Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Oldest evidence of toolmaking hominins in a grassland-dominated ecosystem
PLoS ONE, Volume 4, No. 9, Article e7199, Year 2009
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Background: Major biological and cultural innovations in late Pliocene hominin evolution are frequently linked to the spread or fluctuating presence of C4 grass in African ecosystems. Whereas the deep sea record of global climatic change provides indirect evidence for an increase in C4 vegetation with a shift towards a cooler, drier and more variable global climatic regime beginning approximately 3 million years ago (Ma), evidence for grassland-dominated ecosystems in continental Africa and hominin activities within such ecosystems have been lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings: We report stable isotopic analyses of pedogenic carbonates and ungulate enamel, as well as faunal data from ∼2.0 Ma archeological occurrences at Kanjera South, Kenya. These document repeated hominin activities within a grassland-dominated ecosystem. Conclusions/Significance: These data demonstrate what hitherto had been speculated based on indirect evidence: that grassland-dominated ecosystems did in fact exist during the Plio-Pleistocene, and that early Homo was active in open settings. Comparison with other Oldowan occurrences indicates that by 2.0 Ma hominins, almost certainly of the genus Homo, used a broad spectrum of habitats in East Africa, from open grassland to riparian forest. This strongly contrasts with the habitat usage of Australopithecus, and may signal an important shift in hominin landscape usage. © 2009 Plummer et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2746317/bin/pone.0007199.s001.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2746317/bin/pone.0007199.s002.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2746317/bin/pone.0007199.s003.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC2746317/bin/pone.0007199.s004.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
Plummer, Thomas W.
United States, Flushing
Queens College, City University of new York
Ditchfield, Peter W.
United Kingdom, Oxford
Oxford Social Sciences Division
Bishop, Laura C.
United Kingdom, Liverpool
Liverpool John Moores University
Kingston, John D.
United States, Atlanta
Emory University
Ferraro, Joseph V.
United States, Waco
Baylor University
Braun, David R.
South Africa, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
Hertel, Fritz
United States, Northridge
California State University, Northridge
Potts, Richard
United States, Washington, D.c.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Kenya, Nairobi
National Museums of Kenya
Statistics
Citations: 95
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 9
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0007199
e-ISSN:
19326203
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Locations
Multi-countries
Kenya