Homo Erectus. Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia W

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Homo Erectus. Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia W Homo erectus. Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia W. Henry Gilbert and Berhane Asfaw (eds.) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008, 480 pp. (hardback), $75.00. ISBN-13: 9780520251205. Reviewed by SUSAN CACHEL Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414, USA; Cachel@rci.rutgers.edu his book is the first volume in a projected series that more intense Pleistocene glacial cycles with a 100,000 year Twill address the full twenty-five years of research that periodicity. Ten geological sections are described in detail, have accrued from the Middle Awash project, founded along with eight paleontological localities (e.g., BOU-VP-1, by the late J. Desmond Clark. An accompanying web site etc.). The climate was warm and seasonally generally very maintained at Berkeley archives digital photographs of the dry, with only a single annual wet season, because paleo- catalogued fossils described in this book, as well as micro sols and pedogenic carbonates yield a picture of high soil CT-scans of selected hominid fossils. Further material will temperatures and evaporation rates. The environment is appear on the Middle Awash web site as additional vol- reconstructed as a mosaic habitat of open grassland with umes are published. Information about the Middle Awash some woodland set in the floodplains of shallow lakes and Project can be accessed at the following URL: http://mid- distributary channels. The closest modern analog is the en- dleawash.berkeley.edu/middle_awash.php. The photo- virons of Lake Nakuru in the Rift Basin of Central Kenya. graphs can then be accessed via the “Fossil Database” icon. Ten chapters deal with non-hominid fossil mammals. Material can be searched for in a variety of ways (e.g., cata- Large photographs illustrate important specimens, which logue number, geological member or formation, mamma- are also described. The bovids are the most diverse group, lian family, age, taxon). All of the fossils are curated at the with fossils from seventeen genera. Remains are abundant, National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. This im- with bovines, alcelaphines, and reduncines being especial- pressive permanent electronic archive obviously requires ly well represented. Bovid cranial and dental metric data extensive stable funding. One hopes that funding sources are available in a special appendix. Carnivores are rare (as will not come to a halt. usual), but lion, leopard, and a new subspecies of spotted A large team of researchers worked for over a decade hyaena are present. This new subspecies, which is larger on this volume. There are eighteen chapters, including an than the living spotted hyaena, is formally defined. Cerco- introduction and conclusion, chapters on mammalian or- pithecid fossils are rare. Only seventeen fossils represent ders and families, two chapters on the cranial remains of both Old World monkey subfamilies. These include den- Homo erectus, a chapter on hominid postcranial material, a tal, cranial, and postcranial remains. Most of the fossils are chapter on hominid systematics, and a chapter on the ecol- from the cercopithecine Theropithecus oswaldi, a well-known ogy and biogeography of the Daka Member of the Bouri and abundant gelada species present at other sites. Two Formation. Archaeological material is abundant, but is fossils represent Cercopithecoides alemayehui, a formally de- not discussed in this book. A bibliography combines ref- fined new colobine species. Additional cercopithecid taxa erences for all the chapters. A forward by Garniss Curtis found at other Pleistocene sites in the Afar do not occur in details fond memories of fieldwork with J. Desmond Clark, the Daka Member, almost certainly because Daka localities still agile and alert in his late 70s. A preface by Tim White are not sampling habitats represented at other sites. dedicates the series to the late F. Clark Howell, who co-au- Equids represent nearly 20% of the total fossil mammal thored the chapter on the carnivores. assemblage. These equids include both Equus (resembling The introduction details protocols for the collection, the modern zebra species) and Eurygnathohippus (an extinct recording, and restoration of fossils, most of which were hipparionine grazing horse). Several tables and figures give discovered by foot survey, not excavation. Crocodiles and metrical and statistical data on teeth and postcranial materi- fish were not collected. Over 750 mammal fossils were re- al. Rare giraffid fossils, unassignable to species, include both covered, including specimens of Homo erectus. Sediments Sivatherium and Giraffa. Hippopotamid fossils are not com- in the Middle Awash are 1km thick, but deposition was pletely prepared, but are provisionally identified as Hippo- not continuous. The Daka Member is only one of fifteen potamus cf. gorgops, a larger species than the living common separate time intervals that sample windows of time dat- hippo, Hippopotamus amphibius. These Daka fossils sample ing from nearly 6 mya to 50,000 yrs B.P. a crucial period of time in hippopotamus evolutionary his- A separate chapter deals with geology and chronology. tory, because many hippopotamid lineages go extinct at 1 The Daka Member is dated by three methods—40Ar/39Ar mya, leaving Hippopotamus as the dominant living genus. from single feldspar crystals, sandine crystals from pum- The Daka Member contains abundant elephantid fossils ice clasts, and paleomagnetism. These methods yield an from the species Elephas recki. These are photographed, de- age of about 1 mya—a period just before the inception of scribed, and measured. Fossils of both the living white and PaleoAnthropology 2009: 169−170. © 2009 PaleoAnthropology Society. All rights reserved. ISSN 1545-0031 170 • PaleoAnthropology 2009 black rhinoceros are present. There is a rich assemblage of that homoplastic traits are rarer than homologous ones, Daka suids. Photographs, dental, and cranial metrics are and, most importantly, the assumption that branching spe- presented. One of the best samples of Kolpochoerus majus cies dichotomies create groups that represent diverging lin- occurs here, as does the only known complete cranium of eages. Gilbert then performs three cladistic analyses—one Kolpochoerus olduvaiensis. The co-occurrence of the living using individual cranial specimens as OTUs, one combin- warthog species with Metridiochoerus modestus establishes ing specimens of the same age and geographic region to their taxonomic separation. Micromammals and birds are forms OTUs, and one combining specimens from the same rare. However, the Daka Member contains a fossil grass rat site to form OTUs, with others left as individual OTUs. The and a large, stork-like wading bird. An unprepared com- results show that African and Asian specimens do not form plete cranium of a catfish was also discovered. separate lineages; early African specimens are not closer The longest chapter in the book deals with Homo erectus to later members of genus Homo; and the Ceprano speci- cranial anatomy. The focus is on the Daka calvaria (BOU- men from southern Europe is not closer to Neanderthals VP-2/66), but other cranial and mandibular specimens are than it is to contemporary African specimens. An appendix described. Collection and preparation of the calvaria is describes and scores Homo erectus cranial traits from speci- extensively described. There are multiple full page photo- mens throughout the Old World. graphs of the calvaria, showing different aspects and cor- Hominid postcranial remains from Daka consist of three responding micro CT-scans. The calvaria frontal shows femora, one tibia, and a newly discovered talus, which has definite evidence of carnivore gnawing. An appendix with not been prepared. Because there are no associated cranial Daka calvaria measurements concludes the chapter. These remains, the taxonomic affiliation of these remains is un- measurements are taken either from the original specimen, known. The cortical bone of the femoral shafts is very thick, micro CT-scan, or microscribe data. The measurements the minimal shaft breadth is distal, and the cortex on the represent a comprehensive list of over 200 cranial metrics medial shaft is thicker than that of the lateral shaft. These taken from other authors publishing on Pleistocene homi- features separate the Daka femoral specimens from those nid crania. The taxon Homo erectus is used, not “Homo ergas- of Homo sapiens. The femora are platymeric and anteverted, ter,” which is utilized by other researchers who study early suggesting that squatting postures were habitual. African material. A major conclusion of the chapter is that A discussion of biogeography concludes that the Daka there is significant variation in Homo erectus crania. This fossils cannot be used to confirm exchange between the not only complicates phylogenetic reconstruction, but also Palaearctic and Ethiopian realms. The fossil assemblage makes it impossible to associate a particular morphology contains two endemic bovid genera (Bouria and Nitidarcus). with a particular geographic region. That is, cranial traits Mammal taxa confirm the existence of open grassland, al- form such a mosaic that it “is impossible to form an argu- though taxa dependent on water also occur. The volume ment for regional homogeneity whenever more than a few concludes with a critical analysis of Potts’s concept of vari- features are considered simultaneously” (p. 311). ability selection, as well as a discussion of the problems of The next chapter deals with micro CT-scans of the identifying taxa as either generalists or specialists. These Daka calvaria’s endocranial features, and also describes are important because the origins of genus Homo have a sterolith model of the endocast. Seven pages show cor- sometimes been associated with either a novel evolution- onal, transverse, and sagittal sections of the calvaria and ary process (variability selection) or with selection for a the reconstructed endocast. Ralph Holloway, who is a co- generalist hominid taxon. author, estimates the cranial capacity to be 1,001 cc, in the This volume is the first book in a projected series of mid-range of African and Asian Homo erectus specimens.
Recommended publications
  • The Pliocene Hominin Diversity Conundrum: Do More Fossils
    SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE The Pliocene hominin diversity conundrum: Do more fossils mean less clarity? SPECIAL FEATURE: PERSPECTIVE Yohannes Haile-Selassiea,b,1, Stephanie M. Melilloc, and Denise F. Sud Edited by Richard G. Klein, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved January 7, 2016 (received for review November 6, 2015) Recent discoveries of multiple middle Pliocene hominins have raised the possibility that early hominins were as speciose as later hominins. However, debates continue to arise around the validity of most of these new taxa, largely based on poor preservation of holotype specimens, small sample size, or the lack of evidence for ecological diversity. A closer look at the currently available fossil evidence from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad indicate that Australopithecus afarensis was not the only hominin species during the middle Pliocene, and that there were other species clearly distinguishable from it by their locomotor adaptation and diet. Although there is no doubt that the presence of multiple species during the middle Pliocene opens new windows into our evolutionary past, it also complicates our understanding of early hominin taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships. hominin diversity | Australopithecus | Kenyanthropus | Pliocene | ecological diversity If one looks back over the controversies of human When Australopithecus bahrelghazali was named evolution, they have one element in common: new in 1995 based on an approximately 3.5-Ma partial discoveries, theories, methods came along which “ ” mandible from Chad (12), it was quickly dismissed as no one in the controversy anticipated. The facts – changed, and consequently people were not right a geographic variant of Au. afarensis (13 15). The or wrong in any simple way.
    [Show full text]
  • Dietary Change Among Hominins and Cercopithecids in Ethiopia During the Early Pliocene
    Dietary change among hominins and cercopithecids in Ethiopia during the early Pliocene Naomi E. Levina,1, Yohannes Haile-Selassieb, Stephen R. Frostc, and Beverly Z. Saylord aDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218; bPhysical Anthropology Department, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH 44106; cDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403; and dDepartment of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 Edited by David Pilbeam, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved August 4, 2015 (received for review December 31, 2014) 13 The incorporation of C4 resources into hominin diet signifies in- signatures and that the δ C value of tooth enamel reflects the creased dietary breadth within hominins and divergence from the carbon isotope composition of an animal’s diet (5). Fossil teeth dietary patterns of other great apes. Morphological evidence in- from the Woranso-Mille paleontological study area are well- dicates that hominin diet became increasingly diverse by 4.2 mil- suited to fill the temporal gap in the isotopic record of hominin lion years ago but may not have included large proportions of C4 diet because they are part of a record of Pliocene mammalian foods until 800 thousand years later, given the available isotopic fossils that spans 3.76–3.2 Ma (6–11). The hominin fossils from evidence. Here we use carbon isotope data from early to mid Woranso-Mille include those that are morphologically inter- Pliocene hominin and cercopithecid fossils from Woranso-Mille mediate between Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis, some that are (central Afar, Ethiopia) to constrain the timing of this dietary definitively Au.
    [Show full text]
  • Cercopithecidae) from the Republic of Djibouti Denis Geraads, Louis De Bonis
    First record of Theropithecus (Cercopithecidae) from the Republic of Djibouti Denis Geraads, Louis de Bonis To cite this version: Denis Geraads, Louis de Bonis. First record of Theropithecus (Cercopithecidae) from the Republic of Djibouti. Journal of Human Evolution, Elsevier, 2020, 138, pp.102686. 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102686. hal-02468836 HAL Id: hal-02468836 https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-02468836 Submitted on 6 Feb 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. First record of Theropithecus (Cercopithecidae) from the Republic of Djibouti Denis Geraads a, *, Louis de Bonis b a CR2P-UMR 7207, CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, Sorbonne Universit_es, CP 38, 8 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris cedex 05, France b PALEVOPRIM-UMR 7262, UFR SFA, Universit_e de Poitiers, 6 rue Michel-Brunet, B^at. 35, TSA 51106, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France Keywords: Primates; Cercopithecidae; systematics; biogeography; Eastern Africa Abstract: We describe here several specimens of the genus Theropithecus from the southern shore of Lake Assal in the Republic of Djibouti; they are the first record of the genus from this country. We assign them to a derived stage of T. oswaldi. This identification has implications for the age of the informal 'Formation 1' from this area, which should probably be assigned to the Middle Pleistocene.
    [Show full text]
  • Old World Monkeys
    OLD WORLD MONKEYS Edited by Paul F. Whitehead and Clifford J. Jolly The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP, United Kingdom The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarco´n 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain © Cambridge University Press 2000 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Times NR 10/13pt. System QuarkXPress® [] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Old world monkeys / edited by Paul F. Whitehead & Clifford J. Jolly. p. cm. ISBN 0 521 57124 3 (hardcover) 1. Cercopithecidae. I. Whitehead, Paul F. (Paul Frederick), 1954– . II. Jolly, Clifford J., 1939– . QL737.P930545 2000 599.8Ј6–dc21 99-20192 CIP ISBN 0 521 57124 3 hardback Contents List of contributors page vii Preface x 1 Old World monkeys: three decades of development and change in the study of the Cercopithecoidea Clifford J. Jolly and Paul F. Whitehead 1 2 The molecular systematics of the Cercopithecidae Todd R. Disotell 29 3 Molecular genetic variation and population structure in Papio baboons Jeffrey Rogers 57 4 The phylogeny of the Cercopithecoidea Colin P. Groves 77 5 Ontogeny of the nasal capsule in cercopithecoids: a contribution to the comparative and evolutionary morphology of catarrhines Wolfgang Maier 99 6 Old World monkey origins and diversification: an evolutionary study of diet and dentition Brenda R.
    [Show full text]
  • The Characteristics and Chronology of the Earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia
    The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia Yonas Beyenea,b, Shigehiro Katohc, Giday WoldeGabrield, William K. Harte, Kozo Utof, Masafumi Sudog, Megumi Kondoh, Masayuki Hyodoi, Paul R. Rennej,k, Gen Suwal,1, and Berhane Asfawm,1 aAssociation for Research and Conservation of Culture (A.R.C.C.), Awassa, Ethiopia; bFrench Center for Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; cDivision of Natural History, Hyogo Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Yayoigaoka 6, Sanda 669-1546, Japan; dEES-6/D462, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545; eDepartment of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056; fNational Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan; gInstitute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, 14476 Golm, Germany; hLaboratory of Physical Anthropology, Ochanomizu University, Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8610, Japan; iResearch Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan; jBerkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709; kDepartment of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; lUniversity Museum, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; and mRift Valley Research Service, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia This contribution is part of the special series of Inaugural Articles by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected in 2008. Contributed by Berhane Asfaw, December 8, 2012 (sent for review November 30, 2012) The Acheulean technological tradition, characterized by a large carcass processing (13, 14), usually interpreted as a part of an (>10 cm) flake-based component, represents a significant techno- advanced subsistence strategy coincident with or postdating the logical advance over the Oldowan.
    [Show full text]
  • Ardipithecus Kadabba the Middle Awash Series Series Editor Tim White, University of California, Berkeley
    Ardipithecus kadabba The Middle Awash Series Series Editor Tim White, University of California, Berkeley University of California Press Editor Charles R. Crumly Homo erectus: Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, edited by W. Henry Gilbert and Berhane Asfaw Ardipithecus kadabba: Late Miocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, edited by Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Giday WoldeGabriel Ardipithecus kadahba Late Miocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia EDITED BY YOHANNES HAILE-SELASS1E AND GIDAY WOLDEGABRIEL UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS 'ey Los Angeles University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. The Middle Awash Series, Volume 2 University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2009 by "The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ardipithecus kadabba : late miocene evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia / edited by Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Giday WoldeGabriel. p. cm. — (The Middle Awash series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-520-25440-4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ardipithecus kadabba—Ethiopia—Middle Awash. 2. Fossil hominids—Ethiopia—Middle Awash. 3. Human remains (Archaeology)—Ethiopia—Middle Awash. 4. Paleoanthropology— Ethiopia—Middle Awash. 5. Middle Awash (Ethiopia)—Antiquities. I. Haile-Selassie, Yohannes, 1961- II. WoldeGabriel, Giday. GN282.73.A73 2008 569.90963— 2008004004 Manufactured in the United States 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 987654321 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
    [Show full text]
  • The Perspective from Africa
    Anthropogeny: The Perspective from Africa Public Symposium Friday, May 31, 2019 Chairs: Berhane Asfaw, Rift Valley Research Service & Lyn Wadley, University of the Witwatersrand Sponsored by: Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny (CARTA) With generous support from: The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation ABSTRACTS Australopithecus in East and South Africa Job Kibii, National Museums of Kenya Australopithecus is a genus of hominins whose evolutionary evidence is confined to the African continent. The genus evolved in eastern and/or southern Africa around 4 million years ago, eventually becoming extinct slightly less than two million years ago. Australopithecus is scientifically accepted as the common ancestor of the Paranthropus and Homo. Scientists recognize five species of Australopithecines; Australopithecus anamensis, A. afarensis, A. africanus, A. garhi, and A. sediba. Their relationship to each other and the earliest form of Homo, Homo habilis, remains controversial due to the sparse fossil record in Africa. There are two main ways of expressing evolutionary relationships: phylogenetic trees and cladograms. This presentation will explore current fossil evidence regarding members of the genus Australopithecus and their phylogenetic and cladistic relationships. The Chad Basin Andossa Likius, University of Moundou (Chad) Until recently, Chad has remained a poorly known country as far as paleontological research, compared to its neighbors on the African continent. But since 1994, the Mission Paléoanthropologique Franco-Chadienne (MPFT) is conducting intensive geological and paleontological surveys in the Djurab Desert. More than 400 Mio-Pliocene fossil sites dated between 3 and 7 million years ago (mya) have been identified. These sites have yielded rich and diverse fossil faunal assemblages of vertebrates, unique in Central Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronostratigraphy of the Miocene–Pliocene Sagantole Formation, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Rift, Ethiopia
    Chronostratigraphy of the Miocene–Pliocene Sagantole Formation, Middle Awash Valley, Afar rift, Ethiopia Paul R. Renne* Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709 and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 Giday WoldeGabriel Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 William K. Hart Department of Geology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 Grant Heiken Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 Tim D. White Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 ABSTRACT 1999). The sediment deposited in these basins is largely volcaniclastic in ori- gin and is interbedded with mafic lava and compositionally bimodal tephra The Sagantole Formation comprises more than 200 m of lacustrine, that are products of intermittent volcanism related to the Afar plume. The alluvial, and volcaniclastic sediments, plus compositionally bimodal Afar and the Main Ethiopian rift, covering an area of ~3.5 × 105 km2,began tephras and basaltic lavas, exposed in a domelike horst named the to form at least by 25 Ma (Moore and Davidson, 1978; Berhe et al., 1987; Central Awash Complex in the southwestern Afar rift of Ethiopia. The WoldeGabriel et al., 1990, 1991, 1992; Ebinger et al., 1993; Yemane et al., Sagantole Formation is widely known for abundant vertebrate faunas, 1999), and thick accumulations of sediment, lava, and tephra have been sub- including the 4.4 Ma primitive hominid Ardipithecus ramidus. New sequently deposited into the subsiding rift basins. In the Middle Awash re- lithostratigraphic data are used to subdivide the Sagantole Formation gion of the southern Afar rift, faulting, uplift, differential subsidence, and ero- into the Kuseralee, Gawto, Haradaso, Aramis, Beidareem, Adgantole, sion have produced windows into one such rift-basin succession.
