Quaternary, Volume 8, Issue 1 (March 2025) – 16 articles

The timing, cause, and magnitude of mammalian extinctions during the African Middle Pleistocene remain largely unresolved. The demise of Elephas/Palaeoloxodon recki, a lineage that had a great geographic and temporal span, represents a particularly enigmatic case of megafaunal extinction. Previous studies of Early Pleistocene fossil material have proposed that this lineage was a strict C₄-grazer, with its dietary specialization causing its extinction during a period of climatic instability that coincided with the Late Acheulean. Others have associated its disappearance with overhunting by hominins during the same period. We contribute to this debate by analyzing carbon and oxygen isotope data from the tooth enamel of late Early and Middle Pleistocene Palaeoloxodon specimens from various localities in the Afar Rift. To contextualize the isotopic data of Palaeoloxodon within its broader ecosystem, we also provide data from non-elephant species. Carbon isotope values indicate that while C₄ plants dominated diets, varying amounts of C₃ vegetation were also consumed throughout this period. Oxygen isotope values reflect an initial focus on stable water sources that were later broadened to include transient sources. Serially sampled teeth of P. cf. recki recki from Late Acheulean contexts in the Megenta research area show no significant seasonal shifts in δ¹³C or δ¹⁸O values, even during a period of heightened climatic instability regionally. Taken together, our results suggest that Palaeoloxodon was capable of flexibility in diet and drinking habits which belies its morphological specializations. Our results do not support the idea that an inability to adapt to climatic instability caused the extinction of P. recki recki during the Late Acheulean. There is also currently no solid evidence that hominin hunting activities were the cause. However, we cannot discount the potential cumulative impact of climatic-induced environmental pressures and advancements in hominin hunting technologies during the early Middle Stone Age on the eventual extinction of the Palaeoloxodon lineage during the Middle–Late Pleistocene interface. Full article

The Yucatán Peninsula, a key region of the ancient Maya civilization, has long presented challenges in establishing absolute chronological frameworks for its cultural practices. While the central regions of Mesoamerica have been extensively studied, the southern areas, including the Yucatán, remain underexplored. Limekilns, integral to lime production in pre-Hispanic Maya society, are well suited for archaeomagnetic studies due to the high temperatures (>700 °C) required for their operation. This study analyzed 108 specimens from 12 limekilns near Mérida, Yucatán, using rock-magnetic experiments and progressive alternating field demagnetization to refine the absolute chronology and determine the continuity of the lime production technology. Thermoremanent magnetization was predominantly carried by magnetite-like phases. Archaeomagnetic directions were successfully obtained for ten kilns with robust precision parameters. Age intervals were calculated using global geomagnetic models (SHA.DIF.14K, SHAWQ.2K), local paleosecular variation curves, and a Bootstrap resampling method. The analysis identified apparently two distinct chronological clusters: one between 900 and 1000 AD, associated with the Late–Terminal Classic period, and another near 1500 AD, just prior to the Spanish conquest. These findings reveal an apparent 500-year hiatus in lime production, followed by the potential reuse of kilns. Our study refines the chronological framework for Mayan lime production and its cultural and technological evolution. The integration of archaeomagnetic methods demonstrates their far-reaching applicability in addressing questions of continuity, reuse, and technological adaptation, contributing to broader debates on ancient pyrotechnological practices and their socioeconomic implications. Full article

As humans expanded across the globe, the Americas were the last continents to be colonized. While debates persist regarding the timing and mechanisms of this process, it is widely accepted that by the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, the New World was populated from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. During this period, hunter-gatherer societies demonstrated remarkable cultural and adaptive diversity, particularly in subsistence strategies and technological innovations. The colonization of the Americas offers valuable insights into population dynamics, human–environment interactions, species extinctions, and adaptive capacities. From an interdisciplinary perspective that combines an isotopic analysis of megafaunal remains with archaeological evidence, this study examines human interactions with Pleistocene fauna in the south–central region of South America’s Southern Cone. Isotopic analyses provide information about the diets, adaptations, and climatic challenges faced by megafaunal communities. Archaeological evidence reveals that humans utilized megafauna and other Pleistocene species for food and tool production. These findings are supported by evidence such as cut marks and bone tools, but also by sealed sediment layers and/or indisputable associations of lithic artifacts. This research contributes to our understanding of human dispersal in the Southern Cone during the colonization of the Americas, shedding light on the regional environments and adaptive strategies of early populations. Full article

