S12-6
Climate Changes, Environments and Dynamics of Human Evolution in Southeast Asia: From Denisovans to Homo sapiens
Anne-Marie Bacon1, Nicolas Bourgon2, Elise Dufour3, Fabrice Demeter4,5, Clément Zanolli6, Kira E. Westaway7, Renaud Joannes-Boyau8, Philippe Duringer9, Jean-Luc Ponche10, Mike W. Morley11, Eric Suzzoni12, Sébastien Frangeul12, Quentin Boesch9, Pierre-Olivier Antoine13, Souliphane Boualaphane14, Phonephanh Sichanthongtip14, Daovee Sihanam14, Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương15, Nguyễn Anh Tuấn15, Denis Fiorillo16, Olivier Tombret16, Elise Patole-Edoumba17, Tyler E. Dunn18, Alexandra Zachwieja19, Thonglith Luangkhoth14, Viengkeo Souksavatdy14, Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy+, Laura Shackelford20,21, Jean-Jacques Hublin22,23
1Université Paris Cité, BABEL, CNRS, France
2Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
3UMR7209 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique, Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements, MNHN, CNRS, Paris, France
4Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
5Eco-anthropologie, MNHN, CNRS, Université de Paris, Musée de l'Homme, France
6University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MCC, PACEA, UMR 5199, Franceclement.zanolli@gmail.com
7‘Traps’ Luminescence Dating Facility, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Australia
8GARG, Southern Cross GeoScience, Southern Cross University, Australia
9Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, UMR 7516 CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, France
10Université de Strasbourg, Laboratoire Image, Ville Environnement, UMR 7362 UdS CNRS, France
11Archaeology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Australia
12Spitteurs Pan, technical cave supervision and exploration, La Chapelle en Vercors, France
13Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, France
14Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Laos PDR
15Institute of Archaeology, Vietnam
16UMR7209 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique, Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements, MNHN, CNRS, France
17Museum d’histoire naturelle de La Rochelle, France
18Department of Medical Education, Creighton University School of Medicine, U.S.A.
19Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota Medical School, U.S.A.
20Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
21Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
22Paléoanthrologie, Collège de France, France
23Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
+deceased
Denisovans are mostly known from a few genomes (ancient DNA), retrieved from a handful of bones and teeth, and sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) from Denisova Cave in southern Siberia, Russia (~200-50 ka). Paleoproteomic and morphological analyses of a partial mandible (~160 ka), as well as sedDNA (up to ~50 ka) at Baishiya Cave, Xiahe, revealed that Denisovans were also present in China. The recent discovery of a lower molar of a young female individual from the Tam Ngu Hao 2 Cave (Cobra Cave) in Laos (164-131 ka), further expanded the southern range of the Denisovans into Southeast Asia. The locations of these sites demonstrate that Denisovans adapted well to a broad range of environments, from broad-leafed forests to tundra-steppe habitats in the Altai Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau, and to the humid tropical forests of Mainland Southeast Asia. The new discovery at Cobra Cave in Laos allows us to reconstruct the environmental conditions encountered by a Denisovan population at a latitude of ~22°N, the lowest recorded so far, and the first in a tropical region. We analysed the carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) measurements from tooth enamel of a large spectrum of mammalian taxa recorded in the Cobra Cave assemblage. Isotopic measurements were also taken on the Denisovan tooth to describe its diet and habitat, and these were compared with those of Homo sapiens from the nearby cave site of Tam Pà Ling, Laos (TPL-1, 46-43 ka). The results reveal the heterogeneity of the environment at the time of Denisovan occupation in this Indochinese region, and highlight an ecological niche different from that occupied later by Homo sapiens. Using other Late Pleistocene paleontological data, we also explored the impact of climatic shifts that locally accompanied the transition from Denisovans to H. sapiens.