Early hominins evolved within non-analog ecosystems

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1909284116
• Publication Date: 2019-10-08T00:35:29Z
• Authors: J. Tyler Faith; John Rowan; Andrew Du
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Fossils; Paleontology; Hominidae; Africa, Eastern; 15. Life on land; Biological Evolution; 03 medical and health sciences; Animals; Humans; Herbivory; Ecosystem; History, Ancient

Significance Testing ecological hypotheses of human evolution requires an understanding the ancient plant and animal communities within which our ancestors lived. Though present-day ecosystems provide baseline for reconstructing context evolution, extent to modern are representative past ones is unknown. Through analyses a fossil dataset spanning last 7 Myr, we show that eastern African large-bodied mammalian herbivores differed markedly from those today until ∼700,000 y ago. Because large ecosystem engineers shape biotic in ways impact wide variety species, this implies vast majority early transpired functioned unlike any known today.