title: Clay mineralogy indicates a mildly warm and humid living environment for the Miocene hominoid from the Zhaotong Basin, Yunnan, China.
abstract: Global and regional environmental changes have influenced the evolutionary processes of hominoid primates, particularly during the Miocene. Recently, a new Lufengpithecus cf. lufengensis hominoid fossil with a late Miocene age of ~6.2 Ma was discovered in the Shuitangba (STB) section of the Zhaotong Basin in Yunnan on the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau. To understand the relationship between paleoclimate and hominoid evolution, we have studied sedimentary, clay mineralogy and geochemical proxies for the late Miocene STB section (~16 m thick; ca. 6.7-6.0 Ma). Our results show that Lufengpithecus cf. lufengensis lived in a mildly warm and humid climate in a lacustrine or swamp environment. Comparing mid to late Miocene records from hominoid sites in Yunnan, Siwalik in Pakistan, and tropical Africa we find that ecological shifts from forest to grassland in Siwalik are much later than in tropical Africa, consistent with the disappearance of hominoid fossils. However, no significant vegetation changes are found in Yunnan during the late Miocene, which we suggest is the result of uplift of the Tibetan plateau combined with the Asian monsoon geographically and climatically isolating these regions. The resultant warm and humid conditions in southeastern China offered an important refuge for Miocene hominoids.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Chunxia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Zhengtang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Chenglong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Department of Paleoanthropology, Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, Kunming 650118, China.|Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Xueping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Haibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Greig A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Bailing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Rixiang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D000077215:Clay; D002980:Climate; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae
chemical_list: D000538:Aluminum Silicates; D000077215:Clay
references.citation: J Hum Evol. 2002 Aug;43(2):207-27
references.pmid: 12160716
references.citation: Nature. 2002 Mar 14;416(6877):159-63
references.pmid: 11894089
references.citation: Nature. 2002 Jul 11;418(6894):145-51
references.pmid: 12110880
references.citation: Nature. 2014 Sep 18;513(7518):401-4
references.pmid: 25230661
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 May 1;109(18):6882-5
references.pmid: 22511723
references.citation: Glob Chang Biol. 2014 May;20(5):1461-72
references.pmid: 24123607
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Apr 5;108(14):5554-9
references.pmid: 21436034
references.citation: Nature. 2003 Mar 6;422(6927):61-5
references.pmid: 12621432
references.citation: Science. 2001 Apr 27;292(5517):686-93
references.pmid: 11326091
references.citation: Nature. 2001 May 3;411(6833):62-6
references.pmid: 11333976
references.citation: Nature. 2004 Jan 29;427(6973):439-41
references.pmid: 14749830
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jan 6;112(1):82-7
references.pmid: 25489095
references.citation: Science. 1992 Mar 27;255(5052):1663-70
references.pmid: 17749419
references.citation: J Hum Evol. 2002 May;42(5):535-46
references.pmid: 11969296