Earliest Olduvai hominins exploited unstable environments ~ 2 million years ago

Julio Mercader (), Pam Akuku, Nicole Boivin, Revocatus Bugumba, Pastory Bushozi, Alfredo Camacho, Tristan Carter, Siobhán Clarke, Arturo Cueva-Temprana, Paul Durkin, Julien Favreau, Kelvin Fella, Simon Haberle, Stephen Hubbard (), Jamie Inwood, Makarius Itambu, Samson Koromo, Patrick Lee, Abdallah Mohammed, Aloyce Mwambwiga, Lucas Olesilau, Robert Patalano, Patrick Roberts, Susan Rule, Palmira Saladie, Gunnar Siljedal, María Soto (), Jonathan Umbsaar and Michael Petraglia
Additional contact information
Julio Mercader: University of Calgary
Pam Akuku: Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES)
Nicole Boivin: University of Calgary
Revocatus Bugumba: Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism
Pastory Bushozi: University of Dar es Salaam
Alfredo Camacho: University of Manitoba
Tristan Carter: McMaster University
Siobhán Clarke: University of Calgary
Arturo Cueva-Temprana: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Paul Durkin: University of Manitoba
Julien Favreau: McMaster University
Kelvin Fella: University of Dar es Salaam
Simon Haberle: Australian National University
Stephen Hubbard: University of Calgary
Jamie Inwood: University of Calgary
Makarius Itambu: University of Dar es Salaam
Samson Koromo: University of Iringa
Patrick Lee: University of Toronto
Abdallah Mohammed: University of Dar es Salaam
Aloyce Mwambwiga: University of Calgary
Lucas Olesilau: University of Iringa
Robert Patalano: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Patrick Roberts: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Susan Rule: Australian National University
Palmira Saladie: Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES)
Gunnar Siljedal: University of Calgary
María Soto: Madrid Institute for Advanced Study
Jonathan Umbsaar: University of Calgary
Michael Petraglia: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Rapid environmental change is a catalyst for human evolution, driving dietary innovations, habitat diversification, and dispersal. However, there is a dearth of information to assess hominin adaptions to changing physiography during key evolutionary stages such as the early Pleistocene. Here we report a multiproxy dataset from Ewass Oldupa, in the Western Plio-Pleistocene rift basin of Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai), Tanzania, to address this lacuna and offer an ecological perspective on human adaptability two million years ago. Oldupai’s earliest hominins sequentially inhabited the floodplains of sinuous channels, then river-influenced contexts, which now comprises the oldest palaeolake setting documented regionally. Early Oldowan tools reveal a homogenous technology to utilise diverse, rapidly changing environments that ranged from fern meadows to woodland mosaics, naturally burned landscapes, to lakeside woodland/palm groves as well as hyper-xeric steppes. Hominins periodically used emerging landscapes and disturbance biomes multiple times over 235,000 years, thus predating by more than 180,000 years the earliest known hominins and Oldowan industries from the Eastern side of the basin.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20176-2

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20176-2

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