Forskningsområden: Paleontologi
Forskningsämnen: Ekologi & biologi, Evolution
Project overview
Project period: 2017 - ongoing
Participating departments from the museum: Palaeobiology
In the course of its evolution, the human lineage (Homininae) has undergone an ecological journey that has had consequences for whole ecosystems. From being specialized frugivores, hominins gradually have experienced a niche shift, introgressing into the carnivore guild and eventually becoming an apex predator. This niche shift had consequences for the contemporaneous fauna, and the project here proposed seeks to investigate these.
A primary hypothesis is that carnivores are a mammal group with which hominins came into increasing competition, and one major focus of the project is therefore changes to the structure of carnivore communities at different times during hominin evolution, first in Africa, but also in Europe.
Project description
Preliminary work suggests that changes to carnivore communities in Africa around 2 Ma were massive, and that these changes coincide with the appearance of derived hominins (Homo erectus grade). The generality and significance of this pattern will be tested by investigating effects on the carnivore guild of the appearance of Homo erectus in Europe.
Changes to carnivore communities were extensive, and it is to be expected that changes to lower trophic levels would also occur through a trophic cascade. The specifics of changes to carnivore communities will be used to generate testable hypotheses regarding changes to ungulate communities under different effect scenarios.
The significance of hominin evolution to these patterns will be tested by comparing them with patterns related to other potential sources of change, such as temperature and precipitation. To do this, modern carnivore guilds from different climatic regimes will be analyzed in detail and compared with fossil guilds.
Caption: Illustration of the evolution of African terrestrial ecosystems from 3 million years ago (without humans) to today (with humans). Credit: Lars Werdelin
Selected publications
- Faurby, S., Silvestro, D., Werdelin, L. & Antonelli, A. (2020). Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa. Ecology Letters 23:537-544. doi: 10.1111/ele.13451 External link..
- Lewis, M.E. & Werdelin, L. (2022). A revision of the genus Crocuta (Mammalia, Hyaenidae). Palaeontographica Abt. A 322(1-4): 1-115. https://10.1127/pala/2022/0120 External link.
- Hopley, P.J., Cerling, T.E., Crété, L., Werdelin, L., Mwebi, O., Manthi, F.K., & Leakey, L.N. (2022). Stable isotope analysis of carnivores from the Turkana Basin, Kenya: evidence for temporally-mixed fossil assemblages. Quaternary International 650:12-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2022.04.004 External link.
- Villmoare, B., Delezene, L.K., Rector, A.L., DiMaggio, E.N., Campisano, C.J., Feary, D.A., Baroo’o Mohammed Ali, Chupik, D., Deino, A.L., Garello, D.I., Mohammed Ahmeddin Hayidara, Locke, E.M., Omar Abdulla Omar, Robinson, J.R., Scott, E., Smail, I.E., Kebede Teleta Defere, Werdelin, L., Kimbel, W.H., Arrowsmith, J.R. & Reed, K.E. (2025). New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia. Nature 10.1038/s41586-025-09390-4 External link..
- Werner, N., Wang, Z., Werdelin, L. & Zhang, Q. (2025). East African uplift as a catalyst for Middle Miocene funal transitions. Science Advances 11 10.1126/sciadv.adx6569 External link..
Project participants
External participants
This project is carried out in collaboration with numerous colleagues across the globe, especially the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, and staff at the national museums of Ethiopia and Kenya.
Project manager
lars.werdelin@nrm.se