The carbon isotope ecology and diet of Australopithecus africanus at Sterkfontein, South Africa

Journal of Human Evolution

Volumn 44, Issue 5, 2003, Pages 581-597

  van der Merwe, Nikolaas J ^a,b   Thackeray, J Francis ^c   Lee Thorp, Julia A ^a   Luyt, Julie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

^b HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c Transvaal Museum   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Australopithecines; C4 plants; Carbon isotopes; Diet; South Africa

Indexed keywords

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY; CARBON ISOTOPE; DIET; ENAMEL; PRIMATE; TOOTH;

GAUTENG; SOUTH AFRICA; STERKFONTEIN;

ANIMALIA; AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS; CYPERACEAE; HOMINIDAE; MAMMALIA; POACEAE; PRIMATES;

EID: 0038606762     PISSN: 00472484     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00050-2     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Backwell, L.R., d'Errico, F., 2000. First evidence for termite foraging by Swartkrans early hominids. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 98, 1358-1363.
2. Bamford, M., 1999. Pliocene fossil wood from an early hominid cave deposit, Sterkfontein, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 95, 231-237.
3. Berger, L.R., Lacruz, R.S., de Ruiter, D.J., 2002. Revised estimates of Australopithecus bearing deposits at Sterkfontein, South Africa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 119, 192-197.
4. Brunet, M., Beauvilain, A., Coppens, Y., Heintz, E., Montaye, A.H.E., Pilbeam, D., 1995. The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometers west of the Rift Valley (Chad). Nature 378, 273-275.
5. Bocherens, H., Billiou, D., Mariotti, A., Pathou-Mathis, M., Otte, M., Bonjean, D., Toussaint, M., 1999. Palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary implications of isotopic biogeochemistry of last interglacial Neanderthal and mammal bones in Scladina Cave (Belgium). Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 599-607.
6. 18O) of mammalian enamel from African Pleistocene hominid sites. Palaios 11, 306-318.
7. Brain, C.K., 1958. The Transvaal Ape-man Bearing Cave Deposits, Transvaal Museum Memoir No. 11. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
8. Brain, C.K., 1981. The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
9. Brain, C.K., 1993. Swartkrans: a Cave's Chronicle of Early Man, Transvaal Museum Monographs. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
10. Broom, R., Schepers, G.W.H., 1946. The South African fossil ape-men, the Australopithecinae, Transvaal Museum Memoir No. 2. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
11. Broom, R., Robinson, J.T., Schepers, G.W.H., 1950. Sterkfontein Ape-man, Plesianthropus, Transvaal Museum Memoir No. 4. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
12. Cerling, T.E., Harris, J.M., 1999. Carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bioapatite in ungulate mammals and implications for ecological and paleoecologtical studies. Oecologia 120, 347-363.
13. Cerling, T.E., Harris, J.M., Ambrose, S.H., Leakey, M.G., Solounias, N., 1997. Dietary and environmental reconstruction with stable isotope analyses of herbivore tooth enamel from the Miocene locality of Fort Ternan, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 33, 635-650.
14. Cerling, T.E., Harris, J.M., MacFadden, B.J., Leakey, M.G., Quade, J., Eisenmann, V., Ehleringer, J.R., 1997. Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Nature 389, 153-158.
15. 4 ecosystems as an indicator of global ecological change in the late Miocene. Nature 361, 344-345.
16. Clarke, R.J., 1988. A new Australopithecus cranium from Sterkfontein and its bearing on the ancestry of Paranthropus. In: Grine, F.E. (Ed.), Evolutionary History of the Robust Australopithecines. Aldine de Gruyter. New York, pp. 285-292.
