Abstract Past environments of equatorial SE Asia must have played a critical role in determining the timing and trajectory of early human dispersal into and through the region. However, very few reliable terrestrial records are available with which to contextualize human dispersal events. This circumstance, coupled with a sparse archaeological record and the likelihood that much of the archaeological record is now submerged, means we have an incomplete understanding of the role that geography, climate and environment played in shaping human pre-history in this region. From a review of the literature, we conclude that there must have been a substantial environmental barrier resulting in a genetic separation between east and west Sundaland that persisted even though a terrestrial connection was present for most of the Pleistocene. This barrier is likely to be a north–south corridor of open non-forest vegetation, and its existence may have encouraged the rapid dispersal of early humans through the interior of Sundaland and on to Sahul. We conclude that more reliable terrestrial palaeoenvironmental records are required to better understand the links between past environments and dispersal events. We highlight avenues of particular research value, such as focusing on eastern Sumatra, western/southern Borneo and the islands in the Java Sea, where the purported savanna corridor most probably existed, and including edaphic factors in palaeovegetation modelling.

Abstract Shallow-water carbonate sediments deposited in tropical and subtropical settings form thick and spatially extensive accumulations referred to as “carbonate platforms.” Carbonate platforms typically have life spans of millions of tens of milliions of years, and their birth, growth, and demise are governed by a combination of factors such as tectonics, eustasy, environmental conditions, and climate. Carbonate platforms contain an archive of variations of these factors through time in its sedimentary record. These changes can then be extracted from this record, providing insight into our understanding of sedimentary processes and enhancing our knowledge of earth’s history. This study examines the stratigraphy and evolution of the Maldives isolated carbonate platform, in the equatorial Indian Ocean. The Maldives platform is unique because of its enormous size (800 x 130 km). It is the second-largest modern isolated carbonate platform (after the Bahamas). Established in the early Eocene and now more than 3 km thick, the platform contains a sedimentary record which spans more than 50 million years. This study is based on interpretation of the regional 2-D seismic data set and data from one deep exploration well that resulted from Royal Dutch/Shell during its exploration campaign in 1989-1991. The excellent quality and the vast volume (6000km of seismic data) allowed the authors to conduct a detailed study of the Maldives platform.