The expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa in relation to mammalian evolution and the origin of the genus Homo

The relationship between climatic change and human evolution can be framed in terms of three major hypotheses. A modem version of the long-held savanna hypothesis posits that the expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa was driven by global climatic change and led to the divergence of hominins from the apes and to the origin of the Homo clade. A related idea suggests that hominins originated in the late Miocene, and Homo in the late Pliocene, as constituents of broader pulses of faunal turnover synchronized by episodes of global climatic change. A more recent concept, the variability selection hypothesis, emphasizes the importance of fluctuating climates and environments, rather than any single trend, in shaping human adaptation and evolution. Here we evaluate these ideas for the Plio-Pleistocene in light of new analyses of fossil mammals from the Turkana Basin of Kenya and Ethiopia. Our results show that between 4 and 1 Ma (million years ago), there were profound faunal changes in the Turkana Basin. The most important of these changes include significant shifts in the abundance of the common families of mammals, episodes of high faunal turnover, and an increase in the number and abundance of species that show adaptations to grassland ecosystems. Episodes of relatively high faunal turnover occurred in the intervals 3.4-3.2, 2.8-2.6, 2.4-2.2, and 2.0-1.8 Ma. Paranthropus and Homo appear in the Turkana Basin during successive intervals of high turnover at 2.8-2.6 and at 2.4-2.2 Ma, while the appearance of Homo erectus is coupled to a major episode of turnover and grassland expansion after 2 Ma. Thus, there was not a single turnover pulse of relevance to late Pliocene hominins, but multiple events that successively led to the appearance of Paranthropus, early Homo, and H. erectus. Our results also show evidence of large-scale, 100 ky-periodicity shifts in the fauna beginning at 2.5 Ma, during the time that Homo and lithic artifacts first appear in the Turkana Basin, lending support to the variability selection hypothesis [Science 273 (1996) 922; Potts R., 1996b. Humanity's Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability. Avon Books, New York.] during the latest Pliocene. The savanna hypothesis may not explain the divergence of hominins from other apes, but it could be correct in stressing the importance of grasslands to the early evolution of Homo. The fundamental importance of grasslands may lie in the complexity and heterogeneity they added to the range of habitats available to the early species of the genus Homo. The turnover pulse hypothesis [Vrba, E.S., 1988. Late Pliocene climatic events and hominid evolution. In: Grine, F.E(Ed.). Evolutionary History of the "Robust" Australopithecines. Aldine, New York, pp. 405-426; Vrba, E.S., 1995. The fossil record of African antelopes (Mammalia, Bovidae) in relation to human evolution and paleoclimate. In: Vrba, E.S., Denton, G.H., Partridge, T.C., Burckle, L.H. (Eds.). Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, pp. 385-424.] may be correct in linking critical events in human evolution to broader pulses of faunal change ultimately driven by climate, but our results show that any such link is complex, with at least four rather than one pulse of change during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene of the Turkana Basin. Published by Elsevier B.V.