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Plio-Pleistocene East African Pulsed Climate Variability and Its Influence on Early Human Evolution

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The First Humans – Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Long-term climate change seems to be modulated primarily by tectonic changes at both the global and local scale (Maslin et al., 2001). Late Cenozoic global cooling has been ascribed to both the uplift of Tibet (Ruddiman and Raymo, 1988), and the closure of the Panama Isthmus (Haug and Tiedemann, 1998), although the exact role of atmospheric carbon dioxide is still unclear (Sundquist and Visser, 2004). In East Africa, long-term climate change is also controlled by local tectonics, especially the dynamic development of the branching East African Rift System (Sepulchre et al., 2006). Early hominin evolution in East Africa thus occurs at the same time as both long-term global cooling and extensive local tectonic changes. There is a compelling need to understand how these two environmental factors interact at the local scale and affect fl ora and fauna living in the East African Rift. The geologic record of the last 5 million years demonstrates that both local and global infl uences can lead to extremely rapid environmental change (Maslin and Christensen, 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1H 6BT, UK

    Mark A. Maslin

  2. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Potsdam, POB 601553, D-14415, Potsdam, Germany

    Martin H. Trauth

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Anthropology and Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Frederick E. Grine

  2. Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    John G. Fleagle

  3. Department of Anthropology and Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Richard E. Leakey

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Maslin, M.A., Trauth, M.H. (2009). Plio-Pleistocene East African Pulsed Climate Variability and Its Influence on Early Human Evolution. In: Grine, F.E., Fleagle, J.G., Leakey, R.E. (eds) The First Humans – Origin and Early Evolution of the Genus Homo. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9980-9_13

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