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The Australasian tektites are quench melt glass ejecta particles distributed over the Asian, Australian, and Antarctic regions, the source crater of which is currently elusive. New 40Ar/39Ar age data from four tektites: one each from Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Australia measured using three different instruments from two different laboratories and combined with published 40Ar/39Ar data yield a weighted mean age of 788.1 ± 2.8 ka (±3.0 ka, including all sources of uncertainties) (P = 0.54). This age is five times more precise compared to previous results thanks, in part, to the multicollection capabilities of the ARGUS VI noble gas mass spectrometer, which allows an improvement of almost fourfold on a single plateau age measurement. Diffusion experiments on tektites combined with synthetic age spectra and Monte Carlo diffusion models suggest that the minimum temperature of formation of the Thai tektite is between 2350 °C and 3950 °C, hence a strict minimum value of 2350 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living hominoids are distinguished by upright torsos and versatile locomotion. It is hypothesized that these features evolved for feeding on fruit from terminal branches in forests. To investigate the evolutionary context of hominoid adaptive origins, we analyzed multiple paleoenvironmental proxies in conjunction with hominoid fossils from the Moroto II site in Uganda. The data indicate seasonally dry woodlands with the earliest evidence of abundant C 4 grasses in Africa based on a confirmed age of 21 million years ago (Ma). We demonstrate that the leaf-eating hominoid Morotopithecus consumed water-stressed vegetation, and postcrania from the site indicate ape-like locomotor adaptations. These findings suggest that the origin of hominoid locomotor versatility is associated with foraging on leaves in heterogeneous, open woodlands rather than forests.

The assembly of Africa's iconic C 4 grassland ecosystems is central to evolutionary interpretations of many mammal lineages, including hominins. C 4 grasses are thought to have become ecologically dominant in Africa only after 10 million years ago (Ma). However, paleobotanical records older than 10 Ma are sparse, limiting assessment of the timing and nature of C 4 biomass expansion. This study uses a multiproxy design to document vegetation structure from nine Early Miocene mammal site complexes across eastern Africa. Results demonstrate that between ~21 and 16 Ma, C 4 grasses were locally abundant, contributing to heterogeneous habitats ranging from forests to wooded grasslands. These data push back the oldest evidence of C 4 grass-dominated habitats in Africa-and globally-by more than 10 million years, calling for revised paleoecological interpretations of mammalian evolution.

East Africa is a global biodiversity hotspot and exhibits distinct longitudinal diversity gradients from west to east in freshwater fishes and forest mammals. The assembly of this exceptional biodiversity and the drivers behind diversity gradients remain poorly understood, with diversification often studied at local scales and less attention paid to biotic exchange between Afrotropical regions. Here, we reconstruct a river system that existed for several millennia along the now semiarid Kenya Rift Valley during the humid early Holocene and show how this river system influenced postglacial dispersal of fishes and mammals due to its dual role as a dispersal corridor and barrier. Using geomorphological, geochronological, isotopic, and fossil analyses and a synthesis of radiocarbon dates, we find that the overflow of Kenyan rift lakes between 12 and 8 ka before present formed a bidirectional river system consisting of a "Northern River" connected to the Nile Basin and a "Southern River," a closed basin. The drainage divide between these rivers represented the only viable terrestrial dispersal corridor across the rift. The degree and duration of past hydrological connectivity between adjacent river basins determined spatial diversity gradients for East African fishes. Our reconstruction explains the isolated distribution of Nilotic fish species in modern Kenyan rift lakes, Guineo-Congolian mammal species in forests east of the Kenya Rift, and recent incipient vertebrate speciation and local endemism in this region. Climate-driven rearrangements of drainage networks unrelated to tectonic activity contributed significantly to the assembly of species diversity and modern faunas in the East African biodiversity hotspot.