17. Clarke, R.J., 1998. First ever discovery of a well-preserved skull and associated skeleton of Australopithecus. South African Journal of Science 94, 463.
18. Clarke, R.J., 2002a. On the unrealistic "revised age estimates" for Sterkfontein. South African Journal of Science 98, 415-418.
19. Clarke, R.J., 2002b. Newly revealed information on the Sterkfontein Member 2 Australopithecus skeleton. South African Journal of Science 98, 523-526.
20. Clarke, R.J., Kaman, K. 1998. The Sterkfontein caves: palaeontological and archaeological sites. In Clarke, R.J., Kuman, K., Brain, C.K., Tobias, P.V., Thackeray, J.F., (compilers). Mid-Congress Excursion Handbook, pp. 3-20. Dual Congress '98: International Associations of Human Palaeontologists and Human Biologists. Pretoria: Desktop Creations.
21. Clarke, R.J., Kaman, K. 2000. The Sterkfontein Caves palaeontological and archaeological site. University of the Witwatersrand, pamphlet, l8pp.
22. Coppens, Y., 1983. Le singe, l'Afrique et l'Homme. Fayard, Paris.
23. Coppens, Y., 1994, East Side Story: the origin of humankind, Scientific American 270, 62-69.
24. Dart, R.A., 1925. Australopithecus africanus: the man-ape of South Africa. Nature 115, 195-199.
25. Dart, R.A., 1926. Taungs and its significance. Natural History 26, 315-327.
26. Dart, R.A., 1957. The osteodontokeratic, culture of Australopithecus prometheus, Transvaal Museum Memoir No. 10. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
27. Ehleringer, J.R., Cooper, T.A., 1988. Correlations between carbon isotope ratio and microhabitat in desert plants. Oecologia 76, 562-566.
28. Ehleringer, J.R., Field, C.B., Lin, Z.F., Kuo, C.Y., 1986. Leaf carbon isotope and mineral composition in subtropical plants along an irradiance cline. Oecologia 70, 520-526.
29. 2 in the past two centuries. Nature 324, 237-238.
30. Grine, F.E., 1981. Trophic differences between gracile and robust australopithecines. South African Journal of Science 77, 203-230.
31. Grine, F.E., Kay, R.F., 1988. Early hominid diets from quantitative image analysis of dental microwear. Nature 333, 765-768.
32. 4 types of grasses. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 9, 139-154.
33. 4 photosynthetic pathway variation in grasses (Poaceae): its significance for arid and semi-arid lands. In: Chapman, G.P. (Ed.), Desertified Grasslands: Their Biology and Management. The Linnean Society, London, pp. 181-212.
34. Hughes, A.R., Tobias, P.V., 1977. A fossil skull probably of the genus Homo from Sterkfontein, Transvaal. Nature 265, 310.
35. Johanson, D.C., White, T.D., 1979. A systematic assessment of early African hominids. Science 202, 321-330.
36. Johanson, D.C., Edey, M.A., 1981. Lucy, the Beginning of Humankind. Granada, London.
37. Johanson, D., Edgar, B., 1996. From Lucy to Language. University of the Witwatersrand Press, Johannesburg.
38. Katzenberg, M.A., 2000. Stable isotope analysis: a tool for studying past diet, demography, and life history. In: Katzenberg, M.A., Saunders, S.R. (Eds.), Biological Anthropology of the Human Skeleton. Wiley-Liss, New York, pp. 305-327.
39. Keyser, A., Menter, C.G., Moggi-Cecchi, J., Pickering, T.R., Berger, L.R., 2000. Drimolen: a new hominid-bearing site in Gauteng, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 96, 193-197.
40. Kuman, K., 1994. The archaeology of Sterkfontein - past and present. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 471-495.
41. Kuman, K., Clarke, R.J., 2000, Stratigraphy, artefact industries and hominid associations for Sterkfontein, Member 5, Journal of Human Evolution 38, 827-847.
42. Leakey, L.S.B., 1959. A new fossil skull from Olduvai. Nature 184, 491-493.
43. Leakey, L.S.B., Tobias, P.N., Napier, J., 1964. A new species of the genus Homo from Olduvai Gorge. Nature 202, 7-9.
