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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
A multi-proxy approach to exploring Homo sapiens’ arrival, environments and adaptations in Southeast Asia
Scientific Reports, Vol.11(1), pp.1-14
26/10/2021
PMCID: PMC8548499
PMID: 34702921
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Source: InCites
Abstract
The capability of Pleistocene hominins to successfully adapt to different types of tropical forested environments has long been debated. In order to investigate environmental changes in Southeast Asia during a critical period for the turnover of hominin species, we analysed palaeoenvironmental proxies from five late Middle to Late Pleistocene faunas. Human teeth discoveries have been reported at Duoi U’Oi, Vietnam (70–60 ka) and Nam Lot, Laos (86–72 ka). However, the use of palaeoproteomics allowed us to discard the latter, and, to date, no human remains older than ~ 70 ka are documented in the area. Our findings indicate that tropical rainforests were highly sensitive to climatic changes over that period, with significant fluctuations of the canopy forests. Locally, large-bodied faunas were resilient to these fluctuations until the cooling period of the Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4; 74–59 ka) that transformed the overall biotope. Then, under strong selective pressures, populations with new phenotypic characteristics emerged while some other species disappeared. We argue that this climate-driven shift offered new foraging opportunities for hominins in a novel rainforest environment and was most likely a key factor in the settlement and dispersal of our species during MIS 4 in SE Asia.
Details
- Title
- A multi-proxy approach to exploring Homo sapiens’ arrival, environments and adaptations in Southeast Asia
- Creators
- Anne-Marie Bacon - Université Paris CitéNicolas Bourgon - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyFrido Welker - University of CopenhagenEnrico Cappellini - University of CopenhagenDenis Fiorillo - Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueOlivier Tombret - Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueNguyen Thi Mai Huong - Vietnam Institute of ArchaeologyNguyen Anh Tuan - Vietnam Institute of ArchaeologyThongsa Sayavonkhamdy - Department of Heritage, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Vientiane, Laos.Viengkeo Souksavatdy - Department of Heritage, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Vientiane, Laos.Phonephanh Sichanthongtip - Department of Heritage, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Vientiane, Laos.Pierre-Olivier Antoine - University of MontpellierPhilippe Duringer - Université de StrasbourgJean-Luc Ponche - Université de StrasbourgKira Westaway - Macquarie UniversityRenaud Joannes-Boyau - Southern Cross UniversityQuentin Boesch - Université de StrasbourgEric Suzzoni - Spitteurs Pan, Technical Cave Supervision and Exploration, La Chapelle-en-Vercors, France.Sébastien Frangeul - Spitteurs Pan, Technical Cave Supervision and Exploration, La Chapelle-en-Vercors, France.Elise Patole-Edoumba - Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de La RochelleAlexandra Zachwieja - University of MinnesotaLaura Shackelford - University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFabrice Demeter - Lundbeck FoundationJean-Jacques Hublin - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyÉlise Dufour - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Publication Details
- Scientific Reports, Vol.11(1), pp.1-14
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Grant note
- Funding came from the research laboratory BABEL (FRE 2029 and UMR 8045) CNRS/Université de Paris, France, to AMB, the Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, to NB (contract number 0117/037). F.W. was supported by a Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (n°795569), and a European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement n°948365). EC was supported by VILLUM FONDEN (n°17649).
- Identifiers
- 991012978266502368
- Copyright
- © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; School of Environment, Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article