Quaternary Science Reviews最新文献

{"title":"Holocene environments and the forest dynamics enigma in the arid Altai highlands","authors":"N. Rudaya ,&nbsp;O. Kuzmina ,&nbsp;L. Frolova ,&nbsp;L. Nazarova ,&nbsp;N. Nigmatullin ,&nbsp;L. Syrykh ,&nbsp;Y. Vnukovskaya ,&nbsp;X. Cao ,&nbsp;S. Zhilich ,&nbsp;V. Novikov ,&nbsp;S. Karachurina ,&nbsp;A. Darin","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109548","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109548","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The objective of this study is to reconstruct the ecological history of the arid highlands of Central Asia during the Holocene. The study of Lake Khindiktig-Khol, located at the watershed between the outflow into the Arctic Ocean and the closed Central Asia, and its surrounding environment provides valuable insights into the ecological and climatic history of the area. By analyzing multiple paleoenvironmental proxies, pollen, chironomids, cladocerans, and non-pollen palynomorphs, this research has reconstructed the complex interplay between climate, vegetation, biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems over the past 11.4 ka. Our findings, in accordance with numerous other paleoreconstructions based on various proxies, reveal that the early Holocene was characterized by cold and arid conditions, with limited forest cover and low biodiversity. However, conifers such as <em>Pinus sibirica</em>, <em>Picea obovata</em>, and <em>Larix sibirica</em> were present in the region, even at elevations above the modern treeline, suggesting that moisture alone was not the sole limiting factor for forest development.</div><div>The mid-Holocene (approximately 7.5–3 ka BP) marked a period of increased humidity and warmth, often referred to as the Holocene climatic optimum. During this time, forest cover expanded, and biodiversity reached its peak, as evidenced by the dominance of cold deciduous and evergreen coniferous biomes in the pollen record. The lake ecosystem also responded to these favorable conditions, with increased productivity and the establishment of diverse aquatic communities<strong>.</strong> However, by the late Holocene, forest cover in the region gradually declined, culminating in the near-treeless landscape seen today. This shift was likely driven by a combination of cooling temperatures, permafrost expansion, and increased waterlogging—all of which hindered tree growth. The disappearance of forests in the late Holocene remains a topic of debate, but evidence suggests that permafrost expansion and waterlogging may play a significant role. While human activity in the late Holocene may have contributed to local deforestation, the widespread absence of trees in areas that are now uninhabited points to natural climatic and environmental changes as the primary drivers. These findings provide crucial insights into the long-term dynamics of high-altitude ecosystems and their responses to climatic shifts, offering valuable perspectives for predicting future changes in similar environments under current global warming trends. The unresolved questions about early Holocene conifer persistence highlight important knowledge gaps in our understanding of alpine vegetation resilience.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109548"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144713875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sediments in small endorheic basins as regional paleoenvironmental archives across a Mediterranean to arid transect","authors":"S. Vainer ,&nbsp;J. Roskin ,&nbsp;M. Markin ,&nbsp;I. Raish ,&nbsp;N. Taha ,&nbsp;N. Porat ,&nbsp;R. Bookman","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In areas where environmental settings are changing across relatively small distances, using a limited number of proxies for paleoenvironmental interpretations may obscure distinctive responses in each environmental niche and the regional effects of climate change. Here we demonstrate the application of sedimentological, geochemical, and luminescence-based proxies in three small endorheic basins, located along a sharp climatic gradient of 150 km in the southern Levant. This approach yields a regional paleoenvironmental framework corresponding to three major established depositional phases, while the local response during each of these phases differs between sites. The earliest phase, coinciding with MIS 3 (∼57-29 ka), is marked by humid conditions leading to weathering and soil formation towards the paleoshore and loess washdown into a shallow waterbody at the southern, currently arid, edge of the studied transect. The uncomfortably overlaying deposits (∼20-6.5 ka) capture a phase of environmental instability, with fluctuating sea levels, southwesterly aeolian sand influx, and the establishment of a coastal wetland environment. The last stage began around 6.5 ka, with continuous accumulation in localized coastal paludal environments and the stabilization of Mediterranean atmospheric circulation. This stability was interrupted by distinct second-order variations in sedimentation resulting from short-term climatic perturbations. Larger environmental instability is seen at the southern tip of the transect during the middle to late Holocene. This spatial difference is attributed to decreasing Mediterranean-derived humidity coupled with the influence of southerly atmospheric systems, resulting in event-based deposition of recycled sediment.