Excavations from 2013 to 2015 at the site of Shishan Marsh 1 (SM1) in the Azraq Basin of eastern Jordan have yielded substantial late middle Pleistocene lithic assemblages in association with faunal remains. Faunal preservation is poor, but multiple taxa have been identified, including cf. Panthera leo, Gazella sp., Bos cf. primigenius, Camelus sp., Equus spp., cf. Stephanorhinus hemitoechus, Palaeoloxodon cf. recki, and Elephas cf. hysudricus. The overall Azraq habitat may have been most similar to a savanna ecosystem, with a mixture of open grassland/shrub habitats and more closed vegetation along the wetlands margins. These taxa were drawn to the relatively lush oasis environment, where they were a dietary resource of the hominin groups exploiting the wetlands resources.

We analyzed intestinal contents of two late-glacial mastodons preserved in lake sediments in Ohio (Burning Tree mastodon) and Michigan (Heisler mastodon). A multi-proxy suite of macrofossils and microfossils provided unique insights into what these individuals had eaten just before they died and added significantly to knowledge of mastodon diets. We reconstructed the mastodons’ habitats with similar multi-proxy analyses of the embedding lake sediments. Non-pollen palynomorphs, especially spores of coprophilous fungi differentiated intestinal and environmental samples. The Burning Tree mastodon gut sample originates from the small intestine. The Heisler mastodon sample is part of the large intestine to which humans had added clastic material to anchor parts of the carcass under water to cache the meat. Both carcasses had been dismembered, suggesting that the mastodons had been hunted or scavenged, in line with other contemporaneous mastodon finds and the timing of early human incursion into the Midwest. Both mastodons lived in mixed coniferous-deciduous late-glacial forests. They browsed tree leaves and twigs, especially Picea. They also ate sedge-swamp plants and drank the lake water. Our multi-proxy estimates for a spring/summer season of death contrast with autumn estimates derived from prior tusk analyses. We document the recovered fossil remains with photographs.

A fine-grained, up to 3-m-thick tephra bed in southwestern Saskatchewan, herein named Duncairn tephra (Dt), is derived from an early Pleistocene eruption in the Jemez Mountains volcanic field of New Mexico, requiring a trajectory of northward tephra dispersal of ~1500 km. An unusually low CaO content in its glass shards denies a source in the closer Yellowstone and Heise volcanic fields, whereas a Pleistocene tephra bed (LSMt) in the La Sal Mountains of Utah has a very similar glass chemistry to that of the Dt, supporting a more southerly source. Comprehensive characterization of these two distal tephra beds along with samples collected near the Valles caldera in New Mexico, including grain size, mineral assemblage, major- and trace-element composition of glass and minerals, paleomagnetism, and fission-track dating, justify this correlation. Two glass populations each exist in the Dt and LSMt. The proximal correlative of Dt1 is the plinian Tsankawi Pumice and co-ignimbritic ash of the first ignimbrite (Qbt1g) of the 1.24 Ma Tshirege Member of the Bandelier Tuff. The correlative of Dt2 and LSMt is the co-ignimbritic ash of Qbt2. Mixing of Dt1 and Dt2 probably occurred during northward transport in a jet stream.

While proxy records have been used to reconstruct late Quaternary climate parameters throughout the European Alps, our knowledge of deglacial climate conditions in the Maritime Alps is limited. Here, we report temperatures recorded by a new and independent geochemical technique—cosmogenic noble gas paleothermometry—in the Maritime Alps since the last glacial maximum. We measured cosmogenic 3He in quartz from boulders in nested moraines in the Gesso Valley, Italy. Paired with cosmogenic 10Be measurements and 3He diffusion experiments on quartz from the same boulders, the cosmogenic 3He abundances record the temperatures these boulders experienced during their exposure. We calculate effective diffusion temperatures (EDTs) over the last ∼22 ka ranging from 8°C to 25°C. These EDTs, which are functionally related to, but greater than, mean ambient temperatures, are consistent with temperatures inferred from other proxies in nearby Alpine regions and those predicted by a transient general circulation model. In detail, however, we also find different EDTs for boulders from the same moraines, thus limiting our ability to interpret these temperatures. We explore possible causes for these intra-moraine discrepancies, including variations in radiative heating, our treatment of complex helium diffusion, uncertainties in our grain size analyses, and unaccounted-for erosion or cosmogenic inheritance.

