The Chalbi Desert, located in eastern Africa, is a significant but overlooked archive of the Pleistocene and Holocene periods that could add insight into investigations on human evolution. We revisited southeastern Chalbi Desert landforms between the towns of Kargi and Maikona to improve the chronostratigraphy and provide paleoenvironmental context. Direct U-series and electron spin resonance dating of various fossil teeth recovered from a deflated dune (Qzs) landform at the Farre locality return a mean age of ∼545 ka, which is compatible with biostratigraphic inferences. While this numerical age result should probably be regarded as mostly indicative given the existing uncertainty on the environmental dose rate evaluation, the data set available nevertheless strongly suggests a Middle Pleistocene age for at least some of the fauna. Sedimentology, luminescence, and 14C dating further suggest that this Qzs landform and its contents were modified by alluvial fan development and weathering during denudation in a proximal fan setting through the late Pleistocene into the Holocene. The Qzs landform currently experiences aeolian additions, erosion, and salt-affected soil development in an arid climate. Pedogenic carbonate isotope geochemistry suggests that deflated sand dunes were covered by woody grasslands during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 and 3 pluvials, consistent with nearby fan progradation constrained at >35 ka. The desert experienced increased hydrologic activity during late Pleistocene and African humid period pluvials, as evidenced by additional optically stimulated luminescence and 14C dating from fan, dune, and playa contexts. The last significant pluvial episode ended after 4.4 ± 0.3 cal ka BP, which coincides with the final regression of nearby Lake Turkana. This study extends the chronology of Quaternary sediments in the Chalbi Desert to the Middle Pleistocene and offers paleoenvironmental insights into the conditions experienced by Middle Stone Age tool users in the region.

Understanding biotic responses to environmental changes will help identify extinction risks and direct conservation efforts to mitigate negative effects associated with anthropogenic-induced environmental changes. Here we use the Quaternary fossil record of mole salamanders (Ambystoma) from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico to reveal geographic patterns of extirpation since the Pleistocene. Ambystoma are known to have previously inhabited regions of central Texas on the Edwards Plateau; however, they are largely absent from the region today. We used a well-dated fossil record of Ambystoma from Hall’s Cave combined with other fossil sites in the region to deduce why Ambystoma was ultimately extirpated from the Edwards Plateau and to test hypotheses related to temperature-driven body-size changes in line with the temperature–size rule. We propose that Ambystoma was likely extirpated from the region due to changing temperature and precipitation regimes that caused increased mortality and disruptions to breeding and larval development. We found some support for decreased body size in Ambystoma with increased temperature during the late Pleistocene, suggesting that body size may be an important feature to monitor in modern populations of Ambystoma as salamanders become subjected to increasingly hotter temperatures in the coming decades.

Despite lying at a crossroad of Pleistocene hominin dispersals, little is known about human occupation in Iraq during this period. An archaeological survey in the Western Desert is revealing recurrent hominin activity at Shbicha, highlighting the region’s potential in advancing our understanding of hominin behaviour and dispersal across South-west Asia.

We report new interpretation of >19,500 beach strandlines from waterbodies in the western St. Lawrence and Champlain Lowlands in northern New York and adjacent areas of Vermont, Quebec, and Ontario from ≤2-m-resolution digital elevation models. Strandline evidence supports a deglaciation model in which proglacial lake and marine shoreline deposits adjusted continuously in response to steady shoreline regression linked to outlet incision, differential isostatic adjustments, and postglacial relative sea-level rise. Gaps in strandline preservation reflect times of rapid water-level decline associated with breakout floods and abrupt shifts in drainage to new outlets. Water levels returned to slower, steady decline and renewed beach sedimentation during the later stages of a breakout as water levels in the source and receiving waterbodies equilibrated. Our conclusions contrast with previous models that infer discrete lake stages were controlled by stable outlets then fell abruptly as lower outlets were exhumed from beneath the Laurentide Ice Sheet during deglaciation. We present a new deglacial chronology and lake nomenclature that reflects this paradigm and redefines the spatial and temporal distributions of proglacial lake and marine water in the region.

While geological and paleoanthropological studies at Laetoli have focused on the relatively fossiliferous Ndolanya and Laetolil beds, Laetoli’s younger Naibadad and Olpiro beds provide an important record of Pleistocene volcanism, tectonics, and landscape evolution in northern Tanzania. This study documents the mineralogical and geochemical compositions of their tephra using EPMA of glass and phenocrysts, and their ages using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. Naibadad Beds tephra is rhyolitic or trachytic, compositionally distinct from the underlying Ndolanya and overlying Olpiro beds in their mineral assemblages and glass and phenocryst compositions. The Naibadad Beds can be divided into chronostratigraphic clusters as follows: Lower (2.189–2.154 Ma), Middle (2.115–2.104 Ma), and Upper (2.036–2.004 Ma). Most Naibadad Beds tephra could not be compositionally differentiated, although the basal Naibadad Beds tuff is unique in having both trachytic glass and andradite garnet. The uppermost Naibadad Beds tuff at Locality 23 has rhyolitic glass and aenigmatite like Olduvai Gorge’s Naabi ignimbrite and a similar age (2.033 Ma and 2.004 Ma, respectively), although they differ in feldspar and augite composition and are likely not from the same eruption. The lack of direct correlatives between Olduvai and Laetoli, which both derived tephra from Ngorongoro over the same time interval, is likely explained by paleotopography.

The paleopedology of the world’s largest retrogressive thaw slump, Batagay, is understudied. Micromorphological and geochemical analysis reveal the properties of th host sediments and major pedogenic features. Epigenetic soil profiles of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 (or older) and 5e are clearly distinguished and well developed due to favorable bioclimatic conditions for pedogenesis, probably similar to modern ones. The oldest unit contains a paleosol similar to a Histic Reductaquic Cryosol, indicating a peat-covered, boggy environment. The MIS 5e unit contains organic-rich Histic Spodic Cryosol with well-developed structure, formed during the interglacial optimum, which was relatively warm and presumably resembled modern bioclimatic conditions. MIS 4–3 deposits contains soil-like bodies enriched in coarse organogenic material resembling incipient Histic Reductaquic Cryosols. Interglacial/interstadial units contain micromorphological evidence of aggregate and pore formation, Fe-oxide and organic matter redistribution and clay accumulation. Stadial deposits show weakly expressed soil structure with uneven aggregates, cryogenic disintegration of plant detritus and rare evidence of accumulation of humic substances. Major elemental ratios indicate intensification of biochemical weathering in paleosols and soil-like bodies. Pedogenically reworked material of stadial sedimentary units with sporadic and incipient soil-like bodies provide a significant source for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of harsh Late Pleistocene environments.

The global record of fossil hyenid tracks is sparse—the only formal reports that can be considered reliable are of trackways from Tanzania and a single track from Greece. However, trackway and track patterns of the four extant members of the Hyaenidae are distinctive among the tracks of carnivorans. A Pleistocene trackway comprising five manus–pes pairs has been identified on an aeolianite surface on the Cape south coast of South Africa, and is attributed to a hyena, most likely the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea). The diagnostic approach followed involves a combination of the knowledge of Indigenous Master Trackers and the methods of modern ichnology.

A paleomagnetic study of basaltic lava flows exposed in the northern Neuquén Cordillera, southernmost Central Andes, along the Antiñir-Copahue fault zone (ACFZ), involved 25 sites of the Cola de Zorro Formation (Pliocene–Early Pleistocene) along two different sections. The sites show exclusive normal polarity, corresponding to the Late Pliocene Gauss chron (3.6–2.6 Ma). The angular standard deviation of virtual geomagnetic poles (VGPs; ASD = 14.8°) is consistent with the expected values from recent geomagnetic models, in opposition to anomalously low dispersion found in previous studies in Pleistocene VGPs of reverse polarity from neighboring areas to our study zone. Mean paleomagnetic directions for Bella Vista (Dec = 0.0°, Inc = −50.0°, α₉₅ = 7.6°, K = 36.7, N = 11) and Río Huaraco sections (Dec = 354.9°, Inc = −57.0°, α₉₅ = 7.5°, K = 55.7, N = 8) do not show tectonic rotation around vertical axes. Combining and regrouping our and previous data by area confirmed the absence of tectonic rotations in the Huaraco-Trohunco block and a statistically significant clockwise rotation of 14.4° ± 10.3° of three adjacent tectonic blocks located south of our study locality in Pleistocene times. These results suggest that strike-slip deformation along some sections of the ACFZ was significant in the Pleistocene structural evolution of this region.

The dynamics of our species’ dispersal into the Pacific remains intensely debated. The authors present archaeological investigations in the Raja Ampat Islands, north-west of New Guinea, that provide the earliest known evidence for humans arriving in the Pacific more than 55 000–50 000 years ago. Seafaring simulations demonstrate that a northern equatorial route into New Guinea via the Raja Ampat Islands was a viable dispersal corridor to Sahul at this time. Analysis of faunal remains and a resin artefact further indicates that exploitation of both rainforest and marine resources, rather than a purely maritime specialisation, was important for the adaptive success of Pacific peoples.

Two sediment sections are investigated at Cape Arkhangelos, island of Rhodes, where Pleistocene marine sediments crop out in horsts and grabens of a Mesozoic basement. There, hemipelagic sediments characterized by upper bathyal communities are atypically mixed with much shallower faunal components because they were deposited close to rugged coastal landforms. Biostratigraphic analyses show that the sections were deposited between 1.8 and 0.9 Ma, and between 1.8 and 1.6 Ma, respectively. By combining the planktonic/benthic foraminiferal ratio with 31 bathymetric indicators chosen among extant species of benthic foraminifera, mollusks, and bryozoans, we show that relative sea-level fluctuations can be reconstructed in these atypical settings despite the proximity of steep slopes that favored transportation of allochthonous fauna. The shallow-water components (including gravels and calcareous algae) were transported downslope by the combined action of gravity, currents, and tectonic disturbance that promoted drowning (with a maximum flooding recorded at ca. 1.7 Ma) and then uplift of fault-bounded paleovalleys that formed during the Early Pleistocene. Abrupt facies changes and age differences between sections have been triggered by the irregular paleotopography of the Mesozoic basement, which fostered differential depositional settings, with outer to middle neritic deposits above the horsts and upper bathyal deposits in paleovalleys.

Weathering has etched and deeply-denticulated the constituent orthopyroxenes, and chlorite has been transformed to vermiculite in the upper 3 m of an aeolian, periglacial sand dune formed in northeastern Indiana about 13,000 b.p. Pyroxene weathering begins with the development of cleavage-parallel etch pits on {010} and {100} surfaces. These pits coalesce and eventually crop out on basal surfaces as denticulations. The mean denticulation size increases logarithmically toward the surface, and the denticulation size of the orthopyroxenes is a quantifiable feature of the weathering process. Ferruginous pendants, microboxworks of iron oxides, and other indications of iron redeposition within the ortho-pyroxene microenvironments were not observed.

Chlorite in the dune has been weathered to vermiculite. The parent chlorite is a high-Fe variety, and the transformation to vermiculate does not involve the development of a chlorite/vermiculite intermediary phase. Fe2+ is oxidized as part of the transformation process and this iron is retained in the sediment as discrete goethite and as crystalline and noncrystalline coatings on the dune grains. The vermiculite from depths shallower than 64 cm is only partly expandable and is completely collapsed by K-saturation or heat treatment. This is a hydroxy-Al vermiculite and its formation is typical of intense weathering under the acid conditions prevalent at the dune surface.

We present new stable oxygen and carbon isotope composite records (δ18O, δ13C) of speleothems from Sandkraal Cave 1 (SK1) on the South African south coast for the time interval between 104 and 18 ka (with a hiatus between 48 and 41 ka). Statistical comparisons using kernel-based correlation analyses and semblance analyses based on continuous wavelet transforms inform the relationships of the new speleothem records to other proxies and their changes through time. Between 105 and ~70 ka, changes of speleothem δ18O values at SK1 are likely related to rainfall seasonality. Variations of δ13C values are associated with changes of vegetation density, prior carbonate precipitation (PCP), CO2 degassing in the cave, and possibly variations of the abundance of C3 and C4 grasses in the vegetation. The relationships of δ18O with other proxies shift between ~70 and 48 ka (Marine Isotope Stages 4–3) so that both stable isotope records now reflect CO2 degassing, evaporation, and PCP. Similar relationships also continue after the hiatus for the deposition phase between 42 and 18 ka. Our findings support modeling results suggesting drier conditions in the study area when the Southern Hemisphere westerlies are shifted north and the paleo–Agulhas Plain is exposed.

The mineral and chemical composition of green glauconitic grains from ODP Site 959 (2100 m water depth) located on the northern flank of the Ivory Coast—Ghana Marginal Ridge was studied. Recurrent winnowing of a 20 m thick Pleistocene succession resulted in a low accumulation rate and stratigraphic hiatuses. The green clay material typically occurs as fillings in the chambers of pelagic foraminifers. The amount of green clay present in sediments older than 1 Ma is small, and greater in younger material. Mud composed of smectite, kaolinite, traces of mica, calcite and quartz was the precursor material that filled the chambers of the foraminifers. Processes at the water-sediment interface slowly modified this composition. Kaolinite was dissolved; smectite lost Al but gained Fe, K and layer charge. In that matrix, the nanocrystals of neoformed smectite are observed. The infrared (IR) spectra showed OH-stretching and bending vibrations due to groups incorporating Fe3+. The spectra are in agreement with the crystallochemical formulae of Fe3+-rich montmorillonite as determined by point-by-point analyses on the neoformed crystallites and on the surrounding matrix. The layer charge in this Fe3+-rich montmorillonite is almost wholly octahedral as shown in crystallochemical formulae and documented independently by a new IR method. The tetrahedral charge appeared when the Fe content increased by > 1.2 Fe per formula unit. With the maturation process, the increased role of the closed layers is observed, with the color of grains becoming greener. We have documented for the first time glauconitization proceeding at a depth of 2100 m at a temperature near 3°C. The most important factors of the process are: accumulation of terrigenous clayey material in the foraminiferal chambers, Fe supply from a nearby continent, and a lengthy residence at the water-sediment interface in the zone of the winnowing and low sediment accumulation rate.

This research was carried out in north-central Poland, which was occupied by the ice sheet of the Saalian (Marine Isotope Stage [MIS] 6) and Upper Stadial of the Weichselian (MIS 2) glaciation. The application of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) method supported by a digital elevation model (DEM) analysis of the orientation of glacial landforms allowed for the reconstruction of ice-sheet extent and ice movement directions of these two Pleistocene glaciations. The research used an innovative method of collecting AMS till samples from the glacial plateau areas. Based on the research, it was found that during the general recession of the ice sheet of the Saalian glaciation, a previously undescribed glacial transgression occurred, characterized by a different direction of ice-sheet movement. On the basis of detailed geomorphological studies of the area of terminal moraines, previously described in fragments, the maximum extent of the ice sheet during the Weichselian glaciation was clarified. The recession of the ice sheet of the Weichselian glaciation from the area of north-central Poland took place in four regressive or transgressive–regressive stages with variable directions of ice-sheet movement. The results obtained indicate the great potential of the AMS method in paleoenvironmental studies of glaciated areas.

The depositional history of the Bonneville Salt Flats, a perennial saline pan in Utah's Bonneville basin, has poor temporal constraints, and the climatic and geomorphic conditions that led to saline pan formation there are poorly understood. We explore the late Pleistocene to Holocene depositional record of Bonneville Salt Flats cores. Our data challenge the assumption that the saline pan formed from the desiccation of Lake Bonneville, the largest late Pleistocene lake in the Great Basin, which covered this area from 30 to 13 cal ka BP. We test two hypotheses: whether climatic transitions from (1) wet to arid or (2) arid to wet led to saline pan deposition. We describe the depositional record with radiocarbon dating, sedimentological structures, mineralogy, diatom, ostracode, and portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer measurements. Gypsum and carbonate strontium isotope ratio measurements reflect changes in water sources. Three shallow saline lake to desiccation cycles occurred from >45 and >28 cal ka BP. Deflation removed Lake Bonneville sediments between 13 and 8.3 cal ka BP. Gypsum deposition spanned 8.3 to 5.4 cal ka BP, while the oldest halite interval formed from 5.4 to 3.5 cal ka BP during a wetter period. These findings offer valuable insights for sedimentologists, archaeologists, geomorphologists, and land managers.

