Pleistocene vegetation dynamics of the Olorgesailie-Koora Basin in the last 1 Myr: Implications for human evolution and technological innovations 
Rahab N. KinyanjuiRichard PottsAnna K. BehrensmeyerRené DommainSimon RiedlRachel LupienJennifer B. ClarkKevin T. UnoAlan L. Deino
0
Citation
0
Reference
10
Related Paper
Abstract:
The Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya Rift, is a renowned prehistoric site that preserves evidence of hominin behavior over the past ~1 million years. During this period the basin experienced environmental variability in response to orbitally controlled climate changes and tectonic forcing, which together influenced preservation of evidence for early human behavior and technological innovations. Palaeobotanical data from phytoliths extracted from outcrop paleosols show that vegetation cover varied subtly across the landscape and through time, shifting between wooded grasslands and open grasslands. Low-resolution outcrop data and a sedimentary hiatus between ~500 ka and ~320 ka hinder understanding of when important vegetation changes may have occurred and how these influenced mammalian species turnover or major transitions in hominin technology and behavior.         Here we report vegetation data analyzed from a well-dated and continuous 139 m sedimentary core spanning the last ~1 million years, drilled from the southern area of the Olorgesailie catchment known as the Koora basin. Phytolith data from 270 samples show that climate largely controlled vegetation variability in the basin. These changes appear to have influenced mammalian assemblages and corresponded with changes in human behavior and technological transitions in the southern Kenya rift. Our record shows a significant shift towards more C4-short-Chloridoideae grasslands associated with increased variability in available fresh water, corresponding to the technological transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age around 320 ka. In addition, phytolith indices indicate increased vegetation variability 330-220 ka, corresponding to high variability in terrestrial and freshwater conditions resulting from tectonic, hydrological and ecological changes. The sediment core thus provides a unique, high-resolution opportunity to evaluate vegetation dynamics of the Olorgesailie-Koora region, providing new insights on how vegetation may have influenced our ancestors’ behavioral changes over the past ~1 million years.Keywords:
myr
Gorilla
myr
Lineage (genetic)
Hominidae
Paleoanthropology
Cite
Citations (51)
myr
Hominidae
Australopithecus
Lineage (genetic)
Paleoanthropology
Cite
Citations (35)
Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant Our understanding of the origin, distribution, and evolution of early humans and their close relatives has been greatly refined by recent new information. Adding to this trend, Hershkovitz et al. have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown archaic Homo population, the “Nesher Ramla Homo ” (see the Perspective by Mirazon Lahr). The authors present comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analyses of fossilized remains from a site in Israel dated to 140,000 to 120,000 years ago indicating the presence of a previously unrecognized group of hominins representing the last surviving populations of Middle Pleistocene Homo in Europe, southwest Asia, and Africa. In a companion paper, Zaidner et al. present the radiometric ages, stone tool assemblages, faunal assemblages, and other behavioral and environmental data associated with these fossils. This evidence shows that these hominins had fully mastered technology that until only recently was linked to either Homo sapiens or Neanderthals. Nesher Ramla Homo was an efficient hunter of large and small game, used wood for fuel, cooked or roasted meat, and maintained fires. These findings provide archaeological support for cultural interactions between different human lineages during the Middle Paleolithic, suggesting that admixture between Middle Pleistocene Homo and H. sapiens had already occurred by this time. Science , abh3169 and abh3020, this issue p. 1424 and p. 1429 ; see also abj3077, p. 1395
Homo sapiens
Middle Stone Age
Middle Paleolithic
Neanderthal
Hominidae
Upper Paleolithic
Paleoanthropology
Cite
Citations (56)