    [Show full text]
  • Climatic and Environmental Challenges: Learning from the Horn of Africa
    Climatic and Environmental Challenges: Learning from the Horn of Africa David Ambrosetti, Jean-Renaud Boisserie, Deresse Ayenachew and Thomas Guindeuil (dir.) DOI: 10.4000/books.cfee.101 Publisher: Centre français des études éthiopiennes Place of publication: Addis-Abeba Year of publication: 2016 Published on OpenEdition Books: 28 July 2016 Serie: Corne de l’Afrique contemporaine / Contemporary Horn of Africa Electronic ISBN: 9782821873001 http://books.openedition.org Electronic reference AMBROSETTI, David (ed.) ; et al. Climatic and Environmental Challenges: Learning from the Horn of Africa. New edition [online]. Addis-Abeba: Centre français des études éthiopiennes, 2016 (generated 02 octobre 2020). Available on the Internet: <http://books.openedition.org/cfee/101>. ISBN: 9782821873001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cfee.101. This text was automatically generated on 2 October 2020. It is the result of an OCR (optical character recognition) scanning. © Centre français des études éthiopiennes, 2016 Terms of use: http://www.openedition.org/6540 1 In the prospect of the COP21 held in Paris in December 2015, the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies (CFEE) organised a scientific conference on environmental and climatic changes in the horn of Africa, with a decisive financial support of the Institut français (Fonds d’Alembert), Paris. The conference was part of a larger event, called “the Road to Paris” and organised by the French Embassy to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network (HoA- REC&N), Addis Ababa University, in HoA-REC&N headquarters at Gullele Botanic Gardens, Addis Ababa, from 7 to 9 April 2015. In this event, our first purpose was to set aside from the pressure of short-term and policy- oriented concerns raised by the international bureaucracies and bilateral donors, as to try to explore diverse, cross-disciplinary dimensions related to environmental change in the region in a wider way, wider in time and also wider in the elements observed.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Miocene Hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia
    letters to nature composition of pedogenic carbonate along elevation transects in the southern Great Basin, United seem to represent a single taxon, a new subspecies of Ardipithecus States. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 101, 464±475 (1989). (see Methods). 25. Kingdon, J. East African Mammals Vol. IIB (Academic, New York, 1974). 26. Leakey, M. G. et al. Lothagam: a record of faunal change in the Late Miocene of East Africa. J. Vert. The ®rst specimen recovered was the subspeci®c holotype, ALA- Paleontol. 16, 556±570 (1996). VP-2/10, a right mandible with M3. (Note that subscripts indicate Supplementary information is available on Nature's World-Wide Web site lower teeth, superscripts upper teeth.) Four isolated left lower teeth (http://www.nature.com) or as paper copy from the London editorial of®ce of Nature. (I2,LC,P4 and M2) are associated by spatial proximity, colour, perimortem root fracture and wear. The left I2 is metrically and Acknowledgements morphologically comparable to known later hominid incisors and The Middle Awash Project is multinational, interdisciplinary research co-directed by B.A., distinctively narrower than the lateral incisors of chimpanzees (Pan Y. Beyene, J. D. Clark, T. D.W. and G.W.G. The research was supported by the National troglodytes). The P4 has a well developed talonid and a Tome's root Science Foundation and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the rather than the single roots reported for Aramis A. ramidus11. University of California at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Additional contributions The associated lower canine is worn apically and distally.
