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Marine and ice-core records show that the Earth has experienced a succession of glacials and interglacials during the Quaternary (last ~2.6 million years), although it is often difficult to correlate fragmentary terrestrial records with specific cycles. Aminostratigraphy is a method potentially able to link terrestrial sequences to the marine isotope stages (MIS) of the deep-sea record (1,2). We have used new methods of extraction and analysis of amino acids, preserved within the calcitic opercula of the freshwater gastropod Bithynia, to provide the most comprehensive data set for the British Pleistocene based on a single dating technique. A total of 470 opercula from 74 sites spanning the entire Quaternary are ranked in order of relative age based on the extent of protein degradation, using aspartic acid/ asparagine (Asx), glutamic acid/glutamine (Glx), serine (Ser), alanine (Ala) and valine (Val). This new aminostratigraphy is consistent with the stratigraphical relationships of stratotypes, sites with independent geochronology, biostratigraphy and terrace stratigraphy (3-6). The method corroborates the existence of four interglacial stages between the Anglian (MIS 12) and the Holocene in the terrestrial succession. It establishes human occupation of Britain in most interglacial stages after MIS 15, but supports the notion of human absence during the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) (7). Suspicions that the treeless 'optimum of the Upton Warren interstadial' at Isleworth pre-dates MIS 3 are confirmed. This new aminostratigraphy provides a robust framework against which climatic, biostratigraphical and archaeological models can be tested., Despite the importance of the terrestrial record for climate models, the difficulties of assigning specific sedimentary sequences to individual (l) climate cycles restricts the use of these data in climate [...]

The dispersal of early humans from Africa by 1.75 Myr ago led to a marked expansion of their range, from the island of Flores in the east to the Iberian peninsula in the west (1-5). This range encompassed tropical forest, savannah and Mediterranean habitats, but has hitherto not been demonstrated beyond 45° N. Until recently, early colonization in Europe was thought to be confined to the area south of the Pyrenees and Alps. However, evidence from Pakefield (Suffolk, UK) at ~0.7 Myr indicated that humans occupied northern European latitudes when a Mediterranean-type climate prevailed (6). This provided the basis for an 'ebb and flow' model, where human populations were thought to survive in southern refugia during cold stages, only expanding northwards during fully temperate climates (5). Here we present new evidence from Happisburgh (Norfolk, UK) demonstrating that Early Pleistocene hominins were present in northern Europe >0.78 Myr ago when they were able to survive at the southern edge of the boreal zone. This has significant implications for our understanding of early human behaviour, adaptation and survival, as well as the tempo and mode of colonization after their first dispersal out of Africa., At Happisburgh Site 3 (Fig. 1) an assemblage of 78 flint artefacts has been excavated from fluvial gravels and laminated estuarine sands and silts that fill a series of stacked, [...]

An outbreak of avian influenza (H7N3) among poultry resulted in laboratory-confirmed disease in 1 of 103 exposed persons. Incomplete use of personal protective equipment (PPE) was associated with conjunctivitis and [...]

Author(s): Simon A. Parfitt [1, 2]; René W. Barendregt [3]; Marzia Breda [4]; Ian Candy [5, 6]; Matthew J. Collins [7]; G. Russell Coope [6, 8]; Paul Durbidge [9]; Mike [...]

We present a high-resolution record from a late glacial-Holocene land-snail succession from southeast England. Temperature estimates, derived from the best analogue technique, indicate a cooling trend, between 14 500 and 12 600 calendar years before present (cal yr B.P.) of 4 [degrees] C in summer and 8 [degrees] C in winter preceding the Younger Dryas event. The intense warming following the Younger Dryas stadial corresponds to increasing values of the same magnitude in 600 yr. A cooling event, weaker than the Younger Dryas, of 1 [degree] C in both seasons is recorded between 8000 and 8500 cal yr B.P. These reconstructions from a European Holocene continental sequence are in agreement with fluctuations already described in North Atlantic and Mediterranean cores, ice cores, and African and Tibetan lake records.

Author(s): Edmund Gittenberger [1, 2]; Dick S. J. Groenenberg [1]; Bas Kokshoorn [2]; Richard C. Preece (corresponding author) [3] Darwin was fascinated by the transportation of land snails across great [...]