44. Leakey, M.G., Spoor, F., Brown, F.H., Gathogo, P.N., Kiarie, C., Leakey, L.N., McDougall, I., 2001. New hominin genus from eastern Africa shows diverse middle Pliocene lineages. Nature 410, 433-440.
45. Lee-Thorp, J.A. 1989. Stable carbon isotopes in deep time. University of Cape Town, unpublished doctoral dissertation.
46. Lee-Thorp, J.A., van der Merwe, N.J., 1987. Carbon isotope analysis of fossil bone apatite. South African Journal of Science 83, 712-715.
47. Lee-Thorp, J.A., van der Merwe, N.J., 1991, Aspects of the chemistry of fossil and modern biological apatites. Journal of Archaeological Science 18, 343-354.
48. Lee-Thorp, J.A., van der Merwe, N.J., 1993. Stable carbon isotope studies of Swartkrans fossils. In: Brain, C.K. (Ed.), Swartkrans, A Cave's Chronicle of Early Man, Transvaal Museum Monographs. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, pp. 251-256.
49. Lee-Thorp, J.A., Manning, L., Sponheimer, M., 1997. Exploring problems and opportunities offered by down-scaling sample sizes for carbon isotope analyses of fossils. Bulletin de la Societè Geologique de France 168, 767-773.
50. Lee-Thorp, J.A., Sealy, J.C., van der Merwe, N.J., 1989. Stable carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and bone apatite, and their relationship to diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 18, 585-599.
51. Lee-Thorp, J.A., Sponheimer, M., van der Merwe, N.J., 2003. What do stable isotopes tell us about hominid dietary and ecological niches in the Pliocene? International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13, 104-113.
52. Lee-Thorp, J.A., Thackeray, J.F., van der Merwe, N.J., 2000. The hunters and the hunted revisited. Journal of Human Evolution 39, 565-576.
53. Lee-Thorp, J.A., van der Merwe, N.J., Brain, C.K., 1994. Diet of Australopithecus robustus and associated fauna from Swartkrans. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 361-372.
54. Luyt, J. 2001. Revisiting palaeoenvironments from the hominid-bearing Plio-Pleistocene sites: New isotopic evidence from Sterkfontein. University of Cape Town, unpublished master's thesis.
55. Maguire, J.M., Pemberton, D., Collett, M.H., 1980. The Makapansgat Limeworks grey breccia: hominids, hyenas, hystricids or hillwash? Palaeontologia Africana 23, 75-98.
56. 2 inferred from carbon in plant cellulose. Nature 349, 127-131.
57. Partridge, T.C., 2002. Untitled comment in "News and Views". South African Journal of Science 98, 418-419.
58. Partridge, T.C., Watt, I.B., 1991. The stratigraphy of the Sterkfontein hominid deposit and its relationship to the underground cave system. Palaeontologia Africana 28, 35-40.
59. Partridge, T.C., Shaw, J., Heslop, D., 2000a. Note on recent magnetostratigraphic analyses of Member 2 of the Sterkfontein Formation. In: Partridge, T.C., Maud, R.R. (Eds.), The Cenozoic of southern Africa. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 129-130.
60. Partridge, T.C., Latham, A.G., Heslop, D., 2000b. Appendix on magnetostratigraphy of Makapansgat, Sterkfontein, Taung and Swartkrans. In: Partridge, T.C., Maud, R.R. (Eds.), The Cenozoic of southern Africa, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 126-129.
61. Pickford, M., Senut, B., 2001. "Millennium Ancestor", a 6-million year old bipedal hominid from Kenya. South African Journal of Science 97, 22.
62. Quade, J., Cerling, T.E., Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E., Pilbeam, D.R., Chivas, A.R., Lee-Thorp, J.A., van der Merwe, N.J., 1992, A 16-Ma record of paleodiet using carbon and oxygen isotopes in fossil teeth from Pakistan. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section) 94, 183-192.
63. Richards, M.P., Pettitt, P.B.. Trinkhaus, E., Smith, F.H., Paunovic, M., Karavanic, I., 2000. Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: the evidence from stable isotopes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 97, 7663- 7666.
64. Robinson. J.T., 1954. Prehominid dentition and hominid evolution. Evolution 8, 324-334.
