Speleothem record attests to stable environmental conditions during neanderthal–modern human turnover in southern italy

ABSTRACT The causes of Neanderthal–modern human (MH) turnover are ambiguous. While potential biocultural interactions between the two groups are still little known, it is clear that

Neanderthals in southern Europe disappeared about 42 thousand years ago (ka) after cohabitation for ~3,000 years with MH. Among a plethora of hypotheses on Neanderthal extinction, rapid

climate changes during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (MUPT) are regarded as a primary factor. Here we show evidence for stable climatic and environmental conditions during the

MUPT in a region (Apulia) where Neanderthals and MH coexisted. We base our findings on a rare glacial stalagmite deposited between ~106 and ~27 ka, providing the first continuous western

Mediterranean speleothem palaeoclimate archive for this period. The uninterrupted growth of the stalagmite attests to the constant availability of rainfall and vegetated soils, while its

δ13C–δ18O palaeoclimate proxies demonstrate that Apulia was not affected by dramatic climate oscillations during the MUPT. Our results imply that, because climate did not play a key role in

the disappearance of Neanderthals in this area, Neanderthal–MH turnover must be approached from a perspective that takes into account climatic and environmental conditions favourable for

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CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS MID-PLEISTOCENE ARIDITY AND LANDSCAPE SHIFTS PROMOTED PALEARCTIC HOMININ DISPERSALS Article Open access 27 November 2024 HIGH-RESOLUTION ECOSYSTEM CHANGES

PACING THE MILLENNIAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY AT THE MIDDLE TO UPPER PALAEOLITHIC TRANSITION IN NE-ITALY Article Open access 01 August 2023 COLLAPSE OF THE MAMMOTH-STEPPE IN CENTRAL YUKON AS

REVEALED BY ANCIENT ENVIRONMENTAL DNA Article Open access 08 December 2021 DATA AVAILABILITY Data supporting this study are available in Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Table 2.

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references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank all local speleologists that helped with the 2014 and 2019 fieldwork at Pozzo Cucù, Sant’Angelo, Zaccaria and Messapi caves: G. Loperfido, S. Inguscio,

G. Ragone, P. Lippolis, A. Lacirignola, D. Leserri, M. Marraffa, O. Lacarbonara, F. Semeraro, S. Calella, P. Calella, C. Pastore, C. Marchitelli, R. Romanazzi, R. Cupertino, G. Caló and F.

Lorusso (Gruppo Speleologico Martinese, CARS Altamura, Gruppo Speleologico Neretino, Gruppo Ricerche Carsiche Putignano, Gruppo Puglia Grotte and Gruppo Escursionistico Speleologico

Ostunense), as well as the Bellanova family for access to Messapi Cave. A.C., J.D.W. and V.C. are also grateful to all members of Gruppo Speleologico Martinese for their logistic help and

warm hospitality in Martina Franca. Thanks also to M. Parise (University of Bari) for help during 2014 fieldwork; A. Reina (Polytechnic University of Bari) for his enthusiasm in supporting

this research; V. Casulli and R. Laragione of Castellana Grotte for their interest in supporting this study; M. Wimmer and M. Luetscher (Innsbruck University) for their help during

laboratory work; L. Pisani (Bologna University) for the DEM figure used in Extended Data Fig. 1; and L. Calabrò (Bologna University) for drilling of sample SA1. A.C. is supported by Leonardo

Da Vinci Grant 2019 (DD MIUR, no. 787, 15/04/2019); S.B. is supported by ERC grant no. 724046—SUCCESS (https://ERC-SUCCESS.eu), and H.C. by NSFC grant no. 41888101. This research received

financial contributions from both Grotte di Castellana and Federazione Speleologica Pugliese. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Biological, Geological and

Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Andrea Columbu, Veronica Chiarini & Jo De Waele * Institute of Geology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Christoph Spötl * Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Stefano Benazzi * Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,

Leipzig, Germany Stefano Benazzi * School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia John Hellstrom * Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong

University, Xi’an, China Hai Cheng * State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China Hai Cheng * Department

of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA Hai Cheng Authors * Andrea Columbu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *

Veronica Chiarini View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Christoph Spötl View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed

 Google Scholar * Stefano Benazzi View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * John Hellstrom View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Hai Cheng View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jo De Waele View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS A.C. and V.C. conceived and designed the experiments. A.C., V.C., C.S., J.H. and H.C. performed the experiments. A.C. and S.B. analysed the

data. A.C., V.C., C.S., S.B. and J.D.W. contributed with materials and analysis tools. A.C. wrote the paper with input from all co-authors. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Andrea

Columbu. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to

jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. EXTENDED DATA EXTENDED DATA FIG. 1 CAVE LOCATIONS AND SAMPLING. A) Apulia region with colour-coded topography; black

dots indicate major caves in Puglia (from http://www.catasto.fspuglia.it/), while red circles report caves explored for this project. B) PC stalagmite found close to its original growth

position. C) PC milling subsampling for δ18O and δ13C. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 2 INTRA-MILLENNIA EVENTS. Intra-stadial and interstadial events recorded by PC δ18O compared to Greenland ice core

δ18O (24). The events are reported, in both curves, with grey shading. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 3 PC FROM DO 23 TO 19. Similarities between Chinese speleothem δ18O (orange curve26), PC δ18O (blue

curve, this study) and Greenland ice core δ18O (green curve15) from ~110 to ~65 ka, during DO events 23 to 19. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 4 GROWTH RATE AND [234/238U]I. Comparison between PC δ13C,

growth rate, δ18O and [234/238U]i. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 5 MATERIALS. Speleothems (except PC, Fig. 1 main text) examined in this study. Blue rectangles indicate the location of sampling for

U-Th dating. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 6 AGE MODEL. Top: comparison between StalAge and COPRA 2σ range and the resulting average age model used in this work. Bottom: Propagation of positive and

negative 2σ uncertainty in the various age models. U-Th ages are shown by yellow dots and black 2σ error bars. EXTENDED DATA FIG. 7 HENDY TEST. Subsamples were extracted from individual

growth lamina. δ13C-δ18O correlation (r) provided for each tested layer. The absence of a strong correlation between δ13C and δ18O and of a systematic increase from the centre to the flank

indicate that calcite was deposited under quasi-equilibrium conditions (see Hendy test discussion for details). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION REPORTING SUMMARY SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1 U–Th

dataset. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2 Stable isotope time series. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Columbu, A., Chiarini, V., Spötl, C. _et al._

Speleothem record attests to stable environmental conditions during Neanderthal–modern human turnover in southern Italy. _Nat Ecol Evol_ 4, 1188–1195 (2020).

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