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O'Brien K, Hebdon N, Faith JT. Paleoecological evidence for environmental specialization in Paranthropus boisei compared to early Homo. J Hum Evol 2023; 177:103325. [PMID: 36805971 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2022] [Revised: 01/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023]
Abstract
Since the discovery of Paranthropus boisei alongside early Homo at Olduvai Gorge and East Turkana, paleoanthropologists have attempted to understand the different evolutionary paths of these two hominin lineages. Conventional wisdom is that their prolonged phase of sympatry in eastern Africa reflects different adaptive strategies, with early Homo characterized as the ecologically flexible generalist and Paranthropus as the less versatile specialist. If correct, this should imply differences in their use of ancient environments, with early Homo occurring in a broader range of environmental contexts than Paranthropus. This prediction has yet to be subject to rigorous quantitative evaluation. In this study, we use the 2.0-1.4 Ma fossil bovid assemblages associated with early Homo and P. boisei at East Turkana (Kenya) to quantify the breadth of their environmental associations. We find that early Homo occurs in faunal assemblages indicative of a broader range of environments than P. boisei. A null model taking sampling into account shows that the broad environmental associations of early Homo are indistinguishable from random, whereas P. boisei is one of just a handful of large mammal taxa from East Turkana that has a narrower range of environmental associations than expected by chance. These results support the characterization of P. boisei as an ecological specialist relative to the more generalist Homo. Moreover, the narrow environmental associations observed of P. boisei, unlike those of almost all other C4 grass-consumers in the Turkana Basin, suggest that it likely did not feed on a spatially widespread C4 resource like the leaves, seeds, or rhizomes of grass.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaedan O'Brien
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 South Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA.
| | - Nicholas Hebdon
- Department of Biological Sciences, Chapman University, 1 University Dr, Orange, CA 92866, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 South Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA; Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa
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2
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Abstract
Researchers typically rely on fossils from the Family Bovidae to generate African paleoenvironmental reconstructions due to their strict ecological tendencies. Bovids have dominated the southern African fauna for the past four million years and, therefore, dominate the fossil faunal assemblages, especially isolated teeth. Traditionally, researchers reference modern and fossil comparative collections to identify teeth. However, researchers are limited by the specific type and number of bovids at each institution. B.O.V.I.D. (Bovidae Occlusal Visual IDentification) is a repository of images of the occlusal surface of bovid teeth. The dataset currently includes extant bovids from 7 tribes and 20 species (~3900). B.O.V.I.D. contains two scaled images per specimen: a color and a black and white (binarized) image. The database is a useful reference for identifying bovid teeth. The large sample size also allows one to observe the natural variation that exists in each taxa. The binarized images can be used in statistical shape analyses, such as taxonomic classification. B.O.V.I.D. is a valuable supplement to other methods for taxonomically identifying bovid teeth. Measurement(s) | occlusal surface of bovid teeth were outlined | Technology Type(s) | GIMP | Factor Type(s) | Bovidae taxonomic identification | Sample Characteristic - Organism | Bovidae | Sample Characteristic - Location | southern Africa |
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3
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Hanon R, Patou-Mathis M, Péan S, Prat S, Cohen BF, Steininger C. Early Pleistocene hominin subsistence behaviors in South Africa: Evidence from the hominin-bearing deposit of Cooper's D (Bloubank Valley, South Africa). J Hum Evol 2021; 162:103116. [PMID: 34915399 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Revised: 11/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/04/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Evidence of the consumption of meat through hunting or scavenging by Early Pleistocene hominins is scarce, particularly in South Africa. Moreover, the interpretations of taphonomic evidence are subject to an important discussion commonly called the 'hunting-vs-scavenging debate.' Until today, only the Swartkrans Members 1-3 site has yielded a butchered bone assemblage large enough to permit reconstruction of carcass acquisition strategies by Early Pleistocene hominins in South Africa. This leaves an information gap between 1.4 and 1.0 Ma. Here, we provide the first evidence of meat consumption by hominins during this gap, based on the zooarchaeological study of the large mammal bone assemblage recovered from the Cooper's D site, South Africa. Based on skeletal part representation, our results show density-mediated attrition of bovid bones due to predepositional and postdepositional destruction. We argue that this attrition is the result of both abiotic (i.e., decalcification) and biotic (i.e., carnivore ravaging) processes. Bovid mortality profiles point out the involvement of ambush predators such as large felids. Bone surface modifications also indicate that the assemblage has been accumulated mostly by carnivores but with some hominin involvement as well. We observe all the stages of animal carcass processing (skinning, disarticulation, defleshing, marrow extraction) as well as the exploitation of a diversity of prey size classes at both Swartkrans Members 1-3 and Cooper's D. Thus, our study shows the importance of the Cooper's D bone assemblage for understanding Early Pleistocene hominin subsistence behaviors. Moreover, this article highlights the need for including long bone flake specimens in the analysis of large bone assemblages from South African caves to better understand the Early Pleistocene hominin bone damage record.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raphaël Hanon
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa; UMR 7194, HNHP, MNHN/CNRS/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France.
| | - Marylène Patou-Mathis
- UMR 7194, HNHP, MNHN/CNRS/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Stephane Péan
- UMR 7194, HNHP, MNHN/CNRS/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
| | - Sandrine Prat
- UMR 7194, HNHP, MNHN/CNRS/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, 17 place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris, France
| | - Brigette F Cohen
- National Museum of Bloemfontein, P.O Box 266, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa; Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Christine Steininger
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa; Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
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5
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Abstract
Present-day African ecosystems serve as referential models for conceptualizing the environmental context of early hominin evolution, but the degree to which modern ecosystems are representative of those in the past is unclear. A growing body of evidence from eastern Africa's rich and well-dated late Cenozoic fossil record documents communities of large-bodied mammalian herbivores with ecological structures differing dramatically from those of the present day, implying that modern communities may not be suitable analogs for the ancient ecosystems of hominin evolution. To determine when and why the ecological structure of eastern Africa's herbivore faunas came to resemble those of the present, here we analyze functional trait changes in a comprehensive dataset of 305 modern and fossil herbivore communities spanning the last ∼7 Myr. We show that nearly all communities prior to ∼700 ka were functionally non-analog, largely due to a greater richness of non-ruminants and megaherbivores (species >1,000 kg). The emergence of functionally modern communities precedes that of taxonomically modern communities by 100,000s of years, and can be attributed to the combined influence of Plio-Pleistocene C4 grassland expansion and pulses of aridity after ∼1 Ma. Given the disproportionate ecological impacts of large-bodied herbivores on factors such as vegetation structure, hydrology, and fire regimes, it follows that the vast majority of early hominin evolution transpired in the context of ecosystems that functioned unlike any today. Identifying how past ecosystems differed compositionally and functionally from those today is key to conceptualizing ancient African environments and testing ecological hypotheses of hominin evolution.
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6
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Seasonal and habitat effects on the nutritional properties of savanna vegetation: Potential implications for early hominin dietary ecology. J Hum Evol 2019; 133:99-107. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2018] [Revised: 01/09/2019] [Accepted: 01/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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7
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Badenhorst S, Steininger CM. The Equidae from Cooper's D, an early Pleistocene fossil locality in Gauteng, South Africa. PeerJ 2019; 7:e6909. [PMID: 31143541 PMCID: PMC6525595 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2018] [Accepted: 04/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooper’s D is a fossil locality in the Bloubank Valley close to other important sites such as Sterkfontein and Kromdraai in Gauteng, South Africa. The fossil deposits of Cooper’s D date to 1.38 ± 0.11 Ma. Hominins like Paranthropus robustus and early Homo have been recovered from Cooper’s Cave. We report here on the Equidae remains. Our sample contains specimens from the extinct Equus capensis, and a specimen which represents an extinct hipparion Eurygnathohippus cf. cornelianus. This particular specimen was previously identified as plains zebra (Equus quagga). The contribution of Equidae to the total fossil assemblage of Cooper’s D is relatively low, and these remains were likely accumulated by various predators such as spotted and brown hyenas and leopards. The Equidae, as well as the other fauna from Cooper’s D supports the existence of grassland, wooded and water components in the vicinity of the site.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaw Badenhorst
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Christine M Steininger
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.,DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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8
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Paine OCC, Leichliter JN, Avenant N, Codron D, Lawrence A, Sponheimer M. The ecomorphology of southern African rodent incisors: Potential applications to the hominin fossil record. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0205476. [PMID: 30785886 PMCID: PMC6382097 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2018] [Accepted: 01/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The taxonomic identification of mammalian fauna within fossil assemblages is a well-established component of paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, many fragmentary specimens recovered from fossil sites are often disregarded as they can be difficult to identify with the precision required for taxonomic methods. For this reason, the large numbers of isolated rodent incisors that are often recovered from hominin fossil bearing sites are generally regarded as offering little interpretive value. Ecomorphological analysis, often referred to as a “taxon-free” method, can potentially circumvent this problem by focusing on the adaptive, rather than the taxonomic significance of rodent incisor morphology. Here, we determine if the morphology of the upper incisors of modern southern African rodents reflects dietary behavior using discriminant function analysis. Our model suggests that a strong ecomorphological signal exists in our modern sample and we apply these results to two samples of isolated incisors from the hominin fossil bearing sites, Sterkfontein and Swartkrans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver C. C. Paine
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Jennifer N. Leichliter
- Institut für Geowissenschaften, AG für Angewandte und Analytische Paläontologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Nico Avenant
- Mammology Department, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
