Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Markowska, Monika; Vonhof, Hubert B.; Groucutt, Huw S.; Breeze, Paul S.; Drake, Nick; Stewart, Mathew; Albert, Richard; Andrieux, Eric; Blinkhorn, James; Boivin, Nicole; Budsky, Alexander; Clark-Wilson, Richard; Fleitmann, Dominik; Gerdes, Axel; Martin, Ashley N.; Martinez-Garcia, Alfredo; Nicholson, Samuel L.; Price, Gilbert J.; Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Scholz, Denis; Vanwezer, Nils; Weber, Michael; Alsharekh, Abdullah M.; Al Omari, Abdul Aziz; Al-Mufarreh, Yahya S. A.; Al-Jibreen, Faisal; Alqahtani, Mesfer; Al-Shanti, Mahmoud; Zalmout, Iyad; Petraglia, Michael D.; Haug, Gerald H.
• 署名单位: Max Planck Society; Northumbria University; University of Malta; University of Cologne; University of London; King's College London; Griffith University; Goethe University Frankfurt; Durham University; Max Planck Society; University of Liverpool; Max Planck Society; University of Queensland; Griffith University; University of London; Royal Holloway University London; University of Basel; Leibniz University Hannover; University of Queensland; Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz; King Saud University; Saudi Geological Survey; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; Saudi Geological Survey; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-3517
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08859-6
• 发表日期: 2025-04-24
• 关键词: u-pb; negev desert; paleoclimate reconstruction; pleistocene climate; hadley circulation; vegetation change; high-resolution; socotra island; kanaan cave; pliocene

摘要

The Saharo-Arabian Desert is one of the largest biogeographical barriers on Earth, impeding dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, including movements of past hominins. Recent research suggests that this barrier has been in place since at least 11 million years ago1. In contrast, fossil evidence from the late Miocene epoch and the Pleistocene epoch suggests the episodic presence within the Saharo-Arabian Desert interior of water-dependent fauna (for example, crocodiles, equids, hippopotamids and proboscideans)2, 3, 4, 5-6, sustained by rivers and lakes7,8 that are largely absent from today's arid landscape. Although numerous humid phases occurred in southern Arabia during the past 1.1 million years9, little is known about Arabia's palaeoclimate before this time. Here, based on a climatic record from desert speleothems, we show recurrent humid intervals in the central Arabian interior over the past 8 million years. Precipitation during humid intervals decreased and became more variable over time, as the monsoon's influence weakened, coinciding with enhanced Northern Hemisphere polar ice cover during the Pleistocene. Wetter conditions likely facilitated mammalian dispersals between Africa and Eurasia, with Arabia acting as a key crossroads for continental-scale biogeographic exchanges.