Doctoral Dissertation Research: The biogeography and behavioral ecology of Pliocene hominins: A macroecological perspective

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Recent discoveries of early human ancestors (hominins) highlight the importance of understanding how climate shaped early hominin evolution and behavior. This project will study the ways in which hominin distributions and behavior were shaped by local habitats between 3.2 and 3.6 million years ago in eastern Africa. Data about modern plant and animal diversity will be integrated with paleoecological data for the ancient environment of the same area. The innovative combination of data sources will help to reconstruct ancient ecology at finer-grained time intervals. Broader impacts of the project include graduate training, public science outreach through museums and curriculum development, and support of underrepresented minority students in the STEM sciences. In this project, current vegetation (isotopes from soil carbonates) and fossil mammal databases will be standardized to make analytical connections between ancient habitats and their associated mammal communities and to gain insight into variation of the hominin ecological niche. The investigators will combine theory from multiple disciplines, such as landscape archaeology, macroecology, and taphonomy, and conduct analytical experiments to connect hominins to environmental proxies (such as soil isotopes) at an appropriate temporal and spatial scale. The proposed ecological relationships are especially important to test in the mid-Pliocene (between 3.6 and 3.2 million years ago), when dietary behavior shifted significantly and innovative behaviors may have occurred, such as the use of stone tools in the Afar basin. Data from the project will be curated to promote the integration of future ecological proxies and data through the use of an open source database that will be created by the co-PI, using PostgreSQL software. The co-PI collaborates with the Koobi Fora Field School and the Evolution in Education program at the George Washington University (GWU) to develop curricula for students from pre-school to university levels, and is also the co-developer of the Young Empowered Scientists (YES!) program at GWU to bring underrepresented, minority students into STEM sciences through mentoring.