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Climate indexes of phytoliths fromHomo erectus’ cave deposits in Nanjing

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

A study on phytoliths and their climate indexes is carried out fromHomo erectus’ cave deposits in Hulu Cave, Nanjing. Evidence shows that phytolith assemblages of the cave deposits are dominated by the cold resistant types with a lower warm index, reflecting an overall cold inclined climate. This possibly connects the cave deposits with glacial climate to a great extent, which is in accordance with the northern fauna revealed by fossil mammals and temperate climate indicated by pollen assemblages. According to the distributional state of the phytoliths and their climate indexes on 4 profiles in the cave, it is revealed that profiles I and II display certain cold/warm, and dry/wet fluctuations; profile HI shows a humid and cold condition with the highest humility in the cave deposits; while profile IV indicates a possible quick accumulating process because of its stable climate indexes except for its bottom and top.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008, Nanjing, China

    Weiming Wang & Jinling Liu

  2. Nanjing Geological Museum, 210018, Nanjing, China

    Xiaodan Zhou

Authors
  1. Weiming Wang
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  2. Jinling Liu
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  3. Xiaodan Zhou
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Correspondence to Weiming Wang.

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Wang, W., Liu, J. & Zhou, X. Climate indexes of phytoliths fromHomo erectus’ cave deposits in Nanjing. Chin. Sci. Bull. 48, 2005–2009 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03183995

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03183995

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