山东青岛大珠山遗址晚更新世人类活动的环境背景

大珠山遗址是青岛市首个具有地层依据的旧石器遗址。该遗址的发掘不仅丰富了我国沿海地区的旧石器考古材料,更对探讨早期人类的生存适应和迁移扩散等问题具有深远意义。解译遗址中的环境背景信息,可以帮助我们更准确地理解当时人类的生存状态。本文通过花粉和磁化率等指标,重建了该遗址所在区域的环境演变过程。研究结果显示:1)大珠山遗址的光释光年龄为65.7-52.9ka,对应MIS4-MIS3c;2)从MIS5b到MIS3b(86.0-45.0ka),区域植被经历4个演替阶段,依次为落叶林草原、落叶阔叶林草原、温带草原和疏林草原,其反映的气候趋势与区域背景下的环境变化过程基本一致;3)MIS4-MIS3c期间迅速回暖的气候,稳定适宜的生存环境,均为早期人类的活动提供良好的生态背景。随后气候转冷,海岸线后退,该地区的人类遗存明显减少,可能指示人类活动减弱或者迁出。这种不同时期内的人类活动强度的变化,表明气候主控下的生存环境变化深刻影响着近海地区早期人类的适应策略。     

TESTING THE MUSEUM VERSUS CRADLE TROPICAL BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY HYPOTHESIS: PHYLOGENY,DIVERSIFICATION, AND ANCESTRAL BIOGEOGRAPHIC RANGE EVOLUTION OF THE ANTS

Ants are one of the most ecologically and numerically dominant group of terrestrial organisms with most species diversity currently found in tropical climates. Several explanations for the disparity of biological diversity in the tropics compared to temperate regions have been proposed including that the tropics may act as a “museum” where older lineages persist through evolutionary time or as a “cradle” where new species continue to be generated. We infer the molecular phylogenetic relationships of 295 ant specimens including members of all 21 extant subfamilies to explore the evolutionary diversification and biogeography of the ants. By constraining the topology and age of the root node while using 45 fossils as minimum constraints, we converge on an age of 139–158 Mya for the modern ants. Further diversification analyses identified 10 periods with a significant change in the tempo of diversification of the ants, although these shifts did not appear to correspond to ancestral biogeographic range shifts. Likelihood‐based historical biogeographic reconstructions suggest that the Neotropics were important in early ant diversification (e.g., Cretaceous). This finding coupled with the extremely high‐current species diversity suggests that the Neotropics have acted as both a museum and cradle for ant diversity.     

Phylogeographic diversification of antelope squirrels (Ammospermophilus) across North American deserts

We investigated the biogeographic history of antelope squirrels, genus Ammospermophilus, which are widely distributed across the deserts and other arid lands of western North America. We combined range‐wide sampling of all currently recognized species of Ammospermophilus with a multilocus data set to infer phylogenetic relationships. We then estimated divergence times within identified clades of Ammospermophilus using fossil‐calibrated and rate‐calibrated molecular clocks. Lastly, we explored generalized distributional changes of Ammospermophilus since the last glacial maximum using species distribution models, and assessed responses to Quaternary climate change by generating demographic parameter estimates for the three wide‐ranging clades of A. leucurus. From our phylogenetic estimates we inferred strong phylogeographic structure within Ammospermophilus and the presence of three well‐supported major clades. Initial patterns of historical divergence were coincident with dynamic alterations in the landscape of western North America, and the formation of regional deserts during the Late Miocene and Pliocene. Species distribution models and demographic parameter estimates revealed patterns of recent population expansion in response to glacial retreat. When combined with evidence from co‐distributed taxa, the historical biogeography of Ammospermophilus provides additional insight into the mechanisms that impacted diversification of arid‐adapted taxa across the arid lands of western North America. We propose species recognition of populations of the southern Baja California peninsula to best represent our current understanding of evolutionary relationships among genetic units of Ammospermophilus. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109 , 949–967.     

First direct dating of a presumed Pleistocene hominid from China: AMS radiocarbon age of a femur from the Ordos Plateau

Human remains from the Xarusgol Valley, Ordos Plateau, northwestern China, have been considered to date to the Late Pleistocene. In order to ascertain their true age, direct AMS (14)C dating of a femur collected in the early 1920s was conducted. The results demonstrate that the femur is very young, with one sample of 'post-bomb' age and the other sample c. 200 years old. This first direct dating of a Chinese fossil hominid underscores the need to apply the same methodology to other Chinese modern human fossils currently believed to be of Pleistocene age.     

Sequence of mammalian fossils, including hominoid teeth, from the Bubing Basin caves, South China

