Here we present the first high-resolution continuous palaeoecological study from Greece covering the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition at Limni Zazari, a small lake in western Macedonia. We study how interactions between vegetation and climate might have affected the introduction of agriculture to Europe ca. 8500 years ago. We found that mixed deciduous oak woodlands established around the lake once moisture availability began to increase at ~10,300 cal yr BP. Between 8600 and 8000 cal yr BP, climate change, causing drier conditions, led to the decline of the woodlands and the expansion of steppe and grassland vegetation. Concurrently, in agreement with the archaeological record, pollen indicative of arable and pastoral farming indicate the onset of Neolithic farming. After 8000 cal yr BP the forest composition changed, with a major expansion of pine forests and increases in disturbance-adapted trees like Ostrya and Fagus. This change might be linked to changes in moisture availability, but it is likely that land use also facilitated these shifts. We conclude that the introduction of Neolithic farming was advantaged by climate-induced vegetation changes. While the vegetation structure around Zazari was very sensitive to changes in moisture, early anthropogenic disturbances led to changes in the vegetation composition that are still important today.

Brachiopods from the lower upper Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) white chalk succession exposed at Chełm (eastern Poland) comprise Lingula cretacea, Isocrania costata, Cryptoporella antiqua, Cretirhynchia sp., Neoliothyrina sp., Carneithyris sp., Terebratulina chrysalis, T. faujasi, T. longicollis, Terebratulina spp., Gisilina sp., Bronnothyris bronni, Magas chitoniformis, Leptothyrellopsis polonicus and ?Aemula sp. This assemblage is relatively poor in terms of taxonomic diversity and specimen abundance and is dominated by stratigraphically long-ranging species. It is best comparable to that from the micromorphic brachiopod Rugia tenuicostata–Meonia semiglobularis Zone as distinguished in the white chalk successions of Denmark and northern Germany, although this zone is usually placed in the upper lower Maastrichtian. The Chełm succession represents a relatively deep-water and ‘benthos-poor’ variety of white chalk deposited in the Boreal Chalk Sea of Europe. The brachiopod assemblage studied is typical of such a habitat, having been controlled largely by the low availability of minute skeletal substrates suitable for brachiopod settlement.

During the third millennium BC, new types of anthropogenic landscape emerged across northern Europe: heathlands and pasture. These open landscapes afforded mobile pastoralism and the arena for a new funerary practice: barrow building. Here, the authors define this entanglement of people, animals and landscapes as a literal and figurative ‘ancestral commons’. Focusing on western Jutland, they combine palaeoecological and archaeological evidence to characterise the form and temporal depth of the co-emergent links between pastoralism, barrows and mobility. Conceptualising the ancestral commons as a deep-time entanglement, characterised by rhythms of physical and metaphorical movement, reveals a landscape that afforded shared understanding of the ancestral past and a foundation for the subsequent Nordic Bronze Age.

During the last glacial period, rapidly changing environments posed substantial challenges to Neanderthal populations in Europe. Southern continental regions, such as Iberia, have been proposed as important climatic “buffer” zones during glacial phases. Contextualising the climatic and ecological conditions Neanderthals faced is relevant to interpreting their resilience. However, records of the environments and ecosystems they exploited across Iberia exhibit temporal and spatial gaps in coverage. Here we provide new evidence for palaeotemperatures, vegetation structure, and prey herbivore ecology during the late Pleistocene (MIS 5–3) in northern Spain, by applying multiple stable isotope tracers (δ18O, δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) to herbivore skeletal remains associated with Neanderthal occupations at Axlor Cave, Bizkaia. The results show little change over time and indicate stable climatic conditions and ecosystems across different occupations. Large within-layer isotopic variability in nitrogen and sulphur suggests the presence of a mosaic environment and a variety of isotopic ecotones that were exploited by Neanderthals and their prey. We implement a combination of carbonate and phosphate δ18O measurements to estimate palaeotemperatures using a cost-effective workflow. We show that the targeted use of phosphate δ18O measurements to anchor summer peak and winter trough areas enables high-precision seasonal palaeoclimatic reconstructions.

