The composition of three mammal faunas and environmental evolution in the last glacial maximum, Guanzhong area, Shaanxi Province, China

Three mammal faunas with Palaeoloxodon from the late Pleistocene of the Guanzhong area in Shaanxi Province, China, are dated to 20.796 ka BP, 20.400 ka BP and 17.333 ka BP, respectively. The earlier Xianyang fauna, that contains Bubalus youngi and Cervus nippon hortulorum, lived in a warm-cool humid environment. The slightly younger Pucheng fauna, yielding desert steppe animals including Equus przewalskyi and Gazella przewalskyi, represented a climate changing from cool humid to dry and cold. The latest Dali fauna, including Mammuthus sp., inhabited a steppe or periglacial environment. Evolutionary changes of species composition in the three faunas reveal the processes of climate and environmental evolution from warm-cool humid to extreme dry and cold conditions during the last glacial maximum.