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Fillion EN, Harrison T. Hominin turnover at Laetoli is associated with vegetation change: Multiproxy evidence from the large herbivore community. J Hum Evol 2024; 191:103546. [PMID: 38795630 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/26/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024]
Abstract
Vegetation change in eastern Africa during the Pliocene would have had an important impact on hominin adaptation and ecology, and it may have been a key driver of hominin macroevolution, including the extinction of Australopithecus and the emergence of Paranthropus and Homo. The Pliocene paleoanthropological site of Laetoli in Tanzania provides an opportunity to investigate the relationship between vegetation change and hominin turnover because it encompasses the time period when grass cover was spreading across eastern Africa and because hominin species turnover occurred locally at Laetoli, with Paranthropus aethiopicus in the Upper Ndolanya Beds (UNB) replacing Australopithecus afarensis in the Upper Laetolil Beds (ULB). However, it remains unresolved how the vegetation of the UNB and the ULB differed from each other. To examine differences between the two stratigraphic units, multiple proxies-hypsodonty, mesowear, and stable carbon isotopes of tooth enamel (δ13Cenamel)-are used to infer the diets of large herbivores and compare the dietary guild structure of the large herbivore communities. All three proxies indicate an increase in the abrasiveness and C4-content in the diets of the large herbivores in the UNB relative to those in the ULB. After inferring the diets of species based on all three proxies, the large herbivore community of the UNB had a greater proportion of grazers and a smaller proportion of mixed feeders than in the ULB but maintained a similar proportion of browsers and frugivores. The ULB community has few modern-day analogs, whereas the UNB community is most closely analogous to those in modern African grasslands. Thus, hominin turnover at Laetoli is associated with an increase in grass cover within a woodland-grassland mosaic and is part of a broader transformation of the herbivore community structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth N Fillion
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.
| | - Terry Harrison
- Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Pl., New York, NY, 10003, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, 10024, USA
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2
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Finestone EM, Plummer TW, Vincent TH, Blumenthal SA, Ditchfield PW, Bishop LC, Oliver JS, Herries AIR, Palfery CV, Lane TP, McGuire E, Reeves JS, Rodés A, Whitfield E, Braun DR, Bartilol SK, Rotich NK, Parkinson JA, Lemorini C, Caricola I, Kinyanjui RN, Potts R. New Oldowan locality Sare-Abururu (ca. 1.7 Ma) provides evidence of diverse hominin behaviors on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2024; 190:103498. [PMID: 38581918 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103498] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 01/18/2024] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/08/2024]
Abstract
The Homa Peninsula, in southwestern Kenya, continues to yield insights into Oldowan hominin landscape behaviors. The Late Pliocene locality of Nyayanga (∼3-2.6 Ma) preserves some of the oldest Oldowan tools. At the Early Pleistocene locality of Kanjera South (∼2 Ma) toolmakers procured a diversity of raw materials from over 10 km away and strategically reduced them in a grassland-dominated ecosystem. Here, we report findings from Sare-Abururu, a younger (∼1.7 Ma) Oldowan locality approximately 12 km southeast of Kanjera South and 18 km east of Nyayanga. Sare-Abururu has yielded 1754 artifacts in relatively undisturbed low-energy silts and sands. Stable isotopic analysis of pedogenic carbonates suggests that hominin activities were carried out in a grassland-dominated setting with similar vegetation structure as documented at Kanjera South. The composition of a nearby paleo-conglomerate indicates that high-quality stone raw materials were locally abundant. Toolmakers at Sare-Abururu produced angular fragments from quartz pebbles, representing a considerable contrast to the strategies used to reduce high quality raw materials at Kanjera South. Although lithic reduction at Sare-Abururu was technologically simple, toolmakers proficiently produced cutting edges, made few mistakes and exhibited a mastery of platform management, demonstrating that expedient technical strategies do not necessarily indicate a lack of skill or suitable raw materials. Lithic procurement and reduction patterns on the Homa Peninsula appear to reflect variation in local resource contexts rather than large-scale evolutionary changes in mobility, energy budget, or toolmaker cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma M Finestone
- Department of Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Dr, Cleveland, OH, 44113, United States; Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07745, Jena, Germany.
| | - Thomas W Plummer
- Department of Anthropology, Queens College, 314 Powdermaker Hall 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Flushing, Flushing, NY, 11367, United States; The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY, 10016, United States; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20560, United States
| | - Thomas H Vincent
- Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, United Kingdom
| | - Scott A Blumenthal
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20560, United States; Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, 1585 East 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97403, United States; Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2020 - 2207 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Peter W Ditchfield
- School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 1 S Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3TG, United Kingdom
| | - Laura C Bishop
- Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, United Kingdom
| | - James S Oliver
- Anthropology Section, Illinois State Museum, 502 S Spring St, Springfield, IL, 62706, United States
| | - Andy I R Herries
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Victoria, 3086, Australia; Paleo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, 42 Bunting Rd, Cottesloe, Johannesburg, 2092, South Africa
| | - Christopher Vere Palfery
- The Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department Archaeology and History, La Trobe University, Melbourne Victoria, 3086, Australia
| | - Timothy P Lane
- Geography and Environmental Science Research Group, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, United Kingdom
| | - Elizabeth McGuire
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, 1585 East 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97403, United States
| | - Jonathan S Reeves
- Technological Origins Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Pl. 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, 800 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC, 20052, United States
| | - Angel Rodés
- Departamento de Xeografía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Praza da Universidade,1, 15703 Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Rankine Ave, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
| | - Elizabeth Whitfield
- Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, United Kingdom
| | - David R Braun
- Technological Origins Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Pl. 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, 800 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC, 20052, United States
| | - Simion K Bartilol
- Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Nelson Kiprono Rotich
- Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya; Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Dorodna 16, 03-195, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Jennifer A Parkinson
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20560, United States; Department of Anthropology, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park Way, San Diego, CA, 92110, United States
| | - Cristina Lemorini
- LTFAPA Laboratory, Department of Science of Antiquities, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy
| | - Isabella Caricola
- LTFAPA Laboratory, Department of Science of Antiquities, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185, Rome, Italy; Zinman Institute of Archaeology, Haifa University, 199 Aba Hushi Avenue, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
| | - Rahab N Kinyanjui
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07745, Jena, Germany; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20560, United States; Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Kipande Rd, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20560, United States; Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Kipande Rd, Nairobi, Kenya
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3
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Norwood AL, Wang B, Kingston JD. Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications. Oecologia 2024; 204:467-489. [PMID: 38517529 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-024-05532-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/24/2024]
Abstract
Paleoenvironmental reconstructions of fossil sites based on isotopic analyses of enamel typically rely on data from multiple herbivore taxa, with the assumption that this dietary spectrum represents the community's isotopic range and provides insights into local or regional vegetation patterns. However, it remains unclear how representative the sampled taxa are of the broader herbivore community and how well these data correspond to specific ecosystems. Verifying these underlying assumptions is essential to refining the utility of enamel isotopic values for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This study explores potential links between modern herbivore community carbon isotopic enamel spectra, biome types, and climate in sub-Saharan Africa. This region is one of the most comprehensively isotopically sampled areas globally and is of particular relevance to hominin evolution. Our extensive data compilation reveals that published enamel isotopic data from sub-Saharan Africa typically sample only a small percentage of the taxa documented at most localities and that some biome types (e.g., subtropical savannas) are dramatically overrepresented relative to others (e.g., forests) in these modern data sets. Multiple statistical analyses, including linear models and cluster analyses, revealed weak relationships of associated mammalian herbivore enamel isotopic values, biome type, and climate parameters. These results confound any simple assumptions about how community isotopic profiles map onto specific environments, highlighting the need for more precise strategic approaches in extending isotopic frameworks into the past for paleoecological reconstructions. Developing more refined modern analogs will ultimately allow us to more accurately characterize the isotopic spectra of paleo-communities and link isotopic dietary signatures to specific ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bian Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - John D Kingston
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
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4
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Boës X, Van Bocxlaer B, Prat S, Feibel C, Lewis J, Arrighi V, Taylor N, Harmand S. Aridity, availability of drinking water and freshwater foods, and hominin and archeological sites during the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene in the western region of the Turkana Basin (Kenya): A review. J Hum Evol 2024; 186:103466. [PMID: 38134581 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
Although the Turkana Basin is one of the driest regions of the East African Rift, its Plio-Pleistocene sediments are rich in freshwater vertebrates and invertebrates, providing evidence that freshwater resources were available to hominins in this region during the Plio-Pleistocene (4.2-0.7 Ma). Here we provide an overview of the hydroconnectivity of the Turkana Basin. We then review the period during which freshwater river and lake systems expanded into the western region of the Turkana Basin, where hominin and archeological sites have been discovered in sediments dating back to the Late Pliocene-Pleistocene. Freshwater conditions are reconstructed from river and lake sediments and the flora and micro- and macofauna they contain. Data synthesis suggests that drinking water and freshwater foods prevailed in the western region of the Turkana Basin at 4.20-3.98 Ma, 3.70-3.10 Ma, 2.53-2.22 Ma, then between 2.10 and 1.30 Ma and intermittently from 1.27 to 0.75 Ma. Milestones in hominin evolution occurred in this context, such as the first occurrence of Australopithecus anamensis (4.20-4.10 Ma) and Kenyanthropus platyops (3.50 Ma and 3.30-3.20 Ma), the presence of Paranthropus aethiopicus (2.53-2.45 Ma), early Homo (2.33 Ma), Paranthropus boisei (2.25 Ma and 1.77-1.72 Ma) and Homo ergaster/Homo erectus (1.75 Ma, 1.47-1.42 Ma and 1.10-0.90 Ma). Developments in hominin behavior also occurred during this timeframe, including the first known stone tools (3.30 Ma), the oldest Oldowan sites (2.34 Ma and 2.25 Ma) in the Turkana Basin, the earliest known evidence for the emergence of bifacial shaping in eastern Africa (1.80 Ma), and the first known Acheulean site (1.76 Ma). Our synthesis suggests that, diachronic variation in hydroconnectivity played a role on the amount of drinking water and freshwater foods available in the western region of the Turkana Basin, despite regional aridity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xavier Boës
- Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), 140 Avenue Du Maréchal Leclerc, 33323 Bordeaux-Bègles, France; CNRS/MNHN/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, UMR 7194, Musée de L'Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place Du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France; Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
| | | | - Sandrine Prat
- CNRS/MNHN/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, UMR 7194, Musée de L'Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place Du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France
| | - Craig Feibel
- Department of Anthropology and Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
| | - Jason Lewis
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Chronicle Heritage, 319 E Palm Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Vincent Arrighi
- Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), 13 Rue Du Négoce, 31650 Orens de Gameville, France
| | - Nicholas Taylor
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Turkana University College, Lodwar Rd., Lodwar, Kenya
| | - Sonia Harmand
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Laboratoire TRACES-UMR 5608, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Maison de La Recherche, 5 Allée Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse, France; Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA), UMIFRE, USR 3336, CNRS, Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa, Nairobi, Kenya
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5
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Piwczyński M, Granjon L, Trzeciak P, Carlos Brito J, Oana Popa M, Daba Dinka M, Johnston NP, Boratyński Z. Unraveling phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries in the arid adapted Gerbillus rodents (Muridae: Gerbillinae) by RAD-seq data. Mol Phylogenet Evol 2023; 189:107913. [PMID: 37659480 DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/04/2023]
Abstract
Gerbillus is one of the most speciose genera among rodents, with ca. 51 recognized species. Previous attempts to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Gerbillus mainly relied on the mitochondrial cyt-b marker as a source of phylogenetic information. In this study, we utilize RAD-seq genomic data from 37 specimens representing 11 species to reconstruct the phylogenetic tree for Gerbillus, applying concatenation and coalescence methods. We identified four highly supported clades corresponding to the traditionally recognized subgenera: Dipodillus, Gerbillus, Hendecapleura and Monodia. Only two uncertain branches were detected in the resulting trees, with one leading to diversification of the main lineages in the genus, recognized by quartet sampling analysis as uncertain due to possible introgression. We also examined species boundaries for four pairs of sister taxa, including potentially new species from Morocco, using SNAPP. The results strongly supported a speciation model in which all taxa are treated as separate species. The dating analyses confirmed the Plio-Pleistocene diversification of the genus, with the uncertain branch coinciding with the beginning of aridification of the Sahara at the the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. This study aligns well with the earlier analyses based on the cyt-b marker, reaffirming its suitability as an adequate marker for estimating genetic diversity in Gerbillus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcin Piwczyński
- Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Lwowska 1, PL-87-100 Toruń, Poland.