</div><div>These records can provide a regional framework to study how distinct environmental settings capture variations in environmental forcing through allochthonous and autochthonous processes. Such settings include the distance to sediment sources, location along atmospheric trajectories, and the geographical context. The decoupling of site-related effects from the compiled regional trend allows tracking the responses to established climatic trends, underscoring the importance of studying spatially spread and relatively temporally continuous archives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109530"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144694433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Middle Palaeolithic Human occupations, cultural behaviours and demographic dynamics during MIS 5a to late 3 in the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, Kermanshah, West-Central Zagros Mountains","authors":"Saman H. Guran","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109523","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109523","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite many years of research into the Middle Palaeolithic in the Zagros Mountains, numerous aspects of this period have not yet been sufficiently investigated. The topics of Middle Palaeolithic's cultural behavioures, temporal changes, chronology, and the nature of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic in this region have led to various opinions and debates. Three seasons of archaeological excavations at the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, located in the west-central Zagros, have uncovered a continuous stratigraphic sequence spanning from the Middle to the Epipalaeolithic periods. The site yielded in situ Neanderthal remains along with a substantial assemblage of lithic and faunal materials. The findings suggest a relatively homogeneous Mousterian lithic trajectory throughout the Middle Palaeolithic period, with slight variations likely reflecting differences in hunting strategies. Furthermore, these data indicate a cyclical pattern in population size dynamics, likely in response to climatic variations during the late Marine Isotope Stage 5a to the middle of 3. The data reveal that the Neanderthals, after a relatively substantial period in late MIS 5, experienced a demographic stagnation in MIS 4. The same data shows that their population grew significantly just before extinction around 45,000 to 40,000 years ago.</div><div>This article represents a step forward in understanding human evolution during the Late Pleistocene in the Zagros Mountains, within the territory of Southwestern Asia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109523"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Newly discovered Late Paleolithic sites in the southeastern margin of the Badain Jaran Desert, northwest China","authors":"Lu Teng ,&nbsp;Xuefeng Sun ,&nbsp;Hui Liu ,&nbsp;Na Zhao ,&nbsp;Shuangwen Yi ,&nbsp;Feng Li ,&nbsp;Xiaoqi Guo ,&nbsp;Yuan Yao ,&nbsp;Yinghua Wang ,&nbsp;Christopher J. Bae ,&nbsp;Huayu Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109542","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109542","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Badain Jaran Desert (BDJL) is the second largest desert in China and is largely uninhabitable today. However, a number of Paleolithic cultural remains have been found in and around the BDJL, suggestive of earlier occupations by human foragers. Unfortunately, most of these artifacts were surface collected and lack reliable radiometric dates, making it difficult to further understand when prehistoric peoples entered the desert and how they survived once there. As a result of recent multidisciplinary fieldwork, eleven new lithic sites (BDJL1-11) were discovered in the southeastern margin of the BDJL. Four of these were initially excavated and found to contain buried Paleoliths, and the other seven sites had stone tools distributed on the surface. The stone artifact collections include microblades, small flakes, and scrapers, representing typical stone tool types of the Late Paleolithic in northern China. We applied Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C dating to the buried sites’ stratigraphy and OSL dating to the underlying stratigraphy of the surface