Explaining a Confluence of Diversity & Complexity: Fynbos, Marine Ecosystems & Human Origins

Full Title—Explaining a Confluence of Diversity and Complexity: Paleoanthropological and Paleogenetic Investigations of Fynbos, Marine Ecosystems and Human Origins 

Description:
Few questions in evolutionary biology generate as much interest as those of origin scenarios for humans, from the Mio-Pliocene origin of hominins to the beginning and spread of our own species. We are investigating the interrelationship between a unique and endangered floral kingdom (the fynbos) and paleoclimatic and paleohabitat change with animal and human evolution in southern Africa. We have combined a unique and distinct combination of archaeology, paleontology, paleogenetics, geology, biogeography and paleobotany to:

1) Enable the identification of the fynbos and identify its presence and range back to the Mio-Pliocene boundary through the study of fossil fauna and the population genetics of living flora and fauna;

2) Recognize paleoclimatic change in this region through analyses of mammalian communities, speleothems and paleoclimatic modeled data to identify how it is correlated with periods of floral and faunal isolation, dispersion and immigration as discovered through genetic analysis and discovery of fossil faunas;

3) Understand if climatic change instigated movement of this biome across the landscape such that isolated populations of both plants and animals were created;

4) Correlate the behavioral biocomplexity of human ancestors with changes in climate, isolation and dispersion events, and understand the possible role of Homo in the development of fynbos biome. 

In other words, how does this unique environment across the southern coast of Africa interplay with human evolution from 5 million years ago to the entry of pastoralists into the region about 2,000 years ago?

Late Lessons from Early History