| | - Daryl Codron
- Mammology Department, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
- Florisbad Quaternary Research Department, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
| | - Austin Lawrence
- Department of Integrative Anatomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America
| | - Matt Sponheimer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
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9
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The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological and faunal finds at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in light of the revised chronology for Homo floresiensis. J Hum Evol 2018; 124:52-74. [PMID: 30173885 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2017] [Revised: 06/27/2018] [Accepted: 07/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Liang Bua, the type site of Homo floresiensis, is a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores with sedimentary deposits currently known to range in age from about 190 thousand years (ka) ago to the present. Recent revision of the stratigraphy and chronology of this depositional sequence suggests that skeletal remains of H. floresiensis are between ∼100 and 60 ka old, while cultural evidence of this taxon occurs until ∼50 ka ago. Here we examine the compositions of the faunal communities and stone artifacts, by broad taxonomic groups and raw materials, throughout the ∼190 ka time interval preserved in the sequence. Major shifts are observed in both the faunal and stone artifact assemblages that reflect marked changes in paleoecology and hominin behavior, respectively. Our results suggest that H. floresiensis and Stegodon florensis insularis, along with giant marabou stork (Leptoptilos robustus) and vulture (Trigonoceps sp.), were likely extinct by ∼50 ka ago. Moreover, an abrupt and statistically significant shift in raw material preference due to an increased use of chert occurs ∼46 thousand calibrated radiocarbon (14C) years before present (ka cal. BP), a pattern that continues through the subsequent stratigraphic sequence. If an increased preference for chert does, in fact, characterize Homo sapiens assemblages at Liang Bua, as previous studies have suggested (e.g., Moore et al., 2009), then the shift observed here suggests that modern humans arrived on Flores by ∼46 ka cal. BP, which would be the earliest cultural evidence of modern humans in Indonesia.
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10
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Caley T, Extier T, Collins JA, Schefuß E, Dupont L, Malaizé B, Rossignol L, Souron A, McClymont EL, Jimenez-Espejo FJ, García-Comas C, Eynaud F, Martinez P, Roche DM, Jorry SJ, Charlier K, Wary M, Gourves PY, Billy I, Giraudeau J. A two-million-year-long hydroclimatic context for hominin evolution in southeastern Africa. Nature 2018; 560:76-79. [PMID: 29988081 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0309-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Accepted: 04/25/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The past two million years of eastern African climate variability is currently poorly constrained, despite interest in understanding its assumed role in early human evolution1-4. Rare palaeoclimate records from northeastern Africa suggest progressively drier conditions2,5 or a stable hydroclimate6. By contrast, records from Lake Malawi in tropical southeastern Africa reveal a trend of a progressively wetter climate over the past 1.3 million years7,8. The climatic forcings that controlled these past hydrological changes are also a matter of debate. Some studies suggest a dominant local insolation forcing on hydrological changes9-11, whereas others infer a potential influence of sea surface temperature changes in the Indian Ocean8,12,13. Here we show that the hydroclimate in southeastern Africa (20-25° S) is controlled by interplay between low-latitude insolation forcing (precession and eccentricity) and changes in ice volume at high latitudes. Our results are based on a multiple-proxy reconstruction of hydrological changes in the Limpopo River catchment, combined with a reconstruction of sea surface temperature in the southwestern Indian Ocean for the past 2.14 million years. We find a long-term aridification in the Limpopo catchment between around 1 and 0.6 million years ago, opposite to the hydroclimatic evolution suggested by records from Lake Malawi. Our results, together with evidence of wetting at Lake Malawi, imply that the rainbelt contracted toward the Equator in response to increased ice volume at high latitudes. By reducing the extent of woodland or wetlands in terrestrial ecosystems, the observed changes in the hydroclimate of southeastern Africa-both in terms of its long-term state and marked precessional variability-could have had a role in the evolution of early hominins, particularly in the extinction of Paranthropus robustus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thibaut Caley
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
| | - Thomas Extier
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France.,Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - James A Collins
- GFZ - German Research Center for Geosciences, Section 5.1 Geomorphology, Organic Surface Geochemistry Laboratory, Potsdam, Germany.,Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Enno Schefuß
- MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Lydie Dupont
- MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Bruno Malaizé
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | - Linda Rossignol
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | - Antoine Souron
- PACEA, UMR 5199, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | | | | | - Carmen García-Comas
- Research and Development Center for Global Change, (JAMSTEC), Yokohama, Japan.,Ecology Group, University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | | | - Didier M Roche
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.,Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Science, Cluster Earth and Climate, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Stephan J Jorry
- Unité Géosciences Marines, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Plouzané, France
| | - Karine Charlier
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | - Mélanie Wary
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | | | - Isabelle Billy
