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The Jaramillo Subchron and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in continental records from a multidisciplinary perspective
Quaternary International 389 (2015) 1e6
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Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint
Guest Editorial
The Jaramillo Subchron and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in continental records from a multidisciplinary perspective
1. Introduction The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition (EMPT), also known as the “mid-Pleistocene revolution” or “mid-Pleistocene transition“ (~1.4e~0.4 Ma), has become a major research topic in the last few decades. Evidence recorded by numerous multidisciplinary studies indicates that changes in the Earth's orbital cyclicity during this time period strongly impacted both the marine and terrestrial realms, as borne out by a wide range of physical and biotic proxies (see overview in Head and Gibbard, 2005). This influence has been especially pronounced in the Northern hemisphere and particularly in Europe, where the EMPT demonstrably corresponds to significant changes in mammalian evolution and dispersals, including a major faunal turnover, the arrival of the genus Homo and important techno-cultural advances (e.g. Rook and Martinez-Navarro, 2010; Abbate and Sagri, 2012; Carbonnell et al., in press). Two major palaeomagnetic reversals have been identified within the EMPT, the Jaramillo Subchron and the BrunheseMatuyama (BeM) reversal. The latter is perhaps among the most widely known chronological constraints in Quaternary studies, representing the boundary between Early and Middle Pleistocene subseries (0.77 Ma). In contrast, there has been relatively limited interest in the Jaramillo (1.07e0.99 Ma) since its discovery in the mid 1960's (Doell and Dalrymple, 1966). In recent years, the Jaramillo has been subject of renewed attention, as it is increasingly being identified in both continental and marine records. With a duration of about 80 ka, the Jaramillo is the longest normal subchron between the top of the Olduvai (1.78 Ma) subchron and the base of the Brunhes (0.77 Ma) chron. It is now frequently used in European continental records as a chronological marker for the second half of the Matuyama chron, particularly for faunal turnovers (e.g. Cuenca-Bescos et al., 2010; Rook and Martínez-Navarro, 2010). Additionally, it has proven to be especially useful for chronological inferences, where it can be combined with biostratigraphic evidence and numerical dating results to build more robust chronostratigraphic frameworks (e.g. Martínez et al., 2010). However, a review of the literature indicates that the number of localities where the Jaramillo is accurately identified in the European terrestrial record is currently quite limited, espes et al., 2013). Morecially in archaeo-paleontological contexts (Pare over, where the Jaramillo subchron has been identified in the European terrestrial record it is commonly the case that associated geochronological data are sub-optimal or ambiguous (i.e., the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.018 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
dating methodologies are not fully detailed, or further studies are s et al., 2013). Its sigimpossible since the site no longer exists) (Pare nificance and role, if any, in the EMPT remain relatively unclear, and it is still extremely difficult to identify significant “pre-” and “post-” Jaramillo changes in Earth system responses at the biotic and physical levels. To address these issues, and to better understand the nature of the EMPT and its impact at the Earth's surface, a multidisciplinary scientific meeting was organised in Burgos in September 2013. The publication of the present special volume of Quaternary International directly arose from this workshop. We are pleased to propose a dense compilation of 18 original papers covering the EMPT from a wide range of perspectives, providing an updated overview of the topic some 10 years after the seminal publication by M.J. Head and P.L. Gibbard, 2015 (Head and Gibbard, 2005). Will hopefully contribute to an improved understanding of a critical time period that formed the backdrop to the present-day climate system.
2. The ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in Burgos, 25e27 September 2013 With financial support from the European Science Foundation (EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme), the four Guest Editors of the present volume organised an international scientific n sobre la Evolucio n meeting at the Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH; Burgos, Spain) entitled: “The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the sedimentary record”. This multidisciplinary meeting brought together 35 Quaternary specialists (Fig. 1) with diverse scientific backgrounds (e.g. magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, palaeoclimatology, geochronology, astrochronology, stratigraphic correlation, palynology and archaeology) from eight different countries in order to share new results and ideas relevant to the EMPT and to promote future collaborations. A special emphasis was placed on studying the European continental record and the Jaramillo subchron. The programme was designed to encourage discussion and scientific debate, with a mix of key-note lectures providing an overview of a given topic and shorter presentations focused on more specific research projects and case studies. The contributions were grouped into six main sessions over 2.5 days (25e27 September 2013) in order to tackle the EMPT from various perspectives, as summarised in Table 1.
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Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 389 (2015) 1e6
Fig. 1. Participants of the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in front of the CENIEH, Burgos, Spain, on 25 September 2013.
Table 1 Brief overview of the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting (from Duval et al., 2013). Full programme may be found on the dedicated website at https://sites.google.com/site/ jaramillomeeting/. Keys: Day 1 ¼ Wednesday 25 September 2013; Day 2 ¼ Thursday 26 September 2013; Day 3 ¼ Friday 27 September 2013.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Session
Day
Introduction Magnetostratigraphy Radiometric dating methods Palaeoclimatology/Palaeoenvironment Sedimentary record/Cyclostratigraphy Biostratigraphy Human evolution/Archaeology
Day Day Day Day Day Day Day
1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3,
morning morning afternoon morning morning afternoon morning
Key note lecture
Standard presentations per session
Martin Head (Brock University, Canada) James E.T. Channell (University of Florida, USA) Brad Singer (University of WisconsineMadison, USA) Mark Maslin (University College London, UK) Philip L. Gibbard (University of Cambridge, UK) Lorenzo Rook (Universit a di Firenze, Italy) M. Bermúdez de Castro and María Martino n (CENIEH, Spain) Jose
0 3 5 5 2 5 5
A broad range of scientific fields, topics and contexts were covered during the conference, including climate cyclicity, orbital forcing, the potential and limitations of numerical and nonnumerical dating techniques, palaeoenvironmental changes, faunal turnover, animal migration and hominin evolution in Europe and Africa. Many different types of novel experimental approaches were also presented, based on wavelet analysis, magnetostratigraphy, biochronology/biostratigraphy of large and small mammals, numerical dating techniques, techno-typology of lithic industry, the use of pollen record, foraminifera, continental shells, or herpetofauna for palaeoclimatic reconstructions. Further details about the scientific outcomes of the meeting can be found in the final scientific report by Duval et al. (2013). Additional information regarding the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting, including the list of participants, programme, pictures and book of abstract may be found online on the website dedicated to this event, at https://sites. google.com/site/jaramillomeeting/. 3. Overview of the contributions to the special volume This special volume of Quaternary International includes 12 of the 32 contributions presented at the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in Burgos. These contributions have been complemented by 6 invited papers that cover additional important aspects of EMPT research.
The volume is introduced by Head and Gibbard (2015) who propose a comprehensive overview of the EMPT. Their extensive review stands as a new reference study and offers a synthesis of the current knowledge of the EMPT. Head and Gibbard (2015) integrate a massive amount of data in a coherent framework in order to understand the origin, nature and expression of the EMPT in both the marine and terrestrial realms. According to the authors, the EMPT took place between ~1.4 Ma and ~0.4 Ma, as the progressive shift towards ~100 ka cyclicity is first noticed around Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 45 and is fully established at the MIS12e11 transition. They explore multiple possible causes of this climate transition, as orbital forcing alone cannot explain the progressive shift from 41 ka obliquity to ~100 ka cycles during the EMPT. This question is also discussed later in the volume by Maslin and Brierley (2015). The uncertainties associated with existing age constraints are then thoroughly discussed, in particular for the chronology of the BrunheseMatuyama boundary and the Jaramillo Subchron, as well as the difference that may arise from the use of different proxies or reference sequences. The authors emphasise the strong correlation between marine and terrestrial responses to the EMPT by compiling extensive information for the major ocean basins and from different continents. Special attention is given to the European record, with an overview of the evolution of the terrestrial biota (vegetation, large and small mammals, hominins) during this transition. If further details are required, the
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reader may also refer to a series of review papers focusing on more specific areas, including Bellucci et al. (2015) for large mammal renewals in Europe, Cuenca-Bescos et al., (2015) and Agustí (2015) for long small mammal sequences in Spain, and Dennell et al. (2015) for a comprehensive overview of archaeological occupations in China. Finally, Head and Gibbard end their review paper by identifying and characterising the major climatic events of the EMPT, from MIS45 to MIS11. The second paper by Maslin and Brierley (2015) reviews the role of orbital forcing in the EMPT and assesses whether internal or external driving mechanisms have primarily controlled the prolongation, intensification and restructuring of glacialeinterglacial climate cycles over the last 900 ka. Their evaluation suggests that previous theories of a non-linear climate response to eccentricity (the ‘eccentricity myth’) or a linear response to either obliquity or precession are too simplistic to explain the timing of post-EMPT glacialeinterglacial cycles. Maslin and Brierley (2015) speculate that the EMPT may have been caused by a changing internal response of the global carbon cycle to orbital forcing, which allowed increased ice sheet growth in the Northern Hemisphere and provided enough local climate feedbacks to counteract obliquity-driven increased heat transport northward. They suggest that, though post-EMPT phase-locking between orbital forcing and global ice volume may have occurred, the stochastic nature of the climate system response and ever changing relationships between orbital parameters and internal climate feedbacks means that there is no consistent phase lock-in pattern over the last 900 ka. The following two papers by Pla-Pueyo et al. (2015) and Anadon et al. (2015) are case studies focused on continental responses to the EMPT using physical and geochemical signals measured in the Guadix-Baza intramontane basin sedimentary record, in southern Spain. This geographical region has attracted numerous studies on geology and paleontology over the last few decades, since several important mammal localities with archaeological evidence have been documented in the basin (see Agustí et al., Demuro et al., Alvarez et al., 2015). Pla-Pueyo et al. (2015) studied Late PlioceneQuaternary alluvial fan deposits located in the western sector of the basin. Cyclostratigraphy encoded in palustrine carbonates identified by the authors allowed determination of a succession of arid versus wetter conditions in the basin, with possible eccentricity cycles. Isotopic evidence supports the interpretation that large water bodies were present in the basin, in spite of continuous aridification. The environmental implications for the Lower Palaeolithic hominins and coeval fauna of the basin are also discussed. In the Eastern sector of the basin, Anadon et al. (2015) furnish a detailed n section, which is stratigraphic description of the Barranco Leo known to contain mammals and lithic artifacts. As part of this study, the authors obtain stable isotopes (C, O, Sr) from ostracods and mollusks to determine water provenance and palaeoenvironmental conditions in the lacustrine sediments during the Early Pleistocene. The geochemical analyses reveal that the water in the lakes had different origins, with an increasing influence of meteoric waters up-section. In the present volume, a large number of contributions (7) are centered on the study of palaeontological records at European localities (either small [3] or large mammal fauna [4]), from different perspectives. The EMPT is marked by widespread ecological turnovers and renewals in Europe that have been informally defined as the VillafranchianeGalerian transition in a number of biochronological schemes based on large mammal fauna. Bellucci et al. (2015) propose a formal biochron for these transitional faunas based on consideration of the most representative European large mammal assemblages for this chronological interval. The authors formally define the Epivillafranchian Mammal Age for the VillafranchianeGalerian transitional fauna according to the first occurrence
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of Praemegaceros verticornis/Bison menneri and Crocuta crocuta, these two main bioevents being the respective lower and upper boundaries for the biochron. van der Made and Dimitrijevi c (2015) present a large mammal assemblage from Trlica in Montenegro and discuss the potential age of this Early Pleistocene locality. The fossil remains of cervids from Trlica are described and assigned to the elk or moose Alces cf. carnutorum, the roe deer ?Capreolus sp., the red deer Cervus elaphus, and Eucladoceros. A new species Eucladoceros montenegrensis n. sp. is identified on the basis of 169 bones and teeth. van der Made and Dimitrijevi c (2015) conclude that Trlica has a likely age of between 780 ka and 1.07 Ma according to biochronological comparison with other sites in the region. The site therefore preserves an important cervid assemblage spanning the Jaramillo subchron and EMPT. Rodríguez et al. (2015) propose an original approach for studying the late Early Pleistocene (1.4e0.8 Ma) large mammal record of Europe. By considering a large number of localities distributed across the whole European continent, they evaluate the rarity (or commonness) of the large mammal species in faunal assemblages, with a special focus of the Genus Homo. This study represents one of the first attempts to quantify the abundance of Pleistocene hominins in Europe. The results obtained by Rodríguez et al. (2015) based on the palaeontological record suggest that although Homo sp. was not extremely common, it nevertheless cannot be considered as a rare taxon during the late Early Pleistocene. By including the archaeological record in their study, the authors acknowledge a possible taphonomic bias, but their results suggest that the species was widely distributed in the continent, with perhaps higher population densities in Southern Europe in comparison with the rest of the continent. The authors conclude their study by considering that hominins may be considered as a frequent but not an abundant taxon in Europe during the late Early Pleistocene. Martínez-Navarro et al. (2015) report the absence of suids in the Late Villafranchian record of Europe between ~1.8 and ~1.2 Ma. Although the authors acknowledge the fragmented nature of the European mammalian record, they do not consider this absence to be caused by taphonomic bias. Instead, they suggest that the disappearance and reappearance of suids in Europe might be linked with important ecosystem and climate changes over time. To support this interpretation they correlate the dispersal of pigs at around 1.2 Ma with a warmer climate event inferred from the composition of the small mammal assemblage of Atapuerca Sima del Elefante TE9 site in Spain. Consequently, the authors propose that the reappearance of suids in Europe could be used as a key biochronological marker for the beginning of the Epivillafranchian biochron, in addition to those markers defined by Bellucci et al. (2015). A second set of three papers is focused on the small mammal record identified at different localities in the Iberian Peninsula. These works highlight the importance of rodent biostratigraphy for constraining the relative chronology of continental deposits. This approach is exemplified by Agustí et al. (2015), who provide an updated biostratigraphic division of the small mammal record of the Guadix-Baza basin, that has delivered an almost continuous sedimentary record since the end of the Miocene. Over the last 30 years, more than 60 fossilifierous levels have been sampled and studied in the area, covering almost the entire Pleistocene time range, from 2.6 to about 0.3 Ma. Most of these sites have been constrained with magnetostratography, while some of them have been also dated with numerical methods. The papers by Demuro et al. (2015) and Alvarez et al. (2015), respectively centered on Huescar-1 and Fuente Nueva-3, are two good examples in that regard. This detailed biozonation proposed by Agustí et al. (2015) is of primary importance to provide a chronostratigraphic
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framework for the archeo-palaeontological localities discovered in the area. Cuenca-Bescos et al. (2015) provide a revised faunal study of two classic palaeoanthropological sites from Atapuerca (Sima Elefante and Gran Dolina). The small faunal associations at these localities place Atapuerca among the richest Quaternary record sites in Europe and provide a high resolution composite sequence for the Early Pleistocene levels that may be used as a reference for the Spanish record. The lack of similarities between the assemblages from each site is striking, which can only be explained by a chronological gap between them. This study therefore provides additional chronological constraint on the Atapuerca deposits and complements the new/existing palaeomagentic data and numerical age results for these sites (see also Arnold et al., 2015). The recently discovered site of Vallparadis in northeast Spain provides crucial insights into the European Early Pleistocene, as it is one of the very few continental localities where the Jaramillo Subchron has been identified and where a large mammal assemblage from the Epivillafranchian biochron has been recorded (Bellucci et al., 2015). The contribution by Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015) includes a revision of the species Mimomys savini at the site, including its morphologic and biometric features and comparisons with specimens from the sites studied by Cuenca-Bescos et al. (2015) and from the Guadix-Baza Basin. Overall, the inferred ages agree with the existing numerical ages provided by ESR (see Duval et al. 2015) and magnetostratigraphy. Furthermore, the authors discuss the palaeoenvironmental implications of the studied stratigraphic layers, which reveal open and humid settings for the late Early Pleistocene. Another set of contributions in this special volume is focused on geochronology. Reliable dating of sites spanning the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition is critical for accurate interpretations of regional palaeoenvironmental change, palaeoecological turnovers and lower Palaeolithic archaeological histories. Establishing numerical chronologies over Early to Middle Pleistocene timescales has traditionally proved challenging for many conventional radiometric geochronological techniques. However, continuing advances in methods such as cosmogenic burial dating, extended-range luminescence dating and electron spin resonance have opened up new possibilities for dating this critical time period. This special volume includes several important applications of these dating techniques at key archaeological and palaeontological sites across Eurasia. Arnold et al. (2015) present a comprehensive review of extended-range luminescence dating techniques (thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL), post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) and OSL dating of individual quartz ‘supergrains’), which offer the potential to establish numerical age control on sedimentary deposits beyond the upper age limits of traditional OSL dating. Their analyses of known-age comparison studies reveal general support for the reliability of novel extended-range luminescence approaches over Late and Middle Pleistocene timescales. However, they highlight the need for more widespread, known-age empirical assessments of extended-range luminescence techniques beyond ~300e400 thousand years ago (ka). Arnold et al. (2015) go on to test the applicability of TT-OSL and pIR-IRSL dating at the Atapuerca palaeoanthropological sites of Gran Dolina, Sima del Elefante and Galería in north-central Spain. The Atapuerca case studies highlight the advantages of applying TT-OSL dating at the single-grain scale of analysis, and demonstrate the benefits of applying different extended-range luminescence techniques in tandem. This study also establishes a new numerical age of 846 ± 57 ka for the Homo antecessor palaeoanthropological horizon (unit TD6) at Gran
Dolina, which represents a significant improvement in the site's existing chronology. Demuro et al. (2015) apply a similar suite of extended-range scar-1 luminescence techniques at the palaeontological site of Hue in southern Spain. This site has played an important role in defining local-scale biozone successions in the Guadix-Baza basin, and it has been used as a biochronological reference site for correlating EarlyMiddle Pleistocene faunal schemes across the Iberian Peninsula. The chronologies obtained by Demuro et al. (2015) using three different luminescence dating techniques display a high degree of consistency and reveal that the fossil-bearing fluvial deposits are younger than previously inferred from faunal associations (see also Agustí et al. 2015 for the biostratigraphic interpretation of the rodent assemblage from this site). By comparing the latest chronological results with taphonomic, taxonomic and geomorphic evidence, the authors suggest that the site likely preserves a palimpsest of bones in primary depositional context and reworked fossils from potentially older deposits. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of establishing independent, numerical chronologies for palaeontological reference sites of biochronological significance, and suggest that due caution should scar-1 faunal by exerted in future interpretations of the Hue assemblage. The work by Duval et al. (2015) is the second contribution focused on Vallparadís site after Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015). The authors provide numerical age results on the sequence by using the ESR dating method on two different types of materials, fossil teeth and optically bleached quartz grains extracted form sediment. The analyses provide very consistent results, with weighted mean ESR age estimates of 858 ± 87 ka and 849 ± 48 ka for units EVT7, which includes archaeological levels 10, and EVT-8, respectively. These results are in good agreement with the existing magnetobiostratigraphic framework, which constrain these deposits between 780 and 990 ka. The numerical age obtained for EVT-7 is very close to that calculated by Arnold et al. (2015) for Gran Dolina TD-6 and, together with the studies of the rodent fauna by Cuenca s et al. (2015) and Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015), suggest that Besco Vallparadís EVT-7 and Atapuerca Gran Dolina TD-6 (Spain) may reasonably be considered as sub-coeval. Alvarez et al. (2015) address chronological uncertainties at one of the oldest hominin sites in western Europe e Fuente Nueva-3 in the Guadix-Baza Basin of southern Spain. The authors use a combination of magnetic reversal stratigraphy dating and cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to refine the age of the site within the Matuyama chron. The new magnetostratigraphic constraint and cosmogenic burial age suggest that the archaeo-paleontological unit at Fuente Nueva-3 was deposited prior to the Jaramillo Subchron, confirming the importance of the site for unravelling the initial human colonisation of southern Europe and the Villafran chian turnover. Alvarez et al. (2015) caution, however, that further chronological research is needed to improve the precision of the latest ages for the site and to ascertain firmer temporal relationships with other early human sites in the region. In the second cosmogenic burial dating study from this special volume, Liu et al. (2015) provide numerical age constraints on the Homo erectus occupation site of Bailong Cave, in the northern Hubei Province of China. 26Al/10Be measurements of three quartz samples provide a maximum age of 710 ka for the fossil and artefact-bearing units at the site. The Middle Pleistocene cosmogenic nuclide age is somewhat younger than the Early-Middle Pleistocene transitional age previously inferred from biostratigraphy. As with Demuro et al. (2015), this paper highlights that direct numerical chronology is essential for elucidating reliable site histories. The results of this study also indicate a potentially earlier human coexistence with StegodoneAiluropoda fauna than previously estimated for Asia.
