Palynological analysis of the late Early Pleistocene sediments from Queque Cave in Guangxi, South China

Palynomorphs extracted from the sediments in Queque Cave of the late Early Pleistocene in Chongzuo, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were investigated to reconstruct the paleoenvironment in the study area. While the sediments are pollen-poor, they are sufficiently productive to carry out a paleoenvironmental analysis. The source vegetation reflected by the palynomorphs from the unfossiliferous layer was temperate to warm temperate deciduous and evergreen broadleaved forest while it was warm temperate to subtropical deciduous and evergreen broadleaved forest from the mammalian horizons. Climatic parameters obtained using the Coexistence Approach indicate that the unfossiliferous layer (MAT = 11.3–15.4 °C, MAP = 601.1–1076.1 mm) was cooler and drier than that from the mammal-bearing layers (MAT = 12.6–18.6 °C, MAP = 784.7–1523.1 mm).