sites. The results suggest that: human foragers obtained water and possibly hunted near small lakes that were present in interdune basins (BDJL1-2) after 10.1 ka; humans settled in the rockshelter (BDJL3) and the cave (BDJL4) in the mountain basin around 5.9 ka and between 6.4 and 6.2 cal ka BP, separately; foragers hunted and used water in the proluvial fan margin with relatively favorable water and vegetation conditions (BDJL5-11) between approximately 9.3 ka and 7.6 ka, even later; humans collected stone materials and possibly used water along seasonal streams at the proluvial fan outlet (MDLS1-7) after approximately 7.3 ka. Temperature and precipitation simulated by Trace-21ka indicate that the climate of the BDJL was relatively warm and humid during the Early and Middle Holocene. The combination of better moisture conditions and increasing population density as evidenced by the increased number of microblade sites in the Yellow River Basin likely drove the migration and dispersal of human populations into the desert. This study reveals the diversity in resource utilization and the relative abundance of different activities by Late Paleolithic hunter-gatherers during the Early and Middle Holocene in the currently resource-scarce BDJL. The resource exploitation patterns of the BDJL human foraging groups provide new insights into prehistoric human adaptations to desert regions in northwestern China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109542"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hydrological variability in the Black Sea region during the last 670,000 years recorded in multi-proxy speleothem records from northern Türkiye","authors":"F. Held ,&nbsp;H. Cheng ,&nbsp;R.L. Edwards ,&nbsp;T. Kipfer ,&nbsp;O. Tüysüz ,&nbsp;K. Koç ,&nbsp;S. Affolter ,&nbsp;D. Fleitmann","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109534","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109534","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Changes in the hydrological balance of the Black Sea play a crucial role in the hydrological cycle and exert a strong influence on the isotopic composition of precipitation in the Black Sea region. However, the timing, duration and driving factors of hydrological shifts in the Black Sea region remain poorly constrained. Here, we present several new speleothem records from Sofular Cave in northern Türkiye to reconstruct hydroclimate fluctuations during the last 670,000 years, thereby expanding the previously published discontinuous isotope records. Stable oxygen isotopes of speleothem calcite (δ¹⁸O_ca) reflect variations in the isotopic composition of the Black Sea surface water, providing information on the timing, origin and duration of Black Sea water exchange with the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, inflow of meltwater from the Eurasian ice sheet (EIS), and configuration of the Black Sea paleodrainage basin and EIS during the last 670,000 years. The comparison between stable water isotopes of modern precipitation and paleo-precipitation trapped inside speleothem fluid inclusions demonstrates that the modern Local Meteoric Water Line (LMWL) is representative for the isotopic composition of precipitation during glacial and interglacial climate conditions. Furthermore, speleothem fluid inclusion deuterium excess values were higher during glacial periods compared to interglacial periods, which is most likely related to atmospheric changes affecting the evaporative conditions above the moisture source.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109534"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantitative pollen reconstruction of temperature and precipitation in the subtropical-temperate climate transition zone of East-Central China since the Last Glacial Maximum","authors":"Yao Zhang ,&nbsp;Qiaoyu Cui ,&nbsp;Chen Liang ,&nbsp;Zhiyuan Wang ,&nbsp;Fuzhi Lu ,&nbsp;Yi Lin ,&nbsp;Lin Chen ,&nbsp;Aifeng Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109528","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109528","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The evolution of the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) under global warming remains uncertain, and the spatiotemporal pattern of the EASM is an ongoing debate. Here, we quantitatively reconstruct high-resolution temperature and precipitation sequences since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) by applying the weighted averaging partial least squares (WAPLS) model to the pollen record from Daye Lake in the Taibai Mountains, the main peak of the Qinling Mountain Range. The results show a distinct vegetation succession: the transition from coniferous forest to coniferous-broadleaf mixed forest, and ultimately to deciduous broadleaf forest, with a progressive increase in open land coverage during the late Holocene. The climate during the LGM was