THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF LATE PLEISTOCENE HOMINID POPULATIONS IN CENTRAL AND EAST ASIA

Pleistocene hominid populations in Central and East Asia exhibited many of the "garden-variety" biogeographic responses to large-scale climate fluctuations. Population range expansions occurred in tandem with regional climate shifts towards warmer and wetter interstadial/interglacial conditions. Range contractions, perhaps even wide-spread population extirpations, coincided with shifts to colder and drier stadial/glacial conditions. While these generic responses imply a simple population regulatory mechanism, there is also a pronounced long-term trend towards the occupation of extreme environments including the Mongolian Gobi, hyper-arid Northwest China and the high-elevation Tibetan Plateau. Paleontological, archaeological and geochronological data are presented in support of both biogeographic patterns. The mechanisms underlying the human colonization of extreme environments are discussed with special reference to the expansion of the early and late Upper Paleolithic in Central and East Asia over the past 45 ka.