Sporadic sampling, not climatic forcing, drives observed early hominin diversity.

ABSTRACT: The role of climate change in the origin and diversification of early hominins is hotly debated. Most accounts of early hominin evolution link observed fluctuations in species diversity to directional shifts in climate or periods of intense climatic instability. None of these hypotheses, however, have tested whether observed diversity patterns are distorted by variation in the quality of the hominin fossil record. Here, we present a detailed examination of early hominin diversity dynamics, including both taxic and phylogenetically corrected diversity estimates. Unlike past studies, we compare these estimates to sampling metrics for rock availability (hominin-, primate-, and mammal-bearing formations) and collection effort, to assess the geological and anthropogenic controls on the sampling

SUBMITTER: Maxwell SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5948983 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature