title: Kantis: A new Australopithecus site on the shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya.
abstract: Most Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Gregory Rift Valley that have yielded abundant fossil hominins lie on the Rift Valley floor. Here we report a new Pliocene site, Kantis, on the shoulder of the Gregory Rift Valley, which extends the geographical range of Australopithecus afarensis to the highlands of Kenya. This species, known from sites in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and possibly Kenya, is believed to be adapted to a wide spectrum of habitats, from open grassland to woodland. The Kantis fauna is generally similar to that reported from other contemporaneous A. afarensis sites on the Rift Valley floor. However, its faunal composition and stable carbon isotopic data from dental enamel suggest a stronger C4 environment than that present at those sites. Although the Gregory Rift Valley has been the focus of paleontologists' attention for many years, surveys of the Rift shoulder may provide new perspective on African Pliocene mammal and hominin evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Mount Kenya University, P.O Box 342-00100, Thika, Kenya. Electronic address: enmbua@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mbua
authors.affiliation: Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Suruga, Shizuoka 422-8017, Japan.
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kusaka
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Business Administration, Ryukoku University, Fushimi, Kyoto 612-8577, Japan.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kunimatsu
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités - CR2P-MNHN, CNRS, UPMC-Paris 6 - CP 38, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 8 rue Buffon, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Evolution, DeutscherPlatz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Geraads
authors.affiliation: 402-1 Fukushima, Kurashiki 710-0048, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sawada
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
authors.forename: Francis H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Geoscience, Shimane University, Matsue 690-8504, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.affiliation: Institut de Paléoprimatologie, Paléontologie Humaine: Evolution et Paléoenvironnements (CNRS and Université de Poitiers), 6, rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Poitiers CEDX 9, France; Centre Français des Etudes Ethiopiennes (CNRS and Ministère des Affaires Etrangères), P.O Box 5554, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Jean-Renaud
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Boisserie
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosphere-Geosphere Science, Okayama University of Science, Kita, Okayama 700-0005, Japan.
authors.forename: Mototaka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saneyoshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Nairobi, P.O Box 30197-001001, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Omuombo
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, P.O Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muteti
authors.affiliation: Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Systems Science, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Kyoto 610-0321, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hayashida
authors.affiliation: Kyoto Fission-Track Co., Ltd., Kita, Kyoto 603-8832, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iwano
authors.affiliation: Kyoto Fission-Track Co., Ltd., Kita, Kyoto 603-8832, Japan.
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Danhara
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bobe
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1215 W. Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jicha
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan. Electronic address: nakatsuk@anthro.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakatsukasa
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils; D005844:Geology; D015186:Hominidae / Q000502:physiology*; D007630:Kenya
keywords: Carbon stable isotope; Fossils; Hominin; Paleoenvironment; Pliocene