Ecomorphology and Ecology of the Grassland Specialist, Rusingoryx Atopocranion (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), from the Late Pleistocene of Western Kenya
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Quaternary Research Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/qua.2020.102 Ecomorphology and ecology of the grassland specialist, Rusingoryx atopocranion (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), from the late Pleistocene of western Kenya Kris Kovarovic1* , J. Tyler Faith2,3, Kirsten E. Jenkins4,5, Christian A. Tryon6, Daniel J. Peppe7 1Department of Anthropology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom 2Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA 3Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA 4Department of Social Sciences, Tacoma Community College, 6501 S 19th St, Tacoma, WA, 98466, USA 5Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, 301 19th Ave S, Minneapolis MN, 55455, USA 6Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Beach Hall, 354 Mansfield Rd., Storrs, CT 06269 USA 7Department of Geosciences, Terrestrial Paleoclimatology Research Group, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97354, Waco, TX, 76798, USA *Corresponding author email address: <[email protected]> (RECEIVED December 3, 2019; ACCEPTED October 1, 2020) Abstract Rusingoryx atopocranion is an extinct alcelaphin bovid from the late Pleistocene of Kenya, known for its distinctive hollow nasal crest. A bonebed of R. atopocranion from the Lake Victoria Basin provides a unique opportunity to examine the nearly complete postcranial ecomorphology of an extinct species, and yields data that are important to studying paleoenvironments and human-environment interaction. With a comparative sample of extant African bovids, we used discriminant function analyses to develop statistical ecomorphological models for 18 skeletal elements and element portions. Forelimb and hin- dlimb element models overwhelmingly predict that R. atopocranion was an open-adapted taxon. However, the phalanges of Rusingoryx are remarkably short relative to their breadth, a morphology outside the range of extant African bovids, which we interpret as an extreme open-habitat adaptation. It follows that even recently extinct fossil bovids can differ in important morphological ways relative to their extant counterparts, particularly if they have novel adaptations for past envi- ronments. This unusual phalanx morphology (in combination with other skeletal indications), mesowear, and dental enamel stable isotopes, demonstrate that Rusingoryx was a grassland specialist. Together, these data are consistent with independent geological and paleontological evidence for increased aridity and expanded grassland habitats across the Lake Victoria Basin. Keywords: Alcelaphin; Bovid; Discriminant function analysis; Ecomorphology; Grassland; Kenya; Late Pleistocene; Rusinga Island; Rusingoryx; Wakondo INTRODUCTION faunas until the onset of the Holocene (MacInnes, 1956; Marean and Gifford-Gonzalez, 1991; Marean, 1992; Faith, Researchers have only recently begun to understand the late 2014; Faith et al., 2015; Lesur et al., 2016; Tryon et al., Pleistocene faunas of eastern Africa, despite their critical 2016). This emerging perspective has been reinforced by role for interpreting the paleoenvironmental context of a fi ongoing research in the Kenyan portions of the Lake Victo- time and place central to the diversi cation and dispersal of ria Basin since 2008, which has documented numerous Homo sapiens early modern humans ( ) (Henn et al., 2018; extinct taxa (Rusingoryx atopocranion, Damaliscus hypso- Scerri et al., 2018; Tryon, 2019). The late Pleistocene large don, Kolpochoerus, and others) in late Pleistocene sedi- mammal communities were composed of numerous extinct ’ ments, including new species or those formerly thought to taxa, some of which were dominant members of the region s have disappeared from eastern Africa during the middle Pleistocene (e.g., Tryon et al., 2010, 2012, 2016; Faith et al., Cite this article: Kovarovic, K., Faith, J. T., Jenkins, K. E., Tryon, C. A., 2011, 2014, 2015; Jenkins et al., 2017). These new data Peppe, D. J. 2021. Ecomorphology and ecology of the grassland specialist, show that Homo sapiens in eastern Africa evolved among non- Rusingoryx atopocranion (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), from the late analog faunal communities (e.g., Faith et al., 2016), as has long Pleistocene of western Kenya. Quaternary Research 101, 187–204. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.102 been recognized for southern Africa (e.g., Klein, 1980). 