| | - Laurent Granjon
- CBGP, IRD, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Paulina Trzeciak
- Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Lwowska 1, PL-87-100 Toruń, Poland
| | - José Carlos Brito
- CIBIO-InBio, Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Madalina Oana Popa
- Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Lwowska 1, PL-87-100 Toruń, Poland; "Stejarul" Research Centre for Biological Sciences, National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Alexandru cel Bun 6, RO-610004, Piatra Neamţ, Romania
| | - Mergi Daba Dinka
- Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Lwowska 1, PL-87-100 Toruń, Poland
| | - Nikolas P Johnston
- School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia; Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields Ave, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia
| | - Zbyszek Boratyński
- CIBIO-InBio, Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas 7, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal; BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal
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6
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Foister TIF, Žliobaitė I, Wilson OE, Fortelius M, Tallavaara M. Homo heterogenus: Variability in early Pleistocene Homo environments. Evol Anthropol 2023; 32:373-385. [PMID: 37877200 DOI: 10.1002/evan.22005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/26/2023]
Abstract
To understand the ecological dominance of Homo sapiens, we need to investigate the origins of the plasticity that has enabled our colonization of the planet. We can approach this by exploring the variability of habitats to which different hominin populations have adapted over time. In this article, we draw upon and synthesize the current research on habitats of genus Homo during the early Pleistocene. We examined 121 published environmental reconstructions from 74 early Pleistocene sites or site phases to assess the balance of arguments in the research community. We found that, while grasslands and savannahs were prominent features of Homo habitats in the early Pleistocene, current research does not place early Pleistocene Homo, in any single environmental type, but in a wide variety of environments, ranging from open grasslands to forests. Our analysis also suggests that the first known dispersal of Homo out of Africa was accompanied by niche expansion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tegan I F Foister
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Indrė Žliobaitė
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Finnish Museum of Natural History, LUOMUS, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Oscar E Wilson
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Mikael Fortelius
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Finnish Museum of Natural History, LUOMUS, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Miikka Tallavaara
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Achorn A, Lindshield S, Ndiaye PI, Winking J, Pruetz JD. Reciprocity and beyond: Explaining meat transfers in savanna-dwelling chimpanzees at Fongoli, Senegal. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2023; 182:224-236. [PMID: 37452552 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24815] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2022] [Revised: 06/28/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To understand the function of food sharing among our early hominin ancestors, we can turn to our nonhuman primate relatives for insight. Here, we examined the function of meat sharing by Fongoli chimpanzees, a community of western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in southeastern Sénégal. MATERIALS AND METHODS We tested three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses that have been used to explain patterns of food sharing: kin selection, generalized reciprocity, and meat-for-mating opportunities. We analyzed meat sharing events (n = 484) resulting from hunts, along with data on copulations, age-sex class, and kinship to determine which variables predict the likelihood of meat sharing during this study period (2006-2019). RESULTS We found full or partial support for kin selection, direct reciprocity, and meat-for-mating-opportunities. However, the analyses reveal that reciprocity and a mother/offspring relationship were the strongest predictors of whether or not an individual shared meat. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study emphasize the complexity of chimpanzee meat sharing behaviors, especially at a site where social tolerance offers increased opportunities for meat sharing by individuals other than dominant males. These findings can be placed in a referential model to inform hypotheses about the sensitivity of food sharing to environmental pressures, such as resource scarcity in savanna landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Achorn
- Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
- Department of Comparative Medicine, Michael E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, Texas, USA
| | - Stacy Lindshield
- Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
| | - Papa Ibnou Ndiaye
- Département de Biologie Animale, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
| | - Jeffrey Winking
- Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Jill D Pruetz
- Department of Anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA
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8
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Bobe R, Aldeias V, Alemseged Z, Anemone RL, Archer W, Aumaître G, Bamford MK, Biro D, Bourlès DL, Doyle Boyd M, Braun DR, Capelli C, d’Oliveira Coelho J, Habermann JM, Head JJ, Keddadouche K, Kupczik K, Lebatard AE, Lüdecke T, Macôa A, Martínez FI, Mathe J, Mendes C, Paulo LM, Pinto M, Presnyakova D, Püschel TA, Regala FT, Sier M, Ferreira da Silva MJ, Stalmans M, Carvalho S. The first Miocene fossils from coastal woodlands in the southern East African Rift. iScience 2023; 26:107644. [PMID: 37701811 PMCID: PMC10494320 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
The Miocene was a key time in the evolution of African ecosystems witnessing the origin of the African apes and the isolation of eastern coastal forests through an expanding arid corridor. Until recently, however, Miocene sites from the southeastern regions of the continent were unknown. Here, we report the first Miocene fossil teeth from the shoulders of the Urema Rift in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. We provide the first 1) radiometric ages of the Mazamba Formation, 2) reconstructions of paleovegetation in the region based on pedogenic carbonates and fossil wood, and 3) descriptions of fossil teeth. Gorongosa is unique in the East African Rift in combining marine invertebrates, marine vertebrates, reptiles, terrestrial mammals, and fossil woods in coastal paleoenvironments. The Gorongosa fossil sites offer the first evidence of woodlands and forests on the coastal margins of southeastern Africa during the Miocene, and an exceptional assemblage of fossils including new species.
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Affiliation(s)
- René Bobe
- Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
| | - Vera Aldeias
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
| | - Zeresenay Alemseged
- Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Robert L. Anemone
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Anthropology, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, USA
| | - Will Archer
- Max Planck Partner Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
- Department of Geology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
| | | | - Marion K. Bamford
- Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Dora Biro
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK
| | | | - Melissa Doyle Boyd
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
| | - David R. Braun
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
- Technological Primate Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Cristian Capelli
- Dipartimento delle Scienze Chimiche, della Vita e della Sostenibilità Ambientale, Università di Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
| | - João d’Oliveira Coelho
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Jörg M. Habermann
- GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Jason J. Head
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK
| | | | - Kornelius Kupczik
- Departamento de Antropología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Anne-Elisabeth Lebatard
- Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement de Géosciences de l'Environnement, CEREGE - UM 34 Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, INRAE, OSU Institut Pythéas, Technopole Environnement Arbois - Méditerranée, Domaine du Petit Arbois, Avenue Louis Philibert, Les Milles-Aix en Provence BP80, 13545 AIX en Provence, Cedex 04, France
| | - Tina Lüdecke
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, 55128 Mainz, Germany
- Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Amélia Macôa
- Departamento de Arqueologia e Antropologia, Faculdade de Letras e Ciências Sociais, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique
| | - Felipe I. Martínez
- Escuela de Antropología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Jacinto Mathe
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
| | - Clara Mendes
- Departamento de Arqueologia e Antropologia, Faculdade de Letras e Ciências Sociais, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique
| | - Luis Meira Paulo
- AESDA – Associação de Estudos Subterrâneos e Defesa do Ambiente, Torres Vedras, Portugal
| | - Maria Pinto
- AESDA – Associação de Estudos Subterrâneos e Defesa do Ambiente, Torres Vedras, Portugal
| | - Darya Presnyakova
- CNRS Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Thomas A. Püschel
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Division, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6LA, UK
| | - Frederico Tátá Regala
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
| | - Mark Sier
- CENIEH, 09002 Burgos, Spain
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands
| | - Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação Em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
- BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Campus de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Portugal
- ONE - Organisms and Environment Group, Cardiff University, School of Biosciences, Sir Martin Evans Building, c5:15, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK
| | | | - Susana Carvalho
- Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
- Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
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9
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Beverly EJ. Using climate to model ancient human migration. Science 2023; 381:605-606. [PMID: 37561860 DOI: 10.1126/science.adj4631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
Modeling fills gaps in the fossil record of early hominin movement from Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily J Beverly
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
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10
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Lauer DA, Lawing AM, Short RA, Manthi FK, Müller J, Head JJ, McGuire JL. Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4016. [PMID: 37463920 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39480-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/15/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Mammalian megafauna have been critical to the functioning of Earth's biosphere for millions of years. However, since the Plio-Pleistocene, their biodiversity has declined concurrently with dramatic environmental change and hominin evolution. While these biodiversity declines are well-documented, their implications for the ecological function of megafaunal communities remain uncertain. Here, we adapt ecometric methods to evaluate whether the functional link between communities of herbivorous, eastern African megafauna and their environments (i.e., functional trait-environment relationships) was disrupted as biodiversity losses occurred over the past 7.4 Ma. Herbivore taxonomic and functional diversity began to decline during the Pliocene as open grassland habitats emerged, persisted, and expanded. In the mid-Pleistocene, grassland expansion intensified, and climates became more variable and arid. It was then that phylogenetic diversity declined, and the trait-environment relationships of herbivore communities shifted significantly. Our results divulge the varying implications of different losses in megafaunal biodiversity. Only the losses that occurred since the mid-Pleistocene were coincident with a disturbance to community ecological function. Prior diversity losses, conversely, occurred as the megafaunal species and trait pool narrowed towards those adapted to grassland environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel A Lauer
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
| | - A Michelle Lawing
- Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Rachel A Short
- Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Rapid City, SD, 57703, USA
| | - Fredrick K Manthi
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Johannes Müller
- Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, 10115, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jason J Head
- Department of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Jenny L McGuire
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
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11
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Wynn JG, Dumouchel L, Drapeau MSM. Paleoenvironments represented by the sediments of the Early Pliocene Mursi Formation, Omo Valley, Ethiopia. J Hum Evol 2023; 181:103410. [PMID: 37454604 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2023] [Accepted: 06/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
While our understanding of human origins has been enriched by extensive efforts to reconstruct the ancient environmental context of early hominins using information from hominin-bearing localities, comparatively little effort has been focused on contemporaneous fossil localities with abundant vertebrate fossils, but lacking hominins. We report here on new paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Mursi Formation, Ethiopia, from which strata dated to >4 Ma preserve an abundant vertebrate fossil record lacking any known hominins, despite being part of a contiguous sedimentary basin known for its rich hominin fossil record. We combine new stratigraphic and sedimentological observations with data from paleosols preserved in the sedimentary sequence, along with isotopic data from pedogenic carbonate, paleosol organic matter, and sulfur minerals preserved in the sediments (gypsum, native sulfur). Paleosol features and carbon isotopic composition of fossil organic matter and pedogenic carbonate complement data from the mammalian fauna, the sum of which provide evidence of closed woodland to forest vegetation. Sedimentological data indicate that these wooded terrestrial habitats occurred near aquatic settings characterized by stagnant shallow waters of a freshwater lake, providing a reconstruction of unique habitats in contrast with hominin localities >4 Ma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan G Wynn
- Division of Earth Sciences, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Ave, Alexandria, VA, 22314, USA.
| | - Laurence Dumouchel
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Science and Engineering Hall, 800 22nd St. NW, Ste 6000, Washington, DC, 20052, USA
| | - Michelle S M Drapeau
- Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
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12
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Bibi F, Cantalapiedra JL. Plio-Pleistocene African megaherbivore losses associated with community biomass restructuring. Science 2023; 380:1076-1080. [PMID: 37289876 DOI: 10.1126/science.add8366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Fossil abundance data can reveal ecological dynamics underpinning taxonomic declines. Using fossil dental metrics, we reconstructed body mass and mass-abundance distributions in Late Miocene to recent African large mammal communities. Despite collection biases, fossil and extant mass-abundance distributions are highly similar, with unimodal distributions likely reflecting savanna environments. Above 45 kilograms, abundance decreases exponentially with mass, with slopes close to -0.75, as predicted by metabolic scaling. Furthermore, communities before ~4 million years ago had considerably more large-sized individuals, with a greater proportion of total biomass allocated in larger size categories, than did later communities. Over time, individuals and biomass were redistributed into smaller size categories, reflecting a gradual loss of large-sized individuals from the fossil record paralleling the long-term decline of Plio-Pleistocene large mammal diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Faysal Bibi
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Juan L Cantalapiedra
- GloCEE-Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
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13
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Villaseñor A, Uno KT, Kinyanjui RN, Behrensmeyer AK, Bobe R, Advokaat EL, Bamford M, Carvalho SC, Hammond AS, Palcu DV, Sier MJ, Ward CV, Braun DR. Pliocene hominins from East Turkana were associated with mesic environments in a semiarid basin. J Hum Evol 2023; 180:103385. [PMID: 37229946 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 04/15/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
During the middle Pliocene (∼3.8-3.2 Ma), both Australopithecus afarensis and Kenyanthropus platyops are known from the Turkana Basin, but between 3.60 and 3.44 Ma, most hominin fossils are found on the west side of Lake Turkana. Here, we describe a new hominin locality (ET03-166/168, Area 129) from the east side of the lake, in the Lokochot Member of the Koobi Fora Formation (3.60-3.44 Ma). To reconstruct the paleoecology of the locality and its surroundings, we combine information from sedimentology, the relative abundance of associated mammalian fauna, phytoliths, and stable isotopes from plant wax biomarkers, pedogenic carbonates, and fossil tooth enamel. The combined evidence provides a detailed view of the local paleoenvironment occupied by these Pliocene hominins, where a biodiverse community of primates, including hominins, and other mammals inhabited humid, grassy woodlands in a fluvial floodplain setting. Between <3.596 and 3.44 Ma, increases in woody vegetation were, at times, associated with increases in arid-adapted grasses. This suggests that Pliocene vegetation included woody species that were resilient to periods of prolonged aridity, resembling vegetation structure in the Turkana Basin today, where arid-adapted woody plants are a significant component of the ecosystem. Pedogenic carbonates indicate more woody vegetation than other vegetation proxies, possibly due to differences in temporospatial scale and ecological biases in preservation that should be accounted for in future studies. These new hominin fossils and associated multiproxy paleoenvironmental indicators from a single locale through time suggest that early hominin species occupied a wide range of habitats, possibly including wetlands within semiarid landscapes. Local-scale paleoecological evidence from East Turkana supports regional evidence that middle Pliocene eastern Africa may have experienced large-scale, climate-driven periods of aridity. This information extends our understanding of hominin environments beyond the limits of simple wooded, grassy, or mosaic environmental descriptions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia Villaseñor
- Department of Anthropology, The University of Arkansas, 330 Old Main, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA.
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Palisades, NY, 10964, USA
| | - Rahab N Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, 40658-00100, Kenya; Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, 07745, Jena, Germany; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, MRC 121, Washington, DC, 20013, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, MRC 121, Washington, DC, 20013, USA
| | - René Bobe
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK; Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique
| | - Eldert L Advokaat
- Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8A, 3584 CB Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Marion Bamford
- Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, P Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa
| | - Susana C Carvalho
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK; Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique; Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal
| | - Ashley S Hammond
- Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York, NY, 10024, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology at AMNH, New York, NY, 10024, USA
| | - Dan V Palcu
- Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo, Brazil; Paleomagnetic Laboratory 'Fort Hoofddijk', Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Mark J Sier
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002, Burgos, Spain; Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3AN, Oxford, UK; Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8A, 3584 CB Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Carol V Ward
- Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - David R Braun
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Anthropology Department, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
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14
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Peppe DJ, Cote SM, Deino AL, Fox DL, Kingston JD, Kinyanjui RN, Lukens WE, MacLatchy LM, Novello A, Strömberg CAE, Driese SG, Garrett ND, Hillis KR, Jacobs BF, Jenkins KEH, Kityo RM, Lehmann T, Manthi FK, Mbua EN, Michel LA, Miller ER, Mugume AAT, Muteti SN, Nengo IO, Oginga KO, Phelps SR, Polissar P, Rossie JB, Stevens NJ, Uno KT, McNulty KP. Oldest evidence of abundant C 4 grasses and habitat heterogeneity in eastern Africa. Science 2023; 380:173-177. [PMID: 37053309 DOI: 10.1126/science.abq2834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/15/2023]
Abstract
The assembly of Africa's iconic C4 grassland ecosystems is central to evolutionary interpretations of many mammal lineages, including hominins. C4 grasses are thought to have become ecologically dominant in Africa only after 10 million years ago (Ma). However, paleobotanical records older than 10 Ma are sparse, limiting assessment of the timing and nature of C4 biomass expansion. This study uses a multiproxy design to document vegetation structure from nine Early Miocene mammal site complexes across eastern Africa. Results demonstrate that between ~21 and 16 Ma, C4 grasses were locally abundant, contributing to heterogeneous habitats ranging from forests to wooded grasslands. These data push back the oldest evidence of C4 grass-dominated habitats in Africa-and globally-by more than 10 million years, calling for revised paleoecological interpretations of mammalian evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel J Peppe
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - Susanne M Cote
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - David L Fox
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - John D Kingston
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Rahab N Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
- Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, D-07743 Jena, Germany
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - William E Lukens
- Department of Geology & Environmental Science, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA
| | - Laura M MacLatchy
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Alice Novello
- CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, INRAE, 13545 Aix en Provence, France
- Department of Biology, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Caroline A E Strömberg
- Department of Biology, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Steven G Driese
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - Nicole D Garrett
- Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Kayla R Hillis
- Department of Earth Sciences, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA
| | - Bonnie F Jacobs
- Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA
| | - Kirsten E H Jenkins
- Department of Social Sciences, Tacoma Community College, Tacoma, WA 98466, USA
| | - Robert M Kityo
- Department of Zoology Entomology and Fisheries Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Thomas Lehmann
- Department Messel Research and Mammalogy, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Fredrick K Manthi
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Emma N Mbua
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Lauren A Michel
- Department of Earth Sciences, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA
| | - Ellen R Miller
- Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA
| | - Amon A T Mugume
- Department of Zoology Entomology and Fisheries Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
- Uganda National Museum, Department of Museums and Monuments, Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Samuel N Muteti
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
- Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Isaiah O Nengo
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Kennedy O Oginga
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - Samuel R Phelps
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Pratigya Polissar
- Ocean Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - James B Rossie
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - Nancy J Stevens
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Ohio Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Kieran P McNulty
- Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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15
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MacLatchy LM, Cote SM, Deino AL, Kityo RM, Mugume AAT, Rossie JB, Sanders WJ, Cosman MN, Driese SG, Fox DL, Freeman AJ, Jansma RJW, Jenkins KEH, Kinyanjui RN, Lukens WE, McNulty KP, Novello A, Peppe DJ, Strömberg CAE, Uno KT, Winkler AJ, Kingston JD. The evolution of hominoid locomotor versatility: Evidence from Moroto, a 21 Ma site in Uganda. Science 2023; 380:eabq2835. [PMID: 37053310 DOI: 10.1126/science.abq2835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/15/2023]
Abstract
Living hominoids are distinguished by upright torsos and versatile locomotion. It is hypothesized that these features evolved for feeding on fruit from terminal branches in forests. To investigate the evolutionary context of hominoid adaptive origins, we analyzed multiple paleoenvironmental proxies in conjunction with hominoid fossils from the Moroto II site in Uganda. The data indicate seasonally dry woodlands with the earliest evidence of abundant C4 grasses in Africa based on a confirmed age of 21 million years ago (Ma). We demonstrate that the leaf-eating hominoid Morotopithecus consumed water-stressed vegetation, and postcrania from the site indicate ape-like locomotor adaptations. These findings suggest that the origin of hominoid locomotor versatility is associated with foraging on leaves in heterogeneous, open woodlands rather than forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura M MacLatchy
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Susanne M Cote
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - Alan L Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
| | - Robert M Kityo
- Department of Zoology, Entomology and Fisheries Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Amon A T Mugume
- Department of Zoology, Entomology and Fisheries Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
- Uganda National Museum, Department of Museums and Monuments, Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Kampala, Uganda
| | - James B Rossie
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| | - William J Sanders
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Miranda N Cosman
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Steven G Driese
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - David L Fox
- Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - April J Freeman
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - Rutger J W Jansma
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
| | - Kirsten E H Jenkins
- Department of Social Sciences, Tacoma Community College, Tacoma, WA 98466, USA
| | - Rahab N Kinyanjui
- Earth Sciences Department, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
- Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Jena D-07743, Germany
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - William E Lukens
- Department of Geology & Environmental Science, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA
| | - Kieran P McNulty
- Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Alice Novello
- CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, INRAE, Aix en Provence, France
- Department of Biology & Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Daniel J Peppe
- Department of Geosciences, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
| | - Caroline A E Strömberg
- Department of Biology & Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Alisa J Winkler
- Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA
- Section of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
| | - John D Kingston
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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16
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Longman DP, Dolan E, Wells JCK, Stock JT. Patterns of energy allocation during energetic scarcity; evolutionary insights from ultra-endurance events. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 2023; 281:111422. [PMID: 37031854 DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2023.111422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2023] [Revised: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023]
Abstract
Exercise physiologists and evolutionary biologists share a research interest in determining patterns of energy allocation during times of acute or chronic energetic scarcity.. Within sport and exercise science, this information has important implications for athlete health and performance. For evolutionary biologists, this would shed new light on our adaptive capabilities as a phenotypically plastic species. In recent years, evolutionary biologists have begun recruiting athletes as study participants and using contemporary sports as a model for studying evolution. This approach, known as human athletic palaeobiology, has identified ultra-endurance events as a valuable experimental model to investigate patterns of energy allocation during conditions of elevated energy demand, which are generally accompanied by an energy deficit. This energetic stress provokes detectable functional trade-offs in energy allocation between physiological processes. Early results from this modelsuggest thatlimited resources are preferentially allocated to processes which could be considered to confer the greatest immediate survival advantage (including immune and cognitive function). This aligns with evolutionary perspectives regarding energetic trade-offs during periods of acute and chronic energetic scarcity. Here, we discuss energy allocation patterns during periods of energetic stress as an area of shared interest between exercise physiology and evolutionary biology. We propose that, by addressing the ultimate "why" questions, namely why certain traits were selected for during the human evolutionary journey, an evolutionary perspective can complement the exercise physiology literature and provide a deeper insight of the reasons underpinning the body's physiological response to conditions of energetic stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel P Longman
- School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, United Kingdom.
| | - Eimear Dolan
- Applied Physiology and Nutrition Research Group, School of Physical Education and Sport, Rheumatology Division, Faculdade de Medicina FMUSP, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | - Jonathan C K Wells
- Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom
| | - Jay T Stock
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QG, United Kingdom; Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, Ontario, Canada
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17
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Negash EW, Barr WA. Relative abundance of grazing and browsing herbivores is not a direct reflection of vegetation structure: Implications for hominin paleoenvironmental reconstruction. J Hum Evol 2023; 177:103328. [PMID: 36857987 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Revised: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
The diet of fossil herbivores inferred from enamel stable carbon isotopes is often used to make paleoenvironmental reconstructions. While many studies have focused on using environmental indicator taxa to make paleoenvironmental reconstructions, community-based approaches are considered to provide a more complete picture of paleolandscapes. These studies assume that the diet and relative abundance of herbivores are related to the areal extent of different vegetation types on the landscape. Here, we quantitatively test this assumption in 16 modern ecosystems in eastern and southern Africa with a wide range of woody vegetation cover. We conducted a landscape-level spatial analysis of vegetation patterns using a published land cover data set and computed landscape metrics. We compiled data on relative abundance and diet of herbivores inferred from carbon isotope studies for all large herbivores in these ecosystems. We found that despite differences in the total areal extent of different vegetation types, numerous sizable patches of each vegetation type are available in most ecosystems. However, despite variation across the ecosystems examined, grazers are typically the most abundant herbivores even in sites that have a higher proportion of forest and shrub cover. This indicates that the diet and relative abundance of herbivores is not a simple reflection of the total areal extent of vegetation types available on the landscape. The higher proportion of grazers observed in these ecosystems is a result of multiple factors including habitat heterogeneity, differences in biomass turnover rate between grasses and woody vegetation, resource partitioning, and the advantages of group living in open environments. Comparison of diet and relative abundance of herbivores in modern ecosystems to fossil herbivore assemblages shows that very different vegetation regimes can support similar herbivore assemblages. This study has significant implications for paleolandscape reconstructions and cautions against a simplistic wooded vs. grassland paleoenvironmental interpretations based on fossil herbivore assemblages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enquye W Negash
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, 800 22nd Street, Northwest, Washington D.C. 20052, USA.
| | - W Andrew Barr
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, George Washington University, 800 22nd Street, Northwest, Washington D.C. 20052, USA
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18
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Szilágyi A, Kovács VP, Czárán T, Szathmáry E. Evolutionary ecology of language origins through confrontational scavenging. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210411. [PMID: 36688391 PMCID: PMC9869442 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
A dynamic model and an agent-based simulation model implementing the assumptions of the confrontational scavenging hypothesis on early protolanguage as an adaptive response of Homo erectus to gradual change in their habitat has been developed and studied. The core assumptions of the hypothesis and the model scenario are the pre-adaptation of our ancestors to occupy the ecological niche that they constructed for themselves by having evolved displaced communication and a rudimentary tool manufacture, two features allowing them to use a new, concentrated and abundant resource-megafauna carrion-on the savannahs replacing arboreal habitats owing to the drying climate of East Africa at about 2 Ma. The shift in diet required coordinated cooperation by the hominin scavengers confronted with concurrent predators. Power scavenging compelled displaced symbolic communication featuring a limited semantic range; syntax was not yet required. We show that phenotypic evolution on the accuracy of information transfer between cooperating hominins is a necessary and sufficient condition for the population of agents to survive the diet shift. Both the individual and the group fitness of the hominin horde increased with the accuracy of their protolanguage, with decreasing time allocated to foraging and thus more time left for culture. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- András Szilágyi
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 29-33. 1121, Budapest, Hungary,MTA–ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1C 1117 Budapest, Hungary,Center for Conceptual Foundation of Science, Parmenides Foundation, Hindenburgstrasse 15, 82343 Pöcking, Germany
| | - Viktor P. Kovács
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 29-33. 1121, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tamás Czárán
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 29-33. 1121, Budapest, Hungary,MTA–ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1C 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Eörs Szathmáry
- Institute of Evolution, Centre for Ecological Research, Konkoly-Thege Miklós út 29-33. 1121, Budapest, Hungary,MTA–ELTE Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1C 1117 Budapest, Hungary,Center for Conceptual Foundation of Science, Parmenides Foundation, Hindenburgstrasse 15, 82343 Pöcking, Germany
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19
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Munday C, Savage N, Jones RG, Washington R. Valley formation aridifies East Africa and elevates Congo Basin rainfall. Nature 2023; 615:276-279. [PMID: 36859546 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05662-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
East African aridification during the past 8 million years is frequently invoked as a driver of large-scale shifts in vegetation1 and the evolution of new animal lineages, including hominins2-4. However, evidence for increasing aridity is debated5 and, crucially, the mechanisms leading to dry conditions are unclear6. Here, numerical model experiments show that valleys punctuating the 6,000-km-long East African Rift System (EARS) are central to the development of dry conditions in East Africa. These valleys, including the Turkana Basin in Kenya, cause East Africa to dry by channelling water vapour towards Central Africa, a process that simultaneously enhances rainfall in the Congo Basin rainforest. Without the valleys, the uplift of the rift system leads to a wetter climate in East Africa and a drier climate in the Congo Basin. Results from climate model experiments demonstrate that the detailed tectonic development of Africa has shaped the rainfall distribution, with profound implications for the evolution of African plant and animal lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Callum Munday
- Climate Research Lab, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | | | | | - Richard Washington
- Climate Research Lab, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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20
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Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia). Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:279-289. [PMID: 36646949 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01947-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
During the Early to Middle Pleistocene, Java was inhabited by hominid taxa of great diversity. However, their seasonal dietary strategies have never been explored. We undertook geochemical analyses of orangutan (Pongo sp.), Homo erectus and other mammalian Pleistocene teeth from Sangiran. We reconstructed past dietary strategies at subweekly resolution and inferred seasonal ecological patterns. Histologically controlled spatially resolved elemental analyses by laser-based plasma mass spectrometry confirmed the preservation of authentic biogenic signals despite the effect of spatially restricted diagenetic overprint. The Sr/Ca record of faunal remains is in line with expected trophic positions, contextualizing fossil hominid diet. Pongo sp. displays marked seasonal cycles with ~3 month-long strongly elevated Sr/Ca peaks, reflecting contrasting plant food consumption presumably during the monsoon season, while lower Sr/Ca ratios suggest different food availability during the dry season. In contrast, omnivorous H. erectus shows low and less accentuated intra-annual Sr/Ca variability compared to Pongo sp., with δ13C data of one individual indicating a dietary shift from C4 to a mix of C3 and C4 plants. Our data suggest that H. erectus on Java was maximizing the resources available in more open mosaic habitats and was less dependent on variations in seasonal resource availability. While still influenced by seasonal food availability, we infer that H. erectus was affected to a lesser degree than Pongo sp., which inhabited monsoonal rain forests on Java. We suggest that H. erectus maintained a greater degree of nutritional independence by exploiting the regional diversity of food resources across the seasons.
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21
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Drummond-Clarke RC, Kivell TL, Sarringhaus L, Stewart FA, Humle T, Piel AK. Wild chimpanzee behavior suggests that a savanna-mosaic habitat did not support the emergence of hominin terrestrial bipedalism. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eadd9752. [PMID: 36516260 PMCID: PMC9750136 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add9752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Bipedalism, a defining feature of the human lineage, is thought to have evolved as forests retreated in the late Miocene-Pliocene. Chimpanzees living in analogous habitats to early hominins offer a unique opportunity to investigate the ecological drivers of bipedalism that cannot be addressed via the fossil record alone. We investigated positional behavior and terrestriality in a savanna-mosaic community of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Issa Valley, Tanzania as the first test in a living ape of the hypothesis that wooded, savanna habitats were a catalyst for terrestrial bipedalism. Contrary to widely accepted hypotheses of increased terrestriality selecting for habitual bipedalism, results indicate that trees remained an essential component of the hominin adaptive niche, with bipedalism evolving in an arboreal context, likely driven by foraging strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Tracy L. Kivell
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- Centre for the Exploration of the Deep Human Journey, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Lauren Sarringhaus
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Fiona A. Stewart
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
- School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
| | - Tatyana Humle
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Alex K. Piel
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
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22
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Patterson DB, Du A, Faith JT, Rowan J, Uno K, Behrensmeyer AK, Braun DR, Wood BA. Did vegetation change drive the extinction of Paranthropus boisei? J Hum Evol 2022; 173:103154. [PMID: 35314089 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2021] [Revised: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- David B Patterson
- Department of Biology, University of North Georgia, Dahlonega, GA 30597, USA.
| | - Andrew Du
- Department of Anthropology and Geography, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, 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
| | - John Rowan
- Department of Anthropology, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222, USA
| | - Kevin Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Anna K Behrensmeyer
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20013, USA
| | - David R Braun
- Technological Primate Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 604103, Leipzig, Germany; Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| | - Bernard A Wood
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
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23
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Quinn RL, Lepre CJ. C 4 plant food loss probably influenced Paranthropus boisei's extinction: A reply to Patterson et al.'s commentary on Quinn and Lepre (2021). J Hum Evol 2022; 173:103269. [PMID: 36270813 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rhonda L Quinn
- School of Earth, Environment and Society, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43402, USA.
| | - Christopher J Lepre
- School of Earth, Environment and Society, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43402, USA
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24
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Lüdecke T, Leichliter JN, Aldeias V, Bamford MK, Biro D, Braun DR, Capelli C, Cybulski JD, Duprey NN, Ferreira da Silva MJ, Foreman AD, Habermann JM, Haug GH, Martínez FI, Mathe J, Mulch A, Sigman DM, Vonhof H, Bobe R, Carvalho S, Martínez-García A. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen stable isotopes in modern tooth enamel: A case study from Gorongosa National Park, central Mozambique. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.958032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The analyses of the stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and oxygen (δ18O) in animal tissues are powerful tools for reconstructing the feeding behavior of individual animals and characterizing trophic interactions in food webs. Of these biomaterials, tooth enamel is the hardest, most mineralized vertebrate tissue and therefore least likely to be affected by chemical alteration (i.e., its isotopic composition can be preserved over millions of years), making it an important and widely available archive for biologists and paleontologists. Here, we present the first combined measurements of δ13C, δ15N, and δ18O in enamel from the teeth of modern fauna (herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores) from the well-studied ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park (GNP) in central Mozambique. We use two novel methods to produce high-precision stable isotope enamel data: (i) the “oxidation-denitrification method,” which permits the measurement of mineral-bound organic nitrogen in tooth enamel (δ15Nenamel), which until now, has not been possible due to enamel’s low organic content, and (ii) the “cold trap method,” which greatly reduces the sample size required for traditional measurements of inorganic δ13Cenamel and δ18Oenamel (from ≥0.5 to ≤0.1 mg), permitting analysis of small or valuable teeth and high-resolution serial sampling of enamel. The stable isotope results for GNP fauna reveal important ecological information about the trophic level, dietary niche, and resource consumption. δ15Nenamel values clearly differentiate trophic level (i.e., carnivore δ15Nenamel values are 4.0‰ higher, on average, than herbivores), δ13Cenamel values distinguish C3 and/or C4 biomass consumption, and δ18Oenamel values reflect local meteoric water (δ18Owater) in the park. Analysis of combined carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen stable isotope data permits geochemical separation of grazers, browsers, omnivores, and carnivores according to their isotopic niche, while mixed-feeding herbivores cannot be clearly distinguished from other dietary groups. These results confirm that combined C, N, and O isotope analyses of a single aliquot of tooth enamel can be used to reconstruct diet and trophic niches. Given its resistance to chemical alteration, the analysis of these three isotopes in tooth enamel has a high potential to open new avenues of research in (paleo)ecology and paleontology.
