A Multi-proxy palaeo-environmental investigation of Middle Pleistocene Vietnam: Implications for hominin adaptation, distribution, and mobility

东南亚大陆（MSEA）人类进化的复杂性仍然知之甚少;但化石和遗传分析表明，它是中更新世至晚更新世适应，物种形成和混合的关键领域，被广泛认为与环境条件有关。该项目将采用多种方法来研究人类与环境的关系，重点是来自越南北方的考古学、地质学和动物群数据--这是一个在这些争论中代表性不足的地区。具体而言，它将评估的断言，热带森林和动物群提出的障碍，人类和区域evolution.Hominin进化的主要驱动力是在MSEA的背景下设置的环境变化，显着的空间和时间变化是显而易见的，在该地区的考古记录的字符。人们普遍认为，广阔的热带森林和拟议的剑齿象-大熊猫动物群复合体（似乎在整个中更新世至晚更新世期间居住在这些热带森林中的动物物种的集合），在智人到来之前，作为限制和塑造人类环境的生态屏障（Ciochon 2010）。然而，一项详细的综述至少在两个方面对这一论断提出了质疑：中更新世人工制品和人类齿系已被确信与森林典型动物群遗骸有关（例如Liu et al. 2013）;剑齿象-大熊猫动物群复合体-作为一个单一实体讨论-通常由来自不同环境的物种组成（例如Dennell 2009）。为了解决这个问题，我的目标是评估在何种程度上环境条件塑造的中更新世MSEA的人类的流动性和适应性，通过集中在越南北方作为一个有限的案例研究。该地区有几个已证实和潜在的人类遗址，以及产生几个不确定物种的人科化石;但与邻近的中国南方中更新世的成功研究相比，它仍然被忽视。通过全面研究和详细比较考古学、地质学和动物群记录，并进一步将这些数据与MSEA周围的其他遗址进行比较，该项目旨在确定和研究生态区中与人类遗址有密切联系的变量，并模拟这些变量随时间的变化。由此，将有可能产生一个时间生态变化的地理小插曲，并检查与已确定的人类活动的交叉点。确定这些变量和了解它们的相互作用将促进我们的理解的生态限制的人在MSEA中的一个有意义的和可测试的方式。事实上，两个重要的测试将通过该模型的能力，以加强预测的人类网站，并有可能确定驱动因素的异域物种形成（分歧的地理分离）和地区的混合（成功杂交不同的血统之间）。

The complexity of human evolution in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) remains poorly understood; yet fossil and genetic analyses suggest it was a key area of Middle to Late Pleistocene adaptation, speciation and admixture, widely thought to be linked to environmental conditions. This project will employ multiple methods to examine the hominin-environment relationship, with a focus on archaeological, geological, and faunal data from Northern Vietnam - an area under-represented in these debates. Specifically, it will evaluate the assertion that tropical forests and fauna presented barriers to hominins and were major drivers of regional evolution.Hominin evolution in MSEA is set against a backdrop of environmental changes, and significant spatial and temporal variation is evident in the character of the archaeological record of the region. It is generally thought that the vast tropical forests and the proposed Stegodon-Ailuropoda faunal complex (a collection of faunal species appearing to have inhabited these tropical forests throughout the Middle to Late Pleistocene), acted as an ecological barrier which restricted and shaped hominin environments prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens (Ciochon 2010). A detailed review, however, questions such an assertion on at least two fronts: Middle Pleistocene artefacts and hominin dentition have been confidently identified in association with forest-typical faunal remains (e.g. Liu et al. 2013); and the Stegodon-Ailuropoda faunal complex - discussed as a single entity - often consists of species from distinct environs (e.g. Dennell 2009). To resolve this issue, my aim is to evaluate the extent to which environmental conditions shaped hominin mobility and adaptation in Middle Pleistocene MSEA, by focusing on northern Vietnam as a limited case study. This region has several confirmed and potential hominin sites as well as yielding several hominid fossils of indeterminate species; yet it remains neglected compared to a successful Middle Pleistocene research in neighbouring southern China. By comprehensively studying and comparing the archaeological, geological and faunal records in detail, and further comparing the data with other sites around MSEA, the project aims to identify and study variables in the ecotopes which exhibit strong associations with hominin sites, and model changes in these over time. From this, it will be possible to produce a geographical vignette of temporal ecological change and examine the intersections with identified hominin activity. Identifying these variables and understanding their interaction will advance our understanding of the ecological limitations of hominins in MSEA in a meaningful and testable way. Indeed, two important tests will come through the model's capacity to enhance prediction for hominin sites, and the potential to identify drivers of allopatric speciation (divergence by geographic separation) and areas of admixture (successful interbreeding between distinct lineages).