Relatively open vegetation landscapes promoted early Pleistocene hominin evolution

Vegetation structure and landscape openness are key ecological factors influencing human behavioural and cultural adaptation strategies. However, there is ongoing debate and lack of quantitative assessment about which vegetation landscape and openness levels were more conducive to hominin dispersal during the early Pleistocene. Here, we selected the early Pleistocene Majuangou archaeological site in China, which is the earliest site in the Nihewan Basin with reliable stratigraphic chronology and abundant archaeological materials, as the research object. We conducted pollen analysis across eight artefact layers and the natural sediments (1.75–1.29 Ma), and carried out the first quantitative reconstruction of vegetation openness. The results demonstrate that vegetation openness in the artefact layers was predominantly between 60% and 90%, while layers with vegetation openness below 50% or above 90% had either no or very few artefacts. The global comparison revealed that hominins’ preference for relatively open habitats was a consistent global pattern, challenging the view that relatively closed forest vegetation landscapes were more conducive to their dispersal. Our findings suggest that enhanced resource abundance, accessibility and mobility in these environments facilitated both hominin dispersal and cultural development, highlighting the pivotal role of relatively open vegetation landscapes in shaping hominin evolution. Relatively open vegetation landscapes during the early Pleistocene facilitated hominins’ evolution, with resource abundance, accessibility, and mobility playing crucial roles, according to pollen analysis and quantitative reconstruction of vegetation openness.