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25
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Yoshikawa M, Ogawa H, Koganezawa M, Idani G. Seasonal food changes and feeding behaviour adaptations of savanna chimpanzees at Nguye in Ugalla, Tanzania. Primates 2022; 63:585-601. [PMID: 36190603 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-022-01018-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 10/10/2022]
Abstract
We studied the feeding strategies of savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Nguye in Ugalla, Western Tanzania (05°13'S, 30°28'E). Among the driest most open chimpanzee habitats, Ugalla is covered mainly by woodlands. We analysed undigested contents in chimpanzee faeces, and conducted a vegetation survey and a 1-year phenology survey every 2 weeks. The fruits of some trees with the highest biomass had high appearance rates in faeces (e.g. Parinari curatellifolia and Diplorhynchus condylocarpon). Herbaceous Aframomum mala fruits grew in large patches in savanna woodland near forest edges along rivers and had the highest appearance frequency over the longest seasonal period in faeces. Other species with higher appearance rates in faeces for long seasonal periods included Grewia mollis at the forest edge and Thespesia garckeana growing on termite mounds at the forest edge. These two tree species had low biomass. Thus, savanna chimpanzees fed on some tree foods with higher biomass, herbaceous fruits instead of scarcer tree fruits, and fruits at forest edges and in forests which occupy a small portion of the study area, in addition to woodlands which occupy a large proportion. The forest edge and interior run continuously for long distances along rivers. Forest occupies 2% of this area, but chimpanzees can continuously obtain food by moving along riverine forest. To compensate for fruit scarcity in the non-fruiting (early rainy) season, chimpanzees ate fibrous, low-quality plant parts. Chimpanzees formed smaller parties when ripe fruits and unripe legumes were scarcer. Using these feeding strategies, chimpanzees adapted to savanna woodlands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Midori Yoshikawa
- Department of Zoology, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0005, Japan.
| | - Hideshi Ogawa
- Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chukyo University, Toyota, Japan
| | | | - Gen'ichi Idani
- Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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26
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Fine-scaled climate variation in equatorial Africa revealed by modern and fossil primate teeth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2123366119. [PMID: 35994633 PMCID: PMC9440354 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2123366119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental variability may have spurred unique adaptations among Miocene apes and later hominins, but this hypothesis has been impossible to test on the scale relevant to individual lifespans. We establish that oxygen isotope compositions in modern primate teeth record annual and semiannual seasonal rainfall patterns across a broad range of environments in equatorial Africa. We then document annual dry seasons experienced by the large-bodied Early Miocene ape Afropithecus turkanensis, which may explain its novel dental adaptations and prolonged development. By revealing real-time historical and prehistoric environmental variation on a near weekly basis, we demonstrate that extraordinary behavioral and ecological variability can be recovered from modern and fossil African primates. Variability in resource availability is hypothesized to be a significant driver of primate adaptation and evolution, but most paleoclimate proxies cannot recover environmental seasonality on the scale of an individual lifespan. Oxygen isotope compositions (δ18O values) sampled at high spatial resolution in the dentitions of modern African primates (n = 2,352 near weekly measurements from 26 teeth) track concurrent seasonal precipitation, regional climatic patterns, discrete meteorological events, and niche partitioning. We leverage these data to contextualize the first δ18O values of two 17 Ma Afropithecus turkanensis individuals from Kalodirr, Kenya, from which we infer variably bimodal wet seasons, supported by rainfall reconstructions in a global Earth system model. Afropithecus’ δ18O fluctuations are intermediate in magnitude between those measured at high resolution in baboons (Papio spp.) living across a gradient of aridity and modern forest-dwelling chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). This large-bodied Miocene ape consumed seasonally variable food and water sources enriched in 18O compared to contemporaneous terrestrial fauna (n = 66 fossil specimens). Reliance on fallback foods during documented dry seasons potentially contributed to novel dental features long considered adaptations to hard-object feeding. Developmentally informed microsampling recovers greater ecological complexity than conventional isotope sampling; the two Miocene apes (n = 248 near weekly measurements) evince as great a range of seasonal δ18O variation as more time-averaged bulk measurements from 101 eastern African Plio-Pleistocene hominins and 42 papionins spanning 4 million y. These results reveal unprecedented environmental histories in primate teeth and suggest a framework for evaluating climate change and primate paleoecology throughout the Cenozoic.
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27
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Stancampiano LM, Sistiaga A, Del Val DU, Aramendi J, Baquedano E, Mabulla A, Domínguez-Rodrigo M, Magill CR. New site at Olduvai Gorge (AGS, Bed I, 1.84 Mya) widens the range of locations where hominins engaged in butchery. Sci Rep 2022; 12:9794. [PMID: 35697774 PMCID: PMC9192694 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-14031-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Outstanding questions about human evolution include systematic connections between critical landscape resources-such as water and food-and how these shaped the competitive and biodiverse environment(s) that our ancestors inhabited. Here, we report fossil n-alkyl lipid biomarkers and their associated δ13C values across a newly discovered Olduvai Gorge site (AGS) dated to 1.84 million years ago, enabling a multiproxy analysis of the distributions of critical local landscape resources across an explicit locus of hominin activity. Our results reveal that AGS was a seasonally waterlogged, largely unvegetated lakeside site situated near an ephemeral freshwater river surrounded by arid-adapted C4 grasses. The sparse vegetation at AGS contrasts with reconstructed (micro)habitats at the other anthropogenic sites at Olduvai Gorge, suggesting that central-provisioning places depended more heavily on water access than vegetation viz. woody plants as is often observed for modern hunter-gatherers. As hominins at AGS performed similar butchering activities as at other Bed I sites, our results suggest they did not need the shelter of trees and thus occupied a competitive position within the predatory guild.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ainara Sistiaga
- University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
| | - David Uribelarrea Del Val
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
- Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Enrique Baquedano
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
- Regional Archaeological Museum of the Community of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Audax Mabulla
- University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005-1827, USA
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28
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Herzog NM, Pruetz JD, Hawkes K. Investigating foundations for hominin fire exploitation: Savanna-dwelling chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in fire-altered landscapes. J Hum Evol 2022; 167:103193. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2021] [Revised: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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29
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Rowan J, Lazagabaster IA, Campisano CJ, Bibi F, Bobe R, Boisserie JR, Frost SR, Getachew T, Gilbert CC, Lewis ME, Melaku S, Scott E, Souron A, Werdelin L, Kimbel WH, Reed KE. Early Pleistocene large mammals from Maka'amitalu, Hadar, lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia. PeerJ 2022; 10:e13210. [PMID: 35411256 PMCID: PMC8994497 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The Early Pleistocene was a critical time period in the evolution of eastern African mammal faunas, but fossil assemblages sampling this interval are poorly known from Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Field work by the Hadar Research Project in the Busidima Formation exposures (~2.7-0.8 Ma) of Hadar in the lower Awash Valley, resulted in the recovery of an early Homo maxilla (A.L. 666-1) with associated stone tools and fauna from the Maka'amitalu basin in the 1990s. These assemblages are dated to ~2.35 Ma by the Bouroukie Tuff 3 (BKT-3). Continued work by the Hadar Research Project over the last two decades has greatly expanded the faunal collection. Here, we provide a comprehensive account of the Maka'amitalu large mammals (Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Primates, and Proboscidea) and discuss their paleoecological and biochronological significance. The size of the Maka'amitalu assemblage is small compared to those from the Hadar Formation (3.45-2.95 Ma) and Ledi-Geraru (2.8-2.6 Ma) but includes at least 20 taxa. Bovids, suids, and Theropithecus are common in terms of both species richness and abundance, whereas carnivorans, equids, and megaherbivores are rare. While the taxonomic composition of the Maka'amitalu fauna indicates significant species turnover from the Hadar Formation and Ledi-Geraru deposits, turnover seems to have occurred at a constant rate through time as taxonomic dissimilarity between adjacent fossil assemblages is strongly predicted by their age difference. A similar pattern characterizes functional ecological turnover, with only subtle changes in dietary proportions, body size proportions, and bovid abundances across the composite lower Awash sequence. Biochronological comparisons with other sites in eastern Africa suggest that the taxa recovered from the Maka'amitalu are broadly consistent with the reported age of the BKT-3 tuff. Considering the age of BKT-3 and biochronology, a range of 2.4-1.9 Ma is most likely for the faunal assemblage.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Rowan
- Department of Anthropology, University at Albany, Albany, New York, United States
| | | | - Christopher J. Campisano
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
| | | | - René Bobe
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom,Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique,Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - Jean-Renaud Boisserie
- Laboratoire Paléontologie Évolution Paléoécosystèmes Paléoprimatologie, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France,Centre Français des Etudes Ethiopiennes (CNRS and Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Ambassade de France, Ethiopia), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Stephen R. Frost
- Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States
| | - Tomas Getachew
- Laboratoire Paléontologie Évolution Paléoécosystèmes Paléoprimatologie, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France,Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Christopher C. Gilbert
- Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, Hunter College, New York, United States,New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), New York, United States
| | - Margaret E. Lewis
- Biology Program, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Stockton University, Galloway, New Jersey, United States
| | - Sahleselasie Melaku
- Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,Paleoanthropology and Paleoenvironment Program, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Eric Scott
- Cogstone Resource Management Inc, Orange, California, United States,Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California, United States
| | | | - Lars Werdelin
- Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - William H. Kimbel
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
| | - Kaye E. Reed
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
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Frank HER, Amato K, Trautwein M, Maia P, Liman ER, Nichols LM, Schwenk K, Breslin PAS, Dunn RR. The evolution of sour taste. Proc Biol Sci 2022; 289:20211918. [PMID: 35135352 PMCID: PMC8826303 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1918] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolutionary history of sour taste has been little studied. Through a combination of literature review and trait mapping on the vertebrate phylogenetic tree, we consider the origin of sour taste, potential cases of the loss of sour taste, and those factors that might have favoured changes in the valence of sour taste-from aversive to appealing. We reconstruct sour taste as having evolved in ancient fish. By contrast to other tastes, sour taste does not appear to have been lost in any major vertebrate taxa. For most species, sour taste is aversive. Animals, including humans, that enjoy the sour taste triggered by acidic foods are exceptional. We conclude by considering why sour taste evolved, why it might have persisted as vertebrates made the transition to land and what factors might have favoured the preference for sour-tasting, acidic foods, particularly in hominins, such as humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah E. R. Frank
- Department of Crop and Soil Sciences North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
| | - Katie Amato
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Michelle Trautwein
- Entomology Department, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA
| | - Paula Maia
- Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Emily R. Liman
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Lauren M. Nichols
- Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
| | - Kurt Schwenk
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Paul A. S. Breslin
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA,Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Robert R. Dunn
- Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA,Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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31
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Domínguez‐Rodrigo M. Savannas, human evolution, and only in Africa. Evol Anthropol 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Domínguez‐Rodrigo
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA) University of Alcalá Madrid Spain
- Department of Anthropology Rice University Houston Texas USA
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32
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Giuliano C, Stewart FA, Piel AK. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) grouping patterns in an open and dry savanna landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania. J Hum Evol 2022; 163:103137. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Revised: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Mosaic habitats at Woranso-Mille (Ethiopia) during the Pliocene and implications for Australopithecus paleoecology and taxonomic diversity. J Hum Evol 2022; 163:103076. [PMID: 34998271 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 08/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Many important Pliocene hominin specimens have been recovered from Woranso-Mille, a paleontological research area in the Afar region of Ethiopia, including the complete cranium of Australopithecus anamensis, a partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, mandibular and maxillary elements representing a new species, Australopithecus deyiremeda, and a partial foot of an as-yet-unnamed species. Woranso-Mille is the only site, so far, to have reported the co-existence of more than one early hominin species between 3.8 and 3.3 Ma and the temporal overlap between A. anamensis and A. afarensis. Thus, the site has important implications for our understanding of the paleoecology and taxonomic diversity of early hominins and their ecological niche. This paper explores the paleohabitats of Woranso-Mille through its faunal community ecological structure and taxonomic composition using correspondence analysis and Forbes modified similarity index. The results suggest that Pliocene Woranso-Mille was a mosaic of different habitat types, with riparian woodland and floodplain grassland along rivers draining into a lake, along with less mesic habitats such as woodland, grassland, and shrubland. The apparent high level of vegetation heterogeneity may have promoted dietary specializations and niche differentiation among the different Australopithecus species at Woranso-Mille and allowed for their co-existence at the site.