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 389 (2015) 1e6
Finally, the last two contributions in this issue focus on the archaeological and palaeoanthropological record during the latest part of the Early Pleistocene. Dennell (2015) provides a comprehensive review of the Early Pleistocene archeological occupations documented in China. The author also highlights the existing uncertainty on the age of some of the sites, mostly in the Nihewan basin, like Majuangou III, Xiaochangliang and Donggutuo. Unlike in Western Europe, the Jaramillo Suchron is frequently identified, in particular in Northern China, thanks to the massive sequences of loess deposits and it can be used as a landmark for estimating the chronology of many archaeological occupations. This situation is in stark contrast with Southern China, where the timing of the first hominin occupation remains somewhat unclear. Arzarello et al. (2015) end the volume with a technological and typological study of the lithic artifact assemblage found at the site of Pirro Nord P13, Italy. While the chronology of this site remains somewhat poorly constrained by numerical dating techniques, biochronological studies nevertheless indicate an Early Pleistocene chronology (~1.6e1.3 Ma), which is consistent with the palaeomagnetic work performed at the nearby fissure P10. These results make the lithic artifacts amongst the earliest evidence of hominin presence in Europe. The authors describe the technological features of the preserved artifacts, which share most elements with other well-established Mode 1 sites in Europe (e.g., the adaptation of the reduction sequences to the raw material). For the most part, flint is the most dominant material among the several hundred artifacts found at the site of Pirro 13 e one of the many fissures in the karst locality. Acknowledgements This special volume arose from the ESF EARTHTIME-EU scientific meeting organised in Burgos in September 2013 (“The EarlyMiddle Pleistocene transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the sedimentary record”). We would like to thank all of the people and organisations that contributed to the planning of this meeting. The meeting was financially supported by the European Science Foundation (grant ref. 4312) through the EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme. Nominal support was also received from both the INQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology (INQUA-SACCOM) and the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, as part of the International commission on Stratigraphy. The CENIEH (Burgos, Spain) provided technical and logistic support. We are grateful to the CENIEH staff for the invaluable help in each step of the organisation and implementation of the meeting, with a special thanks to Walter Minnella and Claudia Alvarez. We thank all participants of the meeting for their contributions, their active participation in discussions, and for making the meeting a scientific success. Prof. Norm Catto, Editor-in-Chief of Quaternary International, is thanked for his continuous support during the production of this special volume. Finally, we express our gratitude to all the reviewers who have contributed to ensuring the quality of this special volume. Mathieu Duval is currently the recipient of an International Outgoing Fellowship from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under REA grant agreement PIOF-GA-2013-626474.
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Science 152 (3725), 1060e1061. res, C., Garcia, J., Guilarte, V., Grün, R., Martínez, K., Duval, M., Bahain, J.-J., Falgue Moreno, D., Shao, Q., Voinchet, P., 2015. Revisiting the ESR chronology of the Early Pleistocene hominin occupation at Vallparadís (Barcelona, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 213e223. s, J.M., (Program of Geochronology, CENIEH, Duval, M., Arnold, L., Hoffmann, D., Pare Spain), 2013. The Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the Sedimentary Record. Science Meeting Final Report. European Science Foundation (ESF), EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme, Strasbourg. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.2470.8321. Grant No.: 4312. Head, M.J., Gibbard, P.L. (Eds.), 2005. Early Middle Pleistocene Transitions: the Landocean Evidence. Geological Society of London (Special Publication, No. 247). Head, M.J., Gibbard, P.L., 2015. EarlyeMiddle Pleistocene transitions: Linking terrestrial and marine realms. Quaternary International 389, 7e46. Liu, X., Shen, G., Tu, H., Lu, C., Granger, D.E., 2015. Initial 26Al/10Be burial dating of the hominin site Bailong Cave in Hubei Province, central China. Quaternary International 389, 235e240. pez-García, J.M., Aurell-Garrido, J., Alba, D.M., MadurellLozano-Fern andez, I., Lo Malapeira, J., 2015. Data review on the small mammals from the late Early Pleis layer EVT7 (Valle s-Penede s Basin, NE Iberian tocene of Vallparadís Estacio Peninsula): Biochronological and palaeoenvironmental implications. Quaternary International 389, 159e166. Martínez, K., Garcia, J., Carbonell, E., Agustí, J., Bahain, J.-J., Blain, H.-A., Burjachs, F., ceres, I., Duval, M., Falgue res, C., Go mez, M., Huguet, R., 2010. A new Lower Ca Pleistocene archeological site in Europe (Vallparadís, Barcelona, Spain). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (13), 5762e5767. Martínez-Navarro, B., Madurell-Malapeira, J., Ros-Montoya, S., Espigares, M.-P., , P., Palmqvist, P., 2015. The Epivillafranchian and the arrival Medin, T., Hortola of pigs into Europe. Quaternary International 389, 131e138. Maslin, M.A., Brierley, C.M., 2015. The role of orbital forcing in the Early Middle Pleistocene Transition. Quaternary International 389, 47e55. s, J.M., Duval, M., Arnold, L.J., 2013. New views on an old move: hominin migraPare tion into Eurasia. Quaternary International 295 (0), 5e12. Pla-Pueyo, S., Viseras, C., Candy, I., Soria, J.M., García-García, F., Schreve, D., 2015. Climatic control on palaeohydrology and cyclical sediment distribution in the PlioQuaternary deposits of the Guadix Basin (Betic Cordillera, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 56e69. lez, J.A., Rodríguez-Go mez, G., 2015. How Rodríguez, J., Mateos, A., Martín-Gonza rare was human presence in Europe during the Early Pleistocene? Quaternary International 389, 119e130. Rook, L., Martínez-Navarro, B., 2010. Villafranchian: the long story of a PlioPleistocene European large mammal biochronologic unit. Quaternary International 219 (1e2), 134e144.
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van der Made, J., Dimitrijevi c, V., 2015. Eucladoceros montenegrensis n. sp. and other Cervidae from the Lower Pleistocene of Trlica (Montenegro). Quaternary International 389, 90e118.
n sobre la Evolucio n Geochronology, Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain E-mail address: [email protected].
Mathieu Duval* n sobre la Evolucio n Geochronology, Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
Dirk L. Hoffmann Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany E-mail address: [email protected].
Lee J. Arnold School of Physical Sciences, the Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia E-mail address: [email protected]. s Josep M. Pare
*
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Duval). Available online 6 November 2015
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint
Guest Editorial
The Jaramillo Subchron and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in continental records from a multidisciplinary perspective
1. Introduction The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition (EMPT), also known as the “mid-Pleistocene revolution” or “mid-Pleistocene transition“ (~1.4e~0.4 Ma), has become a major research topic in the last few decades. Evidence recorded by numerous multidisciplinary studies indicates that changes in the Earth's orbital cyclicity during this time period strongly impacted both the marine and terrestrial realms, as borne out by a wide range of physical and biotic proxies (see overview in Head and Gibbard, 2005). This influence has been especially pronounced in the Northern hemisphere and particularly in Europe, where the EMPT demonstrably corresponds to significant changes in mammalian evolution and dispersals, including a major faunal turnover, the arrival of the genus Homo and important techno-cultural advances (e.g. Rook and Martinez-Navarro, 2010; Abbate and Sagri, 2012; Carbonnell et al., in press). Two major palaeomagnetic reversals have been identified within the EMPT, the Jaramillo Subchron and the BrunheseMatuyama (BeM) reversal. The latter is perhaps among the most widely known chronological constraints in Quaternary studies, representing the boundary between Early and Middle Pleistocene subseries (0.77 Ma). In contrast, there has been relatively limited interest in the Jaramillo (1.07e0.99 Ma) since its discovery in the mid 1960's (Doell and Dalrymple, 1966). In recent years, the Jaramillo has been subject of renewed attention, as it is increasingly being identified in both continental and marine records. With a duration of about 80 ka, the Jaramillo is the longest normal subchron between the top of the Olduvai (1.78 Ma) subchron and the base of the Brunhes (0.77 Ma) chron. It is now frequently used in European continental records as a chronological marker for the second half of the Matuyama chron, particularly for faunal turnovers (e.g. Cuenca-Bescos et al., 2010; Rook and Martínez-Navarro, 2010). Additionally, it has proven to be especially useful for chronological inferences, where it can be combined with biostratigraphic evidence and numerical dating results to build more robust chronostratigraphic frameworks (e.g. Martínez et al., 2010). However, a review of the literature indicates that the number of localities where the Jaramillo is accurately identified in the European terrestrial record is currently quite limited, espes et al., 2013). Morecially in archaeo-paleontological contexts (Pare over, where the Jaramillo subchron has been identified in the European terrestrial record it is commonly the case that associated geochronological data are sub-optimal or ambiguous (i.e., the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.09.018 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
dating methodologies are not fully detailed, or further studies are s et al., 2013). Its sigimpossible since the site no longer exists) (Pare nificance and role, if any, in the EMPT remain relatively unclear, and it is still extremely difficult to identify significant “pre-” and “post-” Jaramillo changes in Earth system responses at the biotic and physical levels. To address these issues, and to better understand the nature of the EMPT and its impact at the Earth's surface, a multidisciplinary scientific meeting was organised in Burgos in September 2013. The publication of the present special volume of Quaternary International directly arose from this workshop. We are pleased to propose a dense compilation of 18 original papers covering the EMPT from a wide range of perspectives, providing an updated overview of the topic some 10 years after the seminal publication by M.J. Head and P.L. Gibbard, 2015 (Head and Gibbard, 2005). Will hopefully contribute to an improved understanding of a critical time period that formed the backdrop to the present-day climate system.
2. The ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in Burgos, 25e27 September 2013 With financial support from the European Science Foundation (EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme), the four Guest Editors of the present volume organised an international scientific n sobre la Evolucio n meeting at the Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH; Burgos, Spain) entitled: “The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the sedimentary record”. This multidisciplinary meeting brought together 35 Quaternary specialists (Fig. 1) with diverse scientific backgrounds (e.g. magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, palaeoclimatology, geochronology, astrochronology, stratigraphic correlation, palynology and archaeology) from eight different countries in order to share new results and ideas relevant to the EMPT and to promote future collaborations. A special emphasis was placed on studying the European continental record and the Jaramillo subchron. The programme was designed to encourage discussion and scientific debate, with a mix of key-note lectures providing an overview of a given topic and shorter presentations focused on more specific research projects and case studies. The contributions were grouped into six main sessions over 2.5 days (25e27 September 2013) in order to tackle the EMPT from various perspectives, as summarised in Table 1.
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Fig. 1. Participants of the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in front of the CENIEH, Burgos, Spain, on 25 September 2013.
Table 1 Brief overview of the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting (from Duval et al., 2013). Full programme may be found on the dedicated website at https://sites.google.com/site/ jaramillomeeting/. Keys: Day 1 ¼ Wednesday 25 September 2013; Day 2 ¼ Thursday 26 September 2013; Day 3 ¼ Friday 27 September 2013.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Session
Day
Introduction Magnetostratigraphy Radiometric dating methods Palaeoclimatology/Palaeoenvironment Sedimentary record/Cyclostratigraphy Biostratigraphy Human evolution/Archaeology
Day Day Day Day Day Day Day
1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3,
morning morning afternoon morning morning afternoon morning
Key note lecture
Standard presentations per session
Martin Head (Brock University, Canada) James E.T. Channell (University of Florida, USA) Brad Singer (University of WisconsineMadison, USA) Mark Maslin (University College London, UK) Philip L. Gibbard (University of Cambridge, UK) Lorenzo Rook (Universit a di Firenze, Italy) M. Bermúdez de Castro and María Martino n (CENIEH, Spain) Jose
0 3 5 5 2 5 5
A broad range of scientific fields, topics and contexts were covered during the conference, including climate cyclicity, orbital forcing, the potential and limitations of numerical and nonnumerical dating techniques, palaeoenvironmental changes, faunal turnover, animal migration and hominin evolution in Europe and Africa. Many different types of novel experimental approaches were also presented, based on wavelet analysis, magnetostratigraphy, biochronology/biostratigraphy of large and small mammals, numerical dating techniques, techno-typology of lithic industry, the use of pollen record, foraminifera, continental shells, or herpetofauna for palaeoclimatic reconstructions. Further details about the scientific outcomes of the meeting can be found in the final scientific report by Duval et al. (2013). Additional information regarding the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting, including the list of participants, programme, pictures and book of abstract may be found online on the website dedicated to this event, at https://sites. google.com/site/jaramillomeeting/. 3. Overview of the contributions to the special volume This special volume of Quaternary International includes 12 of the 32 contributions presented at the ESF EARTHTIME-EU meeting in Burgos. These contributions have been complemented by 6 invited papers that cover additional important aspects of EMPT research.
The volume is introduced by Head and Gibbard (2015) who propose a comprehensive overview of the EMPT. Their extensive review stands as a new reference study and offers a synthesis of the current knowledge of the EMPT. Head and Gibbard (2015) integrate a massive amount of data in a coherent framework in order to understand the origin, nature and expression of the EMPT in both the marine and terrestrial realms. According to the authors, the EMPT took place between ~1.4 Ma and ~0.4 Ma, as the progressive shift towards ~100 ka cyclicity is first noticed around Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 45 and is fully established at the MIS12e11 transition. They explore multiple possible causes of this climate transition, as orbital forcing alone cannot explain the progressive shift from 41 ka obliquity to ~100 ka cycles during the EMPT. This question is also discussed later in the volume by Maslin and Brierley (2015). The uncertainties associated with existing age constraints are then thoroughly discussed, in particular for the chronology of the BrunheseMatuyama boundary and the Jaramillo Subchron, as well as the difference that may arise from the use of different proxies or reference sequences. The authors emphasise the strong correlation between marine and terrestrial responses to the EMPT by compiling extensive information for the major ocean basins and from different continents. Special attention is given to the European record, with an overview of the evolution of the terrestrial biota (vegetation, large and small mammals, hominins) during this transition. If further details are required, the
