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Villaseñor A, Bobe R, Behrensmeyer AK. Middle Pliocene hominin distribution patterns in Eastern Africa. J Hum Evol 2020; 147:102856. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2018] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Potts R, Dommain R, Moerman JW, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Riedl S, Beverly EJ, Brown ET, Deocampo D, Kinyanjui R, Lupien R, Owen RB, Rabideaux N, Russell JM, Stockhecke M, deMenocal P, Faith JT, Garcin Y, Noren A, Scott JJ, Western D, Bright J, Clark JB, Cohen AS, Keller CB, King J, Levin NE, Brady Shannon K, Muiruri V, Renaut RW, Rucina SM, Uno K. Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eabc8975. [PMID: 33087353 PMCID: PMC7577727 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc8975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Although climate change is considered to have been a large-scale driver of African human evolution, landscape-scale shifts in ecological resources that may have shaped novel hominin adaptations are rarely investigated. We use well-dated, high-resolution, drill-core datasets to understand ecological dynamics associated with a major adaptive transition in the archeological record ~24 km from the coring site. Outcrops preserve evidence of the replacement of Acheulean by Middle Stone Age (MSA) technological, cognitive, and social innovations between 500 and 300 thousand years (ka) ago, contemporaneous with large-scale taxonomic and adaptive turnover in mammal herbivores. Beginning ~400 ka ago, tectonic, hydrological, and ecological changes combined to disrupt a relatively stable resource base, prompting fluctuations of increasing magnitude in freshwater availability, grassland communities, and woody plant cover. Interaction of these factors offers a resource-oriented hypothesis for the evolutionary success of MSA adaptations, which likely contributed to the ecological flexibility typical of Homo sapiens foragers.
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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, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - René Dommain
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Jessica W Moerman
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Simon Riedl
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Erik T Brown
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
| | - Daniel Deocampo
- Department of Geosciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Rachel Lupien
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - R Bernhart Owen
- Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
| | - Nathan Rabideaux
- Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University Newark, Newark, NJ 07109, USA
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| | - Mona Stockhecke
- Large Lakes Observatory and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
- Department of Surface Waters-Research and Management, EAWAG, Überlandstr. 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Peter deMenocal
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - J Tyler Faith
- Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Yannick Garcin
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Coll France, CEREGE, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Anders Noren
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Jennifer J Scott
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta T3E 6K6, Canada
| | - David Western
- African Conservation Centre, P.O. Box 15289, Nairobi 00509, Kenya
| | - Jordon Bright
- School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Jennifer B Clark
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - Andrew S Cohen
- Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - C Brehnin Keller
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - John King
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA
| | - Naomi E Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Kristina Brady Shannon
- Continental Scientific Drilling Coordination Office and LacCore Facility, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Veronica Muiruri
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Robin W Renaut
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Stephen M Rucina
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Kevin Uno
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
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Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4451. [PMID: 32934202 PMCID: PMC7493986 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18176-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2019] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Large brains and behavioural innovation are positively correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic divergence and speciation. Here, using a dataset of 144 wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities, we show that chimpanzees exhibit greater behavioural diversity in environments with more variability — in both recent and historical timescales. Notably, distance from Pleistocene forest refugia is associated with the presence of a larger number of behavioural traits, including both tool and non-tool use behaviours. Since more than half of the behaviours investigated are also likely to be cultural, we suggest that environmental variability was a critical evolutionary force promoting the behavioural, as well as cultural diversification of great apes. Environmental variability is one potential driver of behavioural and cultural diversity in humans and other animals. Here, the authors show that chimpanzee behavioural diversity is higher in habitats that are more seasonal and historically unstable, and in savannah woodland relative to forested sites.
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Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:21921-21927. [PMID: 32839326 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006982117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Diet provides critical information about the ecology and environment of herbivores. Hence, understanding the dietary strategies of fossil herbivores and the associated temporal changes is one aspect of inferring paleoenvironmental conditions. Here, we present carbon isotope data from more than 1,050 fossil teeth that record the dietary patterns of nine herbivore families in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (3.6 to 1.05 Ma) from the Shungura Formation, a hominin-bearing site in southwestern Ethiopia. An increasing trend toward C4 herbivory has been observed with attendant reductions in the proportions of browsers and mixed feeders through time. A high proportion of mixed feeders has been observed prior to 2.9 Ma followed by a decrease in the proportion of mixed feeders and an increase in grazers between 2.7 and 1.9 Ma, and a further increase in the proportion of grazers after 1.9 Ma. The collective herbivore fauna shows two major change points in carbon isotope values at ∼2.7 and ∼2.0 Ma. While hominin fossils from the sequence older than 2.7 Ma are attributed to Australopithecus, the shift at ∼2.7 Ma indicating the expansion of C4 grasses on the landscape was concurrent with the first appearance of Paranthropus The link between the increased C4 herbivory and more open landscapes suggests that Australopithecus lived in more wooded landscapes compared to later hominins such as Paranthropus and Homo, and has implications for key morphological and behavioral adaptations in our lineage.
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Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift toward C 4 foods in eastern African Paranthropus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:21978-21984. [PMID: 32839330 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006221117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
New approaches to the study of early hominin diets have refreshed interest in how and when our diets diverged from those of other African apes. A trend toward significant consumption of C4 foods in hominins after this divergence has emerged as a landmark event in human evolution, with direct evidence provided by stable carbon isotope studies. In this study, we report on detailed carbon isotopic evidence from the hominin fossil record of the Shungura and Usno Formations, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, which elucidates the patterns of C4 dietary utilization in the robust hominin Paranthropus The results show that the most important shift toward C4 foods occurred at ∼2.37 Ma, within the temporal range of the earliest known member of the genus, Paranthropus aethiopicus, and that this shift was not unique to Paranthropus but occurred in all hominins from this fossil sequence. This uptake of C4 foods by hominins occurred during a period marked by an overall trend toward increased C4 grazing by cooccurring mammalian taxa from the same sequence. However, the timing and geographic patterns of hominin diets in this region differ from those observed elsewhere in the same basin, where environmental controls on the underlying availability of various food sources were likely quite different. These results highlight the complexities of dietary responses by hominins to changes in the availability of food resources.
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Barr WA, Biernat M. Mammal functional diversity and habitat heterogeneity: Implications for hominin habitat reconstruction. J Hum Evol 2020; 146:102853. [PMID: 32755690 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2020] [Revised: 06/29/2020] [Accepted: 06/29/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Hominin habitats are frequently described as 'mosaic' based on interpretations of fossil assemblages comprising taxa with divergent functional adaptations (e.g., both grazers and browsers). This interpretation rests on an assumption that mammal functional diversity is positively associated with habitat heterogeneity. We test this assumption using modern mammal data for 141 sites in Africa. Species average body mass and locomotor and dietary information was compiled for all species >500 g. The functional diversity of each species assemblage was measured using five metrics: locomotor richness, trophic richness, functional richness, functional divergence, and functional evenness. We used a high-resolution woody cover estimate for sub-Saharan Africa to compute the coefficient of variation of percentage of woody cover for each site. We used a published land cover classification to compute the number of habitat patches and the number of distinct habitat types at each site. Multiple regressions were conducted at 9 different spatial resolutions (pixel size ranging from 100 m to 30 km) to explore the relationship between functional diversity and habitat heterogeneity metrics. The overall number of species found at a site is strongly positively associated with functional richness, locomotor richness, and trophic richness at all spatial resolutions. The number of habitat types at a site and the density of habitat patches show a modest positive relationship with most functional diversity metrics at most spatial resolutions. The coefficient of variation in woody cover is a very poor predictor of functional diversity. The locomotor and trophic richness of mammal communities are positively associated with habitat heterogeneity and may be useful for reconstructing aspects of heterogeneity at hominin sites. However, the overall number of species is an important confounding variable, which in turn depends on the sample size of the overall fossil sample. Researchers should carefully consider impacts of sample size on faunal reconstructions of habitat heterogeneity.