Drillholes on shells provide a useful way to investigate prey and predator relationships. The current study documents predator–prey interactions exemplified by a faunal assemblage of the fossil gastropod Turritella cingulifera from the Pleistocene Szekou Formation in Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan. All recognisable skeletal and shell fragments that are larger than 3 mm in size were collected and recorded. Processed bulk sediments (5.24 kg) contained 1462 molluscan shells, including 824 specimens of T. cingulifera, and 27 non-molluscan invertebrates. In the current study, approximately 41.6% (609/1462) of molluscs are drilled with at least one hole. Drilling intensities (DIs) regardless of shell completeness in all gastropods, bivalves and the turritelline gastropod T. cingulifera are 0.546, 0.060 and 0.413, respectively. DI on turritellids is significantly lower than that on other gastropods (χ2= 21.039, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the percentage of drillholes that occur in multiply drilled specimens is 34.7% (95/275) for turritelline gastropods based on complete to nearly complete specimens (n = 588). Our study shows no significant preference of drillhole position either on the suture or on the whorl (χ2= 0.055, P = 0.814). Most drillholes are located in whorls two to four proximal to the aperture. Drillhole diameters of the shells with one drillhole and ones with multiple drillholes are 1.0 and 0.5 mm on average, and the results of Mann–Whitney tests indicate that they are significantly different (P < 0.001). The first turritelline gastropod shell with an incomplete drillhole from Taiwan is documented here. The dominant drilling predators were naticids based on the drillhole morphology and the presence of naticids in the same assemblage. No apparent prey size selectivity is observed, so a ‘size refugium’ does not exist for the turritellids in the current study.

Examining the ecological consequences of the late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions within biodiversity hotspots is crucial for our understanding of the potential consequences of contemporary extinctions. We present the first multi-species record of spores of coprophilous fungi (SCF) from Monquentiva and the high-Andean forests of Colombia to reconstruct Late Pleistocene and Holocene megafaunal abundance. Fossilised pollen and charcoal are used to examine the consequences of megafaunal declines on the surrounding vegetation and fire activity. Our SCF record indicates the presence of Pleistocene megafauna at least since 30,290 BP, with two waves of megafaunal decline at ca. 22,900 BP and 10,990 BP. At Monquentiva, megafaunal decline in the Early Holocene resulted in transitional non-analogue vegetation, loss of some herbivore-dispersed plant taxa, an encroachment of palatable and woody flora, and a rise in fire activity. Differences with other published South-American records suggest that ecological consequences of megafaunal declines were habitat-specific. Overall, we show that ecosystems in the eastern Colombian Cordillera were highly sensitive to the decline of megafaunal populations. Under the current biodiversity crisis, management and conservation efforts must account for the effects of local herbivore declines on plant dispersal, on fire activity, and the potential loss of ecosystem services.

One of the markers of the Late Pleistocene is highly fluctuating climatic conditions, with the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26.5–19 ka cal before present (BP)) known to be one of the coldest periods. This work explores how the environment of north-eastern Iberia changed in relation to global climatic changes experienced during the Late Pleistocene, specifically around the LGM. Small mammal assemblages from Cudó cave (Tarragona, Spain) were used considering their well-known reliability for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Based on the taxonomic identification and the taphonomic analysis, several methodologies covering both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to obtain the palaeoenvironmental information corresponding to level 107 and level 105 of Cudó cave (31.2–24.4 and 15.5–10.2 ka cal BP, respectively). The taphonomic results obtained point out owls (category 3) as the main accumulator of the small mammals. The palaeoenvironmental reconstruction shows that both levels experienced colder (−7.2oC/–4.4 °C) and wetter (+848 mm/ + 586 mm) climatic conditions than nowadays. However, in level 107 the environment was dominated by mid-European species and rocky landscape, while in level 105 it was dominated by Mediterranean species and woodland habitat. These conditions are consistent with the trend in north-eastern Iberia following several climatic events before and after the LGM coinciding with the period of Cudó cave assemblages.