The southern Cape of South Africa is important to understanding regional climate because it straddles the transition between the winter and summer rainfall zones. We examine late Quaternary changes in rainfall seasonality and aridity through analysis of micromammal assemblages from three sites: Boomplaas Cave and Nelson Bay Cave in the aseasonal rainfall zone and Byneskranskop 1 in the winter rainfall zone. Our interpretation is based on analysis of 123 modern micromammal assemblages accumulated by barn owls (Tyto alba), which empirically links species composition to climate. The Pleistocene record (∼65 to 12 ka) from Boomplaas Cave, together with the last glacial maximum (LGM) samples from Nelson Bay Cave, indicates enhanced winter rainfall, especially during the LGM. Boomplaas Cave documents progressive aridification from the LGM to the earliest Holocene, followed by a return to moderately humid conditions through the Holocene. Byneskranskop 1 indicates a dominance of winter rains over the last 17 ka and a shift from an arid middle Holocene to a humid later Holocene. Agreement between the micromammal record and other local and regional proxies reinforces the potential of southern African micromammal assemblages as paleoclimate indicators.

The patterns and drivers of late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the southeastern United States are poorly understood due to low site density, problematic chronologies, and a paucity of independent paleoclimate proxy records. We present a well-dated (15 accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates) 30,000-yr record from White Pond, South Carolina that consists of high-resolution analyses of fossil pollen, macroscopic charcoal, and Sporormiella spores, and an independent paleotemperature reconstruction based on branched glycerol dialkyl tetraethers. Between 30,000 and 20,000 cal yr BP, open Pinus-Picea forest grew under cold and dry conditions; elevated Quercus before 26,000 cal yr BP, however, suggest warmer conditions in the Southeast before the last glacial maximum, possibly corresponding to regionally warmer conditions associated with Heinrich event H2. Warming between 19,700 and 10,400 cal yr BP was accompanied by a transition from conifer-dominated to mesic hardwood forest. Sporormiella spores were not detected and charcoal was low during the late glacial period, suggesting megaherbivore grazers and fire were not locally important agents of vegetation change. Pinus returned to dominance during the Holocene, with step-like increases in Pinus at 10,400 and 6400 cal yr BP, while charcoal abundance increased tenfold, likely due to increased biomass burning associated with warmer conditions. Low-intensity surface fires increased after 1200 cal yr BP, possibly related to the establishment of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast.

Various paleoclimatic records have been used to reconstruct the hydrologic history of the Altiplano, relating this history to past variability of the South American summer monsoon. Prior studies of the southern Altiplano, the location of the world’s largest salt flat, the Salar de Uyuni, and its neighbor, the Salar de Coipasa, generally agree in their reconstructions of the climate history of the past ∼24 ka. Some studies, however, have highly divergent climatic records and interpretations of earlier periods. In this study, lake-level variation was reconstructed from a ∼14-m-long sediment core from the Salar de Coipasa. These sediments span the last ∼40 ka. Lacustrine sediment accumulation was apparently continuous in the basin from ∼40 to 6 ka, with dry or very shallow conditions afterward. The fossil diatom stratigraphy and geochemical data (δ13C, δ15N, %Ca, C/N) indicate fluctuations in lake level from shallow to moderately deep, with the deepest conditions correlative with the Heinrich-1 and Younger Dryas events. The stratigraphy shows a continuous lake of variable depth and salinity during the last glacial maximum and latter stages of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 and is consistent with environmental inferences and the original chronology of a drill core from Salar de Uyuni.

In the East African Rift, the western margin of Lake Turkana (northern Kenya) exposes Mio-Plio-Pleistocene lake sediments with dated volcanic horizons constraining basin dynamics at the astronomical time scale. Since the late Pliocene, coastal archaeological sites have formed within the lacustrine dynamics. Here, lake levels are reconstructed from 2.4 to 1.7 Ma using sedimentary facies and water/depth-controlled sediment association. The lacustrine stratigraphy is measured with a total station, and cyclostratigraphy is derived from tephrochronology. The water depths are evaluated from paleochemical properties of lake sediments analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our reconstruction highlights that Lake Turkana rose during 100 ka insolation/eccentricity maxima periods in response to higher monsoonal inputs of the Omo River. However, Lake Turkana also expanded through an insolation minimum at 2.17–1.95 Ma. This asynchronous lake phase coincides with volcanic closure of the Omo River and Lake Turkana outflow sill to the east and the Indian Ocean. An archaeological hiatus occurs during this endorheic lake phase, and alkalinity increases at the beginning of the hiatus. The lake rose again during insolation/eccentricity maxima at 1.9–1.7 Ma, and a new outflow sill opened to the west and the Nile basin. Hominin coastal occupations return during this exorheic/freshwater lake phase.