The Palaeolithic archaeological record from current dryland contexts informs on activity across only a fraction of occupied Pleistocene landscapes. Now-submerged contexts, such as those preserved beneath the southern North Sea, allow past human activity to be considered at a more representative scale. Previous investigations have recovered internationally significant Middle Palaeolithic archaeology associated with submerged Pleistocene landscapes in the southern North Sea. Discovered through aggregate dredging in marine aggregate licence Area 240, the archaeology is associated with Pleistocene deposits of the Paleo-Yare river system. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that the Palaeo-Yare catchment extended across adjacent aggregate areas, leading to the implementation of a regional monitoring programme at aggregate wharfs to monitor, manage, and assimilate new archaeological data.

This paper reviews all new Palaeolithic lithic finds recovered between 2011 and 2022 from Area 240 and adjacent licence areas. Most are Middle Palaeolithic artefacts from Area 240. These new Middle Palaeolithic discoveries are related to previous finds and the combined collections placed within their wider Middle Palaeolithic British context. Middle Palaeolithic activity within the Palaeo-Yare catchment included multiple phases of occupation associated with different favoured technological repertoires, indicating that two groups of artefacts are present: Levallois artefacts likely to date to the early Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 8–7–6) and handaxes dating to the Late Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 5d–3).

We studied the Pleistocene subsurface stratigraphy of an area in the northern Po Plain around the isolated tectonic hillocks of Castenedolo and Ciliverghe (Brescia, Italy) in order to estimate their long-term rates of tectonic deformation. Integrated stratigraphy of a new 100-m-long core (RL13) allowed better definition of the regional Y (0.45 Ma) and R (0.87 Ma) surfaces and the related magnetostratigraphically calibrated PS1, PS2, and PS3 depositional sequences. The Y surface in the RL13 core was placed at the base of the PS3 proximal braided river system that was deposited during middle Pleistocene within the Brunhes chron. The R surface is considered to be eroded within the PS2 braid-plain deposits at ca. 0.87 Ma between the top of Jaramillo subchron and the Bruhnes chron during the late Early Pleistocene.

Based on different datasets, we evaluated the sedimentation rate, which has decreased from 0.09 mm/yr with deposition of PS2, to 0.06 mm/yr with deposition of PS3. The tectonic uplift, with an average rate of ~0.1 mm/yr in the last ca. 0.87 Ma, is interpreted to be associated with a fault and related fault-propagation folding. The Castenedolo and Ciliverghe hillocks then formed due to tectonic uplift during a change in the sedimentation regime since 0.45 Ma.

This article presents details of the recent discovery of Palaeolithic cave art in Cova Dones, Valencia. The preliminary results reveal a rich graphic assemblage with features that are unusual for Mediterranean Upper Palaeolithic art and were previously unknown for the Pleistocene in the eastern Iberian coast.

This paper presents the first continuous multi-proxy record of climate and vegetation change from the central Namib Desert extending over much of the last ca. 39,000 years. Derived from rock hyrax middens, evidence from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, pollen, and microcharcoal reveals significant differences between glacial-age and Holocene climates and vegetation types. Although still arid to semi-arid, conditions during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages (MIS) 2–3 were significantly more humid than in the Late Holocene. Considerable associated vegetation change is apparent, with cooler temperatures and higher/more-regular rainfall promoting the westward expansion of relatively mesic shrubby karroid vegetation during MIS 2–3. With the last glacial–interglacial transition, increasing temperatures and less/less-regular rainfall resulted in marked vegetation changes and the establishment of current xeric grasslands. The inter-plant spacing of the karroid vegetation promoted by wetter conditions does not carry fire effectively, and the microcharcoal record indicates that more extensive fires may develop only with the development of grassier vegetation under drier conditions. As with other terrestrial records from the Namib Desert and environs, no Cape flora elements were found to support previously hypothesised expansion of the Fynbos Biome during the last glacial period.