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reader may also refer to a series of review papers focusing on more specific areas, including Bellucci et al. (2015) for large mammal renewals in Europe, Cuenca-Bescos et al., (2015) and Agustí (2015) for long small mammal sequences in Spain, and Dennell et al. (2015) for a comprehensive overview of archaeological occupations in China. Finally, Head and Gibbard end their review paper by identifying and characterising the major climatic events of the EMPT, from MIS45 to MIS11. The second paper by Maslin and Brierley (2015) reviews the role of orbital forcing in the EMPT and assesses whether internal or external driving mechanisms have primarily controlled the prolongation, intensification and restructuring of glacialeinterglacial climate cycles over the last 900 ka. Their evaluation suggests that previous theories of a non-linear climate response to eccentricity (the ‘eccentricity myth’) or a linear response to either obliquity or precession are too simplistic to explain the timing of post-EMPT glacialeinterglacial cycles. Maslin and Brierley (2015) speculate that the EMPT may have been caused by a changing internal response of the global carbon cycle to orbital forcing, which allowed increased ice sheet growth in the Northern Hemisphere and provided enough local climate feedbacks to counteract obliquity-driven increased heat transport northward. They suggest that, though post-EMPT phase-locking between orbital forcing and global ice volume may have occurred, the stochastic nature of the climate system response and ever changing relationships between orbital parameters and internal climate feedbacks means that there is no consistent phase lock-in pattern over the last 900 ka. The following two papers by Pla-Pueyo et al. (2015) and Anadon et al. (2015) are case studies focused on continental responses to the EMPT using physical and geochemical signals measured in the Guadix-Baza intramontane basin sedimentary record, in southern Spain. This geographical region has attracted numerous studies on geology and paleontology over the last few decades, since several important mammal localities with archaeological evidence have been documented in the basin (see Agustí et al., Demuro et al., Alvarez et al., 2015). Pla-Pueyo et al. (2015) studied Late PlioceneQuaternary alluvial fan deposits located in the western sector of the basin. Cyclostratigraphy encoded in palustrine carbonates identified by the authors allowed determination of a succession of arid versus wetter conditions in the basin, with possible eccentricity cycles. Isotopic evidence supports the interpretation that large water bodies were present in the basin, in spite of continuous aridification. The environmental implications for the Lower Palaeolithic hominins and coeval fauna of the basin are also discussed. In the Eastern sector of the basin, Anadon et al. (2015) furnish a detailed n section, which is stratigraphic description of the Barranco Leo known to contain mammals and lithic artifacts. As part of this study, the authors obtain stable isotopes (C, O, Sr) from ostracods and mollusks to determine water provenance and palaeoenvironmental conditions in the lacustrine sediments during the Early Pleistocene. The geochemical analyses reveal that the water in the lakes had different origins, with an increasing influence of meteoric waters up-section. In the present volume, a large number of contributions (7) are centered on the study of palaeontological records at European localities (either small [3] or large mammal fauna [4]), from different perspectives. The EMPT is marked by widespread ecological turnovers and renewals in Europe that have been informally defined as the VillafranchianeGalerian transition in a number of biochronological schemes based on large mammal fauna. Bellucci et al. (2015) propose a formal biochron for these transitional faunas based on consideration of the most representative European large mammal assemblages for this chronological interval. The authors formally define the Epivillafranchian Mammal Age for the VillafranchianeGalerian transitional fauna according to the first occurrence
3
of Praemegaceros verticornis/Bison menneri and Crocuta crocuta, these two main bioevents being the respective lower and upper boundaries for the biochron. van der Made and Dimitrijevi c (2015) present a large mammal assemblage from Trlica in Montenegro and discuss the potential age of this Early Pleistocene locality. The fossil remains of cervids from Trlica are described and assigned to the elk or moose Alces cf. carnutorum, the roe deer ?Capreolus sp., the red deer Cervus elaphus, and Eucladoceros. A new species Eucladoceros montenegrensis n. sp. is identified on the basis of 169 bones and teeth. van der Made and Dimitrijevi c (2015) conclude that Trlica has a likely age of between 780 ka and 1.07 Ma according to biochronological comparison with other sites in the region. The site therefore preserves an important cervid assemblage spanning the Jaramillo subchron and EMPT. Rodríguez et al. (2015) propose an original approach for studying the late Early Pleistocene (1.4e0.8 Ma) large mammal record of Europe. By considering a large number of localities distributed across the whole European continent, they evaluate the rarity (or commonness) of the large mammal species in faunal assemblages, with a special focus of the Genus Homo. This study represents one of the first attempts to quantify the abundance of Pleistocene hominins in Europe. The results obtained by Rodríguez et al. (2015) based on the palaeontological record suggest that although Homo sp. was not extremely common, it nevertheless cannot be considered as a rare taxon during the late Early Pleistocene. By including the archaeological record in their study, the authors acknowledge a possible taphonomic bias, but their results suggest that the species was widely distributed in the continent, with perhaps higher population densities in Southern Europe in comparison with the rest of the continent. The authors conclude their study by considering that hominins may be considered as a frequent but not an abundant taxon in Europe during the late Early Pleistocene. Martínez-Navarro et al. (2015) report the absence of suids in the Late Villafranchian record of Europe between ~1.8 and ~1.2 Ma. Although the authors acknowledge the fragmented nature of the European mammalian record, they do not consider this absence to be caused by taphonomic bias. Instead, they suggest that the disappearance and reappearance of suids in Europe might be linked with important ecosystem and climate changes over time. To support this interpretation they correlate the dispersal of pigs at around 1.2 Ma with a warmer climate event inferred from the composition of the small mammal assemblage of Atapuerca Sima del Elefante TE9 site in Spain. Consequently, the authors propose that the reappearance of suids in Europe could be used as a key biochronological marker for the beginning of the Epivillafranchian biochron, in addition to those markers defined by Bellucci et al. (2015). A second set of three papers is focused on the small mammal record identified at different localities in the Iberian Peninsula. These works highlight the importance of rodent biostratigraphy for constraining the relative chronology of continental deposits. This approach is exemplified by Agustí et al. (2015), who provide an updated biostratigraphic division of the small mammal record of the Guadix-Baza basin, that has delivered an almost continuous sedimentary record since the end of the Miocene. Over the last 30 years, more than 60 fossilifierous levels have been sampled and studied in the area, covering almost the entire Pleistocene time range, from 2.6 to about 0.3 Ma. Most of these sites have been constrained with magnetostratography, while some of them have been also dated with numerical methods. The papers by Demuro et al. (2015) and Alvarez et al. (2015), respectively centered on Huescar-1 and Fuente Nueva-3, are two good examples in that regard. This detailed biozonation proposed by Agustí et al. (2015) is of primary importance to provide a chronostratigraphic
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framework for the archeo-palaeontological localities discovered in the area. Cuenca-Bescos et al. (2015) provide a revised faunal study of two classic palaeoanthropological sites from Atapuerca (Sima Elefante and Gran Dolina). The small faunal associations at these localities place Atapuerca among the richest Quaternary record sites in Europe and provide a high resolution composite sequence for the Early Pleistocene levels that may be used as a reference for the Spanish record. The lack of similarities between the assemblages from each site is striking, which can only be explained by a chronological gap between them. This study therefore provides additional chronological constraint on the Atapuerca deposits and complements the new/existing palaeomagentic data and numerical age results for these sites (see also Arnold et al., 2015). The recently discovered site of Vallparadis in northeast Spain provides crucial insights into the European Early Pleistocene, as it is one of the very few continental localities where the Jaramillo Subchron has been identified and where a large mammal assemblage from the Epivillafranchian biochron has been recorded (Bellucci et al., 2015). The contribution by Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015) includes a revision of the species Mimomys savini at the site, including its morphologic and biometric features and comparisons with specimens from the sites studied by Cuenca-Bescos et al. (2015) and from the Guadix-Baza Basin. Overall, the inferred ages agree with the existing numerical ages provided by ESR (see Duval et al. 2015) and magnetostratigraphy. Furthermore, the authors discuss the palaeoenvironmental implications of the studied stratigraphic layers, which reveal open and humid settings for the late Early Pleistocene. Another set of contributions in this special volume is focused on geochronology. Reliable dating of sites spanning the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition is critical for accurate interpretations of regional palaeoenvironmental change, palaeoecological turnovers and lower Palaeolithic archaeological histories. Establishing numerical chronologies over Early to Middle Pleistocene timescales has traditionally proved challenging for many conventional radiometric geochronological techniques. However, continuing advances in methods such as cosmogenic burial dating, extended-range luminescence dating and electron spin resonance have opened up new possibilities for dating this critical time period. This special volume includes several important applications of these dating techniques at key archaeological and palaeontological sites across Eurasia. Arnold et al. (2015) present a comprehensive review of extended-range luminescence dating techniques (thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL), post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) and OSL dating of individual quartz ‘supergrains’), which offer the potential to establish numerical age control on sedimentary deposits beyond the upper age limits of traditional OSL dating. Their analyses of known-age comparison studies reveal general support for the reliability of novel extended-range luminescence approaches over Late and Middle Pleistocene timescales. However, they highlight the need for more widespread, known-age empirical assessments of extended-range luminescence techniques beyond ~300e400 thousand years ago (ka). Arnold et al. (2015) go on to test the applicability of TT-OSL and pIR-IRSL dating at the Atapuerca palaeoanthropological sites of Gran Dolina, Sima del Elefante and Galería in north-central Spain. The Atapuerca case studies highlight the advantages of applying TT-OSL dating at the single-grain scale of analysis, and demonstrate the benefits of applying different extended-range luminescence techniques in tandem. This study also establishes a new numerical age of 846 ± 57 ka for the Homo antecessor palaeoanthropological horizon (unit TD6) at Gran
Dolina, which represents a significant improvement in the site's existing chronology. Demuro et al. (2015) apply a similar suite of extended-range scar-1 luminescence techniques at the palaeontological site of Hue in southern Spain. This site has played an important role in defining local-scale biozone successions in the Guadix-Baza basin, and it has been used as a biochronological reference site for correlating EarlyMiddle Pleistocene faunal schemes across the Iberian Peninsula. The chronologies obtained by Demuro et al. (2015) using three different luminescence dating techniques display a high degree of consistency and reveal that the fossil-bearing fluvial deposits are younger than previously inferred from faunal associations (see also Agustí et al. 2015 for the biostratigraphic interpretation of the rodent assemblage from this site). By comparing the latest chronological results with taphonomic, taxonomic and geomorphic evidence, the authors suggest that the site likely preserves a palimpsest of bones in primary depositional context and reworked fossils from potentially older deposits. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of establishing independent, numerical chronologies for palaeontological reference sites of biochronological significance, and suggest that due caution should scar-1 faunal by exerted in future interpretations of the Hue assemblage. The work by Duval et al. (2015) is the second contribution focused on Vallparadís site after Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015). The authors provide numerical age results on the sequence by using the ESR dating method on two different types of materials, fossil teeth and optically bleached quartz grains extracted form sediment. The analyses provide very consistent results, with weighted mean ESR age estimates of 858 ± 87 ka and 849 ± 48 ka for units EVT7, which includes archaeological levels 10, and EVT-8, respectively. These results are in good agreement with the existing magnetobiostratigraphic framework, which constrain these deposits between 780 and 990 ka. The numerical age obtained for EVT-7 is very close to that calculated by Arnold et al. (2015) for Gran Dolina TD-6 and, together with the studies of the rodent fauna by Cuenca s et al. (2015) and Lozano-Fernandez et al. (2015), suggest that Besco Vallparadís EVT-7 and Atapuerca Gran Dolina TD-6 (Spain) may reasonably be considered as sub-coeval. Alvarez et al. (2015) address chronological uncertainties at one of the oldest hominin sites in western Europe e Fuente Nueva-3 in the Guadix-Baza Basin of southern Spain. The authors use a combination of magnetic reversal stratigraphy dating and cosmogenic nuclide burial dating to refine the age of the site within the Matuyama chron. The new magnetostratigraphic constraint and cosmogenic burial age suggest that the archaeo-paleontological unit at Fuente Nueva-3 was deposited prior to the Jaramillo Subchron, confirming the importance of the site for unravelling the initial human colonisation of southern Europe and the Villafran chian turnover. Alvarez et al. (2015) caution, however, that further chronological research is needed to improve the precision of the latest ages for the site and to ascertain firmer temporal relationships with other early human sites in the region. In the second cosmogenic burial dating study from this special volume, Liu et al. (2015) provide numerical age constraints on the Homo erectus occupation site of Bailong Cave, in the northern Hubei Province of China. 26Al/10Be measurements of three quartz samples provide a maximum age of 710 ka for the fossil and artefact-bearing units at the site. The Middle Pleistocene cosmogenic nuclide age is somewhat younger than the Early-Middle Pleistocene transitional age previously inferred from biostratigraphy. As with Demuro et al. (2015), this paper highlights that direct numerical chronology is essential for elucidating reliable site histories. The results of this study also indicate a potentially earlier human coexistence with StegodoneAiluropoda fauna than previously estimated for Asia.
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 389 (2015) 1e6
Finally, the last two contributions in this issue focus on the archaeological and palaeoanthropological record during the latest part of the Early Pleistocene. Dennell (2015) provides a comprehensive review of the Early Pleistocene archeological occupations documented in China. The author also highlights the existing uncertainty on the age of some of the sites, mostly in the Nihewan basin, like Majuangou III, Xiaochangliang and Donggutuo. Unlike in Western Europe, the Jaramillo Suchron is frequently identified, in particular in Northern China, thanks to the massive sequences of loess deposits and it can be used as a landmark for estimating the chronology of many archaeological occupations. This situation is in stark contrast with Southern China, where the timing of the first hominin occupation remains somewhat unclear. Arzarello et al. (2015) end the volume with a technological and typological study of the lithic artifact assemblage found at the site of Pirro Nord P13, Italy. While the chronology of this site remains somewhat poorly constrained by numerical dating techniques, biochronological studies nevertheless indicate an Early Pleistocene chronology (~1.6e1.3 Ma), which is consistent with the palaeomagnetic work performed at the nearby fissure P10. These results make the lithic artifacts amongst the earliest evidence of hominin presence in Europe. The authors describe the technological features of the preserved artifacts, which share most elements with other well-established Mode 1 sites in Europe (e.g., the adaptation of the reduction sequences to the raw material). For the most part, flint is the most dominant material among the several hundred artifacts found at the site of Pirro 13 e one of the many fissures in the karst locality. Acknowledgements This special volume arose from the ESF EARTHTIME-EU scientific meeting organised in Burgos in September 2013 (“The EarlyMiddle Pleistocene transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the sedimentary record”). We would like to thank all of the people and organisations that contributed to the planning of this meeting. The meeting was financially supported by the European Science Foundation (grant ref. 4312) through the EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme. Nominal support was also received from both the INQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology (INQUA-SACCOM) and the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, as part of the International commission on Stratigraphy. The CENIEH (Burgos, Spain) provided technical and logistic support. We are grateful to the CENIEH staff for the invaluable help in each step of the organisation and implementation of the meeting, with a special thanks to Walter Minnella and Claudia Alvarez. We thank all participants of the meeting for their contributions, their active participation in discussions, and for making the meeting a scientific success. Prof. Norm Catto, Editor-in-Chief of Quaternary International, is thanked for his continuous support during the production of this special volume. Finally, we express our gratitude to all the reviewers who have contributed to ensuring the quality of this special volume. Mathieu Duval is currently the recipient of an International Outgoing Fellowship from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under REA grant agreement PIOF-GA-2013-626474.
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biostratigraphy of the Guadix-Baza Basin (SE Spain). Quaternary International 389, 139e147. s, J.M., Granger, D., Duval, M., Sala, R., Toro, I., 2015. New magnetoAlvarez, C., Pare stratigraphic and numerical age of the Fuente Nueva-3 site (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 224e234. n, P., Oms, O., Riera, V., Julia , R., 2015. The geochemistry of biogenic carAnado bonates as a paleoenvironmental tool for the Lower Pleistocene Barranco n sequence (BL-5D, Baza Basin, Spain). Quaternary International 389, Leo 70e83. s, J.M., Pe rez-Gonza lez, A., Arsuaga, J.L., Bermúdez de Arnold, L.J., Demuro, M., Pare Castro, J.M., Carbonell, E., 2015. Evaluating the suitability of extended-range luminescence dating techniques over early and Middle Pleistocene timescales: Published datasets and case studies from Atapuerca, Spain. Quaternary International 389, 167e190. Arzarello, M., Peretto, C., Moncel, M.-H., 2015. The Pirro Nord site (Apricena, Fg, Southern Italy) in the context of the first European peopling: Convergences and divergences. Quaternary International 389, 255e263. Bellucci, L., Sardella, R., Rook, L., 2015. Large mammal biochronology framework in Europe at Jaramillo: The Epivillafranchian as a formal biochron. Quaternary International 389, 84e89. Carbonell, E., Barsky, D., Sala, R., Celiberti, V., 2015. Structural continuity and technological change in Lower Pleistocene toolkits. Quaternary International. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.04.008 (in press). s, G., Rofes, J., Lo pez-García, J.M., Blain, H.-A., De Marfa , R.J., GalindoCuenca-Besco Pellicena, M.A., Benn asar-Serra, M.L., Melero-Rubio, M., Arsuaga, J.L., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Carbonell, E., 2010. Biochronology of Spanish Quaternary small vertebrate faunas. Quaternary International 212, 109e119. s, G., Blain, H.-A., Rofes, J., Lozano-Fern pez-García, J.M., Cuenca-Besco andez, I., Lo ~ ez-Lahuerta, C., 2015. Comparing two different Early Duval, M., Gal an, J., Nún Pleistocene microfaunal sequences from the caves of Atapuerca, Sima del Elefante and Gran Dolina (Spain): Biochronological implications and significance of the Jaramillo subchron. Quaternary International 389, 148e158. s, J.M., Sala, R., 2015. Extended-range luminescence Demuro, M., Arnold, L.J., Pare chronologies suggest potentially complex bone accumulation histories at the scar-1 (Guadix-Baza Early-to-Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site of Hue basin, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 191e212. Dennell, R.W., 2015. The Jaramillo Subchron, a geochronological marker horizon in the palaeoanthropological record of China. Quaternary International 389, 241e254. Doell, R.R., Dalrymple, G.B., 1966. Geomagnetic polarity epochs: a new polarity event and the Age of the Brunhes-Matuyama Boundary. Science 152 (3725), 1060e1061. res, C., Garcia, J., Guilarte, V., Grün, R., Martínez, K., Duval, M., Bahain, J.-J., Falgue Moreno, D., Shao, Q., Voinchet, P., 2015. Revisiting the ESR chronology of the Early Pleistocene hominin occupation at Vallparadís (Barcelona, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 213e223. s, J.M., (Program of Geochronology, CENIEH, Duval, M., Arnold, L., Hoffmann, D., Pare Spain), 2013. The Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: Significance of the Jaramillo Subchron in the Sedimentary Record. Science Meeting Final Report. European Science Foundation (ESF), EARTHTIME-EU Research Networking Programme, Strasbourg. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.2470.8321. Grant No.: 4312. Head, M.J., Gibbard, P.L. (Eds.), 2005. Early Middle Pleistocene Transitions: the Landocean Evidence. Geological Society of London (Special Publication, No. 247). Head, M.J., Gibbard, P.L., 2015. EarlyeMiddle Pleistocene transitions: Linking terrestrial and marine realms. Quaternary International 389, 7e46. Liu, X., Shen, G., Tu, H., Lu, C., Granger, D.E., 2015. Initial 26Al/10Be burial dating of the hominin site Bailong Cave in Hubei Province, central China. Quaternary International 389, 235e240. pez-García, J.M., Aurell-Garrido, J., Alba, D.M., MadurellLozano-Fern andez, I., Lo Malapeira, J., 2015. Data review on the small mammals from the late Early Pleis layer EVT7 (Valle s-Penede s Basin, NE Iberian tocene of Vallparadís Estacio Peninsula): Biochronological and palaeoenvironmental implications. Quaternary International 389, 159e166. Martínez, K., Garcia, J., Carbonell, E., Agustí, J., Bahain, J.-J., Blain, H.-A., Burjachs, F., ceres, I., Duval, M., Falgue res, C., Go mez, M., Huguet, R., 2010. A new Lower Ca Pleistocene archeological site in Europe (Vallparadís, Barcelona, Spain). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (13), 5762e5767. Martínez-Navarro, B., Madurell-Malapeira, J., Ros-Montoya, S., Espigares, M.-P., , P., Palmqvist, P., 2015. The Epivillafranchian and the arrival Medin, T., Hortola of pigs into Europe. Quaternary International 389, 131e138. Maslin, M.A., Brierley, C.M., 2015. The role of orbital forcing in the Early Middle Pleistocene Transition. Quaternary International 389, 47e55. s, J.M., Duval, M., Arnold, L.J., 2013. New views on an old move: hominin migraPare tion into Eurasia. Quaternary International 295 (0), 5e12. Pla-Pueyo, S., Viseras, C., Candy, I., Soria, J.M., García-García, F., Schreve, D., 2015. Climatic control on palaeohydrology and cyclical sediment distribution in the PlioQuaternary deposits of the Guadix Basin (Betic Cordillera, Spain). Quaternary International 389, 56e69. lez, J.A., Rodríguez-Go mez, G., 2015. How Rodríguez, J., Mateos, A., Martín-Gonza rare was human presence in Europe during the Early Pleistocene? Quaternary International 389, 119e130. Rook, L., Martínez-Navarro, B., 2010. Villafranchian: the long story of a PlioPleistocene European large mammal biochronologic unit. Quaternary International 219 (1e2), 134e144.
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Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 389 (2015) 1e6
van der Made, J., Dimitrijevi c, V., 2015. Eucladoceros montenegrensis n. sp. and other Cervidae from the Lower Pleistocene of Trlica (Montenegro). Quaternary International 389, 90e118.
n sobre la Evolucio n Geochronology, Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain E-mail address: [email protected].
Mathieu Duval* n sobre la Evolucio n Geochronology, Centro Nacional de Investigacio Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
Dirk L. Hoffmann Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany E-mail address: [email protected].
Lee J. Arnold School of Physical Sciences, the Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia E-mail address: [email protected]. s Josep M. Pare
*
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Duval). Available online 6 November 2015