Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift toward C₄ foods in eastern African Paranthropus.

ABSTRACT: New approaches to the study of early hominin diets have refreshed interest in how and when our diets diverged from those of other African apes. A trend toward significant consumption of C₄ foods in hominins after this divergence has emerged as a landmark event in human evolution, with direct evidence provided by stable carbon isotope studies. In this study, we report on detailed carbon isotopic evidence from the hominin fossil record of the Shungura and Usno Formations, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia, which elucidates the patterns of C₄ dietary utilization in the robust hominin Paranthropus The results show that the most important shift toward C₄ foods occurred at ∼2.37 Ma, within the temporal range of the earliest known member of the genus, Paranthro

SUBMITTER: Wynn JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7486737 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature