Dietary versatility of Early Pleistocene hominins.

ABSTRACT: New geochemical data from the Malawi Rift (Chiwondo Beds, Karonga Basin) fill a major spatial gap in our knowledge of hominin adaptations on a continental scale. Oxygen (δ¹⁸O), carbon (δ¹³C), and clumped (Δ₄₇) isotope data on paleosols, hominins, and selected fauna elucidate an unexpected diversity in the Pleistocene hominin diet in the various habitats of the East African Rift System (EARS). Food sources of early Homo and Paranthropus thriving in relatively cool and wet wooded savanna ecosystems along the western shore of paleolake Malawi contained a large fraction of C₃ plant material. Complementary water consumption reconstructions suggest that ca. 2.4 Ma, early Homo (Homo rudolfensis) and Paranthropus

SUBMITTER: Ludecke T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6310814 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature