Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount Street, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Rd, Park Town, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK; Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa, Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique; Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Universidade Do Algarve, Campus de Penha, Faro, 8005-139, Portugal.
J Hum Evol. 2021 Feb;151:102928. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102928. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
Australopithecus anamensis, among the earliest fully bipedal hominin species, lived in eastern Africa around 4 Ma. Much of what is currently known about the paleoecology of A. anamensis comes from the type locality, Kanapoi, Kenya. Here, we extend knowledge of the range of environments occupied by A. anamensis by presenting the first multiproxy paleoecological analysis focusing on Bovidae excavated from another important locality where A. anamensis was recovered, locality 261-1 (ca. 3.97 Ma) at Allia Bay, East Turkana, Kenya. Paleoenvironments are reconstructed using astragalar ecomorphology, mesowear, hypsodonty index, and oxygen and carbon isotopes from dental enamel. We compare our results to those obtained from Kanapoi. Our results show that the bovid community composition is similar between the two fossil assemblages. Allia Bay and Kanapoi bovid astragalar ecomorphology spans the spectrum of modern morphologies indicative of grassland, woodland, and even forest-adapted forms. Dietary reconstructions based on stable isotopes, mesowear, and hypsodonty reveal that these bovids' diet encompassed the full C to C dietary spectrum and overlap in the two data sets. Our results allow us to confidently extend our reconstructions of the paleoenvironments of A. anamensis at Kanapoi to Allia Bay, where this pivotal hominin species is associated with heterogeneous settings including habitats with varying degrees of tree cover, including grasslands, bushlands, and woodlands.
阿法南方古猿是最早完全双足行走的人类物种之一，生活在大约 400 万年前的东非。目前关于阿法南方古猿古生态学的大部分知识都来自其模式产地肯尼亚的卡纳坡伊。在这里，我们通过展示对另一个重要地点出土的牛科动物的多指标古生态学分析，扩展了阿法南方古猿所占据的环境范围，该地点是肯尼亚图尔卡纳湖南部的阿利亚湾 261-1 （约 397 万年前）。古环境是通过跗跖骨的生态形态、中磨磨损、高齿冠指数以及牙齿珐琅质中的氧和碳同位素来重建的。我们将这些结果与来自卡纳坡伊的结果进行了比较。我们的结果表明，这两个化石组合中的牛科动物群落组成相似。阿利亚湾和卡纳坡伊的牛科动物跗跖骨生态形态跨越了现代形态的范围，表明它们适应于草原、林地，甚至森林环境。基于稳定同位素、中磨磨损和高齿冠指数的饮食重建表明，这些牛科动物的饮食涵盖了从 C 到 C 的全谱，并且在两个数据集之间存在重叠。我们的结果使我们能够自信地将卡纳坡伊的阿法南方古猿古环境重建扩展到阿利亚湾，在那里这个关键的人类物种与包括不同程度树木覆盖的栖息地相关，包括草原、灌木丛和林地。
