Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in 'Green Arabia'

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Author(s)
Roberts, Patrick
Stewart, Mathew
Alagaili, Abdulaziz N
Breeze, Paul
Candy, Ian
Drake, Nick
Groucutt, Huw S
Scerri, Eleanor ML
Lee-Thorp, Julia
Louys, Julien
Zalmout, Iyad S
Al-Mufarreh, Yahya SA
Zech, Jana
Alsharekh, Abdullah M
al Omari, Abdulaziz
Boivin, Nicole
Petraglia, Michael
Year published
2018
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Show full item recordAbstract
Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating
Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca.
90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain
few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of
populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n = 21)
from the ...
View more >Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n = 21) from the middle Pleistocene locality of Ti’s al Ghadah in Saudi Arabia associated with newly discovered stone tools and probable cutmarks. The results demonstrate productive grasslands in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula ca. 300–500 ka, as well as aridity levels similar to those found in open savannah settings in eastern Africa today. The association between this palaeoenvironmental information and the earliest traces for hominin activity in this part of the world lead us to argue that middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula required no major novel adaptation.
View less >
View more >Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n = 21) from the middle Pleistocene locality of Ti’s al Ghadah in Saudi Arabia associated with newly discovered stone tools and probable cutmarks. The results demonstrate productive grasslands in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula ca. 300–500 ka, as well as aridity levels similar to those found in open savannah settings in eastern Africa today. The association between this palaeoenvironmental information and the earliest traces for hominin activity in this part of the world lead us to argue that middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula required no major novel adaptation.
View less >
Journal Title
Nature ecology & evolution
Volume
2
Copyright Statement
© 2018 Springer Nature Publishing AG. This is an electronic version of an article published in Nature ecology & evolution, 2, pages1871–1878 (2018). Nature ecology & evolution is available online at: http://link.springer.com/ with the open URL of your article.
Subject
Archaeology
Geology