Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene: An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology)

363 Pages·2007·6.03 MB·English

by  René Bobe

Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene:
An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence
Vertebrate Paleobiology
and Paleoanthropology Series
Edited by
Eric Delson
Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History,
New York, NY 10024, USA
[email protected]
Ross D. E. MacPhee
Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History,
New York, NY 10024, USA
[email protected]
Focal topics for volumes in the series will include systematic paleontology of all vertebrates (from agnathans to
humans), phylogeny reconstruction, functional morphology, paleolithic archaeology, taphonomy, geochronology,
historical biogeography, and biostratigraphy. Other fi elds (e.g., paleoclimatology, paleoecology, ancient DNA, total
organismal community structure) may be considered if the volume theme emphasizes paleobiology (or archaeology).
Fields such as modeling of physical processes, genetic methodology, nonvertebrates, or neontology are out of our scope.
Volumes in the series may either be monographic treatments (including unpublished but fully revised dissertations)
or edited collections, especially those focusing on problem-oriented issues, with multidisciplinary coverage where
possible.
Editorial Advisory Board
Nicholas Conard (University of Tübingen), John G. Fleagle (Stony Brook University), Jean-Jacques Hublin
(Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), Sally McBrearty (University of Connecticut), Jin Meng
(American Museum of Natural, History), Tom Plummer (Queens College/CUNY), Kristi Curry Rogers (Science
Museum of Minnesota), Ken Rose (Johns Hopkins University).
Published and forthcoming titles in this series are listed at the end of this volume
Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene:
An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence
Edited by
René Bobe
Department of Anthropology, The University of Georgia
Athens, USA
Zeresenay Alemseged
Department of Human Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Leipzig, Germany
Anna K. Behrensmeyer
Department of Paleobiology and
Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Program
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, USA
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4020-3097-0 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-4020-3098-7 (e-book)
Published by Springer,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
www.springer.com
Cover image:
Exposures of the Pliocene sediments at Dikika, Ethiopia, with specimens of Homo (KNM ER 3733)
and Tragelaphus (KNM WT 18673) in the foreground.
Cover composition and background photograph by Zeresenay Alemseged
Tragelaphus photograph by René Bobe
Homo photograph by David Brill
Fossil images: Copyrighted by the National Museums of Kenya
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2007 Springer
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the
exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
To the people and research institutions of Africa, and to the fi eldworkers and museum curators whose generosity,
goodwill, time, and energy have made African fossils available to the scientifi c community.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the many colleagues who have
played a critical and constructive role as external reviewers of chapters in this volume: Peter
Andrews, Margaret Avery, Ray Bernor, Laura Bishop, Rob Blumenschine, Christiane Denys,
Craig Feibel, John Fleagle, David Fox, Henry Gilbert, Don Grayson, Yohannes Haile-Selassie,
Andrew Hill, Leslea Hlusko, Clark Howell, Nina Jablonski, Martin Pickford, Kaye Reed,
M artha Tappen, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Elisabeth Vrba, Alan Walker, Alisa Winkler, and
other reviewers who wish to remain anonymous. We are deeply grateful to the Smithsonian
Institution and its Human Origins and Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Programs, and
especially the National Science Foundation and Physical Anthropology Program Director
Mark Weiss, for encouragement and fi nancial support that made the 2004 Workshop on Faunal
Evidence for Hominin Paleoecology possible (NSF Grant: #0422048). Finally, we thank Ross
MacPhee, Tamara Welschot, and Judith Terpos for their encouragement and support through-
out the process of putting together this volume and especially Eric Delson, whose vision,
patience, and persistence helped us to bring this volume to a successful completion.