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Affiliation(s)
- W Andrew Barr
- Center for Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, USA.
| | - Maryse Biernat
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, USA
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57
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Savanna tree evolutionary ages inform the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment of our hominin ancestors. Sci Rep 2020; 10:12430. [PMID: 32709951 PMCID: PMC7381606 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69378-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 03/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Ideas on hominin evolution have long invoked the emergence from forests into open habitats as generating selection for traits such as bipedalism and dietary shifts. Though controversial, the savanna hypothesis continues to motivate research into the palaeo-environments of Africa. Reconstruction of these ancient environments has depended heavily on carbon isotopic analysis of fossil bones and palaeosols. The sparsity of the fossil record, however, imposes a limit to the strength of inference that can be drawn from such data. Time-calibrated phylogenies offer an additional tool for dating the spread of savanna habitat. Here, using the evolutionary ages of African savanna trees, we suggest an initial tropical or subtropical expansion of savanna between 10 and 15 Ma, which then extended to higher latitudes, reaching southern Africa ca. 3 Ma. Our phylogenetic estimates of the origin and latitudinal spread of savannas broadly correspond with isotopic age estimates and encompass the entire hominin fossil record. Our results are consistent with the savanna hypothesis of early hominin evolution and reignite the debate on the drivers of savanna expansion. Our analysis demonstrates the utility of phylogenetic proxies for dating major ecological transitions in geological time, especially in regions where fossils are rare or absent or occur in discontinuous sediments.
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58
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Herzog NM, Parker C, Keefe E, Hawkes K. Fire's impact on threat detection and risk perception among vervet monkeys: Implications for hominin evolution. J Hum Evol 2020; 145:102836. [PMID: 32619883 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2019] [Revised: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The spatial behavior of primates is shaped by many factors including predation risk, the distribution of food sources, and access to water. In fire-prone settings, burning is a catalyst of change, altering the distribution of both plants and animals. Recent research has shown that primates alter their behavior in response to this change. Here, we study primates' perceived threat of predation in fire-modified landscapes. We focus on the predator-related behaviors of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) after controlled burning events. We compare the occurrence of vigilance and predator-deterrent behaviors, including alarm calls, scanning, and flight across different habitats and burn conditions to test the hypothesis that subjects exhibit fewer predator-specific vigilance and predator-deterrent behaviors in burned areas. The results demonstrate that predator-related behaviors occur less often in burned habitats, suggesting that predators are less common in these areas. These results provide foundations for examining hypotheses about the use of fire-altered landscapes among extinct hominins. We set these data in the context of increasing aridity, changes in burning regimes, and the emergence of pyrophilia in the human lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole M Herzog
- Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, 2000 E. Asbury St., Denver, CO, 80208, USA.
| | - Christopher Parker
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Rm 4625 Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Earl Keefe
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Rm 4625 Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Kristen Hawkes
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Rm 4625 Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
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59
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Abstract
Paternal provisioning is ubiquitous in human subsistence societies and unique among apes. How could paternal provisioning have emerged from promiscuous or polygynous mating systems that characterize other apes? An anomalous provisioning male would encounter a social dilemma: Since this investment in prospective offspring can be expropriated by other males, this investment is unlikely to increase the provisioner’s fitness. We present an ecological theory of the evolution of human paternal investment. Ecological change favoring reliance on energetically rich, difficult-to-acquire resources increases payoffs to paternal provisioning due to female–male and/or male–male complementarities. Paternal provisioning becomes a viable reproductive strategy when complementarities are strong, even under high paternity uncertainty. This model illuminates additional paths for understanding the evolution of fatherhood. Paternal provisioning among humans is puzzling because it is rare among primates and absent in nonhuman apes and because emergent provisioning would have been subject to paternity theft. A provisioning “dad” loses fitness at the hands of nonprovisioning, mate-seeking “cads.” Recent models require exacting interplay between male provisioning and female choice to overcome this social dilemma. We instead posit that ecological change favored widespread improvements in male provisioning incentives, and we show theoretically how social obstacles to male provisioning can be overcome. Greater availability of energetically rich, difficult-to-acquire foods enhances female–male and male–male complementarities, thus altering the fitness of dads versus cads. We identify a tipping point where gains from provisioning overcome costs from paternity uncertainty and the dad strategy becomes viable. Stable polymorphic states are possible, meaning that dads need not necessarily eliminate cads. Our simulations suggest that with sufficient complementarities, dads can emerge even in the face of high paternity uncertainty. Our theoretical focus on ecological change as a primary factor affecting the trade-off between male mating and parenting effort suggests different possibilities for using paleo-climatic, archaeological, and genomic evidence to establish the timing of and conditions associated with emergence of paternal provisioning in the hominin lineage.
