The late Miocene climate cooling caused the disappearance of the hominoids in Yunnan region, southwestern China
Abstract
The relationship between the long-sequence climate change and the Miocene hominoid evolution has been rarely discussed in Yunnan region of southwestern China, where has long been regarded as the 'refugium' for the Miocene hominoids. Here, we inferred a high resolution reconstruction of the climate evolution in the Zhaotong Basin of Yunnan region by using chemical weathering indexes through the late Miocene to Pliocene. The results show that there is a gradual cooling trend during this interval and with three significant cooling episodes from 6.5 to 5.0 Ma. The coolest period presents to ~6.1 Ma, closing to the disappearance of the terminal Miocene hominoid. Combining with the summarized living hominoid periods, the warm and humid climate condition corresponds to the hominoid flourishing, which we think the warm-humid climate condition may provide a very good 'refugium' for the late Miocene hominoid survival when other region tended to more open and seasonal during the late Miocene. Then the hominoid disappeared in Yunnan region when the more suitable than climate from warm and humid climate condition turned to relatively cool and humid condition. Comparison of our results with the other studies in Yunnan region leads us to conclude that the cooling trend, especially the coolest period during 6.5-6.1 Ma, may be the main factor controlling the evolutionary history of the Miocene hominoids in this region.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMPP21B1612L
- Keywords:
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- 1055 Organic and biogenic geochemistry;
- GEOCHEMISTRY;
- 1620 Climate dynamics;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 4914 Continental climate records;
- PALEOCEANOGRAPHY;
- 4928 Global climate models;
- PALEOCEANOGRAPHY