Although the Late Pleistocene glaciation history of the Fraser Lowland (BC, Canada) is relatively well studied, little is known about ice-flow directions during the last glaciation (Fraser glaciation). Lidar imagery from the western Fraser Lowland was used to identify and interpret previously unrecognized glacial landforms in a heavily urbanized and vegetated area. This indicates patterns of ice flow during the latest stage of the Fraser glaciation (Vashon stade) of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The imagery provides a picture of dominant SSE flow from the Strait of Georgia in the western part of the study area, and SSW flow from the southern Coast Mountain valleys in the eastern part, resulting in an overall southward flow, as documented in the uplands in the southern part of our study area. No evidence for a substantially different ice flow could be identified. Three new radiocarbon ages from the Sechelt area ca. 40 km northwest of the Fraser Lowland indicate a proximal ice margin in the Strait of Georgia already ca. 30 cal ka BP, well before the Coquitlam ice advance in the Fraser Lowland. These ages contribute to the unsolved discussion if this ice margin advanced onto the Fraser Lowland, yet further studies are needed. Full article

Based on 88 well-dated and high-resolution paleoclimate records, global and hemispheric stacks of the last deglacial climate were synthesized by utilizing the normalized average method. A sequential relationship between the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core CO₂ concentration and the composited proxy-based global–hemispheric climate stacks was detected using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and wavelet analysis. The results indicate that the climate stack of the Northern Hemisphere started to increase slowly before 22 kabp, possibly due to the enhancement of summer insolation at high northern latitudes, the onset of warming in the Southern Hemisphere occurred around 19 kabp, and the atmospheric CO₂ concentration began to raise around 18.1 kabp. This suggests that the change in northern high-latitude summer insolation was the initial trigger of the last deglaciation, and atmospheric CO₂ concentration was an internal feedback associated with global ocean circulation in the Earth’s system. Both the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and wavelet analysis showed that during the BØlling–AllerØd and the Younger Dryas periods there was no obvious asynchrony between the global climate and atmospheric CO₂ concentration, which perhaps implies a fast feedback–response mechanism. The seesawing changes in interhemispheric climate and the abrupt variations in the atmospheric CO₂ concentration could be explained by the influences of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation strength during the BØlling–AllerØd and the Younger Dryas periods. This reveals that Atlantic meridional overturning circulation played an important role in the course of the last deglaciation. Full article

A first attempt has been made to present a general composition of birds found in Chalcolithic settlements in the plains and lowlands of Bulgaria. Based on data from 21 settlements, 78 bird taxa (including 3 domestic forms) have been identified. Of these, 56 species have been identified to the species level. They constitute 13.4% (almost 1/7) of the 417 recorded bird species in the country. Aquatic birds (waterfowl, grebes, loons, herons, etc.) predominate (29 species). There are 12 species inhabiting woodland landscapes. Ten species are field/openland birds, and five are petrophilous species that inhabit rocky and stony habitats. Five species have disappeared as nesting in the country—bearded vulture, great bustard, common crane, colchic pheasant (native colchicus ssp.), and black grouse. These five species constitute 8.9% of the established composition of birds in the Chalcolithic settlements in the country. One extinct subspecies of the Eurasian coot has been described from one of these settlements. Full article

To study the long-term hydroclimate variability in the Satluj Basin, streamflow data was reconstructed using tree-ring width datasets from multiple taxa available from the Kullu Valley, western (Indian) Himalaya. Five ring-width tree-ring chronologies of three conifer tree taxa (Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Pinus roxburghii) significantly correlate with the streamflow during the southwest monsoon season. Based on this correlation, a 228-year (1787–2014 CE) June–August streamflow was reconstructed using average tree-ring chronology. The reconstruction accounts for 34.5% of the total variance of the gauge records from 1964 to 2011 CE. The annual reconstruction showed above-average high-flow periods during the periods 1808–1811, 1823–1827, 1833–1837, 1860–1863, 1876–1881, and 1986–1992 CE and below-average low-flow periods during the periods 1792–1798, 1817–1820, 1828–1832, 1853–1856, 1867–1870, 1944–1947, and 1959–1962 CE. Furthermore, a period of prominent prolonged below-average discharge in the low-frequency streamflow record is indicated during the periods 1788–1807, 1999–2011, 1966–1977, 1939–1949, and 1854–1864. The low-flow (dry periods) observed in the present streamflow reconstruction are coherent with other hydroclimatic reconstructions carried out from the local (Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir Himalaya) to the regional (Hindukush mountain range in Pakistan) level. The reconstruction shows occurrences of short (2.0–2.8 and 4.8–8.3 years) to medium (12.5 years) periodicities, which signify their teleconnections with large-scale climate variations such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Full article