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Bartolini-Lucenti S, Cirilli O, Pandolfi L, Bernor RL, Bukhsianidze M, Carotenuto F, Lordkipanidze D, Tsikaridze N, Rook L. Zoogeographic significance of Dmanisi large mammal assemblage. J Hum Evol 2021; 163:103125. [PMID: 34954399 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 11/23/2021] [Accepted: 11/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
We undertake a comparative mammalian zoogeographic analysis with the aim of revealing the extent to which the Dmanisi Early Pleistocene large mammal assemblage resembles, at the genus level, African, Arabian, and Eurasian localities of similar age. The inclusion of Old World Pliocene and Pleistocene mammalian faunas provides us with insights into the provincial origins of specific mammalian taxa and permits us to assess the relative affiliation of the Dmanisi mammalian faunas to other faunas in the Old World. Our analysis also allows us to consider hypotheses about the timing and direction of zoogeographic connections between western Eurasia and Africa during the Early Pleistocene. We utilize multiple zoogeographic analytical tools as a cross-comparison of Dmanisi with 42 other Eurasian and African mammalian-bearing localities between 2.7 and 0.7 Ma. Overall, we find that Dmanisi compares most closely with a subgroup of Greek, Italian, and Spanish localities that are slightly younger than Dmanisi itself. This could suggest a progressive dispersal from East to West of the large mammal communities during the late Early Pleistocene and the first occurrence at Dmanisi, and then later in Western Europe, of some taxa such as Stephanorhinus ex gr. etruscus-hundsheimensis, Equus altidens, Bison georgicus, Soergelia minor, Megantereon whitei, Canis borjgali, Canis (Xenocyon) lycaonoides. Dmanisi's habitats included drier areas, probably of open wooded savannah and grassland and by mountainous to semiarid rocky terrain. There is evidence that Dmanisi records short intervals of increased aridity in the middle part of the succession contemporaneous with the occurrence of Homo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saverio Bartolini-Lucenti
- Earth Science Department, Paleo[Fab]Lab, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy; Natural History Museum, Geology and Paleontology Section, via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy
| | - Omar Cirilli
- Earth Science Department, Paleo[Fab]Lab, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy; Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze della Terra, University of Pisa, via S. Maria 56, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| | - Luca Pandolfi
- Earth Science Department, Paleo[Fab]Lab, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy
| | - Raymond Louis Bernor
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Howard University, 20059, Washington DC, USA; Human Origins Program, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 20013, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Maia Bukhsianidze
- Georgian National Museum, 3, Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi-0105, Georgia
| | - Francesco Carotenuto
- Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources, "Federico II" University of Naples, Via Cinthia 21, 80126, Naples, Italy
| | | | | | - Lorenzo Rook
- Earth Science Department, Paleo[Fab]Lab, University of Florence, via La Pira 4, 50121, Firenze, Italy.
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35
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Lindshield S, Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Korstjens AH, Marchant LF, Narat V, Ndiaye PI, Ogawa H, Piel AK, Pruetz JD, Stewart FA, van Leeuwen KL, Wessling EG, Yoshikawa M. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in savanna landscapes. Evol Anthropol 2021; 30:399-420. [PMID: 34542218 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2020] [Revised: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the only great apes that inhabit hot, dry, and open savannas. We review the environmental pressures of savannas on chimpanzees, such as food and water scarcity, and the evidence for chimpanzees' behavioral responses to these landscapes. In our analysis, savannas were generally associated with low chimpanzee population densities and large home ranges. In addition, thermoregulatory behaviors that likely reduce hyperthermia risk, such as cave use, were frequently observed in the hottest and driest savanna landscapes. We hypothesize that such responses are evidence of a "savanna landscape effect" in chimpanzees and offer pathways for future research to understand its evolutionary processes and mechanisms. We conclude by discussing the significance of research on savanna chimpanzees to modeling the evolution of early hominin traits and informing conservation programs for these endangered apes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stacy Lindshield
- Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
| | - R Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Amanda H Korstjens
- Life and Environmental Sciences Department, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, UK
| | | | - Victor Narat
- CNRS/MNHN/Paris Diderot, UMR 7206 Eco-anthropology, Paris, France
| | - Papa Ibnou Ndiaye
- Département de Biologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
| | - Hideshi Ogawa
- School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo University, Toyota, Aichi, Japan
| | - Alex K Piel
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Jill D Pruetz
- Department of Anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, USA
| | - Fiona A Stewart
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK.,School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
| | - Kelly L van Leeuwen
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, UK
| | - Erin G Wessling
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Midori Yoshikawa
- Department of Zoology, National Museum of Nature and Science, Ibaraki, Tokyo, Japan
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36
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Seasonality and Oldowan behavioral variability in East Africa. J Hum Evol 2021; 164:103070. [PMID: 34548178 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Revised: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The extent, nature, and temporality of early hominin food procurement strategies have been subject to extensive debate. In this article, we examine evidence for the seasonal scheduling of resource procurement and technological investment in the Oldowan, starting with an evaluation of the seasonal signature of underground storage organs, freshwater resources, and terrestrial animal resources in extant primates and modern human hunter-gatherer populations. Subsequently, we use the mortality profiles, taxonomic composition, and taphonomy of the bovid assemblages at Kanjera South (Homa Peninsula, Kenya) and FLK-Zinj (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) to illustrate the behavioral flexibility of Oldowan hominins, who were targeting different seasonally vulnerable demographics. In terms of the lithic assemblages, the specific opportunities and constraints afforded by dry season subsistence at FLK-Zinj may have disincentivized lithic investment, resulting in a more expedient toolkit for fast and effective carcass processing. This may have been reinforced by raw material site provisioning during a relatively prolonged seasonal occupation, reducing pressures on the reduction and curation of lithic implements. In contrast, wet season plant abundance would have offered a predictable set of high-quality resources associated with low levels of competition and reduced search times, in the context of perhaps greater seasonal mobility and consequently shorter occupations. These factors appear to have fostered technological investment to reduce resource handling costs at Kanjera South, facilitated by more consistent net returns and enhanced planning of lithic deployment throughout the landscape. We subsequently discuss the seasonality of freshwater resources in Oldowan procurement strategies, focusing on FwJj20 (Koobi Fora, Kenya). Although more analytical studies with representative sample sizes are needed, we argue that interassemblage differences evidence the ability of Oldowan hominins to adapt to seasonal constraints and opportunities in resource exploitation.
