Universität zu Köln

Gosling, William D., Scerri, Eleanor M. L. and Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie ORCID: 0000-0002-4449-2938 (2022). The climate and vegetation backdrop to hominin evolution in Africa. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci., 377 (1849). LONDON: ROYAL SOC. ISSN 1471-2970

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Abstract

The most profound shift in the African hydroclimate of the last 1 million years occurred around 300 thousand years (ka) ago. This change in African hydroclimate is manifest as an east-west change in moisture balance that cannot be fully explained through linkages to high latitude climate systems. The east-west shift is, instead, probably driven by a shift in the tropical Walker Circulation related to sea surface temperature change driven by orbital forcing. Comparing records of past vegetation change, and hominin evolution and development, with this breakpoint in the climate system is challenging owing to the paucity of study sites available and uncertainties regarding the dating of records. Notwithstanding these uncertainties we find that, broadly speaking, both vegetation and hominins change around 300 ka. The vegetative backdrop suggests that relative abundance of vegetative resources shifted from western to eastern Africa, although resources would have persisted across the continent. The climatic and vegetation changes probably provided challenges for hominins and are broadly coincident with the appearance of Homo sapiens (ca 315 ka) and the emergence of Middle Stone Age technology. The concomitant changes in climate, vegetation and hominin evolution suggest that these factors are closely intertwined. This article is part of the theme issue 'Tropical forests in the deep human past'.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Gosling, William D. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Scerri, Eleanor M. L. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-2938 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-679819
DOI:	10.1098/rstb.2020.0483
Journal or Publication Title:	Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B-Biol. Sci.
Volume:	377
Number:	1849
Date:	2022
Publisher:	ROYAL SOC
Place of Publication:	LONDON
ISSN:	1471-2970
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language NINO-SOUTHERN-OSCILLATION; MODERN HUMAN-DIVERSITY; MIDDLE STONE-AGE; ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGE; EL-NINO; DRILLING PROJECT; HIGH-LATITUDE; HOMO-SAPIENS; JEBEL IRHOUD; LAKE MALAWI Multiple languages Biology Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/67981