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Abstract
The relationship of evolution with diet and environment can provide insights into modern disease. Fossil evidence shows apes, and early human ancestors were fruit eaters living in environments with strongly seasonal climates. Rapid cooling at the end of the Middle Miocene (15-12 Ma: millions of years ago) increased seasonality in Africa and Europe, and ape survival may be linked with a mutation in uric acid metabolism. Climate stabilized in the later Miocene and Pliocene (12-5 Ma), and fossil apes and early hominins were both adapted for life on ground and in trees. Around 2.5 Ma, early species of Homo introduced more animal products into their diet, and this coincided with developing bipedalism, stone tool technology and increase in brain size. Early species of Homo such as Homo habilis still lived in woodland habitats, and the major habitat shift in human evolution occurred at 1.8 Ma with the origin of Homo erectus. Homo erectus had increased body size, greater hunting skills, a diet rich in meat, control of fire and understanding about cooking food, and moved from woodland to savannah. Group size may also have increased at the same time, facilitating the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens appeared about 300 kyr, but they had separated from Neanderthals by 480 kyr or earlier. Their diet shifted towards grain-based foods about 100 kyr ago, and settled agriculture developed about 10 kyr ago. This pattern remains for many populations to this day and provides important insights into current burden of lifestyle diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Andrews
- From the, Natural History Museum, London University College, London, UK
| | - R J Johnson
- University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA
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61
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Dumouchel L, Bobe R. Paleoecological implications of dental mesowear and hypsodonty in fossil ungulates from Kanapoi. J Hum Evol 2020; 140:102548. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2016] [Revised: 09/27/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Diets of mammalian fossil fauna from Kanapoi, northwestern Kenya. J Hum Evol 2020; 140:102338. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2016] [Revised: 04/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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63
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Revisiting the pedogenic carbonate isotopes and paleoenvironmental interpretation of Kanapoi. J Hum Evol 2020; 140:102549. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2016] [Revised: 09/15/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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64
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Sanders WJ. Proboscidea from Kanapoi, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2020; 140:102547. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Revised: 09/21/2018] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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65
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Semaw S, Rogers MJ, Simpson SW, Levin NE, Quade J, Dunbar N, McIntosh WC, Cáceres I, Stinchcomb GE, Holloway RL, Brown FH, Butler RF, Stout D, Everett M. Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:eaaw4694. [PMID: 32181331 PMCID: PMC7056306 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2018] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Although stone tools generally co-occur with early members of the genus Homo, they are rarely found in direct association with hominins. We report that both Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts and Homo erectus crania were found in close association at 1.26 million years (Ma) ago at Busidima North (BSN12), and ca. 1.6 to 1.5 Ma ago at Dana Aoule North (DAN5) archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. The BSN12 partial cranium is robust and large, while the DAN5 cranium is smaller and more gracile, suggesting that H. erectus was probably a sexually dimorphic species. The evidence from Gona shows behavioral diversity and flexibility with a lengthy and concurrent use of both stone technologies by H. erectus, confounding a simple "single species/single technology" view of early Homo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sileshi Semaw
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002 Burgos, Spain
- Stone Age Institute and CRAFT Research Center, 1392 W. Dittemore Rd., Gosport, IN 47408, USA
| | - Michael J. Rogers
- Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515, USA
| | - Scott W. Simpson
- Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
| | - Naomi E. Levin
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, 1100 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Jay Quade
- Department of Geosciences/Desert Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
| | - Nelia Dunbar
- New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Earth and Environmental Science Department, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801-4796, USA
| | - William C. McIntosh
- New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Earth and Environmental Science Department, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801-4796, USA
| | - Isabel Cáceres
- Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
- IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4–Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain
| | - Gary E. Stinchcomb
- Watershed Studies Institute and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Murray State University, Murray, KY 42071, USA
| | - Ralph L. Holloway
- Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, 1200 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Francis H. Brown
- The University of Utah, 201 South Presidents Circle Room 201, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Robert F. Butler
- Department of Physics, University of Portland, Portland, OR 97203, USA
| | - Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Melanie Everett
- Chevron Energy Technology Company, 1500 Louisiana St., Houston, TX 77002, USA
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Rannikko J, Adhikari H, Karme A, Žliobaitė I, Fortelius M. The case of the grass-eating suids in the Plio-Pleistocene Turkana Basin: 3D dental topography in relation to diet in extant and fossil pigs. J Morphol 2020; 281:348-364. [PMID: 31998996 DOI: 10.1002/jmor.21103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2018] [Revised: 01/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Two separate subfamilies of Plio-Pleistocene African pigs (suids) consecutively evolved hypsodont and horizodont molars with flat occlusal surfaces, commonly interpreted as an adaptive trait to a grazing diet, similar to that of the present warthogs (Phacochoerus spp.). To investigate this in detail, we studied the 3D-dental topography of fossil specimens from the Turkana Basin, using geographic information systems-based methods. To establish baselines for interpretation of the Turkana Basin suids, topography of third molars of extant suids with known diets were analyzed: grazing warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), herbivorous mixed-feeder forest hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni), omnivorous generalist wild boar (Sus scrofa), omnivorous fruit and tuber eater bush pig (Potamochoerus spp.), and omnivorous fruit eater babirusa (Babyrousa spp.) In addition, we analyzed supposedly browsing Miocene suids, Listriodon spp. The same topographic measures were applied to Plio-Pleistocene specimens from the Turkana Basin, Kenya: Notochoerus euilus, Notochoerus scotti, Kolpochoerus heseloni, and Metridiochoerus andrewsi. With some differences between techniques, 3D-dental topography analysis of extant suid molars mostly predicts the dietary differences between the species correctly. The grazing P. africanus differs from both the omnivorous suids and the herbivorous mixed-feeder H. meinertzhageni in all except one metrics. The omnivorous mostly tropical suids, Potamochoerus and Babyrousa, primarily differ from the generalist, S. scrofa, in the orientation patch count analysis, showing higher occlusal complexity in the latter. Although, there might be significant gaps between the morphological changes and the ecological changes, we conclude that based on comparison of dental topography with the present-day suids, N. scotti and M. andrewsi were most likely highly specialized grazers, while N. euilus and K. heseloni retained more of their ancestral, omnivorous heritage, but consumed grasses more than the extant omnivorous suids. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Dental topography can predict different diets in present-day wild pigs. The Plio-Pleistocene pigs in the Turkana Basin had dental topography mostly similar to extant grazing warthog, although some species also had resemblances to omnivorous forest pigs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janina Rannikko
- Helsinki XR Center, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Hari Adhikari
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Aleksis Karme
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Indre Žliobaitė
- Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Mikael Fortelius
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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67
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Faurby S, Silvestro D, Werdelin L, Antonelli A. Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa. Ecol Lett 2020; 23:537-544. [PMID: 31943670 PMCID: PMC7079157 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 07/09/2019] [Accepted: 11/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
While the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems today is evident, it remains unclear if the detrimental effect of hominins on co-occurring biodiversity is a recent phenomenon or has also been the pattern for earlier hominin species. We test this using the East African carnivore fossil record. We analyse the diversity of carnivores over the last four million years and investigate whether any decline is related to an increase in hominin cognitive capacity, vegetation changes or climatic changes. We find that extinction rates in large carnivores correlate with increased hominin brain size and with vegetation changes, but not with precipitation or temperature changes. While temporal analyses cannot distinguish between the effects of vegetation changes and hominins, we show through spatial analyses of contemporary carnivores in Africa that only hominin causation is plausible. Our results suggest that substantial anthropogenic influence on biodiversity started millions of years earlier than currently assumed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Søren Faurby
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden.,Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Daniele Silvestro
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden.,Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden.,Department of Computational Biology, Biophore, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Lars Werdelin
- Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE, 10405, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Alexandre Antonelli
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden.,Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE, 40530, Göteborg, Sweden.,Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, U.K
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68
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Engelbrecht HM, Branch WR, Greenbaum E, Burger M, Conradie W, Tolley KA. African Herald snakes,
Crotaphopeltis
, show population structure for a widespread generalist but deep genetic divergence for forest specialists. J ZOOL SYST EVOL RES 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/jzs.12361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hanlie M. Engelbrecht
- South African National Biodiversity Institute Kirstenbosch Research Centre Claremont South Africa
- Department of Botany & Zoology Stellenbosch University Matieland South Africa
| | - William R. Branch
- Port Elizabeth Museum (Bayworld) Port Elizabeth South Africa
- Department of Zoology Nelson Mandela University Port Elizabeth South Africa
| | - Eli Greenbaum
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Texas at El Paso El Paso TX USA
| | - Marius Burger
- African Amphibian Conservation Research Group Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management North‐West University Potchefstroom South Africa
- Flora Fauna & Man Ecological Services Ltd. Tortola British Virgin Islands
| | - Werner Conradie
- Port Elizabeth Museum (Bayworld) Port Elizabeth South Africa
- School of Natural Resource Management Nelson Mandela University George South Africa
- National Geographic Okovango Wilderness ProjectThe Wild Bird Trust Parktown South Africa
| | - Krystal A. Tolley
- South African National Biodiversity Institute Kirstenbosch Research Centre Claremont South Africa
- Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation University of Johannesburg Auckland Park South Africa
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69
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The ecology of Australopithecus anamensis in the early Pliocene of Kanapoi, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2020; 140:102717. [PMID: 31916996 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2019] [Revised: 10/09/2019] [Accepted: 10/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Australopithecus anamensis is a pivotal species in human evolution. It is likely to be the direct ancestor of Australopithecus afarensis and the species that may have given rise to the Homo and Paranthropus lineages. It had a suite of adaptations for habitual bipedalism and a diet that differed from that of earlier hominin species. Under what environmental and ecological conditions did this suite of adaptations arise? The early Pliocene site of Kanapoi in the Lake Turkana Basin of Kenya has the largest sample of A. anamensis in eastern Africa and a rich record of fossil vertebrates. Most Kanapoi fossils are chronologically well constrained by radiometrically dated tephras between the ages of 4.2 and 4.1 million years ago. Sedimentological, isotopic, and faunal data indicate that the environments of Kanapoi during the early Pliocene had a complex range of vegetation types that included closed woodlands, shrubs, and grasslands near a river (for most of the sequence) or lake. These were dynamic landscapes that could shift rapidly from fluvial to lacustrine conditions, and then back. Australopithecus anamensis shared its environments with at least 10 species of very large herbivores, which undoubtedly played a major role in modifying the landscape by opening wooded areas and providing pathways for bipedal hominins. Hominins may have competed for terrestrial resources with abundant suids (Nyanzachoerus and Notochoerus) and for arboreal resources with monkeys (Parapapio being the most common cercopithecid). Kanapoi had a formidable group of predators that included a very abundant species of hyena (Parahyaena howelli), two sabre-tooth felids (Dinofelis and Homotherium), a giant otter (Enhydriodon cf. dikikae), and three species of crocodiles. Various measures of abundance indicate that A. anamensis was an important component of the Kanapoi early Pliocene ecosystems, and that its key adaptations allowed this species to thrive in complex and dynamic landscapes.
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70
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Mercader J, Clarke S, Bundala M, Favreau J, Inwood J, Itambu M, Larter F, Lee P, Lewiski-McQuaid G, Mollel N, Mwambwiga A, Patalano R, Soto M, Tucker L, Walde D. Soil and plant phytoliths from the Acacia-Commiphora mosaics at Oldupai Gorge (Tanzania). PeerJ 2019; 7:e8211. [PMID: 31844589 PMCID: PMC6911344 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
This article studies soil and plant phytoliths from the Eastern Serengeti Plains, specifically the Acacia-Commiphora mosaics from Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania, as present-day analogue for the environment that was contemporaneous with the emergence of the genus Homo. We investigate whether phytolith assemblages from recent soil surfaces reflect plant community structure and composition with fidelity. The materials included 35 topsoil samples and 29 plant species (20 genera, 15 families). Phytoliths were extracted from both soil and botanical samples. Quantification aimed at discovering relationships amongst the soil and plant phytoliths relative distributions through Chi-square independence tests, establishing the statistical significance of the relationship between categorical variables within the two populations. Soil assemblages form a spectrum, or cohort of co-ocurring phytolith classes, that will allow identifying environments similar to those in the Acacia-Commiphora ecozone in the fossil record.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julio Mercader
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Siobhán Clarke
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Mariam Bundala
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Julien Favreau
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Jamie Inwood
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Makarius Itambu
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Fergus Larter
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Patrick Lee
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | | | - Neduvoto Mollel
- Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, National Herbarium of Tanzania, Arusha, Tanzania
| | - Aloyce Mwambwiga
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Arusha National Natural History Museum, Arusha, Tanzania
| | - Robert Patalano
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - María Soto
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Laura Tucker
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
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71
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Trumble BC, Finch CE. THE EXPOSOME IN HUMAN EVOLUTION: FROM DUST TO DIESEL. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 2019; 94:333-394. [PMID: 32269391 PMCID: PMC7141577 DOI: 10.1086/706768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Global exposures to air pollution and cigarette smoke are novel in human evolutionary history and are associated with about 16 million premature deaths per year. We investigate the history of the human exposome for relationships between novel environmental toxins and genetic changes during human evolution in six phases. Phase I: With increased walking on savannas, early human ancestors inhaled crustal dust, fecal aerosols, and spores; carrion scavenging introduced new infectious pathogens. Phase II: Domestic fire exposed early Homo to novel toxins from smoke and cooking. Phases III and IV: Neolithic to preindustrial Homo sapiens incurred infectious pathogens from domestic animals and dense communities with limited sanitation. Phase V: Industrialization introduced novel toxins from fossil fuels, industrial chemicals, and tobacco at the same time infectious pathogens were diminishing. Thereby, pathogen-driven causes of mortality were replaced by chronic diseases driven by sterile inflammogens, exogenous and endogenous. Phase VI: Considers future health during global warming with increased air pollution and infections. We hypothesize that adaptation to some ancient toxins persists in genetic variations associated with inflammation and longevity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin C Trumble
- School of Human Evolution & Social Change and Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona 85287 USA
| | - Caleb E Finch
- Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and Dornsife College, University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089-0191 USA
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72
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Hamilton M, Nelson SV, Fernandez DP, Hunt KD. Detecting riparian habitat preferences in "savanna" chimpanzees and associated Fauna with strontium isotope ratios: Implications for reconstructing habitat use by the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 170:551-564. [PMID: 31633810 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23932] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2019] [Revised: 06/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Riparian or gallery forests are critical habitats for numerous plants and animals today. Paleoanthropologically, reliance on such habitats informs behavioral and ecological reconstructions; for example, gallery forest habitats likely played a critical role in the transition from ape to hominin in the early Pliocene and may represent a preferred habitat for the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. Direct indicators for gallery forest habitats preference are lacking. The objective of this article is to assess whether strontium isotope ratios are a reliable indicator of habitat preference for fauna living in and around gallery forests. MATERIALS AND METHODS We report bioavailable strontium isotope ratios from the Mugiri River, its tributaries, and its gallery forest (Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve, southwestern Uganda), and compare them to surrounding savanna-grassland values. We compare these environmental values to strontium isotopes ratios in faunal tooth enamel to determine if habitat preferences are accurately reflected. RESULTS Gallery forest and savanna-grassland vegetations have significantly different strontium isotope ratio profiles. We trace these isotopic differences to the influence of the Mugiri tributaries, which originate on Paleoproterozoic gneiss deposits on top of the surrounding escarpments. These isotopic differences in vegetation are mirrored in the tissues of fauna with habitat preferences for either the gallery forest or the surrounding grasslands. DISCUSSION This research demonstrates the potential of strontium isotope ratios to identify habitat preferences in modern or fossil fauna under proper geologic variability. It provides a methodological model for future studies seeking to reconstruct habitat preferences in early hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marian Hamilton
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
| | - Sherry V Nelson
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
| | - Diego P Fernandez
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
| | - Kevin D Hunt
- Bloomington, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
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73
