Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:57:41.875Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The uncertain case for human-driven extinctions prior to Homo sapiens

Part of: 50th Anniversary issue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2020

J. Tyler Faith Open the ORCID record for J. Tyler Faith [Opens in a new window] ,
John Rowan ,
Andrew Du  and
W. Andrew Barr
J. Tyler Faith*
Affiliation:
Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84108USA Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112USA
John Rowan
Affiliation:
Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA01003USA
Andrew Du
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Geography, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523USA
W. Andrew Barr
Affiliation:
Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC20052USA
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: [email protected] (J.T. Faith)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A growing body of literature proposes that our ancestors contributed to large mammal extinctions in Africa long before the appearance of Homo sapiens, with some arguing that premodern hominins (e.g., Homo erectus) triggered the demise of Africa's largest herbivores and the loss of carnivoran diversity. Though such arguments have been around for decades, they are now increasingly accepted by those concerned with biodiversity decline in the present-day, despite the near complete absence of critical discussion or debate. To facilitate that process, here we review ancient anthropogenic extinction hypotheses and critically examine the data underpinning them. Broadly speaking, we show that arguments made in favor of ancient anthropogenic extinctions are based on problematic data analysis and interpretation, and are substantially weakened when extinctions are considered in the context of long-term evolutionary, ecological, and environmental changes. Thus, at present, there is no compelling empirical evidence supporting a deep history of hominin impacts on Africa's faunal diversity.

Keywords

AfricacarnivoranextinctionHomohuman impactsmegafaunaoverkillproboscidean
Type
Review Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 96: 50th Anniversary Issue , July 2020 , pp. 88 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aiello, L.C., Wheeler, P., 1995. The expensive-tissue hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution. Current Anthropology 36, 199–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, K., Norman, D., Werdelin, L., 2011. Sabretoothed carnivores and the killing of large prey. PLoS ONE 6, e24971.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Antón, S.C., 2012. Early Homo: who, when, and where. Current Anthropology 53, S278-S298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antón, S.C., Potts, R., Aiello, L.C., 2014. Evolution of early Homo: an integrated biological perspective. Science 345, 45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnosky, A.D., Hadly, E.A., Gonzalez, P., Head, J., Polly, P.D., Lawing, A.M., Eronen, J.T., Ackerly, D.D., Alex, K., Biber, E., Blois, J., Brashares, J., Ceballos, G., Davis, E., Dietl, G.P., Dirzo, R., Doremus, H., Fortelius, M., Greene, H.W., Hellmann, J., Hickler, T., Jackson, S.T., Kemp, M., Koch, P.L., Kremen, C., Lindsey, E.L., Looy, C., Marshall, C.R., Mendenhall, C., Mulch, A., Mychajliw, A.M., Nowak, C., Ramakrishnan, U., Schnitzler, J., Shrestha, K.D., Solari, K., Stegner, L., Stegner, M.A., Stenseth, N.C., Wake, M.H., Zhang, Z., 2017. Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems. Science 355, eaah4787.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnosky, A.D., Koch, P.L., Feranec, R.S., Wing, S.L., Shabel, A.B., 2004. Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents. Science 306, 70–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnosky, A.D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G.O.U., Swartz, B., Quental, T.B., Marshall, C., McGuire, J.L., Lindsey, E.L., Magure, K.C., Mersey, B., Ferrer, E.A., 2011. Has the earth's sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blumenschine, R.J., 1987. Characteristics of an early hominid scavenging niche. Current Anthropology 28, 383–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J., Madrigal, T.C., 1993. Variability in long bone marrow yields of East African ungulates and its zooarchaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 20, 555–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bocherens, H., 2015. Isotopic tracking of large carnivore palaeoecology in the mammoth steppe. Quaternary Science Reviews 117, 42–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boivin, N.L., Zeder, M.A., Fuller, D.Q., Crowther, A., Larson, G., Erlandson, J.M., Denham, T., Petraglia, M.D., 2016. Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 113, 6388–6396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braje, T.J., Erlandson, J.M., 2013. Human acceleration of animal and plant extinctions: A Late Pleistocene, Holocene, and Anthropocene continuum. Anthropocene 4, 14–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bräuer, G., 2008. The origin of modern anatomy: by speciation of intraspecific evolution? Evolutionary Anthropology 17, 22–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, D.R., Harris, J.W.K., Levin, N.E., McCoy, J.T., Herries, A.I.R., Bamford, M.K., Bishop, L.C., Richmond, B.G., Kibunjia, M., 2010. Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107, 10002–10007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brink, J.S., Herries, A.I.R., Moggi-Cecchi, J., Gowlett, J.A.L., Bousman, C.B., Hancox, J.P., Grün, R., Eisenmann, V., Adams, J.W., Rossouw, L., 2012. First hominine remains from a ~1.0 million year old bone bed at Cornelia-Uitzoek, Free State Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 63, 527–535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brunet, M., Guy, F., Pilbeam, D., Mackaye, H.T., Likius, A., Ahounta, D., Beauvilain, A., Blondel, C., Bocherens, H., Boisserie, J.-R., De Bonis, L., Coppens, Y., Dejax, J., Denys, C., Duringer, P., Eisenmann, V., Fanone, G., Fronty, P., Geraads, D., Lehmann, T., Lihoreau, F., Louchart, A., Mahamat, A., Merceron, G., Mouchelin, G., Otero, O., Campomanes, P.P., Ponce De Leon, M., Rage, J.-C., Sapanet, M., Schuster, M., Sudre, J., Tassy, P., Valentin, X., Vignaud, P., Viriot, L., Zazzo, A., Zollikofer, C., 2002. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature 418, 145–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cerling, T.E., Harris, J.M., MacFadden, B.J., Leakey, M.G., Quade, J., Eisenmann, V., Ehleringer, J.R., 1997. Global vegetation change through the Miocene-Pliocene boundary. Nature 389, 153–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerling, T.E., Manthi, F.K., Mbua, E.N., Leakey, L.N., Leakey, M.G., Leakey, R.E., Brown, F.H., Grine, F.E., Hart, J.A., Kaleme, P., Roche, H., Uno, K.T., Wood, B.A., 2013. Stable isotope-based diet reconstructions of Turkana Basin hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110, 10501–10506.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chavaillon, J., Boisaubert, J.-L., Faure, M., Guerin, C., Ma, J.-L., Nickel, B., Poupeau, G., Rey, P., Warsama, S.A., 1987. Le site de dépeçage pléistocène à Elephas recki de Barogali (République de Djibouti): nouveaux résultats et datation. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences. Série 2, Mécanique, Physique, Chimie, Sciences de l'univers, Sciences de la Terre 305, 1259–1266.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D., 1959. Prehistory of southern Africa. Penguin Books, London.Google Scholar
Cooke, H.B.S., 1963. Pleistocene mammal faunas of Africa, with particular reference to southern Africa, in: Howell, F.C., Bourlière, F. (Eds.), African Ecology and Human Evolution. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, pp. 65–116.Google Scholar
Coppens, Y., Maglio, V.J., Madden, C.T., Beden, M., 1978. Proboscidea, in: Maglio, V.J., Cooke, H.B.S. (Eds.), Evolution of African Mammals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp. 336–367.Google Scholar
Cotrufo, M.F., Ineson, P., Scott, A., 1998. Elevated CO2 reduces the nitrogen concentration of plant tissues. Global Change Biology 4, 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deino, A.L., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Brooks, A.S., Yellen, J.E., Sharp, W.D., Potts, R., 2018. Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa. Science 360, 95–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delagnes, A., Lenoble, A., Harmand, S., Brugal, J.-P., Prat, S., Tiercelin, J.-J., Roche, H., 2006. Interpreting pachyderm single carcass sites in the African Lower and Early Middle Pleistocene record: A multidisciplinary approach to the site of Nadung'a 4 (Kenya). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 25, 448–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirzo, R., Young, H.S., Galetti, M., Ceballos, G., Isaac, N.J.B., Collen, B., 2014. Defaunation in the Anthropocene. Science 345, 401–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ditchfield, P., Hicks, J., Plummer, T., Bishop, L.C., Potts, R., 1999. Current research on the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits north of Homa Mountain, southwestern Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 36, 123–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Bunn, H.T., Yravedra, J., 2014. A critical re-evaluation of bone surface modofication models for inferring fossil hominin and carnivore interactions through a multivariate approach: application to the FLK Zinj archaeofaunal assemblage (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). Quaternary International 322–323, 32–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Pickering, T.R., Semaw, S., Rogers, M.J., 2005. Cutmarked bone from Pliocene archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia: implications for the function of the world's oldest tools. Journal of Human Evolution 48, 109–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drennan, M.R., 1953. The Saldanha skull and its associations. Nature 172, 791–793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Du, A., Rowan, J., Wang, S.C., Wood, B.A., Alemseged, Z., 2020. Statistical estimates of hominin origination and extinction dates: A case study examining the Australopithecus anamensis-afarensis lineage. Journal of Human Evolution 138, 102688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Du, A., Zipkin, A.M., Hatala, K.G., Renner, E., Baker, J.L., Bianchi, S., Bernal, K.H., Wood, B.A., 2018. Pattern and process in hominin brain size evolution are scale-dependent. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285, 20172738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eiseley, L.C., 1943. Archaeological observations on the problem of post-glacial extinction. American Antiquity 8, 209–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estes, J.A., Terbough, J., Brashares, J.S., Power, M.E., Berger, J., Bond, W.J., Carpenter, S.R., Essington, T.E., Holt, R.D., Jackson, J.B.C., Marquis, R.J., Oksanen, L., Oksanen, T., Paine, R.T., Pikitch, E.K., Ripple, W.J., Sandin, S.A., Scheffer, M., Schoener, T.W., Shurin, J.B., Sinclair, A.R.E., Soule, M.E., Virtanen, R., Wardle, D.A., 2011. Trophic downgrading of planet Earth. Science 333, 301–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faith, J.T., 2014. Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa. Earth-Science Reviews 128, 105–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faith, J.T., Rowan, J., Du, A., 2019. Early hominins evolved within non-analog ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 116, 21478–21483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faith, J.T., Rowan, J., Du, A., Koch, P.L., 2018. Plio-Pleistocene decline of African megaherbivores: no evidence for ancient hominin impacts. Science 362, 938–941.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faurby, S., Silvestro, D., Werdelin, L., Antonelli, A., 2020. Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa. Ecology Letters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandez, P., Bouzouggar, A., Collina-Girard, J., Coulon, M., 2015. The last occurrence of Megaceroides algericus Lyddekker, 1890 (Mammalia, Cervidae) during the middle Holocene in the cave of Bizmoune (Morocco, Essaouira region). Quaternary International 374, 154–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferraro, J.V., Plummer, T.W., Pobiner, B.L., Oliver, J.S., Bishop, L.C., Braun, D.R., Ditchfield, P.W., Seaman III, J.W., Binetti, K.M., Seaman, J.W. Jr., Hertel, F., Potts, R., 2013. Earliest archaeological evidence of persistent hominin carnivory. PLos ONE 8, 62174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foote, M., 2000. Origination and extinction components of taxonomic diversity: general problems. Paleobiology 26, 74–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foote, M., Miller, A.I., 2007. Principles of Paleontology. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York.Google Scholar
Fortelius, M., Žliobaitė, I., Kaya, F., Bibi, F., Bobe, R., Leakey, L., Leakey, M., Patterson, D., Rannikko, J., Werdelin, L., 2016. An ecometric analysis of the fossil mammal record of the Turkana Basin. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371, 20150232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geraads, D., Alemseged, Z., Bobe, R., Reed, D., 2011. Enhydriodon dikikae, sp. nov. (Carnivora: Mammalia), a gigantic otter from the Pliocene of Dikika, Lower Awash, Ethiopia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31, 447–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geraads, D., Eisenmann, V., Petter, G., 2004. The large mammal fauna of the Oldowan sites of Melka Kunture, in: Chavaillon, J., Piperno, M. (Eds.), Studies on the Early Paleolithic Site of Melka Kunture, Ethiopia. Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria, Florence, pp. 169–192.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., 1984. Quantitative Zooarchaeology. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., 2001. The archaeological record of human impacts on animal populations. Journal of World Prehistory 15, 1–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haile-Selassie, Y., Suwa, G., White, T.D., 2004. Late Miocene teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and early hominid dental evolution. Science 303, 1503–1505.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herries, A.I.R., Martin, J.M., Leece, A.B., Adams, J.W., Boschian, G., Joannes-Boyau, R., Edwards, T.R., Mallett, T., Massey, J., Murszewski, A., Neubauer, S., Pickering, R., Strait, D.S., Armstrong, B.J., Baker, S., Caruana, M.V., Denham, T., Hellstrom, J., Moggi-Cecchi, J., Mokobane, S., Penzo-Kajewski, P., Rovinsky, D.S., Schwartz, G.T., Stammer, R.C., Wilson, C., Woodhead, J., Menter, C., 2020. Contemporenaity of Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and early Homo erectus in South Africa. Science 368, eeaw7293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoag, C., Svenning, J.-C., 2017. African environmental change from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 42, 27–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hublin, J.-J., Ben-Ncer, A., Bailey, S.E., Friedline, S.E., Neubauer, S., Skinner, M.M., Bergmann, I., Le Cabec, A., Benazzi, S., Harvati, K., Gunz, P., 2017. New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens, pp. 289–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C.N., Balmford, A., Brook, B.W., Buettel, J.C., Galetti, M., Guangchun, L., Wilmshurst, J.M., 2017. Biodiversity losses and conservation response in the Anthropocene. Science 356, 270–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, R.G., Avery, G., Cruz-Uribe, K., Steele, T.E., 2007. The mammalian fauna associated with an archaic hominin skullcap and later Acheulean artifacts at Elandsfontein, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 52, 164–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koch, P.L., Barnosky, A.D., 2006. Late Quaternary extinctions: state of the debate. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 37, 215–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacruz, R.S., Brink, J.S., Hancox, P.J., Skinner, A.R., Herries, A., Schmid, P., Berger, L.R., 2002. Palaeontology and geological context of a middle Pleistocene faunal assemblage from Gladysvale Cave, South Africa. Palaeontologia Africana 38, 99–114.Google Scholar
Leakey, L.S.B., 1965. Olduvai Gorge 1951–1961 Volume 1: Fauna and Background. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Leakey, L.S.B., 1966. Africa and Pleistocene overkill? Nature 212, 1615–1616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leakey, M.D., 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Volume 3, Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lepre, C.J., Roche, H., Kent, D.V., Harmand, S., Quinn, R.L., Brugal, J.-P., Texier, J.-P., Lenoble, A., Feibel, C.S., 2011. An earlier origin for the Acheulean. Nature 477, 82–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, N.E., 2015. Environment and climate of early human evolution. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 43, 405–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M.E., 1997. Carnivoran paleoguilds of Africa: implications for hominin food procurement strategies. Journal of Human Evolution 32, 257–288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, M.E., 2017. Carnivore guilds and the impact of hominin dispersals, in: Boivin, N., Crassard, R., Petraglia, M. (Eds.), Human Dispersal and Species Movement. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 29–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M.E., Werdelin, L., 2007. Patterns of change in the Plio-Pleistocene carnivorans of eastern Africa, in: Bobe, R., Alemseged, Z., Behrensmeyer, A.K. (Eds.), Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 77–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyman, R.L., 2008. Quantitative Paleozoology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, S.K., Smith, F.A., Brown, J.H., 2004. Of mice, mastodons and men: human-mediated extinctions on four continents. Evolutionary Ecology Research 6, 339–358.Google Scholar
Maglio, V.J., Cooke, H.B.S., 1978. Evolution of African Mammals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malhi, Y., Doughty, C.E., Galetti, M., Smith, F.A., Svenning, J.-C., Terbough, J.W., 2016. Megafauna and ecosystem function from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA 113, 838–846.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manthi, F.K., Sanders, W.J., Placvan, J.M., Cerling, T.E., Brown, F.H., 2019. Late Middle Pleistocene elephants from Natodomeri, Kenya and the disappearance of Elephas (Proboscidea, Mammalia) in Africa. Journal of Mammalian Evolution https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-019-09474-9Google Scholar
Marean, C.W., 1989. Sabertooth cats and their relevance for early hominid diet and evolution. Journal of Human Evolution 18, 559–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., 1966. Africa and Pleistocene overkill. Nature 5060, 339–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., 1967a. Overkill at Olduvai Gorge. Nature 215, 212–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., 2005. Twighlight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., 1984. Prehistoric overkill: the global model, in: Martin, P.S., Klein, R.G. (Eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 354–403.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., 1967b. Prehistoric overkill, in: Martin, P.S., Wright, H.E.J. (Eds.), Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 75–120.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., Steadman, D.W., 1999. Prehistoric extinctions on islands and continents, in: MacPhee, R.D.E. (Ed.), Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences. Klewer/Plenum, New York, pp. 17–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBrearty, S., Jablonski, N.G., 2005. First fossil chimpanzee. Nature 437, 105–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDougall, I., Brown, F.H., Fleagle, J., 2005. Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia. Nature 433, 733–736.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McPherron, S.P., Alemseged, Z., Marean, C.W., Wynn, J.G., Reed, D., Geraads, D., Bobe, R., Bearat, H.A., 2010. Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Ethiopia. Nature 466, 857–860.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meltzer, D.J., 2015. Pleistocene overkill and North American mammalian extinctions. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 44, 33–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miranda, E.B.P., Menezes, J.F.S., Farias, C.C.L., Munn, C., Peres, C.A., 2019. Species distribution modeling reveals strongholds and potential reintroduction areas for the world's largest eagle. PLoS ONE 14, e0216323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen-Smith, R.N., 1988. Megaherbivores: the influence of very large body size on ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owensby, C.E., Cochran, R.C., Auen, L.M., 1996. Effects of elevated carbon dioxide on forage quality for ruminants, in: Körner, C., Bazzaz, F. (Eds.), Carbon Dioxide, Populations, and Communities. Academic Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 363–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pante, M.C., Njau, J.K., Hensley-Marschand, B., Keevil, T.L., Martin-Ramos, C., Peters, R.F., de la Torre, I., 2018. The carnivorous feeding behavior of early Homo at HWK EE, Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 120, 215–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pante, M.C., Scott, R.S., Blumenschine, R.J., Capaldo, S.D., 2015. Revalidation of bone surface modification models for inferring fossil hominin and carnivore feeding interactions. Journal of Human Evolution 355, 164–168.Google Scholar
Patterson, D.B., Braun, D.R., Allen, K., Barr, W.A., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Biernat, M., Lehmann, S.B., Maddox, T., Manthi, F.K., Merritt, S.R., Morris, S.E., O'Brien, K., Reeves, J.S., Wood, B.A., Bobe, R., 2019. Comparative isotopic evidence from East Turkana supports a dietary shift within the genus Homo. Nature Ecology and Evolution 3, 1048–1056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Ditchfield, P., 1999. Paleolandscape variation and Early Pleistocene hominid activities: members 1 and 7, Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 37, 747–788.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ripple, W.J., Newsome, T.M., Wolf, C., Dirzo, R., Everatt, K.T., Galetti, M., Hayward, M.W., Kerley, G.I.H., Levi, T., Lindsey, P.A., Macdonald, D.W., Malhi, Y., Painter, L.E., Sandom, C.J., Terborgh, J., Van Valkenburgh, B., 2015. Collapse of the world's largest herbivores. Science Advances 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ripple, W.J., Van Valkenburgh, B., 2010. Linking top-down forces to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. BioScience 60, 516–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, W.J., Gheerbrant, E., Harris, J.M., Saegusa, H., Delmer, C., 2010. Proboscidea, in: Werdelin, L., Sanders, W.J. (Eds.), Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 161–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandom, C., Faurby, S., Sandel, B., Svenning, J.-C., 2014. Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, 20133254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandom, C.J., Faurby, S., Svenning, J.-C., Burnham, D., dickman, A., Hinks, A.E., Macdonald, E.A., Ripple, W.J., Williams, J., Macdonald, D.W., 2017. Learning from the past to prepare for the future: felids face continued threat from declining prey. Ecography 41, 140–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senut, B., Pickford, M., Gommery, D., Mein, P., Cheboi, K., Coppens, Y., 2001. First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences - Series IIA - Earth and Planetary Science 332, 137–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Signor, P.W., Lipps, J.H., 1982. Sampling bias, gradual extinction patterns, and catastrophes in the fossil record. Geological Society of America Special Publication 190, 291–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silvestro, D., Salamin, N., Schnitzler, J., 2014. PyRate: a new program to estimate speciation and extinction rates from incomplete fossil data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5, 1126–1131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, F.A., Elliot Smith, R.E., Lyons, S.K., Payne, J.L., 2018. Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary. Science 360, 310–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, F.A., Smith, R.E.E., Lyons, S.K., Payne, J.L., Villaseñor, A., 2019. The accelerating influence of humans on mammalian macroecological patterns over the late Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 211, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souron, A., Boisserie, J.-R., White, T.D., 2013. A new species of the suid genus Kolpochoerus from Ethiopia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60, 79–96.Google Scholar
Stanford, C., 1999. The hunting apes: Meat eating and the origins of human behavior. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Stanford, C.B., 1995. Chimpanzee hunting behavior and human evolution. American Scientist 83, 256–261.Google Scholar
Stanford, C. B. 2012. Chimpanzees and the behavior of Ardipithecus ramidus. Annual Review of Anthropology 41, 139–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stap, L.B., de Boer, B., Ziegler, M., Bintanja, R., Lourens, L.J., van de Wal, R.S.W., 2016. CO2 over the past 5 million years: Continuous simulation and new δ11B-based proxy data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 439, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stringer, C., 2012. The status of Homo heidelbergensis (Schoetensack 1908). Evolutionary Anthropology 21, 101–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Surovell, T.A., Waguespack, N.M., Brantingham, P.J., 2005. Global archaeological evidence for proboscidean overkill. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102, 6231–6236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, J.C., Carvalho, S., Marean, C.W., Alemseged, Z., 2019. Origins of the human predatory pattern: the transition to large-animal exploitation by early hominins. Current Anthropology 60, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, N.E., 2006. Trends in proboscidean diversity in the African Cenozoic. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 13, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, A., Antón, M., 1996. The giant hyaena, Pacycrocuta brevirostris (Mammalia, Carnivora, Hyaenidae). Geobios 29, 455–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turvey, S.T., Crees, J.J., 2019. Extinction in the Anthropocene. Current Biology 29, R982-R986.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Valkenburgh, B., Hayward, M.W., Ripple, W.J., Meloro, C., Roth, V.L., 2016. The impact of large terrestrial carnivores on Pleistocene ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 113, 862–867.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, S.C., Marshall, C.R., 2016. Estimating times of extinction in the fossil record. Biology Letters 12, 20150989.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wells, L.H., 1964. The Vaal River “Younger Gravels” faunal assemblage: a revised list. South African Journal of Science 60, 91–93.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L., 2010. Chronology of Neogene mammal localities, in: Werdelin, L., Sanders, W.J. (Eds.), Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werdelin, L., Lewis, M.E., 2005. Plio-Pleistocene Carnivora of eastern Africa: species richness and turnover patterns. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 144, 121–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werdelin, L., Lewis, M.E., 2013a. Koobi Fora Research Project: Volume 7: The Carnivora. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L., Lewis, M.E., 2013b. Temporal Change in Functional Richness and Evenness in the Eastern African Plio-Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild. PLoS One 8, e57944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, T.D., Asfaw, B., Beyenne, Y., Haile-Selassie, Y., Lovejoy, C.O., Suwa, G., WoldeGabriel, G., 2009. Ardipithecus ramidus and the paleobiology of early hominids. Science 326, 75–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, T.D., Lovejoy, C.O., Asfaw, B., Carlson, J.P., Suwa, G., 2015. Neither chimpanzee nor human, Ardipithecus reveals the surprising ancestry of both. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 112, 4877–4884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, B., Collard, M., 1999. The human genus. Science 284, 65–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wroe, S., Field, J.H., Archer, M., Grayson, D.K., Price, G.J., Louys, J., Faith, J.T., Webb, G.E., Iavidson, I., Mooney, S.D., 2013. Climate change frames debate over the extinction of megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110, 8777–8781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Žliobaitė, I., Fortelius, M., Stenseth, N.C., 2017. Reconciling taxon senescence with the Red Queen's hypothesis. Nature 552, 92–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Faith et al. supplementary material

Tables S1-S2

Download Faith et al. supplementary material(File)
File 19.7 KB