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A late Middle Pleistocene lowstand valley of the Solo River on the Madura Strait seabed, geology and age of the first hominin locality of submerged Sundaland

Bibliographic Data

ID9335196
AuthorsH W K Berghuis (0000-0002-8769-7546, Leiden University, corresponding author), A Veldkamp (0000-0002-9970-5902, University of Twente), Shinatria Adhityatama (0000-0001-5531-7927, Griffith University), Tony Reimann (0000-0001-7948-5159, Institute of Geography of the Slovak Academy of Sciences), A J Versendaal (Wageningen University & Research), Alice Versendaal, Iwan Kurniawan (0000-0002-7816-7471, Diponegoro University), Eduard Pop (0000-0003-1442-3787, University of Applied Sciences Leiden), Thijs Van Kolfschoten (0000-0003-1716-3394, Leiden University), Josephine C A Joordens (0000-0002-5757-1168, Leiden University)
Year2025
Volume3
Issue2
Pages100042-100042
Publication date2025-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuaternary Environments and Humans (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2950-2365 • E-ISSN: 2950-2365
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100042
OpenAlexW4410390730
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited45

The island of Java (Indonesia) is renowned for its Pleistocene hominin-bearing vertebrate fossil site s . Recently, a marine sand extraction work in the Madura Strait, off the coast of Surabaya, hit upon vertebrate-rich sandstones. More than 6000 vertebrate fossils have been retrieved from the dredged sand, amongst which are two skull fragments ascribed to Homo erectus . The fossils form the first vertebrate record from submerged Sundaland, the lowland plains that connected the great islands of western Indonesia to the Asian mainland during Middle and Late Pleistocene lowstands. Here we present the results of a comprehensive study of the age, depositional background and landscape setting of the subsea fossil locality. The fossiliferous sandstones form the fill of a lowstand valley of the Solo River. The material was OSL-dated to 162 +/- 31 and 119 +/- 27 ka, which links the valley to the lowstand of MIS6. Fluvial backfilling was probably related to the stage of rising sea-level in the run-up to MIS5. The top of the valley fill consists of marine sandstones, pointing to valley drowning and a change to estuarine conditions, probably during peak highstand conditions of MIS5e. The Madura Strait submerged valley is of similar age as the Solo terrace of Ngandong, one of the richest Homo erectus sites of Java and regarded as yielding the youngest record of this species

Archaeology · Geography · Locality · Pleistocene · Seabed · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology

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Unique citing works6
Citations per year6
Citation span2025 - 2026 (2)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 6
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