Understanding the climatic drivers of environmental variability (EV) during the Plio-Pleistocene and EV’s influence on mammalian macroevolution are two outstanding foci of research in African paleoclimatology and evolutionary biology. The potential effects of EV are especially relevant for testing the variability selection hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between EV and speciation and extinction rates in fossil mammals. Addressing these questions is stymied, however, by 1) a lack of multiple comparable EV records of sufficient temporal resolution and duration, and 2) the incompleteness of the mammalian fossil record. Here, we first compile a composite history of Pan-African EV spanning the Plio-Pleistocene, which allows us to explore which climatic variables influenced EV. We find that EV exhibits 1) a long-term trend of increasing variability since ∼3.7 Ma, coincident with rising variability in global ice volume and sea surface temperatures around Africa, and 2) a 400-ky frequency correlated with seasonal insolation variability. We then estimate speciation and extinction rates for fossil mammals from eastern Africa using a method that accounts for sampling variation. We find no statistically significant relationship between EV and estimated speciation or extinction rates across multiple spatial scales. These findings are inconsistent with the variability selection hypothesis as applied to macroevolutionary processes.

Although climate change is considered to have been a large-scale driver of African human evolution, landscape-scale shifts in ecological resources that may have shaped novel hominin adaptations are rarely investigated. We use well-dated, high-resolution, drill-core datasets to understand ecological dynamics associated with a major adaptive transition in the archeological record ~24 km from the coring site. Outcrops preserve evidence of the replacement of Acheulean by Middle Stone Age (MSA) technological, cognitive, and social innovations between 500 and 300 thousand years (ka) ago, contemporaneous with large-scale taxonomic and adaptive turnover in mammal herbivores. Beginning ~400 ka ago, tectonic, hydrological, and ecological changes combined to disrupt a relatively stable resource base, prompting fluctuations of increasing magnitude in freshwater availability, grassland communities, and woody plant cover. Interaction of these factors offers a resource-oriented hypothesis for the evolutionary success of MSA adaptations, which likely contributed to the ecological flexibility typical of Homo sapiens foragers., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).)

The manufacture of flaked stone artifacts represents a major milestone in the technology of the human lineage. Although the earliest production of primitive stone tools, predating the genus Homo and emphasizing percussive activities, has been reported at 3.3 million years ago (Ma) from Lomekwi, Kenya, the systematic production of sharp-edged stone tools is unknown before the 2.58-2.55 Ma Oldowan assemblages from Gona, Ethiopia. The organized production of Oldowan stone artifacts is part of a suite of characteristics that is often associated with the adaptive grade shift linked to the genus Homo Recent discoveries from Ledi-Geraru (LG), Ethiopia, place the first occurrence of Homo ∼250 thousand years earlier than the Oldowan at Gona. Here, we describe a substantial assemblage of systematically flaked stone tools excavated in situ from a stratigraphically constrained context [Bokol Dora 1, (BD 1) hereafter] at LG bracketed between 2.61 and 2.58 Ma. Although perhaps more primitive in some respects, quantitative analysis suggests the BD 1 assemblage fits more closely with the variability previously described for the Oldowan than with the earlier Lomekwian or with stone tools produced by modern nonhuman primates. These differences suggest that hominin technology is distinctly different from generalized tool use that may be a shared feature of much of the primate lineage. The BD 1 assemblage, near the origin of our genus, provides a link between behavioral adaptations-in the form of flaked stone artifacts-and the biological evolution of our ancestors., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Evidence for Quaternary climate change in East Africa has been derived from outcrops on land and lake cores and from marine dust, leaf wax, and pollen records. These data have previously been used to evaluate the impact of climate change on hominin evolution, but correlations have proved to be difficult, given poor data continuity and the great distances between marine cores and terrestrial basins where fossil evidence is located. Here, we present continental coring evidence for progressive aridification since about 575 thousand years before present (ka), based on Lake Magadi (Kenya) sediments. This long-term drying trend was interrupted by many wet-dry cycles, with the greatest variability developing during times of high eccentricity-modulated precession. Intense aridification apparent in the Magadi record took place between 525 and 400 ka, with relatively persistent arid conditions after 350 ka and through to the present. Arid conditions in the Magadi Basin coincide with the Mid-Brunhes Event and overlap with mammalian extinctions in the South Kenya Rift between 500 and 400 ka. The 525 to 400 ka arid phase developed in the South Kenya Rift between the period when the last Acheulean tools are reported (at about 500 ka) and before the appearance of Middle Stone Age artifacts (by about 320 ka). Our data suggest that increasing Middle- to Late-Pleistocene aridification and environmental variability may have been drivers in the physical and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens in East Africa., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The origin of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) marks the transition from a highly persistent mode of stone toolmaking, the Acheulean, to a period of increasing technological innovation and cultural indicators associated with the evolution of Homo sapiens We used argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series dating to calibrate the chronology of Acheulean and early MSA artifact-rich sedimentary deposits in the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya rift. We determined the age of late Acheulean tool assemblages from 615,000 to 499,000 years ago, after which a large technological and faunal transition occurred, with a definitive MSA lacking Acheulean elements beginning most likely by ~320,000 years ago, but at least by 305,000 years ago. These results establish the oldest repository of MSA artifacts in eastern Africa., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Previous research suggests that the complex symbolic, technological, and socioeconomic behaviors that typify Homo sapiens had roots in the middle Pleistocene <200,000 years ago, but data bearing on human behavioral origins are limited. We present a series of excavated Middle Stone Age sites from the Olorgesailie basin, southern Kenya, dating from ≥295,000 to ~320,000 years ago by argon-40/argon-39 and uranium-series methods. Hominins at these sites made prepared cores and points, exploited iron-rich rocks to obtain red pigment, and procured stone tool materials from ≥25- to 50-kilometer distances. Associated fauna suggests a broad resource strategy that included large and small prey. These practices imply notable changes in how individuals and groups related to the landscape and to one another and provide documentation relevant to human social and cognitive evolution., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300,000 years ago raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens We used temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a markedly different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. Aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that, as early as 615,000 years ago, greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

