Hominin Response to Oscillations in Climate and Local Environments During the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition in Northern China

Archeological evidence from loess sediments from Shangchen on the southeastern Chinese Loess Plateau indicates a suspension of hominin occupation around the time of the early mid-Pleistocene climate transition, prompting a re-assessment of climate-vegetation-hominin interactions. Loess deposits with in situ lithic records cover the period of hominin occupation and reveal four distinct climate-vegetation periods (2.1-1.8, 1.8-1.26, 1.26-0.9, and 0.9-0.6 Ma). Major oscillations in climate superimposed upon an aridification trend and an expansion of C4 herbaceous vegetation from about 1.26 Ma may have driven early humans to move to more hospitable locations in the region. Comparison with the record at Nihewan indicates that large-scale climate oscillations induced disparate hominin responses due to distinctive local environmental conditions. A combination of several lines of evidence suggests that changes in climate and their impacts on the availability of food and shelter from around 1.26 million years ago may have driven the dispersal of early humans from the southeastern Chinese Loess Plateau to more hospitable environments elsewhere in the region. Pleistocene temperature, rainfall, and C4 plants ratios are quantitatively reconstructed from the Shangchen loess deposits with artifactsHigh climate variability, C4 plants expansion and aridification suspended hominin occupation at Shangchen during the early mid-Pleistocene climate transitionHominins responded differently to large-scale climate oscillations depending on distinctive local environmental conditions