The Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: an overview and recommendation for the defining boundary, M J Head and P L Gibbard • Mid-Pleistocene revolution and the 'eccentricity myth', M A Maslin and A J Ridgwell • Tropical environmental changes at the mid-Pleistocene transition: insights from lipid biomarkers, E Schefuss, J H F Jansen and J S Sinninghe Damsté • Response of tropical African and East Atlantic climates to orbital forcing over the last 1.7 Ma, B Jahn, R R Schneider, P-J Müller, B Donner and U Röhl • Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal record of the mid-Pleistocene transition in the SW Pacific, B W Hayward, H R Grenfell, A T Sabaa and E Sikes • Distribution of the calcareous nannofossil Reticulofenestra asanoi within the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean: correlating with magneto- and oxygen isotope stratigraphy, V Reale and S Monechi • Early-Middle Pleistocene deep circulation in the western subtropical Atlantic: southern hemisphere modulation of the North Atlantic Ocean, P Ferretti, N J Shackleton, D Rio and M A Hall • Pollen records and climatic cycles in the North Mediterranean region since 2.7 Ma, J-P Suc and S-M Popescu • Climatic patterns revealed by pollen and oxygen isotope records across the Matuyama-Brunhes Boundary in the Central Mediterranean (southern Italy), L Capraro, A Asioli, J Backman, R Bertoldi, J E T Channell, F Massari and D Rio • A late Early Pleistocene tephrochronological and pollen record from Auckland, New Zealand, M L Byrami, R M Newnham, B V Alloway, B Pillans, J Ogden, J Westgate and D C Mildenhall • The stratigraphic transition and suggested boundary between the Early and Middle Pleistocene in the loess record of northern Eurasia, A E Dodonov • Response of the European mammalian fauna to the Mid-Pleistocene transition, T Van Kolfschoten and A K Markova • Large mammal turnover in Africa and the Levant 1.0 and 0.5 Ma, H J O'Regan, L C Bishop, A Lamb, S Elton and A Turner • Early-Middle Pleistocene structural changes in mammalian communities from the Italian peninsula, M R Palombo, P Raia and C Giovinazzo • Highlighting the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in Italian and French large mammal faunas: similarities and faunal renewals, M R Palombo and A M F Valli • Environmental change across the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: small mammalian evidence from the Trinchera Dolina cave, Atapuerca, Spain, G Cuenca-Bescós, J Rofes and J Garcia-Pimienta • Hominins and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition: evolution, culture and climate in Africa and Europe, J McNabb • Hominin responses to Pleistocene environmental change in Arabia and South Asia, M D Petraglia