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Swedell L, Plummer T. Social evolution in Plio-Pleistocene hominins: Insights from hamadryas baboons and paleoecology. J Hum Evol 2019; 137:102667. [PMID: 31629289 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Revised: 08/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Reconstructions of hominin evolution have long benefited from comparisons with nonhuman primates, especially baboons and chimpanzees. The hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) is arguably one of the best such models, as it exhibits both the male kin bonding and the cross-sex pair bonding thought to have been important in hominin evolution. Here we link processes of behavioral evolution in hamadryas baboons with those in a Plio-Pleistocene hominin, provisionally identified as Homo erectus (sensu lato) - a pivotal species in that its larger body and brain size and wider ranging patterns increased female costs of reproduction, increasing the importance of sociality. The combination of these higher costs of reproduction and shifts in diet and food acquisition have previously been argued to have been alleviated either via strengthening of male-female bonds (involving male provisioning and the evolution of monogamy) or via the assistance of older, post-reproductive females (leading to post-reproductive longevity in females, i.e., the grandmother hypothesis). We suggest that both arrangements could have been present in Plio-Pleistocene hominins if they lived in multilevel societies. Here we expand on our earlier scenario with two sets of recent data in support of it, (1) archaeological data from the 2 million year old Oldowan site of Kanjera South, Kenya and other sites that are suggestive of tool dependent foraging on nutrient dense resources (animal carcasses and plant underground storage organs), cooperation, and food sharing; and (2) a pattern of genetic variation in hamadryas baboons that suggests the operation of kin selection among both males and females at multiple levels of society. Taken together, these two sets of data strengthen our model and support the idea of a complex society linked by male-male, male-female, and female-female bonds at multiple levels of social organization in Plio-Pleistocene hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larissa Swedell
- Dept of Anthropology, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367-1597, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA; Anthropology Program, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Biology and Psychology Programs, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Dept of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | - Thomas Plummer
- Dept of Anthropology, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367-1597, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA; Anthropology Program, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
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74
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Gestural communication in olive baboons (Papio anubis): repertoire and intentionality. Anim Cogn 2019; 23:19-40. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01312-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 09/06/2019] [Accepted: 09/21/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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75
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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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76
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McLester E, Brown M, Stewart FA, Piel AK. Food abundance and weather influence habitat-specific ranging patterns in forest- and savanna mosaic-dwelling red-tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 170:217-231. [PMID: 31423563 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2019] [Revised: 06/16/2019] [Accepted: 08/01/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Primates that live in predominantly forested habitats and open, savanna mosaics should exhibit behavioral responses to differing food distributions and weather. We compared ecological constraints on red-tailed monkey ranging behavior in forest and savanna mosaic environments. Intraspecific variation in adaptations to these conditions may reflect similar pressures faced by hominins during the Plio-Pleistocene. METHODS We followed six groups in moist evergreen forest at Ngogo (Uganda) and one group in a savanna-woodland mosaic at the Issa Valley (Tanzania). We used spatial analyses to compare home range sizes and daily travel distances (DTD) between sites. We used measures of vegetation density and phenology to interpolate spatially explicit indices of food (fruit, flower, and leaves) abundance. We modeled DTD and range use against food abundance. We modeled DTD and at Issa hourly travel distances (HTD), against temperature and rainfall. RESULTS Compared to Issa, monkeys at Ngogo exhibited significantly smaller home ranges and less variation in DTD. DTD related negatively to fruit abundance, which had a stronger effect at Issa. DTD and HTD related negatively to temperature but not rainfall. This effect did not differ significantly between sites. Home range use did not relate to food abundance at either site. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate food availability and thermoregulatory constraints influence red-tailed monkey ranging patterns. Intraspecific variation in home range sizes and DTD likely reflects different food distributions in closed and open habitats. We compare our results with hypotheses of evolved hominin behavior associated with the Plio-Pleistocene shift from similar closed to open environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward McLester
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Michelle Brown
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California
| | - Fiona A Stewart
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom.,Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project, Box 60118, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Alex K Piel
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom.,Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project, Box 60118, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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77
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Schnorr SL, Hofman CA, Netshifhefhe SR, Duncan FD, Honap TP, Lesnik J, Lewis CM. Taxonomic features and comparisons of the gut microbiome from two edible fungus-farming termites (Macrotermes falciger; M. natalensis) harvested in the Vhembe district of Limpopo, South Africa. BMC Microbiol 2019; 19:164. [PMID: 31315576 PMCID: PMC6637627 DOI: 10.1186/s12866-019-1540-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Termites are an important food resource for many human populations around the world, and are a good supply of nutrients. The fungus-farming ‘higher’ termite members of Macrotermitinae are also consumed by modern great apes and are implicated as critical dietary resources for early hominins. While the chemical nutritional composition of edible termites is well known, their microbiomes are unexplored in the context of human health. Here we sequenced the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of gut microbiota extracted from the whole intestinal tract of two Macrotermes sp. soldiers collected from the Limpopo region of South Africa. Results Major and minor soldier subcastes of M. falciger exhibit consistent differences in taxonomic representation, and are variable in microbial presence and abundance patterns when compared to another edible but less preferred species, M. natalensis. Subcaste differences include alternate patterns in sulfate-reducing bacteria and methanogenic Euryarchaeota abundance, and differences in abundance between Alistipes and Ruminococcaceae. M. falciger minor soldiers and M. natalensis soldiers have similar microbial profiles, likely from close proximity to the termite worker castes, particularly during foraging and fungus garden cultivation. Compared with previously published termite and cockroach gut microbiome data, the taxonomic representation was generally split between termites that directly digest lignocellulose and humic substrates and those that consume a more distilled form of nutrition as with the omnivorous cockroaches and fungus-farming termites. Lastly, to determine if edible termites may point to a shared reservoir for rare bacterial taxa found in the gut microbiome of humans, we focused on the genus Treponema. The majority of Treponema sequences from edible termite gut microbiota most closely relate to species recovered from other termites or from environmental samples, except for one novel OTU strain, which clustered separately with Treponema found in hunter-gatherer human groups. Conclusions Macrotermes consumed by humans display special gut microbial arrangements that are atypical for a lignocellulose digesting invertebrate, but are instead suited to the simplified nutrition in the fungus-farmer diet. Our work brings to light the particular termite microbiome features that should be explored further as avenues in human health, agricultural sustainability, and evolutionary research. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-019-1540-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie L Schnorr
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria. .,Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. .,Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. .,Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
| | - Courtney A Hofman
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.,Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Shandukani R Netshifhefhe
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.,Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Frances D Duncan
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Tanvi P Honap
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.,Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Julie Lesnik
- Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
| | - Cecil M Lewis
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. .,Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
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78
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Patterson DB, Braun DR, Allen K, Barr WA, Behrensmeyer AK, Biernat M, Lehmann SB, Maddox T, Manthi FK, Merritt SR, Morris SE, O'Brien K, Reeves JS, Wood BA, Bobe R. Comparative isotopic evidence from East Turkana supports a dietary shift within the genus Homo. Nat Ecol Evol 2019; 3:1048-1056. [PMID: 31209290 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0916-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2018] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
It has been suggested that a shift in diet is one of the key adaptations that distinguishes the genus Homo from earlier hominins, but recent stable isotopic analyses of fossils attributed to Homo in the Turkana Basin show an increase in the consumption of C4 resources circa 1.65 million years ago, significantly after the earliest evidence for Homo in the eastern African fossil record. These data are consistent with ingesting more C4 plants, more animal tissues of C4 herbivores, or both, but it is also possible that this change reflects factors unrelated to changes in the palaeobiology of the genus Homo. Here we use new and published carbon and oxygen isotopic data (n = 999) taken from large-bodied fossil mammals, and pedogenic carbonates in fossil soils, from East Turkana in northern Kenya to investigate the context of this change in the isotope signal within Homo. By targeting taxa and temporal intervals unrepresented or undersampled in previous analyses, we were able to conduct the first comprehensive analysis of the ecological context of hominin diet at East Turkana during a period crucial for detecting any dietary and related behavioural differences between early Homo (H. habilis and/or H. rudolfensis) and Homo erectus. Our analyses suggest that the genus Homo underwent a dietary shift (as indicated by δ13Cena and δ18Oena values) that is (1) unrelated to changes in the East Turkana vegetation community and (2) unlike patterns found in other East Turkana large mammals, including Paranthropus and Theropithecus. These data suggest that within the Turkana Basin a dietary shift occurred well after we see the first evidence of early Homo in the region.
