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The carnivore guild circa 1.98 million years: biodiversity and implications for the palaeoenvironment at Malapa, South Africa

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Abstract

The Malapa fossil assemblage was likely accumulated as a result of a death trap. Given this, the carnivoran species found there must have lived in proximity, close proximity for the smaller species, to the site, offering the possibility of expanding our interpretation of the habitats available to Australopithecus sediba via pinpoint palaeoenvironmental interpretation. To date, the identified carnivorans are the most abundant identified non-hominin taxa at Malapa, and given their territorial behaviour, are important when interpreting the palaeoecology of the site. The extinct false saber-tooth felid (Dinofelis barlowi) suggests that the presence of closed environments and the ancestral form of modern water mongoose (Atilax mesotes) indicates the presence of water in the vicinity. Canids generally support the presence of open habitats. The first appearance in the fossil record of Vulpes skinneri and Felis nigripes indicates the presence of drier open grassland/scrub. The Malapa carnivorans support widespread shifts in carnivore turnover circa 2.0 Ma in Africa and suggest, together with other lines of evidence, the occurrence of a regional transitioning environment during the time of Au. sediba.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the South African Heritage Resource agency for the permits to work on the Malapa site and the Nash family for granting access to the Malapa site and continued support of research on their reserve. Grateful appreciation goes to Sally Reynolds and Jean-Philippe Brugal for their reviews and comments, which improved the manuscript. Research by LW is funded by the Swedish Research Council. Additional support for MB was provided by PAST (Palaeontological Scientific Trust). AIRH is supported by Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT120100399.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Anthropological Research (CfAR), University of Johannesburg, House 10, Humanities Research Village, Bunting Road Campus, Auckland Park, 2092, South Africa

    Brian F. Kuhn & Andy I. R. Herries

  2. USC School of Medicine, CBA bldg 1, rm. C-36, 6439 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC, 29209, USA

    Adam Hartstone-Rose

  3. Department of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology, New York University College of Dentistry, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Rodrigo S. Lacruz

  4. Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, Environment and Community Planning, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora, 3086, VIC, Australia

    Andy I. R. Herries

  5. Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-10405, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lars Werdelin

  6. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa

    Marion K. Bamford & Lee R. Berger

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  1. Brian F. Kuhn
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Correspondence to Brian F. Kuhn.

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Kuhn, B.F., Hartstone-Rose, A., Lacruz, R.S. et al. The carnivore guild circa 1.98 million years: biodiversity and implications for the palaeoenvironment at Malapa, South Africa. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 96, 611–616 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-016-0245-0

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