Contents Notes |
Approaches to the analysis of faunal change during the East African Pliocene -- Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution -- African Pliocene and Pleistocene cercopithecid evolution and global climatic change -- Patterns of change in the Plio-Pleistocene carnivorans of eastern Africa -- Stratigraphic variation in Suidae from the Shungura Formation and some coeval deposits -- Patterns of abundance and diversity in late Cenozoic bovids from the Turkana and Hadar Basins, Kenya and Ethiopia -- Comparability of fossil data and its significance for the interpretation of hominin environments -- The effects of collection strategy and effort on faunal recovery -- Serengeti micromammals and their implications for Olduvai paleoenvironments -- Taphonomy and paleoecological context of the Upper Laetolil Beds (Localities 8 and 9), Laetoli in northern Tanzania -- The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli -- Fauna, taphonomy, and ecology of the Plio-Pleistocene Chiwondo Beds, Northern Malawi -- Finale and future. Hominin fossils are few and fragmentary com- Evidence," provided the organizing framework pared with the abundant and well-preserved for this volume. The Smithsonian "Workshop remains of mammals that inhabited Africa over on Faunal Evidence for Hominin Paleoeco- the last seven million years. This mammalian gy" expanded on the discussions initiated at the record has been assembled from many decades symposium with a broader chronological (late of intensive ? eld and museum work and con- Cenozoic) and geographic (Africa and E- tributes critical evidence about the evolution- asia) framework. The Smithsonian workshop ary and ecological context of human evolution. brought together 44 scientists and students With continued collecting, analysis of paleoen- from Africa, Europe, and North America to vironmental information, and efforts to orga- inspire increased exchange of data and ideas, nize the information into accessible databases, promote greater standardization and accessib- the mammalian fossil record is providing more ity of faunal data, and lay the groundwork for comprehensive information on faunal change future collaborations and comparative research through time, regional variability, accessible on patterns of faunal change in the context of levels of temporal resolution, and the impact hominin evolution (Figure 1 (Photo)). of taphonomic and other sampling biases. |