Late Pleistocene mammalian assemblages of Southeast Asia: New dating, mortality profiles and evolution of the predator–prey relationships in an environmental context

•Karstic sites are used to reconstruct paleoecology in Southeast Asia during MIS5-4.•The combined use of OSL and U-series methods allow us to place the sites in a new chronological context.•The analysis of the faunas reveals a great flexibility in predator–prey relationships in the Sundaland.•The site of Duoi U'Oi (northern Vietnam) reveals at 66 ka a selective hunting by humans focused on mature adult sambar.

Karstic sites have great potential for yielding data regarding changes in faunal communities in the Pleistocene of Southeast Asia. In this region, the majority of fossil-bearing deposits are karstic breccias, which generally demonstrate a complicated sedimentary history. While most of the mammalian assemblages recovered in these deposits are only composed of isolated teeth, their study remains essential for reconstructing paleoecology and paleoclimatology of the region. We analyzed the assemblages recovered in three mainland and two insular karstic sites: Tam Hang South and Nam Lot in northern Laos, Duoi U'Oi in northern Vietnam, Punung in central Java and Sibrambang in western Sumatra and obtained new chronologies for three of these sites so that their significance could be discussed within their correct chronological context. The resulting age ranges place the sites in MIS5 and MIS4. The comparative analysis of the faunas, in terms of taphonomy, taxonomic diversity and abundance, and mortality profiles (Cervus unicolor, Sus scrofa, Sus vittatus, rhinocerotids and Tapirus indicus), reveals marked differences in prey–predators (carnivores and/or humans) relationships in relation to habitat. The study of hominines-bearing sites (Punung, Nam Lot, Duoi U'Oi) allows us to emphasize different interactions with large carnivores (felids, hyaenids, canids).