Lothagam

The Dawn of Humanity in Eastern Africa

Meave Leakey, John Harris

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9780231507608
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geology & Earth Sciences

Located at the southwest corner of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Lothagam represents one of the most important intervals in African prehistory. Early human remains are restricted in distribution to Africa and the acquisition of an upright bipedal striding gait, the hallmark of humanity, appears to be at least circumstantially linked to the reduction of equatorial forests and the spread of grasslands on that continent. The diverse Lothagam fauna documents the end-Miocene transition from forested to more open habitats that were exploited by grazing horses and antelopes, hippos, giant pigs, and true elephants. It also includes spectacularly complete fossil carnivore skeletons and some of the oldest human remains.

Enlisting a team of highly qualified specialists, this book provides the geologic context and dating framework for the Lothagam fossiliferous sequences, describes the immense diversity of vertebrate fossils recovered from the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene sediments, and synthesizes the results to interpret the changing paleoenvironments that prevailed at this site. The book will interest anthropologists, paleontologists, geologists, and anyone interested in human origins.

Table of contents

• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Geology, Paleosols, and Dating
• 2.1 Stratigraphy and Depositional History of the Lothagam Sequence
• 2.2 Miocene and Pliocene Paleosols of Lothagam
• 2.3 Numerical Age Control for the Miocene-Pliocene Succession at Lothagam, a Hominoid-bearing Sequence in the Northern Kenya Rift
• 3 Crustacea and Pisces
• 3.1 Fossil Crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura) from Lothagam
• 3.2 Fossil Fish Remains from Mio-Pliocene Deposits at Lothagam, Kenya
• 4 Reptilia and Aves
• 4.1 Fossil Turtles from Lothagam
• 4.2 Late Miocene–Early Pliocene Crocodilian Fauna of Lothagam, Southwest Turkana Basin, Kenya
• 4.3 Lothagam Birds
• 5 Lagomorpha and Rodenta
• 6 Primates
• 6.1 Cercopithecidae from Lothagam
• 6.2 The Lothagam Hominids
• 7 Carnivora
• 8 Proboscidea and Tubulidentata
• 8.1 Elephantoidea from Lothagam
• 8.2 Deinotheres from the Lothagam Succession
• 8.3 Fossil Aardvarks from the Lothagam Beds
• 9 Perissodactyla
• 9.1 Lothagam Rhinocerotidae
• 9.2 Systematics and Evolutionary Biology of the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Hipparionine Equids from Lothagam, Kenya
• 10 Hippopotamidae and Suidae
• 10.1 Fossil Hippopotamidae from Lothagam
• 10.2 Lothagam Suidae
• 11 Ruminantia
• 11.1 Lothagam Giraffids
• 11.2 Bovidae from the Lothagam Succession
• 12 Isotopes
• 12.1 Stable Isotope Ecology of Northern Kenya, with Emphasis on the Turkana Basin
• 12.2 Isotope Paleoecology of the Nawata and Nachukui Formations at Lothagam, Turkana Basin, Kenya
• 13 Lothagam: Its Significance and Contributions
• Appendix: Notes on the Reconstruction of Fossil Vertebrates from Lothagam
• Contributors
• Index