A rhinocerotid-dominated megafauna at the MIS6-5 transition: the late Middle Pleistocene Coc Muoi assemblage, Lang Son province, Vietnam

Anne-Marie Bacon, Pierre-Olivier Antoine, Nguyen Thi Mai Huong, Kira Westaway, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Philippe Duringer, Jian-xin Zhao, Jean-Luc Ponche, Sam Canh Dung, Truong Huu Nghia, Tran Thi Minh, Pham Thanh Son, Marc Boyon, Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, Amandine Blin, Fabrice Demeter

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    27 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Little is known about the ecosystems in the north of the Indochinese peninsula at the Middle-Late Pleistocene transition. In this paper, we analyzed the new fauna from Coc Muoi cave, Lang Son province, northeast Vietnam. In comparison with other well-documented faunas from the region, that of Coc Muoi is distinguished by the predominance of rhinoceroses among diverse large-bodied herbivores. The results of the OSL and pIR-IRSL dating of the cave sediments and U-series dating of flowstones indicate a potential age range of 148-117 ka for the fauna (MIS6-5). The analysis of age-at-death distributions of rhinoceroses, wild cattle, sambar deer, and wild pig, does not show any apparent selectivity of age classes. We also focused our study on rhinoceroses, tapirs, and wild cattle by analyzing the prevalence of hypoplastic defects on deciduous and permanent teeth, in an attempt to assess the health status of the taxa during their first years of growth. The health status of large-bodied herbivores (kouprey and rhinoceros) reveals the importance of stressors (biotic and abiotic) in the rainforest environment during a period of marked climatic transition (MIS6-5) in comparison with other MIS5-4 well-documented faunas from the region.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)123-141
    Number of pages19
    JournalQuaternary Science Reviews
    Volume186
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 15 Apr 2018

    Keywords

    • Ecosystems
    • Hypoplasia
    • Lida Ajer
    • Rhinoceros sondaicus
    • Southeast Asia

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