title: Dietary changes of large herbivores in the Turkana Basin, Kenya from 4 to 1 Ma.
abstract: A large stable isotope dataset from East and Central Africa from ca. 30 regional collection sites that range from forest to grassland shows that most extant East and Central African large herbivore taxa have diets dominated by C4 grazing or C3 browsing. Comparison with the fossil record shows that faunal assemblages from ca. 4.1-2.35 Ma in the Turkana Basin had a greater diversity of C3-C4 mixed feeding taxa than is presently found in modern East and Central African environments. In contrast, the period from 2.35 to 1.0 Ma had more C4-grazing taxa, especially nonruminant C4-grazing taxa, than are found in modern environments in East and Central Africa. Many nonbovid C4 grazers became extinct in Africa, notably the suid Notochoerus, the hipparion equid Eurygnathohippus, the giraffid Sivatherium, and the elephantid Elephas. Other important nonruminant C4-grazing taxa switched to browsing, including suids in the lineage Kolpochoerus-Hylochoerus and the elephant Loxodonta. Many modern herbivore taxa in Africa have diets that differ significantly from their fossil relatives. Elephants and tragelaphin bovids are two groups often used for paleoecological insight, yet their fossil diets were very different from their modern closest relatives; therefore, their taxonomic presence in a fossil assemblage does not indicate they had a similar ecological function in the past as they do at present. Overall, we find ecological assemblages of C3-browsing, C3-C4-mixed feeding, and C4-grazing taxa in the Turkana Basin fossil record that are different from any modern ecosystem in East or Central Africa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; thure.cerling@utah.edu.
authors.forename: Thure E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Cerling
authors.affiliation: Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya;
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Andanje
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016;
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Blumenthal
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112;
authors.forename: Francis H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112;
authors.forename: Kendra L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Chritz
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA 90007;
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Lukuru Foundation, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo;
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Ross University, Miramar, FL 33027;
authors.forename: Francis M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Kirera
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles, Lwiro, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo; Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa;
authors.forename: Prince
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaleme
authors.affiliation: Turkana Basin Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794;
authors.forename: Louise N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Leakey
authors.affiliation: Turkana Basin Institute, Nairobi, Kenya; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794;
authors.forename: Meave G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Leakey
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218;
authors.forename: Naomi E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-3717
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Science, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya;
authors.forename: Fredrick Kyalo
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Manthi
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218;
authors.forename: Benjamin H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Passey
authors.affiliation: Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964.
authors.forename: Kevin T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Uno
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D060434:Herbivory / Q000502:physiology*; D015186:Hominidae; D007630:Kenya; D008322:Mammals / Q000502:physiology*; D010163:Paleontology; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes
keywords: carbon isotopes; diet; evolution