The transport of moisture in the tropics is a critical process for the global energy budget and on geologic timescales, has markedly influenced continental landscapes, migratory pathways, and biological evolution. Here we present a continuous, first-of-its-kind 1.3-My record of continental hydroclimate and lake-level variability derived from drill core data from Lake Malawi, East Africa (9-15° S). Over the Quaternary, we observe dramatic shifts in effective moisture, resulting in large-scale changes in one of the world's largest lakes and most diverse freshwater ecosystems. Results show evidence for 24 lake level drops of more than 200 m during the Late Quaternary, including 15 lowstands when water levels were more than 400 m lower than modern. A dramatic shift is observed at the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), consistent with far-field climate forcing, which separates vastly different hydroclimate regimes before and after ∼800,000 years ago. Before 800 ka, lake levels were lower, indicating a climate drier than today, and water levels changed frequently. Following the MPT high-amplitude lake level variations dominate the record. From 800 to 100 ka, a deep, often overfilled lake occupied the basin, indicating a wetter climate, but these highstands were interrupted by prolonged intervals of extreme drought. Periods of high lake level are observed during times of high eccentricity. The extreme hydroclimate variability exerted a profound influence on the Lake Malawi endemic cichlid fish species flock; the geographically extensive habitat reconfiguration provided novel ecological opportunities, enabling new populations to differentiate rapidly to distinct species.

Sedimentary basins in eastern Africa preserve a record of continental rifting and contain important fossil assemblages for interpreting hominin evolution. However, the record of hominin evolution between 3 and 2.5 million years ago (Ma) is poorly documented in surface outcrops, particularly in Afar, Ethiopia. Here we present the discovery of a 2.84- to 2.58-million-year-old fossil and hominin-bearing sediments in the Ledi-Geraru research area of Afar, Ethiopia, that have produced the earliest record of the genus Homo. Vertebrate fossils record a faunal turnover indicative of more open and probably arid habitats than those reconstructed earlier in this region, which is in broad agreement with hypotheses addressing the role of environmental forcing in hominin evolution at this time. Geological analyses constrain depositional and structural models of Afar and date the LD 350-1 Homo mandible to 2.80 to 2.75 Ma., (Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

