Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe
The vegetation and the climatic context in which the first hominins entered and dispersed in Europe during the Early Pleistocene are reconstructed, using literature review and a new climatic simulation. Both in situ fauna and in situ pollen at the twelve early hominin sites under consideration indic...
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ftbruneluniv:oai:bura.brunel.ac.uk:2438/4298 2023-05-15T16:41:25+02:00 Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe Leroy, SAG Arpe, K Mikolajewicz, U 2010 http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4298 en eng Elsevier Quaternary Science Reviews. In press 0277-3791 http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4298 Vegetation Climatic modelling Early Pleistocene Hominin dispersal Europe Pollen Research Paper 2010 ftbruneluniv 2021-08-08T08:34:10Z The vegetation and the climatic context in which the first hominins entered and dispersed in Europe during the Early Pleistocene are reconstructed, using literature review and a new climatic simulation. Both in situ fauna and in situ pollen at the twelve early hominin sites under consideration indicate the occurrence of open landscapes: grasslands or forested steppes. The presence of ancient hominins (Homo of the erectus group) in Europe is only possible at the transition from glacial to interglacial periods, the full glacial being too cold for them and the transition interglacial to glacial too forested. Glacial–interglacial cycles forced by obliquity showed paralleled vegetation successions, which repeated c. 42 times during the course of the Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 Ma), providing 42 narrow windows of opportunity for hominins to disperse into Europe. The climatic conditions of this Early Pleistocene vegetation at glacial-interglacial transitions are compared with a climatic simulation for 9 ka ago without ice sheet, as this time period is so far the best analogue available. The climate at the beginning of the present interglacial displayed a stronger seasonality than now. Forest cover would not have been hampered though, clearly indicating that other factors linked to refugial location and soils leave this period relatively free of forests. Similar situations with an offset between climate and vegetation at the beginning of interglacials repeated themselves throughout the Quaternary and benefitted the early hominins when colonising Europe. The duration of this open phase of vegetation at the glacial–interglacial transition was long enough to allow colonisation from the Levant to the Atlantic. The twelve sites fall within rather narrow ranges of summer precipitation and temperature of the coldest month, suggesting the hominins had only a very low tolerance to climate variability. Report Ice Sheet Brunel University London: Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Brunel University London: Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) |
op_collection_id |
ftbruneluniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Vegetation Climatic modelling Early Pleistocene Hominin dispersal Europe Pollen |
spellingShingle |
Vegetation Climatic modelling Early Pleistocene Hominin dispersal Europe Pollen Leroy, SAG Arpe, K Mikolajewicz, U Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
topic_facet |
Vegetation Climatic modelling Early Pleistocene Hominin dispersal Europe Pollen |
description |
The vegetation and the climatic context in which the first hominins entered and dispersed in Europe during the Early Pleistocene are reconstructed, using literature review and a new climatic simulation. Both in situ fauna and in situ pollen at the twelve early hominin sites under consideration indicate the occurrence of open landscapes: grasslands or forested steppes. The presence of ancient hominins (Homo of the erectus group) in Europe is only possible at the transition from glacial to interglacial periods, the full glacial being too cold for them and the transition interglacial to glacial too forested. Glacial–interglacial cycles forced by obliquity showed paralleled vegetation successions, which repeated c. 42 times during the course of the Early Pleistocene (2.58–0.78 Ma), providing 42 narrow windows of opportunity for hominins to disperse into Europe. The climatic conditions of this Early Pleistocene vegetation at glacial-interglacial transitions are compared with a climatic simulation for 9 ka ago without ice sheet, as this time period is so far the best analogue available. The climate at the beginning of the present interglacial displayed a stronger seasonality than now. Forest cover would not have been hampered though, clearly indicating that other factors linked to refugial location and soils leave this period relatively free of forests. Similar situations with an offset between climate and vegetation at the beginning of interglacials repeated themselves throughout the Quaternary and benefitted the early hominins when colonising Europe. The duration of this open phase of vegetation at the glacial–interglacial transition was long enough to allow colonisation from the Levant to the Atlantic. The twelve sites fall within rather narrow ranges of summer precipitation and temperature of the coldest month, suggesting the hominins had only a very low tolerance to climate variability. |
format |
Report |
author |
Leroy, SAG Arpe, K Mikolajewicz, U |
author_facet |
Leroy, SAG Arpe, K Mikolajewicz, U |
author_sort |
Leroy, SAG |
title |
Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
title_short |
Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
title_full |
Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
title_fullStr |
Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vegetation context and climatic limits of the Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe |
title_sort |
vegetation context and climatic limits of the early pleistocene hominin dispersal in europe |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4298 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
Quaternary Science Reviews. In press 0277-3791 http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4298 |
_version_ |
1766031849583280128 |