Search results for "PLEISTOCENE"
showing 10 items of 298 documents
Evidence of warm and humid interstadials in central Europe during early MIS 3 revealed by a multi-proxy speleothem record
2018
Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3, 57-27 ka) was characterised by numerous rapid climate oscillations (i.e., Dansgaard-Oeschger (D/O-) events), which are reflected in various climate archives. So far, MIS 3 speleothem records from central Europe have mainly been restricted to caves located beneath temperate Alpine glaciers or close to the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, MIS 3 seemed to be too cold and dry to enable speleothem growth north of the Alps in central Europe. Here we present a new speleothem record from Bunker Cave, Germany, which shows two distinct growth phases from 52.0 (+0.8, -0.5) to 50.9 (+0.6, -1.3) ka and 473 (+1.0, -0.6) to 42.8 (+/- 0.9) ka, rejecting this hypothesis. These two growth…
Coping with arid environments: A critical threshold for human expansion in Europe at the Marine Isotope Stage 12/11 transition? The case of the Iberi…
2020
Abstract Archaeological remains have highlighted the fact that the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 was a threshold from the perspective of hominin evolution in Europe. After the MIS 12 glaciation, considered one of the major climate-driven crises experienced by hominins, the archaeological records show an increasing number of occupations, evidence of new subsistence behaviors, and significant technical innovations. Here, we used statistical and geographic techniques to analyze the amphibian- and reptile-based paleoclimate and habitat reconstructions generated from a large data set of the Iberian Peninsula to (1) investigate if temperature, precipitation, and/or forest cover may h…
Position of the palaeontological site Aven I des Abîmes de La Fage, at Noailles (Corrèze, France), in the European Pleistocene chronology
2003
Mourer-Chauvire, C., Philippe, M., Quinif, Y., Chaline, J., Debard, E., Guerin, C. & Hugueney, M. 2003 (September): Position of the palaeontological site Aven I des Abimes de La Fage, at Noailles (Correze, France), in the European Pleistocene chronology. Boreas, Vol. 32, pp. 521–531. Oslo. ISSN 0300–9483. The palaeontological locality of Aven I des Abimes de La Fage, at Noailles, Correze, France, is a limestone swallow hole filling which includes a rich fauna of micro- and macromammals, and one of the most complete Pleistocene avifaunas in the Palearctic. According to the mammal fauna and to the sedimentological study, the filling was previously assigned to the penultimate, Saalian, glaciat…
Palaeoenvironments and Quaternary foraminifera in the Elx coastal lagoon (Alicante, Spain)
2010
Abstract During the Quaternary, different palaeoenvironments characterised the Elx coastal lagoon (‘Albufera d'Elx’) located in the easternmost sector of the Betic Ranges (SE Spain). Micropalaeontological and sedimentological analysis of three drilled cores allowed characterization of different sedimentary environments, including alluvial, restricted lagoon, lagoon with marine connection, shoreface, foreshore, backshore, swamp, washover fan, and back-barrier flat. A model of the evolution of this region during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 is proposed, based on chronostratigraphic correlation between the cores. Up to six transgressive episodes can be recognised, mostly represented by calcare…
Cueva Antón: A multi-proxy MIS 3 to MIS 5a paleoenvironmental record for SE Iberia
2016
Overlying a palustrine deposit of unknown age (complex FP), and protected from weathering and erosion inside a large cave/rock-shelter cavity, the sedimentary fill of Cueva Antón, a Middle Paleolithic site in SE Spain, corresponds in most part (sub-complexes AS2-to-AS5) to a ca.3 m-thick Upper Pleistocene terrace of the River Mula. Coupled with the constraints derived from the deposit’s paleoclimatic proxies, OSL dating places the accumulation of this terrace in MIS 5a, and radiocarbon dates from the overlying breccia cum alluvium (sub-complex AS1) fall in the middle part of MIS 3; the intervening hiatus relates to valley incision and attendant erosion. The two intervals represented remain …
Variability in the vertical structure of the water column and paleoproductivity reconstruction in the central-western Mediterranean during the Late P…
2008
Abstract A sedimentary sequence spanning Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 to MIS 2 in core LC07, recovered in the central Mediterranean, has been investigated in order to produce a high-resolution paleoceanographic reconstruction. The changes in productivity deduced from calcareous plankton relative abundances and independently confirmed by the Ba XS fluctuations are linked to the stability of the water column which is mainly controlled by the water mass temperature. During glacial intervals, productivity was generally enhanced. Oligotrophic and warmer water masses with a deepened seasonal thermocline can be inferred for most of MIS5. The magnetic properties of the sediment show increased occur…
Upper pleistocene interstratal piping-cave speleogenesis: The seso cave system (central pyrenees, northern spain)
2015
The Seso Cave System (SCS, South Central Pyrenees, Northeastern Spain) develops in poorly soluble marly interstratum between limestone beds of Eocene age. We propose an innovative and singular pseudokarstic speleogenetic model under vadose conditions based on cave morphological evidence, physicochemical and mineralogical characteristics of the Eocene marly host rock, U-Th dating of cave deposits, and local geological and geomorphological information. Eocene marls are shown to be sensitive to dispersion processes supported by their high clay content and the high concentration of sodium and low electrical conductivity in the seepage water. Runoff inside the cave results from water that infilt…
Eolian and fluvial sedimentation in the southwestern Sinai Mountains, Egypt: a record of flash floods during the late Pleistocene
2012
Wadis emerging from the southwestern Sinai Mountains (Egypt) westwards to the Gulf of Suez are filled by >40 m thick late Pleistocene sediments, which have been subsequently incised to bedrock after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Sedimentation and erosion resulted from changes in the basin's hydrological conditions caused by climate variations. Sediment characteristics indicate distinct processes ranging from high to low energy flow regimes. Airborne material is important as a sediment source. The fills are associated with alluvial fans at wadi mouths at the mountain fronts. Each alluvial fan is associated and physically correlated with the respective sediment fill in its contributi…
Late Pleistocene-Holocene coastal adaptation in central Mediterranean: Snapshots from Grotta d’Oriente (NW Sicily)
2018
Marine faunal remains from Grotta d’Oriente (Favignana Island, NW Sicily) offer invaluable snapshots of human-coastal environment interaction in the central Mediterranean from the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. The long-term shellfish and fish records reflect human exploitation of coastal environments undergoing considerable reorganizations during the postglacial sea level rise and the progressive isolation of Favignana from mainland Sicily. We detected an intensification of marine resource exploitation between ∼9.6 ka and ∼7.8 ka BP, which corresponds with the isolation of Favignana Island and, later on, with the introduction of early agro-pastoral economy in this region. We sugg…
Corema album archaeobotanical remains in western Mediterranean basin. Assessing fruit consumption during Upper Palaeolithic in Cova de les Cendres (A…
2019
[EN] Information about plant gathering by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe is scarce because of the problems of preservation of plant remains in archaeological sites and due to the lack of application of archaebotanical analysis in many of them. Botanical macroremains wood charcoal, seeds, fruits, leaves, etc. - provide information not only about palaeoeconomy of hunter-gatherers, but also about climate, landscape and vegetation dynamics. In Gravettian and Solutrean levels of Cova de les Cendres (Alicante, Spain), Corema album pyrenes (Empetraceae or crowberries family) have been identified. On the contrary, wood charcoal of this species has not been documented among the remains of f…