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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6-million years
Nature, Volume 476, No. 7358, Year 2011
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Description
The role of African savannahs in the evolution of early hominins has been debated for nearly a century. Resolution of this issue has been hindered by difficulty in quantifying the fraction of woody cover in the fossil record. Here we show that the fraction of woody cover in tropical ecosystems can be quantified using stable carbon isotopes in soils. Furthermore, we use fossil soils from hominin sites in the Awash and Omo-Turkana basins in eastern Africa to reconstruct the fraction of woody cover since the Late Miocene epoch (about 7 million years ago). 13C/ 12C ratio data from 1,300 palaeosols at or adjacent to hominin sites dating to at least 6-million years ago show that woody cover was predominantly less than-40% at most sites. These data point to the prevalence of open environments at the majority of hominin fossil sites in eastern Africa over the past 6-million years. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Cerling, Thure E.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Wynn, Jonathan G.
United States, Tampa
University of South Florida, Tampa
Andanje, Samuel A.
Kenya, Nairobi
Kenya Wildlife Service
Bird, Michael I.
Australia, Townsville
James Cook University
Korir, David Kimutai
Kenya, Nairobi
Kenya Wildlife Service
Levin, Naomi E.
United States, Baltimore
Johns Hopkins University
MacE, William
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Macharia, Anthony N.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Quade, Jay
United States, Tucson
The University of Arizona
Remien, Christopher H.
United States, Salt Lake City
The University of Utah
Statistics
Citations: 507
Authors: 10
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/nature10306
ISSN:
00280836
e-ISSN:
14764687
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study