe landscapes and open Pinus woodlands prevailed over many continental regions during the cold spells of the Late Pleistocene. The maintenance of a high phytodiversity during the glacials was linked to several refuge zones in the coastal shelves of the Mediterranean and intramountainous valleys. Northern Iberia, especially on coastal areas, was also patched with populations of tree species, and this is not only documented by palaeobotanical data (pollen, charcoal) but also postulated by phylogeographical models

Uppermost Pleistocene shrews (Mammalia, Soricidae) from Vaskapu Cave (N-Hungary)

Three shrew species (Sorex araneus LINNAEUS1758, Sorex minutus LlNNAEUS1766 and Sorex alpinus SHINZ1837) were found in the fossiliferous sediments of Vaskapu Cave, near Felsötárkány. The probable stratigraphical position of the sample is Upper Pleistocene, Pilisszántó Horizon (Upper Würm), about 15,000 years B.P. A cold period of the Late Pleistocene with wooded environment is indicated by the soricid assemblage

Chinchillidae and Dolichotinae rodents (Rodentia: Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha) from the late Pleistocene of Southern Brazil

New records of rodents from the late Pleistocene Chuí Creek, Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil, are here described. A partial dentary with fragmented cheek teeth is identified as Chinchillidae, Lagostomus Brookes cf. L. maximus (Desmarest). Other two specimens are identified as cheek teeth of Dolichotinae indet. (Caviidae). Pleistocene fossils of Lagostomus were previously reported for Argentina and Uruguay. The material of Lagostomus from Chuí Creek represents the first confidently record of this taxon Brazil. Pleistocene fossil remains of Dolichotinae have been found in Argentina, Uruguay and other areas of southern Brazil, though the Brazilian find lack precise stratigraphic information. These new records widen the paleobiogeographic distribution of Lagostomus and confirm the presence of Dolichotinae during the late Pleistocene of southern Brazil.Fil: Kerber, Leonardo. Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Pereira Lopes, Renato. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Vucetich, María Guiomar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ribeiro, Ana Maria. Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Pereira, Jamil. Museu Coronel Tancredo Fernandes de Mello; Brasi

Technological innovations at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition in high-latitude East Asia

The interplay between Pleistocene climatic variability and hominin adaptations to diverse terrestrial ecosystems is a key topic in human evolutionary studies. Early and Middle Pleistocene environmental change and its relation to hominin behavioural responses has been a subject of great interest in Africa and Europe, though little information is available for other key regions of the Old World, particularly from Eastern Asia. Here we examine key Early Pleistocene sites of the Nihewan Basin, in high-latitude northern China, dating between ∼1.4 to 1.0 million years ago (Ma). We compare stone tool assemblages from three Early Pleistocene sites in the Nihewan Basin, including detailed assessment of stone tool refitting sequences at the ∼1.1 Ma-old site of Cenjiawan. Increased toolmaking skills and technological innovations are evident in the Nihewan Basin at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition (MPT). Examination of the lithic technology of the Nihewan sites, together with an assessment of other key Palaeolithic sites of China, indicates that toolkits show increasing diversity at the outset of the MPT and in its aftermath. The overall evidence indicates the adaptive flexibility of early hominins to ecosystem changes since the MPT, though regional abandonments are also apparent in high-latitudes, likely owing to cold and oscillating environmental conditions. The view presented here sharply contrasts with traditional arguments that stone tool technologies of China are homogeneous and continuous over the course of the Early Pleistocene.Introduction Results - Stone-tool-knapping skills recorded in the Cenjiawan assemblage - Technological comparisons of the Nihewan Basin assemblages Discussio

Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin : experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution

In terminal Pliocene-early Pleistocene times, part of the Malawi Basin was occupied by paleo-lake Chiwondo. Molluscan biostratigraphy situates this freshwater lake either in the East African wet phase between 2.7-2.4 Ma or that of 2.0-1.8 Ma. In-lake divergent evolution remained restricted to a few molluscan taxa and was very modest. The lacustrine Chiwondo fauna went extinct at the beginning of the Pleistocene. The modern Lake Malawi malacofauna is depauperate and descends from ubiquistic southeast African taxa and some Malawi basin endemics that invaded the present lake after the Late Pleistocene mega-droughts. The Pleistocene aridity crises caused dramatic changes, affecting the malacofauna of all East African lakes. All lacustrine endemic faunas that had evolved in the Pliocene rift lakes, such as paleo-lake Chiwondo, became extinct. In Lake Tanganyika, the freshwater ecosystem did not crash as in other lakes, but the environmental changes were sufficiently important to trigger a vast radiation. All African endemic lacustrine molluscan clades that are the result of in-lake divergence are hence geologically young, including the vast Lavigeria clade in Lake Tanganyika (ca. 43 species)

Pleistocene hominins as a resource for carnivores. A c. 500,000-year-old human femur bearing tooth-marks in North Africa (Thomas Quarry I, Morocco)

In many Middle Pleistocene sites, the co-occurrence of hominins with carnivores, who both contributed to faunal accumulations, suggests competition for resources as well as for living spaces. Despite this, there is very little evidence of direct interaction between them to-date. Recently, a human femoral diaphysis has been recognized in South-West of Casablanca (Morocco), in the locality called Thomas Quarry I. This site is famous for its Middle Pleistocene fossil hominins considered representatives of Homo rhodesiensis. The bone was discovered in Unit 4 of the Grotte à Hominidés (GH), dated to c. 500 ky and was associated with Acheulean artefacts and a rich mammalian fauna. Anatomically, it fits well within the group of known early Middle Pleistocene Homo, but its chief point of interest is that the diaphyseal ends display numerous tooth marks showing that it had been consumed shortly after death by a large carnivore, probably a hyena. This bone represents the first evidence of consumption of human remains by carnivores in the cave. Whether predated or scavenged, this chewed femur indicates that humans were a resource for carnivores, underlining their close relationships during the Middle Pleistocene in Atlantic Morocco

Clay Mineralogy of Red Clay Deposits from the Central Carpathian Basin (Hungary): Implications for Plio/Pleistocene Chemical Weathering and Paleoclimate

Geochemical and mineralogical studies of palaeosols provide essential information for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of continental deposits and can present a proxy for palaeoclimate. Red clays in the central Carpathian Basin (Hungary) (Tengelic Red Clay Formation; Kerecsend Red Clay Formation), overlain by loess-palaeosol sequences, were studied. Results from geochemical climofunctions applied to Upper Pliocene–Lower Pleistocene red clays and palaeosols located in the Carpathian Basin, and clay mineralogy, indicate that the palaeoclimate was considerably more humid and warmer during the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene in comparison to modern values