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Li W, Li X, Mei X, Zhang F, Xu J, Liu C, Wei C, Liu Q. A review of current and emerging approaches for Quaternary marine sediment dating. Sci Total Environ 2021; 780:146522. [PMID: 33770600 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2021] [Revised: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Dating methodologies for Quaternary marine sediments play increasingly important roles in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and paleoclimate in (paleo)oceanography. Previous reviews or studies have focused mainly on one or two methodologies, and their applications in one specific environment. With the continuing technological and methodological advances in different methods over the past few decades, an up-to-date comparison of the pros and cons of each dating methodology is needed to clearly understand their applications in marine geoscience research. In this review, we first briefly summarized the common methods of absolute dating and relative dating. These are (1) radioisotope dating with different half-lives using natural nuclides of 234Th, 210Pb, 230Th, and 226Ra, cosmogenic nuclides of 7Be, 14C, 10Be, 32Si, 26Al, 36Cl and 21Ne, and the artificial radionuclides of 137Cs, 239, 240Pu, 241Am and 129I that have been induced by atmospheric nuclear tests, accidents in nuclear plants, and discharges of radioactive wastes; (2) radiation exposure dating of luminescence and electron paramagnetic resonance (ESR) dating; and (3) stratigraphic dating of δ18O and paleomagnetic sequence. Applications and limitations from the marine terraces, estuaries, to hadal trenches have been summarized to each technique in the study of Quaternary marine geoscience extending from the Anthropocene through the Pleistocene. Finally, we introduced some emerging event dating methods, namely the arrivals of microplastics, mercury isotopes, and organic pollutant deposition that all appeared after the industrial resolution in our now changing ocean influenced by acidification, global warming, and anthropogenic activities. We ended by discussing future perspectives for reliable and high-resolution chronology by interdisciplinary methods including computer programming to better understand the natural geological evolution and predict the future changes in earth science.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenpeng Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Archaea Geo-Omics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xinxin Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Archaea Geo-Omics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, Guangdong, China.
| | - Xi Mei
- Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology, Qingdao 266071, China; Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology/Evaluation and Detection Technology Laboratory of Marine Mineral Resources, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Fan Zhang
- Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Jingping Xu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Archaea Geo-Omics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou 511458, Guangdong, China
| | - Chunru Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Chuanyi Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Qingsong Liu
- Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
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Xing S, Martinón-Torres M, Deng C, Shao Q, Wang Y, Luo Y, Zhou X, Pan L, Ge J, Bermúdez de Castro JM, Liu W. Early Pleistocene hominin teeth from Meipu, southern China. J Hum Evol 2021; 151:102924. [PMID: 33418452 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2020] [Revised: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The rarity and poor preservation of hominin fossils from the East Asian Early Pleistocene hamper our understanding of their taxonomy and possible phylogenetic relationship with other members of the genus Homo. In the 1970s, four isolated hominin teeth were recovered from the Meipu site, southern China, which biostratigraphic analysis placed in the late Early Pleistocene. Early reports assigned the teeth to late Homo erectus. Since then, the teeth have not been re-evaluated, nor has reliable dating been performed at the Meipu site. Here, biostratigraphic and paleomagnetic dating allow for a more precise chronological constraint of the Meipu hominins in the late Early Pleistocene, between 780 ka and 990 ka, making them one of the few known hominins for this time in mainland Asia. The comparison of the morphology of the Meipu teeth with other members of the genus Homo reveals that the Meipu teeth preserve traits such as moderate shoveling of the I1, the square crown contour of M1, and a buccolingually wider lingual cusp in P4 that make them closer to early Homo specimens from Africa and Homo ergaster from Dmanisi (Georgia). In addition, the Meipu teeth exhibit features that are more typical for late mainland East Asian H. erectus, such as the moderately convex I1 labial surface and a pronouncedly convex I2 labial surface. In these features, the Meipu hominins are morphologically intermediate between African/Dmanisi early Homo and East Asian Middle Pleistocene hominins. This study contributes to a better understanding of the morphologies and the taxonomic status of East Asian Early Pleistocene hominins, a time period for which the hominin evidence with secure stratigraphic context is scarce.
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Affiliation(s)
- Song Xing
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China; Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana, Paseo de La Sierra de Atapuerca S/n, Burgos, Spain
| | - María Martinón-Torres
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana, Paseo de La Sierra de Atapuerca S/n, Burgos, Spain; University College London Anthropology, London, UK
| | - Chenglong Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qingfeng Shao
- College of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yuan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China
| | - Yunbing Luo
- Institute of Archeology and Cultural Relics of Hubei Province, Wuhan, China
| | | | - Lei Pan
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China
| | - Junyi Ge
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China.
| | - José María Bermúdez de Castro
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana, Paseo de La Sierra de Atapuerca S/n, Burgos, Spain; University College London Anthropology, London, UK
| | - Wu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, China
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