Abstract
Exploring early hominin trophic niche transitions in the early Pleistocene is inherently centred on understanding the relationship between those hominins and the coeval apex carnivores. The fossil record in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, presents a unique data set for assessing long-term behavioural and technological change on a discrete landscape. In this thesis I explore the evidence for early hominin co-evolution using nearly a century’s worth of published data from the Cradle. The lines of evidence I use include hominin and apex Carnivora distribution, hominin dietary reconstruction, lithic and osseous technologies, site-specific palaeoecological reconstructions, and broader climatic data (e.g., isotopes from offshore cores).
Climatic evidence supports the increased aridity towards the C4-dominated grasslands that are typical of the region today. The climate after ~2.2 million years ago was more erratic, leading to less stable fluctuations between glacial and interglacial periods. The evidence suggests that at around the same time Homo first appears in the Cradle fossil record, and the large-bodied, social apex predators begin avoiding the region. The remaining carnivore guild is smaller, nocturnal, and solitary. The increased scavenging pressure posed by a novel, social and tool-using omnivore presented enough impetus for the associated large carnivora to adapt their behaviour to avoid direct-competition. Similarly, Paranthropus robustus, which is also sampled first at ~2 Ma, innovated a tool-assisted foraging strategy to avoid inter-species competition with early Homo and predation by large felids and hyaenids.
By approaching the Cradle as a single regional accumulation, rather than as independent deposits, I show how broader questions into early hominin behaviour and evolution are
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possible. This research has the potential to refine our future research into early Hominin niche theory and understanding how our questions can be better asked of localised landscape data.