Relevance of the eastern African coastal forest for early hominin biogeography

Joordens, Josephine C.A.; Feibel, Craig S.; Vonhof, Hubert; Schulp, Anne S.; Kroon, Dick

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.012

Cited by 56 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 217 publications

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“…Orbital forcing, and its role on climate variability, has long been assumed in many paleoanthropological studies to be a strong influence on early hominins (e.g. deMenocal, 1995;Maslin et al, 2014;Joordens et al, 2019). The earliest hominins appear ∼4.5 Myr ago in Africa, and the first occurrence of the genus Homo appears around 2.8 Myr ago (DiMaggio et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The transient impact of the African monsoon on Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean sediments

Boer¹,

Peters²,

Lourens³

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Over the Plio-Pleistocene interval a strong linkage exists between Northern African climate changes with the supply of dust over the surrounding oceans and continental runoff towards the Mediterranean Sea. Both these signatures in the sedimentary record are determined by orbital cycles influencing on the one hand glacial variability and on the other hand Northern African monsoon intensity. In this paper, we use the intermediate complexity model CLIMBER-2 to simulate African climate during the Plio-Pleistocene between 3.2 and 2.3 million years ago (Myr ago) and compare our simulations with existing and new climate reconstructions. The CLIMBER-2 model is externally forced with atmospheric CO2 concentrations, ice-sheet topography and orbital variations, all of which strongly influence climate during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Our simulations indicate that the records of Northern Africa climate oscillate in phase with climatic precession. For the Earth's obliquity cycle, the time lag between the 41,000-year component in insolation forcing and the climatic response increased after inception of Northern Hemisphere (NH) glaciation around 2.8 Myr ago. To test the outcome of our simulations, we have put emphasis on the comparison between the simulated runoff of grid boxes encompassing the Sahara desert and the Sahel region and the sedimentary records of marine sediment cores ODP Site 659 (Atlantic Ocean) and ODP Site 967 (Mediterranean). In this study we will show for the first time an extended Ti/Al record of Site 967 down to 3.2 Myr ago. This record strongly correlates with runoff in the Sahara and Sahel regions, whereas correlation with the dust record of Site 659 is moderate and slightly improves after NH ice-sheet inception. We investigated the transient variability of the individual and combined contributions of the Sahel and Sahara regions and found significant transient behaviour, overlapping with the Plio-Pleistocene transition and inception of NH ice sheets. Prior to 2.8 Myr ago, a larger contribution from the Sahara region is required to explain variability of Mediterranean dust input. After this transition, we found that a more equal contribution of the two regions is required, representing an increased influence of Sahel runoff and wet periods.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Joordens et al (2019) includes the role of spatial distribution and geography in the study of hominin evolution and dispersal. Condition of highly variable climate and strong seasonality during eccentricity maxima would result in isolated refugium for early hominins, that would be conclusive for evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The transient impact of the African monsoon on Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean sediments

Boer¹,

Peters²,

Lourens³

2020

Preprint

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“…As the lead‐editor of the six‐volume Mammals of Africa 28 and a lifetime spent in eastern Africa, Kingdon has unmatched first‐hand knowledge of many of the continent's 1,111 species of mammals. He discussed his hypothesis of hominin origins in the eastern coastal forests, 29 an idea that is receiving renewed attention 30 . In this light, the new fossil sites from Gorongosa acquire special importance, as they sample Miocene woodlands/forests in a coastal paleoenvironment, 9 and will allow for the testing of hypothesis about mammalian evolution in wooded coastal regions.…”

Section: The Paleo‐primate Project Gorongosamentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley

Bobe

Martínez

Carvalho

2020

Evolutionary Anthropology

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Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley 1 | INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDGorongosa National Park in central Mozambique offers an unparalleled setting for the study of primate adaptations to complex and highly dynamic environments. Located at the southern end of the East African Rift System, Gorongosa hosts a mosaic of forests, woodlands, grasslands, swamps, rivers, and a major lake, Lake Urema, which fluctuates extensively with the seasonal cycles (Figures 1 and 2). 1 Renowned biologist E. O. Wilson has described Gorongosa as "ecologically the most diverse park in the world." 2 The park is home to five species of nonhuman primates, among them 219 troops of baboons, 3 whose phenotypic diversity suggests an extended history of admixture between chacmas (Papio ursinus) and yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) (Figure 3). 4 With its dynamic mix of environments in the African Rift Valley, and highly adaptable primates, Gorongosa brings to mind the vegetation mosaics in which Pliocene and Pleistocene hominins evolved. 5 Gorongosa thus provided an ideal setting to bring together a broad interdisciplinary group of scientists to discuss "New perspectives on primate adaptations to complex environments and implications for early human evolution." The occasion was a workshop funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and hosted by Gorongosa National Park on July 23-25, 2019. The Wenner-Gren Foundation has sponsored about 165 symposia and workshops over the past 67 years, but this was only the third time such an event was held in Africa. The workshop included 36 researchers and students (from 20 institutions in 11 countries) with expertise in primatology, zoology, natural history, ecology, botany, genetics, genomics, paleontology, paleoanthropology, archeology, and geology (Figure 4). The event was open to the public, so researchers, students, and staff working in the park, among them many young Mozambicans, attended the workshop and participated in the discussions. Holding such an event in Mozambique was a milestone for a country with great potential in primatology, paleontology, and paleoanthropology, and allowed Mozambican scholars and students to establish new collaborations for future research and training.

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“…Evolution plays a role in adaptive behavior and natural selection when organisms are challenged by the environment (Jacob, ). Well before 300,000 years ago, that is, before the earliest HS emerged, and after the emergence, Africa was reportedly subjected to unstable climate and environmental conditions (Behrensmeyer, Potts, & Deino, ; Brooks et al, ; Deino et al, ; Grove, ; Joordens, Feibel, Vonhof, Schulp, & Kroon, ; McBrearty & Brooks, ; Potts, , ; Potts et al, ). Under pressure, both from internal and external sources, group cooperation and cohesion are generally vulnerable to disruption.…”

Section: Extra‐language Meaning Systems: the Earliest Art‐related Pramentioning

confidence: 99%

Coevolution of language and symbolic meaning: Co‐opting meaning underlying the initial arts in early human culture

Zaidel

2019

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Many of language's components, including communicating symbolic meaning, have neurobiological roots that go back millions of years in evolutionary time. The intersection with the human social survival strategy spawned additional adaptive meaning systems. Under conditions threatening survival in socially oriented human groups, extra‐language meaning systems co‐opted and adapted to facilitate unity, including the early formats of the arts. They would have percolated into cultural practice for this social purpose and ultimately survival. With evolutionary pressures tapping into biologically inherited, physiologically functioning sensory‐motor pathways, anchored specifically in rhythm cognition and motor synchrony output, initial art practice conveyed symbolic group cohesion through communal, all‐inclusive synchronously moving dance formations and rhythmically produced vocal or percussion sounds. As with the sounds of language in the deep past, and numerous other cultural behaviors, such nonmaterial early art formats would not have left marks in the archeological record but their evolutionary driven practice would have contributed to adaptive genetic factors woven into brain‐behavior evolution. Their practice is likely to have well predated unearthed art‐related objects. Consolidation of evidence and notions from language evolution, genetics, human physiology, comparative animal communication, archeology, and climate history in the distant past of early humans in Africa supports the evolutionary driven practice of initial nonmaterial art formats conveying symbolic expressions optimizing group survival. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language Psychology > Comparative Psychology

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Relevance of the eastern African coastal forest for early hominin biogeography

Cited by 56 publications

References 217 publications

The transient impact of the African monsoon on Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean sediments

The transient impact of the African monsoon on Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean sediments

Primate adaptations and evolution in the Southern African Rift Valley

Coevolution of language and symbolic meaning: Co‐opting meaning underlying the initial arts in early human culture

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