The Whistler Squat Quarry (TMM 41372) of the lower Devil's Graveyard Formation in Trans-Pecos Texas is a middle Eocene fossil locality attributed to Uintan biochronological zone Ui1b. Specimens from the Whistler Squat Quarry were collected immediately above a volcanic tuff with prior K/Ar ages ranging from ∼47-50 Ma and below a tuff previously dated to ∼44 Ma. New 40Ar/39Ar analyses of both of the original tuff samples provide statistically indistinguishable ages of 44.88±0.04 Ma for the lower tuff and 45.04±0.10 Ma for the upper tuff. These dates are compatible with magnetically reversed sediments at the site attributable to C20r (43.505-45.942 Ma) and a stratigraphic position above a basalt dated to 46.80 Ma. Our reanalysis of mammalian specimens from the Whistler Squat Quarry and a stratigraphically equivalent locality significantly revises their faunal lists, confirms the early Uintan designation for the sites, and highlights several biogeographic and biochronological differences when compared to stratotypes in the Bridger and Uinta Formations. Previous suggestions of regional endemism in the early Uintan are supported by the recognition of six endemic taxa (26% of mammalian taxa) from the Whistler Squat Quarry alone, including three new taxa. The revised faunal list for the Whistler Squat Quarry also extends the biostratigraphic ranges of nine non-endemic mammalian taxa to Ui1b.

Mass extinctions manifest in Earth's geologic record were turning points in biotic evolution. We present (40)Ar/(39)Ar data that establish synchrony between the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and associated mass extinctions with the Chicxulub bolide impact to within 32,000 years. Perturbation of the atmospheric carbon cycle at the boundary likely lasted less than 5000 years, exhibiting a recovery time scale two to three orders of magnitude shorter than that of the major ocean basins. Low-diversity mammalian fauna in the western Williston Basin persisted for as little as 20,000 years after the impact. The Chicxulub impact likely triggered a state shift of ecosystems already under near-critical stress.

(40)Ar/(39)Ar dating of tuffs and lavas of the late Pleistocene volcanic and sedimentary sequence of Olduvai Gorge, north-central Tanzania, provides the basis for a revision of Bed I chronostratigraphy. Bed I extends from immediately above the Naabi Ignimbrite at 2.038 ± 0.005 Ma to Tuff IF at 1.803 ± 0.002 Ma. Tuff IB, a prominent widespread marker tuff in the basin and a key to understanding hominin evolutionary chronologies and paleoclimate histories, has an age of 1.848 ± 0.003 Ma. The largest lake expansion event in the closed Olduvai lake basin during Bed I times encompassed the episode of eruption and emplacement of this tuff. This lake event is nearly coincident with the maximum precessional insolation peak of the entire Bed I/Lower Bed II interval, calculated from an astronomical model of the boreal summer orbital insolation time-series. The succeeding precessional peak also apparently coincides with the next youngest expansion of paleo-Lake Olduvai. The extreme wet/dry climate shifts seen in the upper part of Bed I occur during an Earth-orbital eccentricity maximum, similar to episodic lake expansions documented elsewhere in the East African Rift during the Neogene., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Only one partial skeleton that includes both forelimb and hindlimb elements has been reported for Australopithecus afarensis. The diminutive size of this specimen (A.L. 288-1 ["Lucy"]) has hampered our understanding of the paleobiology of this species absent the potential impact of allometry. Here we describe a large-bodied (i.e., well within the range of living Homo) specimen that, at 3.58 Ma, also substantially antedates A.L. 288-1. It provides fundamental evidence of limb proportions, thoracic form, and locomotor heritage in Australopithecus afarensis. Together, these characteristics further establish that bipedality in Australopithecus was highly evolved and that thoracic form differed substantially from that of either extant African ape.

(40)Ar/(39)Ar dating of tuffs and mafic lavas, tephra geochemistry, and paleomagnetic reversal stratigraphy have been used to establish the chronostratigraphy of the Pliocene hominid-bearing fossiliferous succession at Woranso-Mille, a paleontological study area in the western part of the central Afar region of Ethiopia. The succession in the northwestern part of the study area ranges in (40)Ar/(39)Ar age from 3.82-3.570 Ma, encompassed by paleomagnetic subchron C2Ar (4.187-3.596 Ma). One of the major tuff units, locally named the Kilaytoli tuff, is correlative on the basis of age and geochemistry to the Lokochot Tuff of the Turkana Basin. A hominid partial skeleton (KSD-VP-1) was found in strata whose precise stratigraphic position and age is still under investigation, but is believed to correspond to the later part of this interval. Woranso-Mille fills a significant gap in the fossil record of northeastern Africa at the time of the lower to middle Pliocene transition, when many extant species lineages of African fauna were established.

