Reconstructing vegetation and climate in the Nihewan Basin, North China, during the middle Pleistocene (~603–587 ka) to trace the evolution of human environments,Journal of Plant Ecology

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Reconstructing vegetation and climate in the Nihewan Basin, North China, during the middle Pleistocene (~603–587 ka) to trace the evolution of human environments
Journal of Plant Ecology ( IF 2.7 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-22 , DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtaa101
Yun Zhu _{1,

2} , Yi-Feng Yao _{1,

2} , Qi Wei ₃ , David K Ferguson ₄ , Yu-Fei Wang _{1,

2}

Affiliation

Abstract

Aims

The Nihewan Basin of North China, considered the cradle of Eastern civilization, contains a set of late Cenozoic strata and artifacts used by Homo erectus in the early Pleistocene (~1.66 Ma to 780 ka) and the cranial bones and teeth of early H. sapiens from the late middle Pleistocene (~370 to 260 ka). Palynological studies provide an opportunity to explore the living environment of early humans.

Methods

Palynological samples from the Hutouliang Section (~603–587 ka) of the Xiaodukou Formation of the Nihewan Basin were treated by heavy liquid flotation. Based on the palynological assemblages from the section, vegetation and climate in the Nihewan Basin were reconstructed.

Important Findings

The dynamic vegetation changed from temperate needle- and broad-leaved mixed forest-steppe (mainly Picea, Abies, Betula, Juglans, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae) to conifer forest (mainly Pinus, Picea and Abies), which saw the replacement of H. erectus by early H. sapiens. The comparison of the Nihewan Basin with other human sites around the world during the same period reveals that early humans preferred to live in caves, accompanied by relatively open steppe or forest-steppe environments, inhabited by numerous mammals. Therefore, it is inferred that the emergence of dense conifer forest and the disappearance of open steppe environments in the Nihewan Basin at approximately 603–587 ka provide new evidence that early humans followed most mammals to steppe or forest-steppe environments and thus left the Nihewan Basin. These new findings not only enrich our knowledge of early human behavior, such as their diet, migration and settlement, but also fill in gaps in paleovegetation and paleoenvironmental research in the Nihewan Basin during the middle Pleistocene (780–400 ka).

更新日期：2020-12-22

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