vii
Table of Contents
Dedication v
Acknowledgments vii
List of Contributors xi
Foreword xiii
A.K. Behrensmeyer, Z. Alemseged, and R. Bobe
Preface xvii
A. Hill
1. Approaches to the analysis of faunal change during the East African Pliocene 1
A.K. Behrensmeyer, R. Bobe, and Z. Alemseged
2. Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution 25
R. Potts
3. African Pliocene and Pleistocene cercopithecid evolution and global
climatic change 51
S.R. Frost
4. Patterns of change in the Plio-Pleistocene carnivorans of eastern Africa:
Implications for hominin evolution 77
M.E. Lewis and L. Werdelin
5. Stratigraphic variation in Suidae from the Shungura Formation and some
coeval deposits 107
H.B.S. Cooke
6. Patterns of abundance and diversity in late Cenozoic bovids from the Turkana
and Hadar Basins, Kenya and Ethiopia 129
R. Bobe, A.K. Behrensmeyer, G.G. Eck, and J.M. Harris
7. Comparability of fossil data and its signifi cance for the interpretation
of hominin environments:
A case study in the lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia 159
Z. Alemseged, R. Bobe, and D. Geraads
8. The effects of collection strategy and effort on faunal recovery:
A case study of the American and French collections from the Shungura
Formation, Ethiopia 183
G.G. Eck
9. Serengeti micromammals and their implications for Olduvai paleoenvironments 217
D.N. Reed
ix
x TABLE OF CONTENTS
10. Taphonomy and paleoecological context of the Upper Laetolil Beds
(Localities 8 and 9), Laetoli in northern Tanzania 257
C. Musiba, C. Magori, M. Stoller, T. Stein, S. Branting, M. Vogt, R. Tuttle,
B. Hallgrímsson, S. Killindo, F. Mizambwa, F. Ndunguru, and A. Mabulla
11. The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli:
A reconsideration of the large mammal evidence 279
D.F. Su and T. Harrison
12. Fauna, taphonomy, and ecology of the Plio-Pleistocene Chiwondo Beds,
Northern Malawi 315
O. Sandrock, O. Kullmer, F. Schrenk, Y.M. Juwayeyi, and T.G. Bromage
Finale and future:
Investigating faunal evidence for hominin paleoecology in East Africa 333
A.K. Behrensmeyer, Z. Alemseged, and R. Bobe
Index 347
Geologic-geographic Names 351
Other terms 353
List of Contributors
Z. Alemseged D. Geraads
Department of Human Evolution UPR 2147 CNRS-44 rue de l’Amiral Mouchez
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 75014 Paris, France
Deutscher Platz 6 [email protected]
04103 Leipzig, Germany
B. Hallgrímsson
[email protected]
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
A.K. Behrensmeyer University of Calgary
National Museum of Natural History Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4
Department of Paleobiology and Evolution [email protected]
of Terrestrial Ecosystems Program
J.M. Harris
Smithsonian Institution
George C. Page Museum
P.O. Box 37012, NHB MRC 121
5801 Wilshire Boulevard
Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA
Los Angeles, California 90036, USA
[email protected]
[email protected]
R. Bobe
T. Harrison
Department of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
The University of Georgia
Center for the Study of Human Origins
Athens, GA 30602-1619, USA
New York University
[email protected]
25 Waverly Place
S. Branting New York, NY 10003, USA
Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes [email protected]
(CAMEL)
A. Hill
The Oriental Institute
Department of Anthropology
The University of Chicago
Yale University
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
P.O. Box 208277
[email protected]
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8277, USA
T.G. Bromage [email protected]
Department of Biomaterials and Biomimetics
Y.M. Juwayeyi
New York University College of Dentistry
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
345 East 24th Street
Long Island University
New York, NY 10010, USA
1 University Plaza Brooklyn
[email protected]
New York, NY 11201-5372, USA
H.B.S. Cooke [email protected]
2133 – 154th Street
S. Killindo
White Rock, British Columbia, Canada V4A 4S5
Archaeology Unit
[email protected]
The University of Dar es Salaam
G.G. Eck Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Department of Anthropology [email protected]
University of Washington
O. Kullmer
Seattle, Washington 98195-3100, USA
Department of Paleoanthropology and Quaternary
[email protected]
Paleontology
S.R. Frost Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg,
Department of Anthropology Senckenberganlage 25
1218 University of Oregon 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Eugene, OR 97403-1218, USA [email protected]
[email protected]
xi