Isotopic evidence for an early shift to C4 resources by Pliocene hominins in Chad
Isotopic evidence for an early shift to C4 resources by Pliocene hominins in Chad
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1204209109
复制
发表时间：
2012-12-11
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Brunet, Michel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lee-Thorp, Julia;Likius, Andossa;Brunet, Michel
来自C-4植物的食物在非洲南部和东部早更新世人类的饮食生态学中很重要，但这种关系的起源和地理变异性仍然未知。碳同位素数据显示，来自乍得科罗托罗的南方古猿bahrelghazali个体的C-13显著富集，表明对C-4资源的依赖。由于这些地点的年龄超过300万年，因此这些结果将东非的鲍氏傍人的C-4依赖模式延长了150万年以上。科罗托罗人化石发现于泥质砂岩层沿着，具有丰富的放牧和水生动物群元素，这些元素结合在一起，表明存在与大大扩大的乍得湖相关的开放到树木繁茂的草原和河流通道。在这样的环境中，A. bahrelghazali是草和莎草，这两者通常都不被认为是标准的类人猿食物。这些结果表明，人类饮食生态学的早期和根本性的转变促进了新栖息地的开发。
Foods derived from C-4 plants were important in the dietary ecology of early Pleistocene hominins in southern and eastern Africa, but the origins and geographic variability of this relationship remain unknown. Carbon isotope data show that Australopithecus bahrelghazali individuals from Koro Toro in Chad are significantly enriched in C-13, indicating a dependence on C-4 resources. As these sites are over 3 million years in age, the results extend the pattern of C-4 dependence seen in Paranthropus boisei in East Africa by more than 1.5 million years. The Koro Toro hominin fossils were found in argillaceous sandstone levels along with abundant grazing and aquatic faunal elements that, in combination, indicate the presence of open to wooded grasslands and stream channels associated with a greatly enlarged Lake Chad. In such an environment, the most abundant C-4 plant resources available to A. bahrelghazali were grasses and sedges, neither of which is usually considered as standard great ape fare. The results suggest an early and fundamental shift in hominin dietary ecology that facilitated the exploitation of new habitats.