Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI)

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Author: search.filters.author.Steininger, C.M.Has files: Yes

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    Dental microwear differences between eastern and southern African fossil bovids and hominins.
    (Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2016-03) Ungar, P.S.; Scott, J.R.; Steininger, C.M.
    Dental microwear has proven to be a valuable tool for reconstructing diets of fossil vertebrates. However, recent studies have suggested that the pattern of microscopic scratches and pits on teeth may be more reflective of environmental grit than of food preferences. Could differences in dental microwear between early hominins, for example, therefore be a result of dust level rather than of diet? We investigated this possibility using a palaeocommunity approach. We compared microwear texture differences between eastern and southern African Hominini, along with Plio-Pleistocene specimens representing two tribes of bovids, Alcelaphini and Antilopini, from the same deposits as the early hominins. If exogenous grit swamps diet signals, we would expect community-wide microwear patterns separating samples by region. Results indicate that each of the three tribes shows a different pattern of variation of microwear textures between eastern and southern Africa. These results imply that differences in microwear reflect diet rather than grit load, and that microwear can provide valuable information not just about environmental dust level, but about food preferences of fossil vertebrates.
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    Papio cranium from the hominin-bearing site of Malapa: Implications for the evolution of modern baboon cranial morphology and South African Plio-Pleistocene biochronology.
    (Public Library of Science, 2015-08-19) Gilbert, C.C.; Steininger, C.M.; Kibii, J.M.; Berger, L.R.
    A new partial cranium (UW 88-886) of the Plio-Pleistocene baboon Papio angusticeps from Malapa is identified, described and discussed. UW 88-886 represents the only non-hominin primate yet recovered from Malapa and is important both in the context of baboon evolution as well as South African hominin site biochronology. The new specimen may represent the first appearance of modern baboon anatomy and coincides almost perfectly with molecular divergence date estimates for the origin of the modern P. hamadryas radiation. The fact that the Malapa specimen is dated between ~2.026–2.36 million years ago (Ma) also has implications for the biochronology of other South African Plio-Pleistocene sites where P. angusticeps is found.