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Pleistocene cave deposits usually provide ideal materials for the study of mammals. Karst caves in Chongzuo, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of south China are famous for numerous studies on their abundant mammalian fossils and most importantly, Homo sapiens. Unfortunately, the environmental backgrounds, e.g. vegetation and climate, that governed these faunas, are usually lacking because there is no appropriate proxy. In this work, we analysed the palynological assemblages from seven well-dated karst caves in Chongzuo. The ages of these seven caves (2.0–0.11 Ma) cover almost the entire Pleistocene. Though the number of pollen and spores is comparatively low, as expected, we managed to reconstruct the principle vegetation types. The results show that the individual vegetations were mainly warm temperate to subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests. The present study provides important background environmental information on the Pleistocene faunas and Homo sapiens in Guangxi, south China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]