PP21B-2246
Clay mineralogy indicates the living environment of the terminal Miocene hominoid of the Zhaotong Basin, Yunnan, China
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Chunxia Zhang1,2, Zhengtang Guo1,2, Chenglong Deng3, Xueping Ji4,5, Haibin Wu2, Greig A Paterson6, Chang Lin2, Qin Li2, Bai Ling3 and Rixiang Zhu3, (1)CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China, (2)Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, (3)State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, beijing, China, (4)Department of Paleoanthropology, Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, Kunming, China, (5)Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, (6)Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Abstract:
Global and regional environmental changes have profoundly influenced the evolutionary processes of hominoid primates, particularly during the mid to late Miocene. Recently, a new fossil hominoid was discovered in the Shiutangba (STB) section of the Zhaotong Basin in Yunnan on the southeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau, and was assigned to the species of Lufengpithecus cf. lufengensis with the age of ~6.2 Ma, the terminal Miocene. To understand the relationship between paleoclimate and hominoid evolution, here we present sedimentary, clay mineralogy and geochemical proxies for the 16 m thick late Miocene sedimentary sequence (ca. 6.7-6.0 Ma) from the STB section. Our results show that Lufengpithecus cf. lufengensis lived in a mildly warm and humid climate in a lacustrine or swamp environment rather than hot and humid conditions. A comprehensive comparison among mid to late Miocene records from Yunnan hominoid sites, Siwalik and tropical Africa indicates that warm and humid ecological shifts in South and Southeast Asia are much later than tropical Africa. The presence of the Tibetan plateau may have influenced regional climatic conditions, and the warm and humid condition in the southern China (and perhaps Southeast Asia in general) offered an important refuge for hominoids.
