2015/03/05 by Erin DiMaggio, Christopher J. Campisano, John Rowan +9 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Paleopathology and ancient diseases #Fossil Record #Paleontology #Genus #Context (archaeology) #Out of africa #Arid #Human evolution #Geography #Homo erectus #Geology #Archaeology #Zoology #Evolutionary biology #Biology #Pleistocene
paper · doi:10.1126/science.aaa1415
openalex publication_date 2015/03/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Sedimentary basins in eastern Africa preserve a record of continental rifting and contain important fossil assemblages for interpreting hominin evolution. However, the record of hominin evolution between 3 and 2.5 million years ago (Ma) is poorly documented in surface outcrops, particularly in Afar, Ethiopia. Here we present the discovery of a 2.84- to 2.58-million-year-old fossil and hominin-bearing sediments in the Ledi-Geraru research area of Afar, Ethiopia, that have produced the earliest record of the genus Homo. Vertebrate fossils record a faunal turnover indicative of more open and probably arid habitats than those reconstructed earlier in this region, which is in broad agreement with hypotheses addressing the role of environmental forcing in hominin evolution at this time. Geological analyses constrain depositional and structural models of Afar and date the LD 350-1 Homo mandible to 2.80 to 2.75 Ma.