The transition to the Neolithic on the East European Plain was a very different process to the Western model, featuring a long-lasting hunter-gatherer economy and late introduction of agriculture. The authors present results from multiproxy research on a 13.5m-deep core of organic deposits from the Serteya mire as part of an international research project to understand human-environment relations in the Western Dvina Lakeland.

Palaeopascichnida is a problematic group of extinct organisms that is globally distributed in Ediacaran sequences of Avalonia, Baltica, Siberia, South China and Australia. The fossils related to Palaeopascichnida consist of serially or cluster-like arranged, millimetre- to centimetre-scale globular or allantoid chambers, which are characterized by substantial differences in preservation, leading to no consistent diagnosis for these organisms. Here we integrate morphometric variation, stratigraphic distribution and habitat settings of more than 1200 specimens from all known fossil localities. The results of the morphological analysis demonstrate variation in chamber shape and size, and allow us to recognize six valid species within the group. Statistical analysis of the specimen distribution with respect to sedimentary environments indicates a significant difference in palaeoecological settings between species, making a significant contribution to the evolution and systematic palaeontology of these problematic organisms and perspective on their use in Neoproterozoic biostratigraphy. Our revision and systematic study sheds new light on one of the least studied groups of the late Ediacaran biota.

The recognition of fossiliferous horizons both below and above the classical Ediacara levels of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, significantly expands the potential of this candidate World Heritage succession. Here we document a small window into the biology and taphonomy of the late Ediacaran seafloor within the new Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite in Bathtub Gorge, northern Heysen Range. A 1 m2 slab extracted from the gorge, now on permanent display at the South Australian Museum, has a death assemblage dominated by the erniettomorph Phyllozoon hanseni Jenkins and Gehling 1978 and a newly named macroscopic tubular body fossil – Aulozoon soliorum gen. et sp. nov. – on its fine sandstone bed sole. The orientations and juxtaposition of these taxa suggest overprinting of an in situ benthic Phyllozoon community by sand-filled tubes of Aulozoon carried in by a storm wave-base surge. Phyllozoon hanseni is a widespread species that is restricted to the Nilpena Sandstone Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, whereas Dickinsonia costata ranges from the underlying Ediacara Sandstone Member into the Nilpena Sandstone Member. Fundamental differences in the ways these two vendobiont taxa are constructed and preserved may provide insights into their biology and phylogenetic affinities. In the Nilpena Sandstone Member, D. costata is joined by Dickinsonia rex Jenkins 1992, which appears to be confined to the member, and is here re-described to clarify its taxonomic status and stratigraphic distribution.

Burmese amber continues to provide unique insights into the terrestrial biota inhabiting tropical equatorial forests during mid-Cretaceous time. In contrast to the large amount and great diversity of terrestrial species retrieved so far, aquatic biota constitute rare inclusions. Here we describe the first freshwater snail ever preserved in amber. The new species Galba prima sp. nov. belongs in the family Lymnaeidae, today a diverse and near globally distributed family. Its inclusion in terrestrial amber is probably a result of the amphibious lifestyle typical of modern representatives of the genus. The finding of a freshwater snail on the Burma Terrane, back then an island situated at some 1500 km from mainland Asia, has implications for the dispersal mechanisms of Mesozoic lymnaeids. The Cenomanian species precedes the evolution of waterfowl, which are today considered a main vector for long-distance dispersal. In their absence, we discuss several hypotheses to explain the disjunct occurrence of the new species.

Focusing on the North European heathlands, this project investigates how self-organised communities in the past established large-scale grazing regimes. By considering changes in their particular forms of disturbance, exhaustion, autonomy and collaboration, the author envisages a new archaeology of emergent multispecies entanglements across a deep-time scale.

We present the bat assemblage from the early Miocene (MN4, 16.9–15.95 MY) basin of Ribesalbes-Alcora, which has yielded the remains of ten chiropteran taxa. Bat assemblages are rarely recovered in the fluvio-lacustrine fossil record. A bat species described in this work, Cuvierimops penalveri sp. nov., is a new form of a typically Oligocene free-tailed bat. In addition, the other molossids Hydromops helveticus, Rhizomops cf. brasiliensis, Chaerephon sp., Tadarida sp., and the vespertilionids Myotis cf. intermedius and Miostrellus aff. petersbuchensis, as well as undetermined fossils ascribed to the genera Submyotodon, Plecotus, and Rhinolophus are described. This is the first record of the genus Rhizomops in the early Miocene; the genus Cuvierimops is the first recording from the Neogene, while the ‘Lazarus taxon’ Chaerephon is the first fossil record of this genus, registered previously only in Holocene deposits. This bat assemblage with a high abundance of molossids is typical from the early Oligocene of western Europe, while in the early Miocene from Europe the molossids are scarce. The abundance of these bats is consistent with the presence of a tropical forest surrounding a paleolake. The fossils from the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin represent the most complete bat assemblage of the Iberian Peninsula during this age, and significantly increase our knowledge about the early Miocene bats of Europe.

Human use of estuarine shellfish and other coastal marsh resources began on California's Santa Rosa Island at least 11 800–11 100 years ago. Productive estuaries in California and elsewhere in the Americas were present by the Late Pleistocene, providing shellfish, waterfowl, fish and seaweeds that attracted some of the First Americans.

Micromalthidae is a small relictual family of archostematan beetles that is well known for its unusual asexual reproductive system characterised by parthenogenetic, viviparous, larviform females and sterile adults. Here we describe the first micromalthid beetle from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca.100Ma). Protomalthus burmaticus gen. et sp. nov. differs from all presently known micromalthid beetles by the presence of distinct frontoclypeal, labroclypeal, and medicranial sutures. The finding represents the first Mesozoic record of an adult micromalthid beetle and confirms a Gondwanan distribution of the family during the Cretaceous. A list of micromalthid beetles is provided, together with a key to extant and fossil species.

The Middle Jurassic – Early Cretaceous period witnessed the emergence of some major representatives of modern continental vertebrate groups (stem lissamphibians, squamates, therian mammals and birds) and angiosperms, at a time when fragmentation of Pangaea was underway. The successive Moroccan microvertebrate faunas of Ksar Metlili (?Berriasian) and Guelb el Ahmar (Bathonian) from the Anoual Syncline significantly improve our poor knowledge of Gondwanan and especially African palaeobiodiversity at this time. They are among the richest known from the Mesozoic of Gondwana, and are well placed in northwestern Africa to record faunal interchanges with Laurasia. Here we focus on the Ksar Metlili fauna, first documented in the 1980s and most recently resampled in 2010, which produced 24 541 microremains representing 47 species of 8 main groups (Chondrichthyes, Actinopterygii, Sarcopterygii, Lissamphibia, Lepidosauromorpha, Testudinata, Archosauromorpha and Synapsida). It includes remarkable taxa: the oldest stem boreosphenidan mammals from Gondwana, probably some of the last non-mammaliaform cynodonts, a basal ornithischian, possibly freshwater teleosaurid crocodylomorphs, and some of the rare occurrences of choristoderes and albanerpetontids in Gondwana. Comparison of the Ksar Metlili fauna with that of Guimarota (Kimmeridgian, Portugal) further provides evidence of numerous shared taxa of Laurasian affinities, in contrast to the occurrence of few taxa with Gondwanan affinities. This suggests complex palaeobiogeographical relationships – implying both vicariance and dispersal events – of North Africa within Gondwana at the Jurassic–Cretaceous transition. Finally, the faunal similarities with the Guelb el Ahmar fauna question the Cretaceous age of the Ksar Metlili fauna, suggesting an alternative possible Late Jurassic age.