According to the “suid gap” hypothesis, suids (Suidae, Mammalia) would have been absent from Europe between 1.8 and 1.2 Ma. This hypothesis has been influential owing to its putative implications for biochronology and paleoecology—Sus scrofa (the modern wild boar) would appear 1.2 Ma in a period of climatic and environmental changes, coinciding with the beginning of the Epivillafranchian and the Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition, and hominins—the arrival of Homo in western Europe would precede the “return” of pigs. However, the “suid gap” hypothesis is based on the wrong premises that suids are abundantly represented in the European fossil record before and after the “suid gap”, that this purported abundance is linked to the suid reproductive potential, and that the paleontological sites dated within the 1.8–1.2 Ma interval yielded enough remains to exclude the notion that the absence of suid is merely accidental. In a recent paper, it is shown that all these assumptions are erroneous and suid material is described from Peyrolles (France), which is dated at 1.47 ± 0.01 Ma, hence perfectly “filling the suid gap”. Some proposers of the “suid gap” hypothesis have now provided comments to this recent paper, casting doubt on the age of Peyrolles and reiterating the arbitrary statement that suids were commonly recorded and abundantly represented in the Pleistocene of Europe. There is no valid reason to question the homogeneity of the faunal assemblage of Peyrolles, which is indeed a key locality for the mammal biochronology of Europe, being the reference for MNQ 19. Suids of comparable chronology have also been found in Krimni (Greece). Moreover, the “suid gap” proposers are basically advocating the use of an interval biozone based on the temporary absence of Sus strozzii—a species not common in the Pleistocene of Europe—providing no ecological explanation for this gap, apart from speculating it would be due to competition with Homo. The defense of the “suid gap” seems motivated by its use from the “suid gap” proposers as a biochronological argument to contend that the localities of Orce in Spain (Barranco León D, Fuente Nueva 3, and Venta Micena) are older than 1.2 Ma, when they postulated suids would “reappear” in the fossil record. However, since the “suid gap” hypothesis was primarily proposed based on the absence of suids from the Orce sites (and, secondarily, from other sites biochronologically correlated with the localities of Orce, like Pirro Nord in Italy), this represents an evident example of circular reasoning. Full article

In the North Atlantic region, the transition from the very cold Lateglacial Stadial (GS-1) to the temperate Holocene was abrupt, with a rapid increase in temperature of several degrees, after which the low-stature, cold-tolerant Stadial vegetation was replaced through the immigration and rapid succession of tall herb, heath, and shrub communities towards Betula woodland of varying density. In northeast England, pollen diagrams on a south to north transect between mid-Yorkshire and the Scottish border show that there was considerable variation in the rate at which postglacial woodland was established in the first Holocene millennium. In mid-Yorkshire’s Vale of York, the development of closed Betula woodland was swift, whereas in north Northumberland, near the Scottish border, Betula presence was low for the first several centuries of the Holocene, with open vegetation persisting and with shrub vegetation dominated mostly by Juniperus. Intermediate locations on the transect show there was a gradient in post-Stadial vegetation development in northeast England, with latitude as a major factor, as well as altitude. Transitional locations on the transect have been identified, where vegetation community change occurred. Vegetation development in the first Holocene millennium in northeast England was spatially complex and diverse, with the climatic effects of latitude the main controlling environmental variable. Full article

This study presents a high-resolution palaeoclimate reconstruction based on a radiocarbon-dated 240 cm deep trench profile from Renuka Lake, Northwestern Himalaya, India. The palynological analysis provides insight into the palaeovegetation and palaeoclimatic dynamics of a subtropical, dense, mixed deciduous forest, predominantly characterized by Sal (Shorea robusta). The fossil pollen reveals the presence of tropical Sal mixed deciduous taxa, including Shorea robusta, Emblica officinalis, Murraya koenigii, Toona ciliata, Syzygium cumini, and Terminalia spp., which indicate that the region experiences a warm and humid climate with the strong Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) during ~7500–4460 cal yr BP. Subsequently, Sal-mixed deciduous forests were replaced by highland taxa, viz., Pinus roxburghii and Abies pindrow, suggesting dry and cold conditions during ~4460–3480 cal yr BP. Additionally, warm and humid (~3480–3240, ~3060–2680, ~2480–2270 cal yr BP) and cold and dry conditions (~3240–3060, ~2680–2480, ~2270–1965 cal yr BP) recorded alternatively in this region. Improved ISM prevailed ~1965–940 cal yr BP, followed by cold and dry conditions ~940–540 cal yr BP. From ~540 cal yr BP to present, the appearance of moist deciduous taxa alongside dry deciduous and highland taxa in similar proportions suggests moderate climate conditions in the region. Environmental reconstructions are supported by the Earth System Palaeoclimate Simulation (ESPS) model, providing an independent validation of the pollen-based interpretations. This research contributes to our understanding of long-term vegetation dynamics in the Northwestern Himalaya and offers valuable insights into the historical variability of the Indian Summer Monsoon, establishing a foundation for future investigations of climate-driven vegetation changes in the region. Full article

