New Fauna from Loperot Contributes to the Understanding of Early Miocene Catarrhine Communities

Grossman, Albert; Liutkus-Pierce, Cynthia M.; Kyongo, Benson; M’Kirera, Francis

doi:10.1007/s10764-014-9799-8

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…C values for fossil populations) (45) and pollen data (42) in north Kenya; pan-African rain forest expansion-isolation events (26) and savannah expansion (44); and early primates and bipedalism in northern Kenya (37,38,49).…”

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A 17-My-old whale constrains onset of uplift and climate change in east Africa

Wichura

Jacobs

Lin

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Timing and magnitude of surface uplift are key to understanding the impact of crustal deformation and topographic growth on atmospheric circulation, environmental conditions, and surface processes. Uplift of the East African Plateau is linked to mantle processes, but paleoaltimetry data are too scarce to constrain plateau evolution and subsequent vertical motions associated with rifting. Here, we assess the paleotopographic implications of a beaked whale fossil (Ziphiidae) from the Turkana region of Kenya found 740 km inland from the present-day coastline of the Indian Ocean at an elevation of 620 m. The specimen is ∼17 My old and represents the oldest derived beaked whale known, consistent with molecular estimates of the emergence of modern straptoothed whales (Mesoplodon). The whale traveled from the Indian Ocean inland along an eastward-directed drainage system controlled by the Cretaceous Anza Graben and was stranded slightly above sea level. Surface uplift from near sea level coincides with paleoclimatic change from a humid environment to highly variable and much drier conditions, which altered biotic communities and drove evolution in east Africa, including that of primates.east Africa | Ziphiidae | uplift | drainage | paleoenvironment

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confidence: 99%

A 17-My-old whale constrains onset of uplift and climate change in east Africa

Wichura

Jacobs

Lin

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Comparisons of the fossil assemblage from Loperot with those from other sites indicate that this site is most similar to the Hiwegi Formation of Rusinga Island (Grossman et al, 2014), which is 18 Ma or older (Peppe et al, 2011). Loperot shares a unique proboscidean exclusively with Songhor (KNM-LP 53749: cf.…”

Section: Age Of the Sitementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Mammalian assemblages of the early Miocene, including catarrhine primates (the Hominoidea and Cercopithecoidea), differ regionally in their taxonomic structure. Geographic location (Grossman et al, 2014) as well as varying environmental conditions among regions (affected by climate, tectonics, etc.) certainly helped shape mammal assemblage structure (Andrews and O'Brien, 2010;Lukens et al, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Reconstruction of the Early Miocene Critical Zone at Loperot, Southwestern Turkana, Kenya

et al. 2019

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The Hominoidea (apes and, eventually, humans) and Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) diverged from a common ancestor during the late Oligocene (∼25 Ma) in East Africa. Subsequently, both catarrhine groups diversified in the early Miocene (∼23-16 Ma), making this time period an extremely important one for understanding our (deep) ancestral roots and the link between our hominoid ancestors and the environment. A remote region of west Turkana known as Loperot provides an exciting opportunity to study early Miocene primate paleoecology and has the potential to reveal the phylogenetic relationship between cercopithecoid monkeys and stem hominoids. The site of LpM4 is particularly fossiliferous and has produced a diverse fauna that includes several catarrhine fossils that await description. Radioisotopic dating indicates that the Loperot fauna are older than ∼17 Ma (early Miocene). Using geochemical data from paleosols and stable isotope values from rhizolith calcite, coupled with detailed sedimentology and stratigraphy, we reconstruct the early Miocene Critical Zone of Loperot to reveal a large perennial river system fed by ephemeral streams that created localized riparian forest microhabitats within a larger open ecosystem under semi-arid climate conditions, making Loperot's environmental reconstruction unlike many other early Miocene catarrhine-bearing localities. The perennial river system supported corridors of C 3 forests; however, because these forests were restricted, they could not support a high diversity of forest indicator taxa. This is the most comprehensive analysis of the environmental conditions at Loperot to date, and provides new empirical evidence to suggest that African climate varied significantly by region and that arid habitats certainly existed during the early Miocene.

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“…This site is unusual compared with contemporaneous locations in East Africa because it contains a relatively large number of cercopithecoid monkeys. To understand better Loperot's diversity relative to other Miocene paleocommunities, Grossman et al 2014 examined the importance of geography and time period for predicting catarrhine community composition in several East African paleocommunities during the Miocene. Both time and space independently predicted community composition, which suggests that speciation and extinction occurring over long time periods influences the structure of communities, as well as dispersal limitation over shorter time scales.…”

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confidence: 99%