The late Cenozoic climate of East Africa is punctuated by episodes of short, alternating periods of extreme wetness and aridity, superimposed on a regime of subdued moisture availability exhibiting a long-term drying trend. These periods of extreme climate variability appear to correlate with maxima in the 400-thousand-year (kyr) component of the Earth's eccentricity cycle. Prior to 2.7 Ma the wet phases appear every 400 kyrs, whereas after 2.7 Ma, the wet phases appear every 800 kyrs, with periods of precessional-forced extreme climate variability at 2.7-2.5 Ma, 1.9-1.7 Ma, and 1.1-0.9 Ma before present. The last three major lake phases occur at the times of major global climatic transitions, such as the onset of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (2.7-2.5 Ma), intensification of the Walker Circulation (1.9-1.7 Ma), and the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (1.0-0.7 Ma). High-latitude forcing is required to compress the Intertropical Convergence Zone so that East Africa becomes locally sensitive to precessional forcing, resulting in rapid shifts from wet to dry conditions. These periods of extreme climate variability may have provided a catalyst for evolutionary change and driven key speciation and dispersal events amongst mammals and hominins in East Africa.

Global climate change, linked to astronomical forcing factors, has been implicated in faunal evolutionary change in equatorial Africa, including the origin and diversification of hominin lineages. Empirical terrestrial data demonstrating that orbital forcing has a significant effect, or is detectable, at early hominin sites in equatorial continental interiors during the Pliocene, however, remain limited. Sedimentation patterns in the Baringo Basin within the Central Kenyan Rift Valley between ca. 2.7 and 2.55 Ma, controlled by climatic factors, provide a detailed paleoenvironmental record spanning 35 fossil vertebrate localities, including three hominin sites. The succession includes a sequence of diatomites that record rhythmic cycling of major freshwater lake systems consistent with approximately 23-kyr Milankovitch precessional periodicity. The temporal framework of shifting precipitation patterns, relative to Pliocene insolation curves, implicate African monsoonal climatic control and indicate that climatic fluctuations in Rift Valley ecosystems were paced by global climatic change documented in marine cores. These data provide direct evidence of orbitally mediated environmental change at Pliocene Rift Valley hominin fossil localities, providing a unique opportunity to assess the evolutionary effect of short-term climatic flux on late Pliocene East African terrestrial communities.

Excavation in the previously little-explored western portion of Olduvai Gorge indicates that hominid land use of the eastern paleobasin extended at least episodically to the west. Finds included a dentally complete Homo maxilla (OH 65) with lower face, Oldowan stone artifacts, and butchery-marked bones dated to be between 1.84 and 1.79 million years old. The hominid shows strong affinities to the KNM ER 1470 cranium from Kenya (Homo rudolfensis), a morphotype previously unrecognized at Olduvai. ER 1470 and OH 65 can be accommodated in the H. habilis holotype, casting doubt on H. rudolfensis as a biologically valid taxon.

The(40)Ar/(39)Ar radiometric dating technique has been applied to tuffs and lavas of the Kapthurin Formation in the Tugen Hills, Kenya Rift Valley. Two variants of the(40)Ar/(39)Ar technique, single-crystal total fusion (SCTF) and laser incremental heating (LIH) have been employed to date five marker horizons within the formation: near the base, the Kasurein Basalt at 0.61+/-0.04 Ma; the Pumice Tuff at 0.543+/-0.004 Ma; the Upper Kasurein Basalt at 0.552+/-0.015 Ma; the Grey Tuff at 0.509+/-0.009 Ma; and within the upper part of the formation, the Bedded Tuff at 0.284+/-0.012 Ma. The new, precise radiometric age determination for the Pumice Tuff also provides an age for the widespread Lake Baringo Trachyte, since the Pumice Tuff is the early pyroclastic phase of this voluminous trachyte eruption. These results establish the age of fossil hominids KNM-BK 63-67 and KNM-BK 8518 at approximately 0.510-0.512 Ma, a significant finding given that few Middle Pleistocene hominids are radiometrically dated. The Kapthurin hominids are thus the near contemporaries of those from Bodo, Ethiopia and Tanzania. A flake and core industry from lacustrine sediments in the lower part of the formation is constrained by new dates of 0.55-0.52 Ma, a period during which the Acheulian industry, characterized by handaxes, is known throughout East Africa. Points, typical of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), are found in Kapthurin Formation sediments now shown to date to between 0.509+/-0.009 Ma and 0.284+/-0.012 Ma. This date exceeds previous estimates for the age of the MSA elsewhere in East Africa by 49 ka, and establishes the age of Acheulian to MSA transition for the region. Evidence of the use of the Levallois technique for the manufacture of both small flakes and biface preforms, the systematic production of blades, and the use and processing of red ochre also occurs in this interval. The presence of blades and red ochre at this depth is important as blades signify a high degree of technical competence and red ochre suggests symbolic behavior., (Copyright 2002 Academic Press.)