    [Show full text]
  • Areas 1- Ern Africa
    Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, Nos. 71-72, 1990 Diet, Species Diversity and Distribution of African Fossil Baboons Brenda R. Benefit and Monte L. McCrossin Based on measurements ofmolarfeatures shown to befunctionally correlated with the proportions of fruits and leaves in the diets ofextant monkeys, Plio-Pleistocenepapionin baboonsfrom southern Africa are shown to have included more herbaceous resources in their diets and to have exploited more open country habitats than did the highlyfrugivorousforest dwelling eastern African species. The diets ofall species offossil Theropithecus are reconstructed to have included morefruits than the diets ofextant Theropithecus gelada. Theropithecus brumpti, T. quadratirostris and T. darti have greater capacitiesfor shearing, thinner enamel and less emphases on the transverse component ofmastication than T. oswaldi, and are therefore interpreted to have consumed leaves rather than grass. Since these species are more ancient than the grass-eating, more open country dwelling T. oswaldi, the origin ofthe genus Thero- pithecus is attributed tofolivorous adaptations by largepapionins inforest environments rather than to savannah adapted grass-eaters. Reconstructions ofdiet and habitat are used to explain differences in the relative abundance and diversity offossil baboons in eastern andsouthern Africa. INTRODUCTION abundance between eastern and southern Africa is observed for members of the Papionina (Papio, Interpretations of the dietary habits of fossil Cercocebus, Parapapio, Gorgopithecus, and Old World monkeys have been based largely on Dinopithecus). [We follow Szalay and Delson analogies to extant mammals with lophodont teeth (1979) in recognizing two tribes of cercopithe- (Jolly 1970; Napier 1970; Delson 1975; Andrews cines, Cercopithecini and Papionini, and three 1981; Andrews and Aiello 1984; Temerin and subtribes of the Papionini: Theropithecina (gela- Cant 1983).
    [Show full text]
  • Reconstructing Human Evolution: Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities
    Reconstructing human evolution: Achievements, challenges, and opportunities Bernard Wood1 George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 This contribution reviews the evidence that has resolved the can then be used as the equivalent of a null hypothesis when branching structure of the higher primate part of the tree of life considering where to place newly discovered fossil great ape taxa. and the substantial body of fossil evidence for human evolution. It considers some of the problems faced by those who try to interpret The Human Fossil Record. The fossil record of the human clade the taxonomy and systematics of the human fossil record. How do consists of fossil evidence for modern humans plus that of all ex- you to tell an early human taxon from one in a closely related clade? tinct taxa that are hypothesized to be more closely related to How do you determine the number of taxa represented in the modern humans than to any other living taxon. Not so long ago human clade? How can homoplasy be recognized and factored into nearly all researchers were comfortable with according the human attempts to recover phylogeny? clade the status of a family, the Hominidae, with the nonhuman extant great apes (i.e., chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and history | hominin orangutans) placed in a separate family, the Pongidae. But given the abundant evidence for a closer relationship between Pan and his contribution begins by considering two achievements rele- Homo than between Pan and Gorilla (see above), many research- Tvant to reconstructing human evolution: resolving the branch- ers have concluded that the human clade should be distinguished ing structure of the higher primate part of the tree of life and the beneath the level of the family in the Linnaean hierarchy.
    [Show full text]