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Affiliation(s)
- David B Patterson
- Department of Biology, University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA, USA. .,Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
| | - David R Braun
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Kayla Allen
- Department of Biology, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, GA, USA
| | - W Andrew Barr
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Maryse Biernat
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Sophie B Lehmann
- Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Tom Maddox
- Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
| | - Fredrick K Manthi
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Stephen R Merritt
- Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Sarah E Morris
- Department of Anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
| | - Kaedan O'Brien
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Jonathan S Reeves
- Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program, Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Bernard A Wood
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - René Bobe
- Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique.,Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Lazagabaster IA. Dental microwear texture analysis of Pliocene Suidae from Hadar and Kanapoi in the context of early hominin dietary breadth expansion. J Hum Evol 2019; 132:80-100. [PMID: 31203853 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.04.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2018] [Revised: 04/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Stable carbon isotope studies suggest that early hominins may have diversified their diet as early as 3.76 Ma. Early Pliocene hominins, including Australopithecus anamensis, had diets that were dominated by C3 resources while Late Pliocene hominins, including Australopithecus afarensis-a putative descendant of A. anamensis-had diets that included both C3 and C4 resources. It has been hypothesized that the expansion of C4 grasslands in eastern Africa during the Pliocene could have prompted hominins to incorporate C4 resources in their diets. However, dental microwear analyses suggest that diet diversification did not involve changes in the mechanical properties of the foods consumed. To provide contextual and comparative information on this issue, the diet of suids from the A. anamensis site of Kanapoi and the A. afarensis site of Hadar is investigated. Using dental microwear texture analyses, it is shown that despite significant dietary overlap, there is evidence for dietary niche partitioning among suids. Based on comparisons with the diet of extant African suids, it is inferred that Nyanzachoerus pattersoni (n = 21) was a mixed feeder, Nyanzachoerus jaegeri (n = 4) and Notochoerus euilus (n = 61) were habitual grazers, and Kolpochoerus afarensis (n = 34) had a broad diet that included hard brittle foods and underground resources. The dental microwear of Ny. pattersoni and Ny. jaegeri/No. euilus do not differ significantly between Kanapoi and Hadar. Most differences are driven by K. afarensis, a suid absent at Kanapoi but present at Hadar. Food availability probably differed between Hadar and Kanapoi, and it is likely that A. afarensis did not exploit some of the foods (e.g., underground resources) consumed by suids. It is hypothesized that despite the incorporation of C4 resources in the diet, a significant dietary change towards flexible diets in the hominin lineage had yet to come.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ignacio A Lazagabaster
- The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and Departments of Maritime Civilizations and Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA.
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80
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Quinn RL. Isotopic equifinality and rethinking the diet of
Australopithecus anamensis. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2019; 169:403-421. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2018] [Revised: 03/08/2019] [Accepted: 04/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Rhonda L. Quinn
- Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social WorkSeton Hall University South Orange New Jersey
- Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesRutgers University Piscataway New Jersey
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81
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Lu H, Liu W, Yang H, Wang H, Liu Z, Leng Q, Sun Y, Zhou W, An Z. 800-kyr land temperature variations modulated by vegetation changes on Chinese Loess Plateau. Nat Commun 2019; 10:1958. [PMID: 31036861 PMCID: PMC6488643 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09978-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2018] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The complicity of long-term land surface temperature (LST) changes has been under investigated and less understood, hindering our understanding of the history and mechanism of terrestrial climate change. Here, we report the longest (800 thousand years) LSTs based on distributions of soil fossil bacterial glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers preserved in well-dated loess-paleosol sequences at the center of the Chinese Loess Plateau. We have found a previously-unrecognized increasing early and prolonged warming pattern toward the northwestern plateau at the onset of the past seven deglaciations, corresponding to the decrease in vegetation coverage, suggesting underlying surface vegetation or lack of has played an important role in regulating LSTs, superimposed on the fundamental global glacial–interglacial changes. Our results support that LSTs in semi-humid and semi-arid regions with little vegetation will be more sensitive to the anticipated global temperature rise, while improving vegetation coverage would reduce LSTs and thus ecological impacts. Modern observation indicates that vegetation cover could modulate land surface temperatures substantially. Here the authors demonstrate that such vegetation feedbacks could be clearly identified in the Chinese Loess Plateau land surface temperature records during past cool periods when vegetation cover was reduced.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongxuan Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China
| | - Weiguo Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China. .,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China.
| | - Hong Yang
- Laboratory for Terrestrial Environments, Department of Science and Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, 02917, USA.