The challenging task of correctly estimating the body size of prehistoric hominins from footprint dimensions has been a matter of long debate, but researchers are still divided about the best methodological approach for obtaining compelling estimates. This research attempts to infer the body size of the trackmakers, who impressed their footprints on the uneven ground slope of a Roccamonfina volcano’s ignimbrite (≈350 ka) at the Foresta/“Devil’s Trails” ichnosite. We used the equations selected among the most adequate for the footprints of this peculiar ichnosite with an exploratory purpose and from a critical estimation point of view. The values of the body size derived from the different equations are highly variable; the minimum and maximum values can differ by up to 50%. The variation range is similarly large when applying the same equations to the footprints from some North African and European Lower Paleolithic ichnosites. The variability of the results mainly depends on the technique of footprint measurements, the environmental context (substrate, surface slope, trackmaker gait, etc.), the equation used, and, to a minor extent, the dimensional slight differences between a fleshy foot and a footprint. This makes comparisons among the sites challenging. All things considered, we could say that the average body mass (about 60 kg) and stature (about 166 cm) of Foresta trackmakers, who may be individuals of different sexes, fall in the range of the Middle Pleistocene Homo heidelbergensis s.l. Full article

Many volcanological and geoarchaeological studies in the ancient city of Pompeii (Italy) have been devoted to the 79 CE Plinian eruption of Vesuvius, which sealed the city under a thick pyroclastic sequence. Only fragmentary information exists regarding the stratigraphy of the volcanic sediments sandwiched between the 79 CE street level and the volcanic rocks that form the geological framework of the hill on which Pompeii was built, which constitutes the “Pompeii bedrock”. The stratigraphic survey of twenty-one trenches throughout the city, coupled with a geochemical characterization, highlighted that the pre-79 CE stratigraphy includes at least eight late Pleistocene to Holocene tephra layers. Six eruptions were sourced from Somma–Vesuvius (Pomici di Base, Mercato, AP1 to AP4) and two originated from Campi Flegrei (Neapolitan Yellow Tuff and Soccavo 4). The Pompeii bedrock is the product of local vents, the last activity of which possibly shortly predates the 22 ka Pomici di Base eruption. From a geoarchaeological perspective, a relevant result is the absence of the 3.9 ka Avellino tephra in all trenches. This evidence, along with the reappraisal of the stratigraphy of the nearby archaeological site of S. Abbondio, suggests that the Avellino eruption possibly only marginally affected the Pompeii area during the Early Bronze Age. Full article

A multi-proxy study of diatoms, palynofacies, and grain size was conducted on a 100 cm core from Arookutty, Vembanad wetland, Kerala, India, to reconstruct paleolimnological changes during the late Holocene, with a focus on natural versus anthropogenic influences. Four distinct depositional phases, from ca. 500 BCE to ca. 400 CE, were identified, aligning with the Roman Warm Period (RWP). The period from ca. 500 BCE to ca. 450 BCE shows high freshwater and marine planktic diatoms, augmented by silicoflagellates and terrestrial organic matter, with a low dinocyst presence, suggesting a dynamic aquatic environment. The period from ca. 450 BCE to ca. 350 BCE is marked by a high sand content, indicating significant runoff and terrestrial influx, along with increased freshwater and marine planktic diatoms and evidence of human activity in the area. Similarly, the period from ca. 350 BCE to ca. 50 CE is characterized by high sand content and strong anthropogenic influences, with a rise in silicoflagellates, pointing to rising sea levels and high monsoonal precipitation. The period from ca. 50 CE to ca. 400 CE initially shows a decrease in sand and an increase in mud, reflecting a weakening southwest monsoon, likely due to solar variations. However, from ca. 300 CE to ca. 400 CE, sand content rises again, accompanied by high terrestrial influx and dinocysts, while silicoflagellates diminish completely. Thus, despite the dominance of the RWP, the coastal region experienced an extended period of reduced monsoonal activity for a particular span. Full article

Understanding the past dynamics of vegetation in response to climate change is crucial for predicting future ecological outcomes. This study has two primary objectives: (1) to reconstruct the vegetation history of the coastal region around Lake Lilaste in Central Latvia during the Holocene and (2) to assess the impacts of climate change on forest composition through the analysis of pollen data and radiocarbon dating. The results indicate that dominant tree species, particularly pine (Pinus), have shown remarkable resilience despite significant climate fluctuations. Pine’s adaptation to the sandy, mineral-poor soils surrounding the lake likely underpins its sustained dominance, while the influence of climate change on overall tree biomass is more notable. Our results suggest that vegetation may be more susceptible to future climate variability, yet the region’s geological and soil conditions continue to favor pine, birch (Betula), and alder (Alnus) populations. While human activities have influenced the region during the last millennia, their impact has been more pronounced in areas further from the lake. This study underlines the importance of long-term forest dynamics and emphasizes that the soil and geological and geographical setting must be considered for climate change assessments. Full article