A Plio-Pleistocene to Holocene faunal sequence has been recovered from four carefully excavated caves in the Bubing Basin, adjacent to the larger Bose Basin of South China. The caves vary in elevation; we suggest that the higher caves were formed and filled with sediments prior to the lower caves. The highest deposits, which are from Mohui Cave, contain hominoid teeth and other fossilized remains of mammalian taxa most similar to late Pliocene and early Pleistocene faunas. Wuyun Cave ( approximately 50m lower in elevation than Mohui) contains a late middle Pleistocene fauna, which is supported by U-series age constraints from 350 to 200ka. Lower Pubu Cave ( approximately 23m below Wuyun) is assigned to the late Pleistocene, while the Cunkong Cave (the lowest, approximately 2m lower elevation than Lower Pubu) preserves a Holocene fauna. The four faunal assemblages indicate species-level changes in Ailuropoda, Stegodon, and Sus, the appearance of Elephas, the local disappearance of Stegodon, and the migration of Equus hemionus to South China. These initial results of our work call into question the continued value of the Stegodon/Ailuropoda Fauna, a category long used to characterize the Pleistocene faunas of South China. Excavation of karstic caves of varying elevation within the basins of South China holds promise for defining local sequences of mammalian fossils that can be used to investigate faunal variations related to climate change, biogeographic events, and evolutionary change over the past two million years. Stable isotopic analysis of a small sample of mammalian teeth from Bubing Basin caves is consistent with 100% C(3) vegetation in the Bubing/Bose region, with certain delta(13)C values consistent with a canopied woodland or forest. A preliminary assessment of the hominoid teeth indicates the presence of diverse molar and premolar morphologies including dental remains of Gigantopithecus blacki and a sample with similarities to the teeth reported from Longgupo.     

Large-scale phylogenetic analyses reveal fagalean diversification promoted by the interplay of diaspores and environments in the Paleogene

The order Fagales (ca. 1325 species, 32 genera) is one of the most important orders of woody angiosperms in both tropical and temperate forests. Fagalean plants have diverse diaspores and dispersal modes, and have abundant macrofossil records. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of Fagales to date based on five plastid loci. We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships within Fagales using parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian approaches. We inferred the evolutionary shifts of diaspore types, dispersal modes, habitats, and pollination syndromes, and estimated divergence times and rates of diversification. Fossil fruit records of Fagales were also reviewed. Our results suggest that fagalean families are all monophyletic and 29 of the 32 genera are monophyletic. The majority of inter-familial and inter-generic relationships were well resolved. Our evolutionary reconstructions indicate that winged diaspore is synapomorphic, and animal dispersal system is symplesiomorphic in Fagales. Within the order, the families diverged in the mid-Cretaceous but mainly diversified after the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary. The overwhelming majority of winged and wingless fruited genera diverged or diversified during the Paleogene, reflecting adaptation to wind and animal dispersals, respectively. Correlated evolution analyses strongly supported the correlated transitions between dispersal mode and habitat. The winged fruited groups often inhabit open habitats and are commonly dispersed abiotically, whereas the wingless fruits usually inhabit closed habitats and have a vertebrate-dispersal mode. Environmental changes triggered increased diversification of Fagales in the Paleogene together with evolution of diaspores and dispersal modes. Additionally, our paleobotanically calibrated time-scale for Fagales may be useful for ecological and physiological studies.     

Testing evolutionary hypotheses for DNA barcoding failure in willows

The goal of DNA barcoding is to enable the rapid identification of taxa from short diagnostic DNA sequence profiles. But how feasible is this objective when many evolutionary processes, such as hybridization and selective sweeps, cause alleles to be shared among related taxa? In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Percy et al. (2014) test the full suite of seven candidate plant barcoding loci in a broad geographic sample of willow species. They show exceptional plastid haplotype sharing between species across continents, with most taxa not possessing a unique barcode sequence. Using population genetic and molecular dating analyses, they implicate hybridization and selective sweeps, but not incomplete lineage sorting, as the historical processes causing widespread haplotype sharing among willow taxa. This study represents an exceptional case of how poorly barcoding can perform, and highlights methodological issues using universal organellar regions for species identification.     

tipdatingbeast: an r package to assist the implementation of phylogenetic tip‐dating tests using beast

Molecular tip dating of phylogenetic trees is a growing discipline that uses DNA sequences sampled at different points in time to coestimate the timing of evolutionary events with rates of molecular evolution. In this context, beast , a program for Bayesian analysis of molecular sequences, is the most widely used phylogenetic tool. Here, we introduce tipdatingbeast , an r package built to assist the implementation of various phylogenetic tip‐dating tests using beast . tipdatingbeast currently contains two main functions. The first one allows preparing date‐randomization analyses, which assess the temporal signal of a data set. The second function allows performing leave‐one‐out analyses, which test for the consistency between independent calibration sequences and allow pinpointing those leading to potential bias. We apply those functions to an empirical data set and supply practical guidance for results interpretation.     

Temporal and palaeoclimatic context of the evolution of insular woodiness in the Canary Islands

Insular woodiness (IW), referring to the evolutionary transition from herbaceousness toward woodiness on islands, has arisen more than 30 times on the Canary Islands (Atlantic Ocean). One of the IW hypotheses suggests that drought has been a major driver of wood formation, but we do not know in which palaeoclimatic conditions the insular woody lineages originated. Therefore, we provided an updated review on the presence of IW on the Canaries, reviewed the palaeoclimate, and estimated the timing of origin of woodiness of 24 insular woody lineages that represent a large majority of the insular woody species diversity on the Canaries. Our single, broad‐scale dating analysis shows that woodiness in 60%–65% of the insular woody lineages studied originated within the last 3.2 Myr, during which Mediterranean seasonality (yearly summer droughts) became established on the Canaries. Consequently, our results are consistent with palaeoclimatic aridification as a potential driver of woodiness in a considerable proportion of the insular woody Canary Island lineages. However, the observed pattern between insular woodiness and palaeodrought during the last couple of million years could potentially have emerged as a result of the typically young age of the native insular flora, characterized by a high turnover.