La Mina is one of three sites, along with Cueva Millán and La Ermita, located in the middle course of the Arlanza river. La Mina was excavated for the first time in 2006 and three test pits were carried out. In one of them, evidence of two Palaeolithic occupations was identified and several remains of woolly rhinoceros were recovered. Amino acid racemisation dating yielded an age of 52.5 ka BP, the earliest Upper Pleistocene date for Coelodonta antiquitatis on the Iberian Peninsula. This new record may have several implications for understanding the access routes to the Castilian Plateau, together with the definition of a new migratory wave of this species at the end of the Pleistocene. The location of La Mina on the Castilian Plateau may help researchers to complete the movements of this species through the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic on the Iberian Peninsula.

A small lot of fossil whale barnacles from the Upper Pleistocene of California and the Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) of Oregon (United States West Coast), described in a 1972 unpublished MA thesis, are formally described and illustrated herein. In that thesis, a new genus and species name were proposed; however, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, they have no taxonomic standing and are thus unavailable. Based on our reappraisal, two specimens in this lot belong to a new, extinct species that can be assigned to the purportedly extant genus Cetopirus. Cetopirus polysyrinx sp. nov. differs from congeners in that its secondary T-shaped flanges are multitubiferous internally, that is, they are perforated by a high number of irregularly-sized and irregularly-spaced tubules that result in a spongy aspect in transverse section. Whether or not this peculiar condition had any adaptive significance is difficult to determine. Considering that Cetopirus is currently known as an obligate epibiont of right whales (including the North Pacific form Eubalaena japonica (Lacépède 1818)), the host of C. polysyrinx sp. nov. was E. japonica or some other species of Eubalaena. The Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Pacific coast of North America have yielded a rather idiosyncratic fossil whale barnacle fauna, inclusive of the genera Cetolepas, Cryptolepas and now Cetopirus, which seemingly contrasts with all other coeval assemblages worldwide, the latter being in turn dominated by Coronula spp.

A loess sequence has been sampled continuously at high resolution in Nussloch (Rhine Valley, Germany) for malacological and grain-size analyses between ca. 34 and 20 ka. Molluscan abundance and richness, percentage in hygrophilous species and grain-size index show cyclical variations related to the lithological loess–gley alternation. Major molluscan abundance maxima were triggered by temperature increases through an enhancement of the reproduction cycle, whereas cyclical richness fluctuations and percentage in hygrophilous species reflect variations in local humidity and changes in the environmental mosaic. Malacological parameters allow the distinction of four environmental phases organised in cyclical successions correlated with most of the loess–gley doublets. The correlation of the grain-size index of the Nussloch loess sequence with the dust content of the GRIP ice core demonstrates the synchronicity of major molluscan abundance maxima and δ18O increases characterising temperature increases during Dansgaard–Oeschger interstades. A schematic model is proposed to link the North Atlantic Dansgaard–Oeschger climatic oscillations with local environmental changes indicated by both malacofauna and pedostratigraphy. This malacological study of the Nussloch loess sequence thus provides new information about the response of terrestrial loessic palaeoenvironments to millennial-timescale climatic fluctuations during the Upper Weichselian (∼ marine isotope stage 2 (MIS 2) and end of MIS 3).

Cucú cave is a small cavity, 1600 m above sea level on the southern slope of Sierra de María (Almería Province, SE Spain), where current mean annual precipitation is < 450 mm. Fossils and palynomorphs contained within a sedimentary sequence, up to 9 m in depth, allow us to consider the prevailing climatic conditions, and the timing of cavern development. The lithological sequence is dominated by clast-supported detrital material with no evidence of alluvial transport. These sediments were formed by freeze-cracking during periglacial conditions, causing further cave enlargement after initial solutional development. The clastic sequence formed during cold climates is covered by a flowstone that was deposited during a period of warmer, wetter conditions. This provides a minimum U–Th isochron age of 40.2±4.5 ka for the timing of periglacial action. Micromammal fossil species indicate a chronology between 140 and 80 ka. Paleoecological data based on the structure of the mammal community indicates that cold conditions prevailed at the time of deposit. In the studied sequence the presence of anthropogenic components has not been documented. The pollen assemblages identified are a common feature of Pleistocene cold stages that are in semi-arid regions.

The Vyazivok loess sequence from the Dnieper Plain, Ukraine, documents regional environmental changes during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Pedological and palynological analyses and low-field magnetic susceptibility document changes from dense temperate forest during the last interglacial maximum to open, harsh, loess–steppe during the latest Pleistocene. The Vyazivok section overlies hillwash derived from a lower Pleistocene terrace and consists of two stratified soil complexes (Kaydaky and Pryluky; marine isotope stage [MIS] 5 equivalent) separated by a layer of eolian dust (Tyasmyn silt). The lower soils in both complexes formed within forest. These soils are overlain by the Uday (MIS4) and Bug (MIS2) loess units, which are separated by boreal soils of the Vytachiv (MIS3) complex. The coldest conditions within the record occurred in the youngest loess. Holocene soils cap the Bug loess. The Vyazivok section shows remarkable similarities with other classical loess sequences in western Europe, the Czech Republic, and Austria. The Kaydaky, Pryluky, and Vytachiv deposits, correlate with the PKIII, PKII, and PKI soil complexes, respectively, of the Czech Republic. The Tyasmyn and Prylyky silt layers correspond to marker horizons from central Europe.

A new study of the stratigraphy and composition of the Rocourt Tephra is performed at five sites in Belgium and brackets the age of the tephra between 90.3 and 74 ka. The volcanic glass grains have a typical shape of phreatomagmatic eruption products. A large set of tephra minerals were analyzed, namely clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, amphibole, and Cr-spinel. The compositions of these minerals have been compared with the lava xenocrysts, megacrysts, and phenocrysts of the proximate Eifel volcanic province for which the origin has been determined (mantle xenoliths, high-pressure cumulates, and middle- to low-pressure magmatic phases). This allowed us to determine the likely origin of the tephra minerals. The Rocourt Tephra source could be a West Eifel volcano that was fed by a deep-seated magma batch rich in high- to middle-pressure minerals.

The application of both thermoluminescence and infrared stimulated luminescence dating to the extensively studied “classical” Hungarian loess/paleosol sequences from Basaharc, Mende, and Paks provides a reliable chronological framework and climatostratigraphic reconstruction for the last interglacial/glacial cycle. Based on this combined luminescence dating study a new chronology is proposed for the “Young Loess” in Hungary. Luminescence dating suggests that the loess below the MF2 horizon formed during the penultimate glaciation. The MF1 horizon probably formed during an interstade within oxygen isotope stage 3. For the youngest loess, overlying MF1, a very high accumulation rate was determined. Large time gaps occur above MF2 and MF1, indicating that most of the record of the last glaciation is missing in the standard sections at Basaharc, Mende, and Paks. Either large discontinuities or a very low accumulation rate occurred in all three type sections during the soil-forming periods. High-resolution studies of climatic proxies using this combined luminescence dating approach provide a reliable chronological framework for loess and loess derivatives of the last glacial cycle in Hungary, although a precise and complete chronostratigraphic reconstruction cannot be achieved from the incomplete records found at these sites.

The author makes the case for cultural change during the period traditionally assigned to the Middle Palaeolithic in China (140–30 kya), challenging an earlier proposal (Antiquity 2002) that the period saw little change and the term should be abandoned.

The excavated site termed Yana RHS is dated to about 28000 BP and contained a stunning assemblage of ornamented and symbolic objects—the earliest art to be excavated in the Arctic zone. Decorated beads, pendants and needles connect the site to the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic; but other forms and ornaments are unparalleled. Shallow dishes and anthropomorphic designs on mammoth tusks find echoes among hunting practice and shamanistic images of the indigenous Yukaghir people recorded in the early twentieth century.