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37
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Hunt KD, Dunevant SE, Yohler RM, Carlson KJ. Femoral Bicondylar Angles among Dry-Habitat Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Resemble Those of Humans: Implications for Knee Function, Australopith Sexual Dimorphism, and the Evolution of Bipedalism. JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021. [DOI: 10.1086/715398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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38
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Patalano R, Roberts P, Boivin N, Petraglia MD, Mercader J. Plant wax biomarkers in human evolutionary studies. Evol Anthropol 2021; 30:385-398. [PMID: 34369041 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Plant wax biomarkers are an innovative proxy for reconstructing vegetation composition and structure, rainfall intensity, temperature, and other climatic and environmental dynamics. Traditionally used in earth sciences and climate studies from "off-site" ocean and lake records, biomarker research is now incorporated in archeology and paleoanthropology to answer questions relating to past human-environment interactions and human evolution. Biomarker research is generating new and exciting information on the ecological context in which Homo and its closest relatives evolved, adapted, and invented stone tool technologies. In this review, we examine plant wax biomarkers and their use in reconstructing past plant landscapes and hydroclimates. We summarize the applications of plant wax molecular proxies in archeological research, assess challenges relating to taphonomy, consider the role of modern plant ecosystems in interpreting ancient habitats, and examine case studies conducted at key paleoanthropological locations in eastern and southern Africa and Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Patalano
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.,Archaeological Studies Program, University of Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines
| | - Nicole Boivin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.,Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.,Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Michael D Petraglia
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.,Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Julio Mercader
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.,Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.,Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Tarragona, Spain
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39
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Lupien RL, Russell JM, Subramanian A, Kinyanjui R, Beverly EJ, Uno KT, de Menocal P, Dommain R, Potts R. Eastern African environmental variation and its role in the evolution and cultural change of Homo over the last 1 million years. J Hum Evol 2021; 157:103028. [PMID: 34216947 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Characterizing eastern African environmental variability on orbital timescales is crucial to evaluating the hominin evolutionary response to past climate changes. However, there is a dearth of high-resolution, well-dated records of ecosystem dynamics from eastern Africa that cover long time intervals. In the last 1 Myr, there were significant anatomical and cultural developments in Homo, including the origin of Homo sapiens. There were also major changes in global climatic boundary conditions that may have affected eastern African environments, yet potential linkages remain poorly understood. We developed carbon isotopic records from plant waxes (δ13Cwax) and bulk organic matter (δ13COM) from a well-dated sediment core spanning the last ∼1 Myr extracted from the Koora Basin, located south of the Olorgesailie Basin, in the southern Kenya rift. Our record characterizes the climatic and environmental context for evolutionary events and technological advances recorded in the adjacent Olorgesailie Basin, such as the transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age tools by 320 ka. A significant shift toward more C4-dominated ecosystems and arid conditions occurred near the end of the mid-Pleistocene Transition, which indicates a link between equatorial eastern African and high-latitude northern hemisphere climate. Environmental variability increases throughout the mid- to late-Pleistocene, superimposed by precession-paced packets of variability modulated by eccentricity. An interval of particularly high-amplitude climate and environmental variability occurred from ∼275 ka to ∼180 ka, synchronous with evidence for the first H. sapiens fossils in eastern Africa. These results support the 'variability selection hypothesis' that increased environmental variability selected for adaptable traits, behaviors, and technology in our hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel L Lupien
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
| | - James M Russell
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Avinash Subramanian
- Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA
| | - Rahab Kinyanjui
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
| | - Emily J Beverly
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Kevin T Uno
- Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - Peter de Menocal
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA; Division of Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
| | - René Dommain
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany; Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Richard Potts
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA; Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
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40
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d'Oliveira Coelho J, Anemone RL, Carvalho S. Unsupervised learning of satellite images enhances discovery of late Miocene fossil sites in the Urema Rift, Gorongosa, Mozambique. PeerJ 2021; 9:e11573. [PMID: 34164235 PMCID: PMC8194420 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Paleoanthropological research focus still devotes most resources to areas generally known to be fossil rich instead of a strategy that first maps and identifies possible fossil sites in a given region. This leads to the paradoxical task of planning paleontological campaigns without knowing the true extent and likely potential of each fossil site and, hence, how to optimize the investment of time and resources. Yet to answer key questions in hominin evolution, paleoanthropologists must engage in fieldwork that targets substantial temporal and geographical gaps in the fossil record. How can the risk of potentially unsuccessful surveys be minimized, while maximizing the potential for successful surveys? Methods Here we present a simple and effective solution for finding fossil sites based on clustering by unsupervised learning of satellite images with the k-means algorithm and pioneer its testing in the Urema Rift, the southern termination of the East African Rift System (EARS). We focus on a relatively unknown time period critical for understanding African apes and early hominin evolution, the early part of the late Miocene, in an overlooked area of southeastern Africa, in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. This clustering approach highlighted priority targets for prospecting that represented only 4.49% of the total area analysed. Results Applying this method, four new fossil sites were discovered in the area, and results show an 85% accuracy in a binary classification. This indicates the high potential of a remote sensing tool for exploratory paleontological surveys by enhancing the discovery of productive fossiliferous deposits. The relative importance of spectral bands for clustering was also determined using the random forest algorithm, and near-infrared was the most important variable for fossil site detection, followed by other infrared variables. Bands in the visible spectrum performed the worst and are not likely indicators of fossil sites. Discussion We show that unsupervised learning is a useful tool for locating new fossil sites in relatively unexplored regions. Additionally, it can be used to target specific gaps in the fossil record and to increase the sample of fossil sites. In Gorongosa, the discovery of the first estuarine coastal forests of the EARS fills an important paleobiogeographic gap of Africa. These new sites will be key for testing hypotheses of primate evolution in such environmental settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- João d'Oliveira Coelho
- University of Oxford, Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Universidade de Coimbra, Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Robert L Anemone
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Anthropology, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Susana Carvalho
- University of Oxford, Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Human Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Universidade de Coimbra, Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), Coimbra, Portugal.,Universidade do Algarve, Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Faro, Portugal.,Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique
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41
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Huntley J, Aubert M, Oktaviana AA, Lebe R, Hakim B, Burhan B, Aksa LM, Geria IM, Ramli M, Siagian L, Brand HEA, Brumm A. The effects of climate change on the Pleistocene rock art of Sulawesi. Sci Rep 2021; 11:9833. [PMID: 33986305 PMCID: PMC8119963 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87923-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2020] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The equatorial tropics house some of the earliest rock art yet known, and it is weathering at an alarming rate. Here we present evidence for haloclasty (salt crystallisation) from Pleistocene-aged rock art panels at 11 sites in the Maros-Pangkep limestone karsts of southern Sulawesi. We show how quickly rock art panels have degraded in recent decades, contending that climate-catalysed salt efflorescence is responsible for increasing exfoliation of the limestone cave surfaces that house the ~ 45 to 20-thousand-year-old paintings. These artworks are located in the world's most atmospherically dynamic region, the Australasian monsoon domain. The rising frequency and severity of El Niño-induced droughts from anthropogenic climate change (that is, higher ambient temperatures and more consecutive dry days), combined with seasonal moisture injected via monsoonal rains retained as standing water in the rice fields and aquaculture ponds of the region, increasingly provide ideal conditions for evaporation and haloclasty, accelerating rock art deterioration.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Huntley
- Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, PERAHU, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
| | - M Aubert
- Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, PERAHU, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.,Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - A A Oktaviana
- Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, PERAHU, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.,Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (ARKENAS), Jakarta, Indonesia
| | - R Lebe
- Balai Pelestarian Cagar Budaya, Sulawesi Selatan, Makassar, Indonesia
| | - B Hakim
- Balai Arkeologi Sulawesi, Sulawesi Selatan, Makassar, Indonesia
| | - B Burhan
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - L Muhammad Aksa
- Balai Pelestarian Cagar Budaya, Sulawesi Selatan, Makassar, Indonesia
| | - I Made Geria
- Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (ARKENAS), Jakarta, Indonesia
| | - M Ramli
- Balai Pelestarian Cagar Budaya, Sulawesi Selatan, Makassar, Indonesia
| | - L Siagian
- Museum Kepresidenan Republik Indonesia, Balai Kirti, Bogor, Indonesia.,Universitas Gadjah Mada (Fakultas Ilmu Budaya-Magister Arkeologi), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
| | - H E A Brand
- Australian Synchrotron, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - A Brumm
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
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42
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Intrataxonomic trends in herbivore enamel δ 13C are decoupled from ecosystem woody cover. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:995-1002. [PMID: 33941906 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01455-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Analysis of enamel stable carbon isotopes (δ13Cenamel) of fossil herbivores is an important tool for making inferences about Plio-Pleistocene vegetation structure in Africa and the environmental context of hominin evolution. Many palaeoecological studies implicitly or explicitly assume that individual variation in C3-C4 plant consumption among fossil herbivores directly reflects the abundance of C3 (trees, shrubs) or C4 (low-altitude tropical grasses) vegetation. However, a strong link between δ13Cenamel of herbivores and ecosystem vegetation structure has not been rigorously established. Here we combine δ13Cenamel data from a large dataset (n = 1,643) with multidecadal Landsat estimates of C3 woody cover across 30 African ecosystems to show that there is little relationship between intrataxonomic variation in δ13Cenamel and vegetation structure. This is especially true when removing forested ecosystems (>80% woody cover)-which numerous lines of evidence suggest are rare in the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record of eastern Africa-from our analyses. Our findings stand in contrast with the common assumption that variation in herbivore δ13Cenamel values reflects changes in the relative abundance of C3-C4 vegetation. We conclude that analyses using herbivore δ13Cenamel data to shed light on the environmental context of hominin evolution should look to explicitly community-level approaches for making vegetation inferences.
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Quinn RL, Lepre CJ. Contracting eastern African C 4 grasslands during the extinction of Paranthropus boisei. Sci Rep 2021; 11:7164. [PMID: 33785831 PMCID: PMC8009881 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86642-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2020] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The extinction of the Paranthropus boisei estimated to just before 1 Ma occurred when C4 grasslands dominated landscapes of the Eastern African Rift System (EARS). P. boisei has been characterized as an herbivorous C4 specialist, and paradoxically, its demise coincided with habitats favorable to its dietary ecology. Here we report new pedogenic carbonate stable carbon (δ13CPC) and oxygen (δ18OPC) values (nodules = 53, analyses = 95) from an under-sampled interval (1.4-0.7 Ma) in the Turkana Basin (Kenya), one of the most fossiliferous locales of P. boisei. We combined our new results with published δ13CPC values from the EARS dated to 3-0 Ma, conducted time-series analysis of woody cover (ƒWC), and compared the EARS ƒWC trends to regional and global paleo-environmental and -climatic datasets. Our results demonstrate that the long-term rise of C4 grasslands was punctuated by a transient but significant increase in C3 vegetation and warmer temperatures, coincident with the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (1.3-0.7 Ma) and implicating a short-term rise in pCO2. The contraction of C4 grasslands escalated dietary competition amongst the abundant C4-feeders, likely influencing P. boisei's demise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhonda L. Quinn
- grid.263379.a0000 0001 2172 0072Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Ave, South Orange, NJ 07079 USA ,grid.430387.b0000 0004 1936 8796Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
| | - Christopher J. Lepre
- grid.430387.b0000 0004 1936 8796Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