| | - Huanye Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China
| | - Zhonghui Liu
- Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Qin Leng
- Laboratory for Terrestrial Environments, Department of Science and Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, 02917, USA
| | - Youbin Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China
| | - Weijian Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China
| | - Zhisheng An
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 710061, Xi'an, China.,CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, 710061, Xi'an, China
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82
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Hominin diversity and high environmental variability in the Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2019; 126:91-105. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2017] [Revised: 09/05/2018] [Accepted: 10/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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83
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Adeoba MI, Yessoufou K. Analysis of temporal diversification of African Cyprinidae (Teleostei, Cypriniformes). Zookeys 2018:141-161. [PMID: 30588160 PMCID: PMC6302146 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.806.25844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2018] [Accepted: 10/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent evidence that freshwater fishes diversify faster than marine fishes signifies that the evolutionary history of biodiversity in freshwater system is of particular interest. Here, the evolutionary diversification events of African Cyprinidae, a freshwater fish family with wide geographic distribution, were reconstructed and analysed. The overall diversification rate of African Cyprinidae is 0.08 species per million year (when extinction rate is very high, i.e., ε = 0.9) and 0.11 species per million year (when ε = 0). This overall rate is lower than the rate reported for African Cichlids, suggesting that African freshwaters might be less conducive for a rapid diversification of Cyprinidae. However, the observed diversification events of African Cyprinidae occurred in the last 10 million years. The temporal pattern of these events follows a non-constant episodic birth-death model (Bayes Factor > 28) and the rate-constant model never outperformed any of the non-constant models tested. The fact that most diversification events occurred in the last 10 million years supports the pattern reported for Cyprinidae in other continent, e.g., Asia, perhaps pointing to concomitant diversification globally. However, the diversification events coincided with major geologic and paleo-climatic events in Africa, suggesting that geological and climatic events may have mediated the diversification patterns of Cyprinidae on the continent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariam I Adeoba
- Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa University of Johannesburg Johannesburg South Africa
| | - Kowiyou Yessoufou
- Department of Geography, Environmental management and Energy studies, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa University of Johannesburg Johannesburg South Africa
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84
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Žliobaitė I. Concept drift over geological times: predictive modeling baselines for analyzing the mammalian fossil record. Data Min Knowl Discov 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s10618-018-0606-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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85
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Abstract
Clumped and stable isotope data of paleosol carbonate and fossil tooth enamel inform about paleoenvironments of Early Pleistocene hominins. Data on woodland- vs. grassland-dominated ecosystems, soil temperatures, aridity, and the diet of Homo rudolfensis and Paranthropus boisei ca. 2.4 Ma show that they were adapted to C3 resources in wooded savanna environments in relatively cool and wet climates in the Malawi Rift. In contrast, time-equivalent Paranthropus living in open and drier settings in the northern East African Rift relied on C4 plants, a trend that became enhanced after 2 Ma, while southern African Paranthropus persistently relied mainly on C3 resources. In its early evolutionary history, Homo already showed a high versatility, suggesting that Pleistocene Homo and Paranthropus were already dietary generalists. New geochemical data from the Malawi Rift (Chiwondo Beds, Karonga Basin) fill a major spatial gap in our knowledge of hominin adaptations on a continental scale. Oxygen (δ18O), carbon (δ13C), and clumped (Δ47) isotope data on paleosols, hominins, and selected fauna elucidate an unexpected diversity in the Pleistocene hominin diet in the various habitats of the East African Rift System (EARS). Food sources of early Homo and Paranthropus thriving in relatively cool and wet wooded savanna ecosystems along the western shore of paleolake Malawi contained a large fraction of C3 plant material. Complementary water consumption reconstructions suggest that ca. 2.4 Ma, early Homo (Homo rudolfensis) and Paranthropus (Paranthropus boisei) remained rather stationary near freshwater sources along the lake margins. Time-equivalent Paranthropus aethiopicus from the Eastern Rift further north in the EARS consumed a higher fraction of C4 resources, an adaptation that grew more pronounced with increasing openness of the savanna setting after 2 Ma, while Homo maintained a high versatility. However, southern African Paranthropus robustus had, similar to the Malawi Rift individuals, C3-dominated feeding strategies throughout the Early Pleistocene. Collectively, the stable isotope and faunal data presented here document that early Homo and Paranthropus were dietary opportunists and able to cope with a wide range of paleohabitats, which clearly demonstrates their high behavioral flexibility in the African Early Pleistocene.
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86
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87
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Piel AK, Bonnin N, RamirezAmaya S, Wondra E, Stewart FA. Chimpanzees and their mammalian sympatriates in the Issa Valley, Tanzania. Afr J Ecol 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/aje.12570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alex K. Piel
- Department of Biological Anthropology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
- Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project Dar es Salaam Tanzania
| | - Noemie Bonnin
- Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project Dar es Salaam Tanzania
| | | | - Eden Wondra
- Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project Dar es Salaam Tanzania
| | - Fiona A. Stewart
- Department of Biological Anthropology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
- Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation Project Dar es Salaam Tanzania
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88
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The body inversion effect in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). PLoS One 2018; 13:e0204131. [PMID: 30281635 PMCID: PMC6169876 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2018] [Accepted: 09/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Bodies are important social cues for animals. Body recognition in humans is deteriorated by inversion. This inversion effect suggests the configural processing of bodies, which is different from the processing used for other objects. However, it is not known if this type of body processing exists in non-human primates. We tested seven chimpanzees using upright and inverted chimpanzee body stimuli and other stimuli in matching-to-sample tasks to examine the body inversion effect and the body parts that invoke it. Our results reflected the body inversion effect for intact chimpanzee bodies, bodies with complete body contours, and bodies with clear faces but not for the objects and other conditions that did not present complete body contours and clear faces. The results show that chimpanzees share configural body processing with humans and that bodies are special to them compared with other objects. The results also revealed the functions of faces and body contours in configural processing by chimpanzees.
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89
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Okerblom J, Fletes W, Patel HH, Schenk S, Varki A, Breen EC. Human-like Cmah inactivation in mice increases running endurance and decreases muscle fatigability: implications for human evolution. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:rspb.2018.1656. [PMID: 30209232 PMCID: PMC6158528 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.1656] [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: 07/24/2018] [Accepted: 08/20/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Compared to other primates, humans are exceptional long-distance runners, a feature that emerged in genus Homo approximately 2 Ma and is classically attributed to anatomical and physiological adaptations such as an enlarged gluteus maximus and improved heat dissipation. However, no underlying genetic changes have currently been defined. Two to three million years ago, an exon deletion in the CMP-Neu5Ac hydroxylase (CMAH) gene also became fixed in our ancestral lineage. Cmah loss in mice exacerbates disease severity in multiple mouse models for muscular dystrophy, a finding only partially attributed to differences in immune reactivity. We evaluated the exercise capacity of Cmah-/- mice and observed an increased performance during forced treadmill testing and after 15 days of voluntary wheel running. Cmah-/- hindlimb muscle exhibited more capillaries and a greater fatigue resistance in situ Maximal coupled respiration was also higher in Cmah null mice ex vivo and relevant differences in metabolic pathways were also noted. Taken together, these data suggest that CMAH loss contributes to an improved skeletal muscle capacity for oxygen use. If translatable to humans, CMAH loss could have provided a selective advantage for ancestral Homo during the transition from forest dwelling to increased resource exploration and hunter/gatherer behaviour in the open savannah.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Okerblom
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Glycobiology Research and Training Center (GRTC), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - William Fletes
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center (GRTC), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Hemal H Patel
- Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, 3350 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, CA 92161, USA
| | - Simon Schenk
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Ajit Varki
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA .,Glycobiology Research and Training Center (GRTC), University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Ellen C Breen
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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90