- EPOC, UMR 5805, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France
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11
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Peterson A, Abella EF, Grine FE, Teaford MF, Ungar PS. Microwear textures of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus molars in relation to paleoenvironment and diet. J Hum Evol 2018; 119:42-63. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2017] [Revised: 02/03/2018] [Accepted: 02/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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12
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Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Faith JT, Tryon CA, Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Deino AL, Kinyanjui R, Clark JB, Haradon CM, Levin NE, Meijer HJM, Veatch EG, Owen RB, Renaut RW. Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa. Science 2018; 360:86-90. [PMID: 29545506 DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA. .,Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah and Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
| | - Christian A Tryon
- Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Alison S Brooks
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - John E Yellen
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,Archaeology Program, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Catherine M Haradon
- Department of Earth Science, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Hanneke J M Meijer
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.,University Museum, Department of Natural History, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | | | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
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13
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Rowan J, Kamilar JM, Beaudrot L, Reed KE. Strong influence of palaeoclimate on the structure of modern African mammal communities. Proc Biol Sci 2017; 283:rspb.2016.1207. [PMID: 27708155 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.1207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2016] [Accepted: 09/16/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Ecological research often assumes that species are adapted to their current climatic environments. However, climate fluctuations over geologic timescales have influenced species dispersal and extinction, which in turn may affect community structure. Modern community structure is likely to be the product of both palaeoclimate and modern climate, with the relative degrees of influence of past and present climates unknown. Here, we assessed the influence of climate at different time periods on the phylogenetic and functional trait structure of 203 African mammal communities. We found that the climate of the mid-Holocene (approx. 6000 years ago) and Last Glacial Maximum (approx. 22 000 years ago) were frequently better predictors of community structure than modern climate for mammals overall, carnivorans and ungulates. Primate communities were more strongly influenced by modern climate than palaeoclimate. Overall, community structure of African mammals appears to be related to the ecological flexibility of the groups considered here and the regions of continental Africa that they occupy. Our results indicate that the future redistribution, expansion and contraction of particular biomes due to human activity, such as climate and land-use change, will differentially affect mammal groups that vary in their sensitivity to environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Rowan
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA
| | - Jason M Kamilar
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Lydia Beaudrot
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Kaye E Reed
- Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA
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14
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L’Engle Williams F. Dietary proclivities of Paranthropus robustus from Swartkrans, South Africa. ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW 2015. [DOI: 10.1515/anre-2015-0001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Pleistocene Paranthropus robustus fossils from Swartkrans have yielded stable isotope values suggesting some foraging on C4 plants possibly including underground storage organs. Dental microwear texture analysis on P. robustus (SK 6, SK 34 and SK 47) from Swartkrans Member 1 is performed to examine whether tooth surface damage from mastication agrees with prior dietary inferences from carbon isotopes. There is considerable variation in textural characteristics among the P. robustus specimens. Specifically, adult SK 34 stands apart from the two subadult specimens, SK 6 and SK 47, suggesting life history could be reflected in patterns of dental microwear texture characteristics, although seasonality and availability of fallback foods may also explain the variation observed in P. robustus. The fossils all exhibit elevated surface texture complexity, resembling the values for Lophocebus albigena and Cebus apella, and to a lesser extent, Pan troglodytes. Paranthropus robustus is dissimilar to primary folivores, such as Trachypithecus cristatus or folivore- frugivores such as Alouatta palliata suggesting leaves comprised very little of its diet. The textural fill volume of P. robustus differs from that observed in extant primates from tropical forests indicating extreme durophagy, perhaps a function of differences in habitat. Ingestion of extraneous grit on the underground parts of plants and from terrestrial resources, perhaps as fallback foods or as dietary staples, may account for these enamel textural properties and may help explain the mixed C3/C4 isotopic signal in P. robustus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank L’Engle Williams
- Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
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15
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Grine FE, Jacobs RL, Reed KE, Plavcan JM. The enigmatic molar from Gondolin, South Africa: Implications for Paranthropus paleobiology. J Hum Evol 2012; 63:597-609. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2011] [Revised: 04/11/2012] [Accepted: 06/28/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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