65. Schoeninger, M., Moore, K., 1992. Bone stable isotope studies in archaeology. Journal of World Prehistory 6, 247-296.
66. Schoeninger. M., Iwaniec, U.T., Glander, K.E., 1997. Stable isotope ratios indicate diet and habitat use of New World monkeys. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 103, 69-83.
67. Schoeninger, M., Moore, J., Sept, J.M., 1999. Subsistence strategies of two "savanna" chimpanzee populations: the stable isotope evidence. American Journal of Primatology 49, 297-314.
68. Smith, J. 1997. Stable isotope analysis of fauna and soils from sites in the eastern Free State and western Lesotho, southern Africa. University of Cape Town, unpublished master's thesis.
69. Sponheimer, M. 1999. Isotopic ecology of the Makapansgat Limeworks fauna. Rutgers University, doctoral dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms.
70. Sponheimer, M., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 1999a. Isotopic evidence for the diet of an early hominid, Australopithecus africanus. Science 283, 368-370.
71. Sponheimer, M., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 1999b. Oxygen isotope ratios in enamel carbonate and their ecological significance. Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 723-728.
72. Sponheimer, M., Grant, C.C., de Ruiter, D., Lee-Thorp, J.A., Codron, C., Codron, J. in press. Diets of impala from Kruger National Park: evidence from stable carbon isotopes. Koedoe.
73. Sullivan. C.H., Krueger, H.W., 1981. Carbon isotope analysis of separate phases in modern and fossil bone. Nature 292, 333-335.
74. Sullivan, C.H., Krueger, H.W., 1983. Carbon isotope ratios of bone apatite and animal diet reconstruction. Nature 301, 177.
75. Thackeray, J.F., Henzi, S.P., Brain, C., 1996. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen in Papio cynocephalus ursinus: comparison with ungulates and Homo sapiens from southern and East African environments. South African Journal of Science 92, 209-212.
76. Tieszen, L.L., 1991. Natural variation in the carbon isotope values of plants: implications for archaeology, ecology and paleoecology. Journal of Archaeological Science 18, 227-248.
77. van der Merwe, N.J., 1982. Carbon isotopes, photosynthesis. and archaeology. American Scientist 70, 596-606.
78. 12C ratios in Amazonian rain forests. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 53, 1091-1094.
79. van der Merwe, N.J., Thackeray, J.F., 1997. Stable carbon isotope analysis of Plio-Pleistocene ungulate teeth from Sterkfontein, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 93, 194.
80. 13C content of human collagen as a measure of prehistoric diet in woodland North America. Nature 276, 815-816.
81. Vogel, J.C., van der Merwe, N.J., 1977. Isotopic evidence for early maize cultivation in New York State. American Antiquity 42, 238-242.
82. Vrba, E.S., 1976. The Fossil Bovidae of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai, Transvaal Museum Memoir No. 21. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.
83. Vrba, E.S., 1982. Biostratigraphy and chronology based particularly on Bovidae of southern hominid associated assemblages. In: the Lumley. H., de Lumley, M.-A. (Eds.), Proc. Congres International de Palaeontologie Humaine. Vol. 2. Nice, France, pp. 707-752.
84. Vrba, E.S., 1995. The fossil record of African antelopes (Mammalia, Bovidae) in relation to human evolution and paleoclimate. In: Vrba, E.S. (Ed.), Paleoclimate and Evolution, With Emphasis on Human Origins, Yale University Press. New Haven, pp. 385-424.
85. White, T.D., Suwa. G., Asfaw. B., 1994. Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature 371, 306-312.
86. White, T.D., Suwa, G., Simpson, S., Asfaw, B., 2000. Jaws and teeth of A. afarensis from Maka, Middle Awash, Ethiopia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 111, 45-68.