Publication Date:
2009-10-08
Description:
A diverse assemblage of large mammals is spatially and stratigraphically associated with Ardipithecus ramidus at Aramis. The most common species are tragelaphine antelope and colobine monkeys. Analyses of their postcranial remains situate them in a closed habitat. Assessment of dental mesowear, microwear, and stable isotopes from these and a wider range of abundant associated larger mammals indicates that the local habitat at Aramis was predominantly woodland. The Ar. ramidus enamel isotope values indicate a minimal C4 vegetation component in its diet (plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway), which is consistent with predominantly forest/woodland feeding. Although the Early Pliocene Afar included a range of environments, and the local environment at Aramis and its vicinity ranged from forests to wooded grasslands, the integration of available physical and biological evidence establishes Ar. ramidus as a denizen of the closed habitats along this continuum.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉White, Tim D -- Ambrose, Stanley H -- Suwa, Gen -- Su, Denise F -- DeGusta, David -- Bernor, Raymond L -- Boisserie, Jean-Renaud -- Brunet, Michel -- Delson, Eric -- Frost, Stephen -- Garcia, Nuria -- Giaourtsakis, Ioannis X -- Haile-Selassie, Yohannes -- Howell, F Clark -- Lehmann, Thomas -- Likius, Andossa -- Pehlevan, Cesur -- Saegusa, Haruo -- Semprebon, Gina -- Teaford, Mark -- Vrba, Elisabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Oct 2;326(5949):87-93.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Human Evolution Research Center and Department of Integrative Biology, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19810193" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Biodiversity
;
Cercopithecidae/anatomy & histology
;
Diet
;
*Ecosystem
;
Environment
;
Ethiopia
;
*Fossils
;
*Hominidae/classification
;
Mammals/anatomy & histology/classification
;
Paleodontology
;
Plants
;
Population Density
;
Tooth/anatomy & histology
;
Trees
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
