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Paleo‐Pacific subduction generated a prolonged active continental margin along the coast of the South China Block (SCB). A Triassic magmatic gap was argued to have occurred and was ascribed to flat‐slab subduction of an oceanic plateau. We study for the first time a >330‐m‐long core of typical arc volcanics dated at ca. 218 Ma from the Meiji Atoll in the southern South China Sea (SCS). Paleomagnetism suggests 4.1°± 1.5° of post‐eruption southward drift. These observations clearly support the existence of a Triassic arc in the SCB and imply that part of the arc later split off and drifted southward during the opening of the SCS in the Oligocene. Our results better constrain the lateral extent of the proposed flat‐slab subduction along the margin of the SCB. Moreover, we provide direct evidence of how the breakaway of ribbon continents operated in active continental margins, a recurrent scenario that has been invoked for Phanerozoic tectonics and continental growth throughout Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interplay between Pleistocene climatic variability and hominin adaptations to diverse terrestrial ecosystems is a key topic in human evolutionary studies. Early and Middle Pleistocene environmental change and its relation to hominin behavioural responses has been a subject of great interest in Africa and Europe, though little information is available for other key regions of the Old World, particularly from Eastern Asia. Here we examine key Early Pleistocene sites of the Nihewan Basin, in high-latitude northern China, dating between ∼1.4 and 1.0 million years ago (Ma). We compare stone-tool assemblages from three Early Pleistocene sites in the Nihewan Basin, including detailed assessment of stone-tool refitting sequences at the ∼1.1-Ma-old site of Cenjiawan. Increased toolmaking skills and technological innovations are evident in the Nihewan Basin at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Climate Transition (MPT). Examination of the lithic technology of the Nihewan sites, together with an assessment of other key Palaeolithic sites of China, indicates that toolkits show increasing diversity at the outset of the MPT and in its aftermath. The overall evidence indicates the adaptive flexibility of early hominins to ecosystem changes since the MPT, though regional abandonments are also apparent in high latitudes, likely owing to cold and oscillating environmental conditions. The view presented here sharply contrasts with traditional arguments that stone-tool technologies of China are homogeneous and continuous over the course of the Early Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the Early and Middle Pleistocene hominin record of China is steadily increasing owing to the on-going implementation of palaeoanthropological surveys and excavations. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of climate variability on hominin populations in China and its influence on archaeological site distributions and hominin behaviours. The Mid-Pleistocene climate transition (MPT), dating to between ∼1.2–0.7 Ma in Eastern Asia, is characterized by significant changes in the length and intensity of glacial-interglacial cycles and in monsoon intensity and terrestrial conditions, which have been implicated in influencing the occupation history of basins within China. Here, the MPT is examined relative to archaeological site distributions across China to determine potential long-term geographic and behavioural effects on hominin populations before, during and after this critical period. Changes in the geographic distribution of hominins are demonstrated across the MPT, with significant shifts in the number of sites in high and low latitudes, likely as a response to changing ecosystems. Technological innovations, including the development of Large Cutting Tools, occur in the MPT and afterwards, possibly a response to the formation of open habitats in South China. Geographic and behavioural shifts in the hominin record challenge traditional views about the long-term, conservative nature of the biological and cultural evolution of hominins in Eastern Asia, and instead demonstrate dynamic responses of populations to ecosystem changes across the Early and Middle Pleistocene. • An up-to-date review of the Early and Middle Pleistocene hominin record of China. • Hominin site distributions changed across the Mid-Pleistocene climate transition (MPT). • Technological innovations occurred in the MPT and afterwards. • The shifts across the MPT indicate that early hominins were effected by, and responded to ecosystem changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]