@article {328973,
	title = {A multi-proxy approach to exploring Homo sapiens{\textquoteright} arrival, environments and adaptations in Southeast Asia.},
	journal = {Sci Rep},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2021},
	month = {2021 Oct 26},
	pages = {21080},
	abstract = {<p>The capability of Pleistocene hominins to successfully adapt to different types of tropical forested environments has long been debated. In order to investigate environmental changes in Southeast Asia during a critical period for the turnover of hominin species, we analysed palaeoenvironmental proxies from five late Middle to Late Pleistocene faunas. Human teeth discoveries have been reported at Duoi U{\textquoteright}Oi, Vietnam (70-60\&nbsp;ka) and Nam Lot, Laos (86-72\&nbsp;ka). However, the use of palaeoproteomics allowed us to discard the latter, and, to date, no human remains older than ~ 70\&nbsp;ka are documented in the area. Our findings indicate that tropical rainforests were highly sensitive to climatic changes over that period, with significant fluctuations of the canopy forests. Locally, large-bodied faunas were resilient to these fluctuations until the cooling period of the Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4; 74-59\&nbsp;ka) that transformed the overall biotope. Then, under strong selective pressures, populations with new phenotypic characteristics emerged while some other species disappeared. We argue that this climate-driven shift offered new foraging opportunities for hominins in a novel rainforest environment and was most likely a key factor in the settlement and dispersal of our species during MIS 4 in SE Asia.</p>
},
	keywords = {Acclimatization, Biological Evolution, Fossils, History, Ancient, Humans, Laos, Rainforest, Tooth, Vietnam},
	issn = {2045-2322},
	doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-99931-4},
	author = {Bacon, Anne-Marie and Bourgon, Nicolas and Welker, Frido and Cappellini, Enrico and Fiorillo, Denis and Tombret, Olivier and Thi Mai Huong, Nguyen and Anh Tuan, Nguyen and Sayavonkhamdy, Thongsa and Souksavatdy, Viengkeo and Sichanthongtip, Phonephanh and Antoine, Pierre-Olivier and Duringer, Philippe and Ponche, Jean-Luc and Westaway, Kira and Joannes-Boyau, Renaud and Boesch, Quentin and Suzzoni, Eric and Frangeul, S{\'e}bastien and Patole-Edoumba, Elise and Zachwieja, Alexandra and Shackelford, Laura and Demeter, Fabrice and Hublin, Jean-Jacques and Dufour, {\'E}lise}
}