Bone accumulation in Palaeolithic archaeological sites is often the result of activities carried out by hunter-gatherer groups. Cultural choices may have influenced prey representation in archaeological assemblages, distorting their palaeoecological meaning. We present a comparison between large mammal and small mammal assemblages from the Upper Palaeolithic sequence of Grotta Paglicci (Apulia, southern Italy) that extends from the Marginally Backed Bladelet Aurignacian (about 39,000 cal yr BP) to the Final Epigravettian (about 13,000 cal yr BP). At Paglicci, the high frequency of horse and ibex remains indicates open and dry environments for most of the Upper Palaeolithic. This is confirmed by the predominance of the common vole among small mammals. The alternation between horse and ibex, which takes place during the Upper Palaeolithic, however, looks to be more related to variations in hunting territories. Taxon frequencies change abruptly at 17,955–16,696 cal yr BP, with an increase in woodland-related ungulates together with micromammals, indicating a climatic evolution towards milder and more humid conditions. Results demonstrate that when the association of ungulate taxa is considered as a whole, it has a good palaeoecological signal, whilst considering taxa separately can help to better understand cultural choices of past hunter-gatherer communities.

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherer subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain ridge in Italy. Traditionally considered lacking evidence, the northern part of the Apennine ridge has recently yielded the Early Gravettian site of Piovesello, located at 870 m a.s.l. Survey and excavation revealed lithic artifacts in primary position embedded in loamy sediments. Radiocarbon dating, anthracological and extended palynological and microcharcoal analyses have been integrated to reconstruct the palaeoecological context of this camp which was probably positioned above the timberline in an arid rocky landscape, bounding the fronts of local glaciers close to their maximum expansion at the time of Greenland Stadial (GS) 5 (32.04 - 28.9 ka cal BP). Human activity left ephemeral traces represented by lithic artefacts, charcoal, and the introduction of radiolarites from sources in proximity to the site and of chert from very far western sources. Evidence from Piovesello contributes to the reconstruction of human and vegetation ecology during Late Pleistocene glaciations and also provides hints for the historical biogeography of petrophytic plants and their orographic relics in the northern Apennine.

In this reconnaissance study, skeletal materials from people, dating from ∼1500 B.P., who lived by or worked at the ancient copper mines and furnaces of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan, were analysed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) to determine the intensities of accumulation of copper and lead in their bones. Many of the bones analysed contained concentrations of these metals which are comparable to those of modern individuals who are heavily exposed to metals through contemporary industrial processes.

Patterns of partitioning throughout the skeleton of a number of individuals were also studied. These AAS data suggest that within the human organism there may be some ability to influence the patterns of accumulation of copper within the skeleton. The humerus was frequently found to contain more copper than other bones studied. Within the humerus itself, the medial epicondyle frequently contained the highest concentrations, which may indicate a significant degree of organization or control of the process. These metal concentration data together with their toxicological consequences suggest that the health of the ancient human populations must have been adversely affected by exposure during life to copper in the environment. They also point to the need for further detailed studies of metal partitioning within the bones of the human skeleton.

Within the Neogene-Quaternary evolution of the Mediterranean intermountain basins, the eastern Tiberino Basin provides new multifaceted chronological, biostratigraphic, palaeoecological, and palaeoenvironmental information, appreciably improving the knowledge of palaeoenvironmental and climate conditions during the middle-late Matuyama Chron (late early Pleistocene). Shallow to relatively deep lacustrine deposits and alluvial plain deposits, magnetostratigraphically calibrated, hold malacofaunas, ostracofaunas, and carpological remains, as well as a pollen record. Palaeocarpological remains widely originated from the local (azonal) vegetation of waterlogged environments. Nonetheless, some taxa show transitional morphology between possibly extinct Pliocene-Pleistocene forms and living taxa. The pollen record highlights a conifer-dominated forest phase, indicating a temperate-wet interglacial period, well aligned inside the schemes for the same latitudinal band. The abundance of tree taxa currently absent from the Italian peninsula points to pre-Jaramillo late early Pleistocene biostratigraphical characters, here compared to other sections from central Italy, and contributes to a better definition of modes and timing of their disappearance in southern Europe. Malacofaunas and ostracods, still with late early Pleistocene features, together with Charophyte, mark repeated fluctuations in energy, temperature, and chemical composition of water. The overall record identifies an incipient diachronous cooling trend, for the first time recognized in southern Europe.