characterized by approximately 4 °C lower temperature and about 300 mm less precipitation compared to the Holocene, and then the temperature and precipitation continuously increased from the late deglacial to the early Holocene, reaching the maximum (temperature of 9.9 °C; precipitation of 940 mm) in the mid-Holocene. This warm and humid phase was followed by a cooling and drying trend in the late Holocene. A synthesis of hydrological and temperature records demonstrates that the reconstructed temperature changes were consistent with other temperature records from both the EASM domain and the broader Northern Hemisphere, reflecting a regional signal. However, the reconstructed precipitation data revealed distinct patterns specific to the Qinling region: precipitation changes during the last deglacial period exhibited a homological pattern with records from southern China, while aligning closely with the trends observed in northern China over the Holocene. Millennial-scale precipitation changes during the 16–12 cal kyr BP were modulated by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the Kuroshio Current (KC) intensity. The north-south precipitation dipole pattern in the Holocene is linked to the positions of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which are modulated by El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity. Both pollen-based reconstructed climate results using the WAPLS model from Daye Lake and CMIP6 multi-model ensemble simulations in the Qinling region suggest that future precipitation will likely increase with rising temperatures, providing critical insights into the response of the EASM to ongoing global warming.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109528"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144687011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Paleoclimatic implications of the Tatra Mountains in Central Europe during MIS 9–6 based on multiproxy speleothem records","authors":"Marcin Błaszczyk,&nbsp;Jacek Pawlak,&nbsp;Helena Hercman","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109544","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109544","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study presents a synthesis of recent paleoenvironmental studies conducted in the Tatra Mountains and the Low Tatras. The results of petrographic studies, stalagmite oxygen and carbon isotope data, and trace element variability of previously published speleothem data, together with new material, were presented in the context of other European paleoclimatic records. These results provide novel insights into crucial issues concerning the potential role of the Tatra massif as an orographic barrier. Our study highlights the unique potential of high-elevation speleothems as a valuable archive for investigating the influence of high mountain ranges on atmospheric circulation and movement, which could contribute to climate change. Simultaneously, the differences identified in the speleothem proxy on the northern slopes of the Tatras and those located in the Low Tatra Mountains reflect the relatively high importance of the entire Carpathians and other orogenic belts, such as the Alps, in differentiating the climate and, consequently, speleothem records.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109544"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Southwestern United States Altithermal Interval (9.5–7 ka): Longest dry period of the Holocene","authors":"Victor J. Polyak ,&nbsp;Holly C. Olivarez ,&nbsp;Felipe S. Rojas Vilches ,&nbsp;Laura Calabrò ,&nbsp;David A. Giovannetti-Nazario ,&nbsp;Matthew S. Lachniet ,&nbsp;Yemane Asmerom","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109533","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109533","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global Altithermal Interval, the warm Holocene climatic optimum after the Last Glacial Maximum that lasted several millennia (11-5 ka), is a likely analog for future climatic conditions forced by Anthropocene global warming. Regional studies of this period globally are essential for improving the climate models that will help in our understanding of Earth's rapidly changing climate. The southwestern United States (SW USA) experienced a regional Altithermal that remains to be sufficiently characterized. We show evidence for Altithermal dryness from coralloidal stalagmite growth from two New Mexico stalagmites, and a hiatus of speleothem growth defined by multiple stalagmites from 9.5 to 7 ka. Further, we present novel speleothem climate proxies that we qualitatively link to higher aridity and temperature during this ∼2500-year period, which we define as the SW USA Altithermal Interval. We hypothesize that during the global Altithermal the two principal oceanic subtropical high-pressure systems in the North Pacific and North Atlantic were strengthened and