187 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 23 Sep 2021 at 19:34:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.102 188 K. Kovarovic et al. A better understanding of the paleoecology of the extinct 2014). However, the craniodental remains of this species species that were a part of these communities is critical to are unusual compared to other bovids and, indeed, are with- paleoenvironmental and archaeological research. Developing out parallel among other mammals—it has a large, hollow a robust understanding of dietary ecology, habitat prefer- nasal crest otherwise known only from lambeosaurine hadro- ences, and locomotor strategy is an essential step in the use saur dinosaurs (O’Brien et al., 2016). That the postcranial of fossil taxa as paleoenvironmental indicators (Faith and anatomy and other behavioral aspects of Rusingoryx are com- Lyman, 2019). In turn, such knowledge facilitates the study parable to those of other alcelaphin bovids represents a series of human-environment interactions, and provides insight of assumptions or untested hypotheses. By relying solely on into hunting and subsistence methods, potential proxies for the untested assumption of taxonomic uniformitarianism, we past human mobility, population density, and cognitive abil- cannot evaluate how the past might have differed from the ity (e.g., Marean, 1997; Klein and Cruz-Uribe, 2000; Faith, present (e.g., Behrensmeyer et al., 2007). With this in mind, 2008; Wadley, 2010). However, a challenge in developing our goal here is to provide an assessment of the habitat pref- a fuller and more detailed paleoecological understanding of erences of R. atopocranion through an ecomorphological extinct species from African Pleistocene sites (and earlier) analysis of the large postcranial sample from Bovid Hill. is that most are known almost exclusively from taxonomically diagnostic craniodental remains. Sites with large assemblages Rusingoryx atopocranion of reliably associated postcranial remains or taxa with diag- nostic features in many postcranial elements are rare. An Rusingoryx atopocranion was described by Pickford and important exception is the Bovid Hill archaeological site at Thomas (1984) on the basis of a partial cranium from the Wakondo on Rusinga Island within Lake Victoria (Fig. 1) Wakondo locality on Rusinga Island. Because most of the (see also Marean, 1990, 1992, 1997), which preserves a face was not preserved, they did not anticipate the nasal large, monospecific bonebed that resulted from the targeted dome that has since been observed on more complete speci- hunting of a herd of the extinct bovid R. atopocranion mens (O’Brien et al., 2016). This resulted in incorrect ana- (Jenkins et al., 2017). tomical orientation of the type specimen (e.g., the dorsal Rapid burial in fluvial and alluvial sediments at Bovid Hill cranium was thought to be anterior), leading Pickford and led to the preservation of a large amount of associated skeletal Thomas (1984) to infer an aberrant morphology that included material with both cranial and postcranial elements of R. ato- dramatic shortening of the face and the presence of a probos- pocranion. The Bovid Hill assemblage thus affords a rare cis—hence the species name atopocranion (= strange skull). opportunity to provide a more holistic understanding of its Harris (1991) later observed similarities between the cranial ecology. In addition to the bonebed accumulation at Bovid architecture of the type specimen and Megalotragus from Hill, remains of the alcelaphin bovid Rusingoryx have been Koobi Fora, and suggested that Rusingoryx be considered a recovered from other late Pleistocene sediments (∼100–36 junior synonym of Megalotragus. This opinion prevailed ka) around the Kenyan Lake Victoria Basin, including both for the next two decades, until Faith et al. (2011) provided Rusinga and Mfangano islands and mainland sites Luanda morphological and systematic analyses of new material West and Karungu (Faith et al., 2011;O’Brien et al., 2016; recovered from Rusinga Island that suggested Rusingoryx Tryon et al., 2016; Blegen et al., 2017; Jenkins et al., 2017). could not be accommodated within Megalotragus. Subse- Rusingoryx atopocranion is the most abundant species quent analyses of complete crania recovered from the Bovid recovered from many of these late Pleistocene deposits, indi- Hill site on Rusinga Island supported this taxonomic assess- cating its important role for understanding the paleoecology ment, though it is clear that Rusingoryx is a recent offshoot of and paleoenvironments of the Lake Victoria Basin (Faith Megalotragus (O’Brien et al., 2016). O’Brien et al. (2016) et al., 2015; Tryon et al., 2016). Importantly,