Researchers elucidate biogeographic context of human evolution in East African Rift System


The CENIEH studies the biogeographic context of human evolution in eastern Africa Oriental
Sedimentary exposures from Lake Turkana in Kenya, the place a few of the studied fossils originated. Credit score: I. A. Lazagabaster

Ignacio A. Lazagabaster, a Ramón y Cajal researcher on the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), is a part of the worldwide workforce that has printed a research of the biogeographic context of human evolution within the East African Rift System within the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

This research, which facilities on analyzing the fossil information of mammals on this area, affords new views on how climatic and environmental modifications influenced the evolution of mammals and hominins during the last 6 million years.

It highlights specifically how biotic homogenization, which is the method by which the faunas of various areas grow to be extra related in composition, has been a vital issue within the evolution of the ecosystems and the species inhabiting them.

“By way of beta range evaluation, which is the connection between native and regional biodiversity, we’re in a position to observe how the modifications in vegetation and local weather have pushed dispersion and extinction patterns over time,” explains Lazagabaster.

Faunal uniformity

The faunas of the Late Miocene and Pliocene (between about 3 and 6 million years in the past) had been primarily comprised of endemic species. A change towards biotic homogenization, or faunal uniformity, began about 3 million years in the past, pushed by the lack of endemic species in purposeful teams and an increase within the variety of grazing species shared between areas.

This essential biogeographic transition matches carefully the regional growth of ecosystems dominated by graminoids and pastures of sort C4, which develop higher in heat and dry climates. These environmental modifications impacted instantly on the feeding and mobility patterns of the hominins and faunas that shared their habitat.

“Provided that the hominins had been definitely influenced by most of the similar components as different mammals in japanese Africa, this work affords a brand new perspective on the hyperlinks between environmental and human evolutionary modifications, with an integrative strategy that furnishes us with a framework for future analysis and for testing hypotheses concerning the adaptation of hominins to their environment,” Lazagabaster concludes.

Extra info:
John Rowan et al, Lengthy-term biotic homogenization within the East African Rift System during the last 6 million years of hominin evolution, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02462-0

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Researchers elucidate biogeographic context of human evolution in East African Rift System (2024, July 23)
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