PLEISTOCENE CLIMATIC VARIATION IN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN DURING NEANDERTHAL OCCUPATION

Environmental changes are thought to influence the physical adaptations in mammals, including hominids. We are studying the link between climate change and possible climatically induced morphological responses in a late Pleistocene hominid, the Neanderthals, by relating Neanderthal evolutionary features to coeval changes in habitat. The climate of three separate regions of known Neanderthal habitation in Western Europe, Central Europe and the East Mediterranean are examined for climatic conditions spanning 130,000 to 30,000 years BP. Paleoclimate records (pollen, planktonic foraminifera, biogenic silica, stable isotopes, and biogenic sediments) from both marine and freshwater sediments are used to determine local spatial and temporal variations in Europe (including France, Italy and Hungary) and the Mediterranean. Our study focuses on the comparison of these local changes to regional and global events. Ultimately, we will compare these paleoclimate variations with Neanderthal cranial ontogeny of the same time frame.