Plant Wax Biomarker Evidence for Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Forest Resilience and Ecological Refugium Dynamics at Panga ya Saidi, Coastal Kenya

Plant Wax Biomarker Evidence for Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Forest Resilience and Ecological Refugium Dynamics at Panga ya Saidi, Coastal Kenya | Research Square Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Plant Wax Biomarker Evidence for Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Forest Resilience and Ecological Refugium Dynamics at Panga ya Saidi, Coastal Kenya Robert Patalano, Jennifer Miller, Ceri Shipton, W Carleton, Kasun Gayantha, and 7 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8758549/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The role of environmental refugia in human evolutionary ecology is unclear due to a lack of correlated high-resolution datasets linking climate and environmental change with human behavior. Panga ya Saidi, coastal Kenya, is one of the few sites in eastern Africa that has both on-site climate and vegetation proxy archives and an archaeological assemblage that documents the Middle-to-Later Stone Age transition. Here, we present a 57,000-year plant wax biomarker record from Panga ya Saidi’s archaeological sediments and evaluate the site’s potential as an ecological refugium. Compound specific plant wax carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δ2H) isotope data indicate long-term ecological stability and a C3-dominated ecosystem since at least Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Despite arid phases, including a hyper-arid Last Glacial Maximum, the tropical moist broadleaf forest biome at Panga ya Saidi persisted through these perturbations, giving humans the ability to access forest, grassland, and coastal habitats via mobile foraging and social networking. The ecological contrasts between the coastal forest mosaic and surrounding ecoregions likely played a role in deep-time technological developments, with habitat variability and ecological diversity being conducive to cultural innovations regardless of climatic perturbations. Social science/Anthropology/Archaeology Biological sciences/Ecology/Evolutionary ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Biogeochemistry Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Palaeoclimate Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Table 1 is available in the Supplementary Files section. Supplementary Files Table1.xlsx Table 1 SITable1.xlsx Supplementary Table 1 SIFigure2.pdf Supplementary Figure 2 SIFigure1.pdf Supplementary Figure 1 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information

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