contributed to persistent arid conditions throughout the SW USA during peak summer insolation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109533"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144672168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New RSL constraints for the Minch from OSL-dated Lateglacial shorelines","authors":"Emily Huffman ,&nbsp;Alexander R. Simms ,&nbsp;Tom Bradwell ,&nbsp;Louise Best ,&nbsp;Jeremy M. Lloyd ,&nbsp;Sarah L. Bradley ,&nbsp;Regina DeWitt","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109543","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109543","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Past sea levels provide important constraints on global ice volumes, rates of tectonic motion, ice-sheet sea-level feedbacks, and the migration of species through time. Beneath formerly glaciated regions, the marine limit, the maximum extent of sea-levels after glacial retreat, provides some of the oldest post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) sea-level constraints. However, although the elevations of marine limits are plentiful, they often remain undated. In this study, we provide new age and elevation constraints on the late Pleistocene relative sea-level (RSL) history at 12 sites along the eastern flanks of the former Minch Ice Stream (MnIS) of northwest Scotland. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) was used to date the highest and presumably oldest preserved RSL indicators immediately after ice-sheet retreat. Although slightly older than earlier estimates, our ages confirm the early deglacial age of ∼16.2–19.5 ka for the raised shorelines of northwest Scotland with declining marine limits north of the Isle of Skye from 26.2 ± 4.8 m at Ardaneaskan to 12.8 ± 4.8 m elevation at Achiltibuie, the latter of which lies inside the moraines of the Wester Ross Readvance. Our new OSL ages suggest deglaciation of the MnIS may have been slightly earlier than previously thought, although our large error bars highlight the need for additional age constraints. Our new RSL data provide important constraints for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) models for Scotland and shed light on the behavior of the former MnIS, thought to be susceptible to marine ice-sheet instability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109543"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144672169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"New mammal assemblage from last interglacial in Argentine Pampas: Debating biostratigraphic and biochronological reliability","authors":"Jonathan Bellinzoni ,&nbsp;Ricardo Bonini ,&nbsp;Sara García-Morato ,&nbsp;Gustavo N. Gómez ,&nbsp;Pamela Steffan ,&nbsp;María Dolores Marín-Monfort ,&nbsp;Alfredo Zurita ,&nbsp;Francisco Cuadrelli ,&nbsp;Francisco J. Prevosti ,&nbsp;Fernando J. Fernández ,&nbsp;Cristian Favier-Dubois ,&nbsp;Daniel J. Rafuse ,&nbsp;María Teresa Alberdi ,&nbsp;Yolanda Fernandez-Jalvo ,&nbsp;José L. Prado","doi":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109511","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109511","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyzes one of the most complete mammalian fossil records from the Middle to the end of the Pleistocene in the Pampean Region, recovered from the Salto de Piedra Paleontological Locality along Tapalqué Creek. The site preserves a fluvial-palustrine sequence with six depositional units (U1–U6), separated by erosive unconformities or pedogenetic horizons. Radiometric dating (OSL and AMS ¹⁴C), integrated with sedimentological and faunal data, allows correlation with Marine Isotope Stages: Unit 1 (MIS 6–5; &gt;127 ka), Unit 2 (MIS 3; ∼40.5 ka), Units 3–4 (MIS 2; 38–11.2 ka), and Units 5–6 (MIS 1; 12.6–7.8 ka). Three fossil assemblages were identified (U1, U3–4, U5–6), primarily linked to fluvial channels. The record provides critical biochronological information, with fossils showing minimal weathering and abrasion, and no evidence of reworking. The occurrence of <em>Equus neogeus</em> in U1 (&gt;127 ka) expands the lower limit of its biozone back to ∼300 ka. Index taxa in Unit 1—<em>Glyptodon munizi</em>, <em>Megatherium americanum</em>, <em>Equus neogeus</em>—highlight biozone overlap, challenging the stratigraphic resolution of traditional schemes. Due to the lack of exclusive taxa and overlapping ages, we propose merging the Bonaerean with the Lujanian Stage/Age (∼300–11.6 ka). These findings call for a revision of Quaternary biozone frameworks in South America and improve biostratigraphic resolution for the Pampean fossil record.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":20926,"journal":{"name":"Quaternary Science Reviews","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 109511"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144672167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}