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Šumbera R, Krásová J, Lavrenchenko LA, Mengistu S, Bekele A, Mikula O, Bryja J. Ethiopian highlands as a cradle of the African fossorial root-rats (genus Tachyoryctes), the genetic evidence. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2018; 126:105-115. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2017] [Revised: 01/12/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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91
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Roach NT, Du A, Hatala KG, Ostrofsky KR, Reeves JS, Braun DR, Harris JW, Behrensmeyer AK, Richmond BG. Pleistocene animal communities of a 1.5 million-year-old lake margin grassland and their relationship to Homo erectus paleoecology. J Hum Evol 2018; 122:70-83. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2016] [Revised: 04/03/2018] [Accepted: 04/24/2018] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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92
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van Casteren A, Oelze VM, Angedakin S, Kalan AK, Kambi M, Boesch C, Kühl HS, Langergraber KE, Piel AK, Stewart FA, Kupczik K. Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees. Commun Biol 2018; 1:109. [PMID: 30271989 PMCID: PMC6123729 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-018-0115-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2018] [Accepted: 07/16/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Chimpanzees are traditionally described as ripe fruit specialists with large incisors but relatively small postcanine teeth, adhering to a somewhat narrow dietary niche. Field observations and isotopic analyses suggest that environmental conditions greatly affect habitat resource utilisation by chimpanzee populations. Here we combine measures of dietary mechanics with stable isotope signatures from eastern chimpanzees living in tropical forest (Ngogo, Uganda) and savannah woodland (Issa Valley, Tanzania). We show that foods at Issa can present a considerable mechanical challenge, most saliently in the external tissues of savannah woodland plants compared to their tropical forest equivalents. This pattern is concurrent with different isotopic signatures between sites. These findings demonstrate that chimpanzee foods in some habitats are mechanically more demanding than previously thought, elucidating the broader evolutionary constraints acting on chimpanzee dental morphology. Similarly, these data can help clarify the dietary mechanical landscape of extinct hominins often overlooked by broad C3/C4 isotopic categories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam van Casteren
- Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Vicky M Oelze
- Anthropology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Samuel Angedakin
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Ammie K Kalan
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mohamed Kambi
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christophe Boesch
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hjalmar S Kühl
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kevin E Langergraber
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA
| | - Alexander K Piel
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK
| | - Fiona A Stewart
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK
| | - Kornelius Kupczik
- Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
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93
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Kupczik K, Toro-Ibacache V, Macho GA. On the relationship between maxillary molar root shape and jaw kinematics in Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:180825. [PMID: 30225074 PMCID: PMC6124107 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Plio-Pleistocene hominins from South Africa remain poorly understood. Here, we focus on how Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus exploited and-in part-partitioned their environment. Specifically, we explore the extent to which first maxillary molar roots (M1) are oriented and thus, by proxy, estimate the direction of loads habitually exerted on the chewing surface. Landmark-based shape analysis of M1 root reconstructions of 26 South African hominins and three East African Paranthropus boisei suggest that A. africanus may have been able to dissipate the widest range of laterally directed loads. Paranthropus robustus and P. boisei, despite having overlapping morphologies, differ in aspects of root shape/size, dento-cranial morphologies, microwear textures and C4 food consumption. Hence, while Paranthropus monophyly cannot be excluded, equivalence of dietary niche can. The South African hominins occupied distinct ecological niches, whereby P. robustus appears uniquely adapted to dissipate antero-posteriorly directed loads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kornelius Kupczik
- Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Viviana Toro-Ibacache
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany
- Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Sergio Livingstone Pohlhammer 943, Independencia, Región Metropolitana, Santiago de Chile, Chile
| | - Gabriele A. Macho
- School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
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94
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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: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [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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95
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Aubriot X, Knapp S, Syfert MM, Poczai P, Buerki S. Shedding new light on the origin and spread of the brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2018; 105:1175-1187. [PMID: 30091787 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2018] [Accepted: 05/04/2018] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE OF THE STUDY While brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the second most important solanaceous fruit crop, we lack firm knowledge of its evolutionary relationships. This in turn limits efficient use of crop wild relatives in eggplant improvement. Here, we examine the hypothesis of linear step-wise expansion of the eggplant group from Africa to Asia. METHODS We use museum collections to generate nuclear and full-plastome data for all species of the Eggplant clade. We combine a phylogenomic approach with distribution data to infer a biogeographic scenario for the clade. KEY RESULTS The Eggplant clade has Pleistocene origins in northern Africa. Dispersals to tropical Asia gave rise to Solanum insanum, the wild progenitor of the eggplant, and to African distinct lineages of widespread and southern African species. Results suggest that spread of the species to southern Africa has been recent and likely facilitated by large mammalian herbivores, such as the African elephant and impala feeding on Solanum fruit. CONCLUSIONS Rather than a linear 'Out Of Africa' sequence, our results are more consistent with an initial dispersal event into Asia, and subsequent wide dispersal and differentiation across Africa driven by large mammalian herbivores. Our evolutionary results will affect future work on eggplant domestication and affect the use of wild relatives in breeding of this increasingly important solanaceous crop.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xavier Aubriot
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, England, UK
- Unité Mixte de Recherche 6553 Écosystèmes, Biodiversité, Évolution (ECOBIO), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes CEDEX, France
| | - Sandra Knapp
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, England, UK
| | - Mindy M Syfert
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, England, UK
| | - Péter Poczai
- Botany Unit, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, PO Box 7, Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland
| | - Sven Buerki
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, England, UK
- Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho, 83725, U.S.A
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96
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Uno KT, Rivals F, Bibi F, Pante M, Njau J, de la Torre I. Large mammal diets and paleoecology across the Oldowan–Acheulean transition at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania from stable isotope and tooth wear analyses. J Hum Evol 2018; 120:76-91. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2017] [Revised: 12/27/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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97
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The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan–Acheulean in southern Africa. Nat Ecol Evol 2018; 2:1080-1086. [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0560-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2017] [Accepted: 04/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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98
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99
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Phytoliths indicate significant arboreal cover at Sahelanthropus type locality TM266 in northern Chad and a decrease in later sites. J Hum Evol 2018; 106:66-83. [PMID: 28434541 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2016] [Revised: 01/12/2017] [Accepted: 01/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We analyzed phytolith and diatom remains preserved at 45 Miocene and Pliocene localities dated between 8 and 1 Ma in northern Chad (16-17°N). Some of these localities yielded cranial remains, lower jaws, and teeth of the hominin species Australopithecus bahrelghazali (∼3.6 Ma) and Sahelanthropus tchadensis (∼7 Ma). Of the 111 sediment samples analyzed, 41 yielded phytoliths, 20 yielded diatoms, and seven yielded both phytoliths and diatoms. Freshwater planktonic and tychoplanktonic diatom species, indicative of lacustrine conditions, are dominant (>91%) in the samples. The phytolith assemblages indicate an opening of the vegetation and a general trend toward an expansion of grass-dominated environments during the time spanning the two hominin occurrences in Chad. The phytoliths suggest the presence of a mosaic environment, including closed forest patches, palm groves, and mixed/grassland formations, between 7.5 and 7 Ma, the replacement by palm grove-like vegetation at approximately 6.5-5 Ma, and the presence of exclusive grass-dominated formations after 4.5 Ma. The type-locality of S. tchadensis (TM266) was likely similar to modern palm grove formations with an arboreal cover percentage ≥40%. The type locality of A. bahrelghazali (KT12) was a grass-dominated ecosystem (likely savanna) with an unrated percentage of arboreal cover. Furthermore, the grass phytolith data support the existence of a (recurrent) Sahelian-like dry climate in northern Chad since at least 8 Ma. Therefore the local closed vegetation formations in the Djurab region at 7.5-7 Ma were sustained by aquatic systems (such as lakes or related rivers, marshes) rather than by extensive annual precipitation.
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100
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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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