Vegetation succession and climate change during the early pleistocene (2.2-1.8 Ma) in the Nihewan Basin, northern China

Environment of the Early Pleistocene Banshan Paleolithic Site in the Nihewan Basin, North China

“…It is also a key area for studying the relationship between environment and early human evolution in East Asia, especially in North China (Barbour, 1924;Chen, 1988;Zhou et al, 1991;Yuan et al, 2011;Ao et al, 2017;Deng et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2020), with a long history of research activity. Since the 1920s, studies of the archaeology, paleoanthropology, chronology, and climate record of the Nihewan Basin have provided much valuable results (Zhu et al, 2001;Zhu et al, 2004;Ao et al, 2013a;Li et al, 2019;Ding et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021), especially based on the excavation of Early Pleistocene sites combined with accurate dating (Wang et al, 2004;Zhu et al, 2004;Deng et al, 2008;Ao et al, 2013b;Liu et al, 2018). The results have enabled a relatively complete cultural sequence of Early Pleistocene paleo-human evolution in the Nihewan Basin to be established (Xie et al, 2004;Zuo et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2013;Pei et al, 2017;Deng et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2020).…”