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Phillips S, Scheffrahn RH, Piel A, Stewart F, Agbor A, Brazzola G, Tickle A, Sommer V, Dieguez P, Wessling EG, Arandjelovic M, Kühl H, Boesch C, Oelze VM. Limited evidence of C4 plant consumption in mound building Macrotermes termites from savanna woodland chimpanzee sites. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0244685. [PMID: 33566803 PMCID: PMC7875366 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Accepted: 12/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Stable isotope analysis is an increasingly used molecular tool to reconstruct the diet and ecology of elusive primates such as unhabituated chimpanzees. The consumption of C4 plant feeding termites by chimpanzees may partly explain the relatively high carbon isotope values reported for some chimpanzee communities. However, the modest availability of termite isotope data as well as the diversity and cryptic ecology of termites potentially consumed by chimpanzees obscures our ability to assess the plausibility of these termites as a C4 resource. Here we report the carbon and nitrogen isotope values from 79 Macrotermes termite samples from six savanna woodland chimpanzee research sites across equatorial Africa. Using mixing models, we estimated the proportion of Macrotermes C4 plant consumption across savanna woodland sites. Additionally, we tested for isotopic differences between termite colonies in different vegetation types and between the social castes within the same colony in a subset of 47 samples from 12 mounds. We found that Macrotermes carbon isotope values were indistinguishable from those of C3 plants. Only 5 to 15% of Macrotermes diets were comprised of C4 plants across sites, suggesting that they cannot be considered a C4 food resource substantially influencing the isotope signatures of consumers. In the Macrotermes subsample, vegetation type and caste were significantly correlated with termite carbon values, but not with nitrogen isotope values. Large Macrotermes soldiers, preferentially consumed by chimpanzees, had comparably low carbon isotope values relative to other termite castes. We conclude that Macrotermes consumption is unlikely to result in high carbon isotope values in either extant chimpanzees or fossil hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seth Phillips
- Anthropology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America
| | - Rudolf H. Scheffrahn
- Fort Lauderdale Research & Education Center, Davie, Florida, United States of America
| | - Alex Piel
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Fiona Stewart
- School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Anthony Agbor
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Gregory Brazzola
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Alexander Tickle
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Volker Sommer
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Gashaka Primate Project, Serti, Taraba, Nigeria
| | - Paula Dieguez
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erin G. Wessling
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Mimi Arandjelovic
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hjalmar Kühl
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christophe Boesch
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Vicky M. Oelze
- Anthropology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America
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Couvreur TL, Dauby G, Blach‐Overgaard A, Deblauwe V, Dessein S, Droissart V, Hardy OJ, Harris DJ, Janssens SB, Ley AC, Mackinder BA, Sonké B, Sosef MS, Stévart T, Svenning J, Wieringa JJ, Faye A, Missoup AD, Tolley KA, Nicolas V, Ntie S, Fluteau F, Robin C, Guillocheau F, Barboni D, Sepulchre P. Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 96:16-51. [PMID: 32924323 PMCID: PMC7821006 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2020] [Revised: 08/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Tropical Africa is home to an astonishing biodiversity occurring in a variety of ecosystems. Past climatic change and geological events have impacted the evolution and diversification of this biodiversity. During the last two decades, around 90 dated molecular phylogenies of different clades across animals and plants have been published leading to an increased understanding of the diversification and speciation processes generating tropical African biodiversity. In parallel, extended geological and palaeoclimatic records together with detailed numerical simulations have refined our understanding of past geological and climatic changes in Africa. To date, these important advances have not been reviewed within a common framework. Here, we critically review and synthesize African climate, tectonics and terrestrial biodiversity evolution throughout the Cenozoic to the mid-Pleistocene, drawing on recent advances in Earth and life sciences. We first review six major geo-climatic periods defining tropical African biodiversity diversification by synthesizing 89 dated molecular phylogeny studies. Two major geo-climatic factors impacting the diversification of the sub-Saharan biota are highlighted. First, Africa underwent numerous climatic fluctuations at ancient and more recent timescales, with tectonic, greenhouse gas, and orbital forcing stimulating diversification. Second, increased aridification since the Late Eocene led to important extinction events, but also provided unique diversification opportunities shaping the current tropical African biodiversity landscape. We then review diversification studies of tropical terrestrial animal and plant clades and discuss three major models of speciation: (i) geographic speciation via vicariance (allopatry); (ii) ecological speciation impacted by climate and geological changes, and (iii) genomic speciation via genome duplication. Geographic speciation has been the most widely documented to date and is a common speciation model across tropical Africa. We conclude with four important challenges faced by tropical African biodiversity research: (i) to increase knowledge by gathering basic and fundamental biodiversity information; (ii) to improve modelling of African geophysical evolution throughout the Cenozoic via better constraints and downscaling approaches; (iii) to increase the precision of phylogenetic reconstruction and molecular dating of tropical African clades by using next generation sequencing approaches together with better fossil calibrations; (iv) finally, as done here, to integrate data better from Earth and life sciences by focusing on the interdisciplinary study of the evolution of tropical African biodiversity in a wider geodiversity context.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gilles Dauby
- AMAP Lab, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAUniversity of MontpellierMontpellierFrance
- Laboratoire d'évolution Biologique et Ecologie, Faculté des SciencesUniversité Libre de BruxellesCP160/12, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50Brussels1050Belgium
| | - Anne Blach‐Overgaard
- Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of BiologyAarhus UniversityNy Munkegade 114Aarhus CDK‐8000Denmark
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of BiologyAarhus UniversityNy Munkegade 114Aarhus CDK‐8000Denmark
| | - Vincent Deblauwe
- Center for Tropical Research (CTR), Institute of the Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)Los AngelesCA90095U.S.A.
- International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)YaoundéCameroon
| | | | - Vincent Droissart
- AMAP Lab, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAUniversity of MontpellierMontpellierFrance
- Laboratoire de Botanique Systématique et d'Écologie, École Normale SupérieureUniversité de Yaoundé IPO Box 047YaoundéCameroon
- Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique AfricaineUniversité Libre de BruxellesBoulevard du TriompheBrusselsB‐1050Belgium
- Africa & Madagascar DepartmentMissouri Botanical GardenSt. LouisMOU.S.A.
| | - Oliver J. Hardy
- Laboratoire d'évolution Biologique et Ecologie, Faculté des SciencesUniversité Libre de BruxellesCP160/12, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50Brussels1050Belgium
| | - David J. Harris
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh20A Inverleith RowEdinburghU.K.
| | | | - Alexandra C. Ley
- Institut für Geobotanik und Botanischer GartenUniversity Halle‐WittenbergNeuwerk 21Halle06108Germany
| | | | - Bonaventure Sonké
- Laboratoire de Botanique Systématique et d'Écologie, École Normale SupérieureUniversité de Yaoundé IPO Box 047YaoundéCameroon
| | | | - Tariq Stévart
- Herbarium et Bibliothèque de Botanique AfricaineUniversité Libre de BruxellesBoulevard du TriompheBrusselsB‐1050Belgium
- Africa & Madagascar DepartmentMissouri Botanical GardenSt. LouisMOU.S.A.
| | - Jens‐Christian Svenning
- Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of BiologyAarhus UniversityNy Munkegade 114Aarhus CDK‐8000Denmark
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of BiologyAarhus UniversityNy Munkegade 114Aarhus CDK‐8000Denmark
| | - Jan J. Wieringa
- Naturalis Biodiversity CenterDarwinweg 2Leiden2333 CRThe Netherlands
| | - Adama Faye
- Laboratoire National de Recherches sur les Productions Végétales (LNRPV)Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA)Route des Hydrocarbures, Bel Air BP 1386‐ CP18524DakarSenegal
| | - Alain D. Missoup
- Zoology Unit, Laboratory of Biology and Physiology of Animal Organisms, Faculty of ScienceUniversity of DoualaPO Box 24157DoualaCameroon
| | - Krystal A. Tolley
- South African National Biodiversity InstituteKirstenbosch Research CentrePrivate Bag X7, ClaremontCape Town7735South Africa
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental SciencesUniversity of the WitwatersrandPrivate Bag 3Wits2050South Africa
| | - Violaine Nicolas
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHEUniversité des AntillesCP51, 57 rue CuvierParis75005France
| | - Stéphan Ntie
- Département de Biologie, Faculté des SciencesUniversité des Sciences et Techniques de MasukuFrancevilleBP 941Gabon
| | - Frédiéric Fluteau
- Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRSUniversité de ParisParisF‐75005France
| | - Cécile Robin
- CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR6118University of RennesRennes35042France
| | | | - Doris Barboni
- CEREGE, Aix‐Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, Collège de France, INRA, Technopole Arbois MéditerranéeBP80Aix‐en‐Provence cedex413545France
| | - Pierre Sepulchre
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA‐CNRS‐UVSQUniversité Paris‐SaclayGif‐sur‐YvetteF‐91191France
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46
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Dumouchel L, Bobe R, Wynn JG, Barr WA. The environments of Australopithecus anamensis at Allia Bay, Kenya: A multiproxy analysis of early Pliocene Bovidae. J Hum Evol 2021; 151:102928. [PMID: 33453510 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Australopithecus anamensis, among the earliest fully bipedal hominin species, lived in eastern Africa around 4 Ma. Much of what is currently known about the paleoecology of A. anamensis comes from the type locality, Kanapoi, Kenya. Here, we extend knowledge of the range of environments occupied by A. anamensis by presenting the first multiproxy paleoecological analysis focusing on Bovidae excavated from another important locality where A. anamensis was recovered, locality 261-1 (ca. 3.97 Ma) at Allia Bay, East Turkana, Kenya. Paleoenvironments are reconstructed using astragalar ecomorphology, mesowear, hypsodonty index, and oxygen and carbon isotopes from dental enamel. We compare our results to those obtained from Kanapoi. Our results show that the bovid community composition is similar between the two fossil assemblages. Allia Bay and Kanapoi bovid astragalar ecomorphology spans the spectrum of modern morphologies indicative of grassland, woodland, and even forest-adapted forms. Dietary reconstructions based on stable isotopes, mesowear, and hypsodonty reveal that these bovids' diet encompassed the full C3 to C4 dietary spectrum and overlap in the two data sets. Our results allow us to confidently extend our reconstructions of the paleoenvironments of A. anamensis at Kanapoi to Allia Bay, where this pivotal hominin species is associated with heterogeneous settings including habitats with varying degrees of tree cover, including grasslands, bushlands, and woodlands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurence Dumouchel
- Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount Street, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
| | - René Bobe
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Rd, Park Town, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK; Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa, Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique; Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Universidade Do Algarve, Campus de Penha, Faro, 8005-139, Portugal
| | - Jonathan G Wynn
- Division of Earth Sciences, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - W Andrew Barr
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, 800 22(nd)Street Northwest, Suite 6000, Washington, DC 20052, USA
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47
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Dudley N, Eufemia L, Fleckenstein M, Periago ME, Petersen I, Timmers JF. Grasslands and savannahs in the
UN
Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Restor Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Nigel Dudley
- Equilibrium Research 47, The Quays, Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UQ U.K
| | - Luca Eufemia
- Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) 84, Eberswalder Street, Müncheberg 15374 Germany
| | | | - Maria E. Periago
- Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina Defensa 251 6K, Buenos Aires 1065 Argentina
| | | | - Jean F. Timmers
- WWF Brazil CLS 114 Bloco D ‐ Asa Sul, Brasília 70377‐540 Brazil
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48
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Louys J, Roberts P. Environmental drivers of megafauna and hominin extinction in Southeast Asia. Nature 2020; 586:402-406. [PMID: 33029012 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2810-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Southeast Asia has emerged as an important region for understanding hominin and mammalian migrations and extinctions. High-profile discoveries have shown that Southeast Asia has been home to at least five members of the genus Homo1-3. Considerable turnover in Pleistocene megafauna has previously been linked with these hominins or with climate change4, although the region is often left out of discussions of megafauna extinctions. In the traditional hominin evolutionary core of Africa, attempts to establish the environmental context of hominin evolution and its association with faunal changes have long been informed by stable isotope methodologies5,6. However, such studies have largely been neglected in Southeast Asia. Here we present a large-scale dataset of stable isotope data for Southeast Asian mammals that spans the Quaternary period. Our results demonstrate that the forests of the Early Pleistocene had given way to savannahs by the Middle Pleistocene, which led to the spread of grazers and extinction of browsers-although geochronological limitations mean that not all samples can be resolved to glacial or interglacial periods. Savannahs retreated by the Late Pleistocene and had completely disappeared by the Holocene epoch, when they were replaced by highly stratified closed-canopy rainforest. This resulted in the ascendency of rainforest-adapted species as well as Homo sapiens-which has a unique adaptive plasticity among hominins-at the expense of savannah and woodland specialists, including Homo erectus. At present, megafauna are restricted to rainforests and are severely threatened by anthropogenic deforestation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julien Louys
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. .,College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Capital Territory, Australia.
| | - Patrick Roberts
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. .,Archaeological Studies Programme, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, The Philippines.
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49
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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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50
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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: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [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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