(40)Ar/(39)Ar single-crystal laser-fusion dating, K-Ar dating, and paleomagnetic reversal stratigraphy have been used to determine the chronostratigraphy of the Kabarnet Trachyte, Lukeino Formation, Kaparaina Basalt Formation, and Chemeron Formation at the sites of Kapcheberek (BPRP#77) and Tabarin (BPRP#77) in the Tugen Hills, Kenya. The succession ranges in age from 6.56-3.8 Ma. The upper Lukeino Formation at Kapcherberek, including the fauna from the site BPRP#76, was deposited during chron C3r and can be constrained to the interval 5.88-5.72 Ma. The Chemeron Formation at Tabarin includes at the base an ignimbrite and associated basal air-fall tuff with a combined age of 5.31+/-0.03 Ma. Sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks of the Chemeron Formation which unconformably overlie the ignimbrite record chrons C3n.2n through C2Ar. The combined(40)Ar/(39)Ar and paleomagnetic data constrain the age of this sequence to 4.63-3.837 Ma. The age of the Tabarin mandible fragment (KNM-TH 13150) and associated fauna at site BPRP#77 in the Chemeron Formation is 4.48-4.41 Ma, marginally older than similar early hominids from Aramis, Ethiopia. Basin subsidence appears to be defining an overall accumulation rate of about 17 cm/ka over the 2.7 Ma represented at Tabarin and Kapcheberek, despite episodes of rapid accumulation and hiatuses., (Copyright 2002 Academic Press.)

The Muruyur Beds are a substantial sedimentary deposit within a middle Miocene sequence of mafic volcanic flows associated with early stages of rifting in the central Kenyan Rift Valley. They are best represented in the Muruyur region, near Bartabwa, north of Kipsaramon, where dates range from 16.0 to 13.4 Ma. At Kipsaramon, located about 10 km south of Muruyur along the crest of the Tugen Hills, the upper Muruyur Beds are absent and the lower part can be divided into three members. Important fossil sites within Member 1 are dated between 15.8 and 15.6 Ma, and within Member 3 between 15.6 and 15.4 Ma. BPRP#89, in Member 1, is a bonebed at least 2500 m(2)in areal extent and up to 30 cm thick, which constitutes one of the richest concentrations of in situ fossil vertebrate bones in eastern Africa. BPRP#91, at approximately the same level at BPRP#89, is the source of a hominoid talus and other mammal and bird fossils. In Member 3, BPRP#122 has produced specimens of at least five individuals of the hominoid Equatorius, including a partial skeleton. The Muyuyur Beds were deposited near the western margin of a lake that was formed during the early stages of faulting and volcanism in the African Rift system. The bonebed in Member 1 appears to represent the influx of fluvially transported vertebrate and plant remains into a shallow portion of the lake. Elements of the fauna as well as stable isotopes that indicate both forest and more open environments occurred in proximity to the lake during the time of deposition of Member 1., (Copyright 2002 Academic Press.)

A fossil hominid temporal bone (KNM-BC 1) from surface exposures at Baringo Paleontological Research Project site BPRP#2 in the Chemeron Formation outcropping in a tributary drainage of the Kapthurin River west of Lake Baringo, Kenya has been attributed to Homo sp. indet. K-feldspar phenocrysts from lapilli tuffs bracketing the inferred fossiliferous horizon yield single-crystal(40)Ar/(39)Ar ages of 2.456+/-0.006 and 2.393+/-0.013 Ma. These age determinations are supported by stratigraphically consistent ages on higher tuff horizons and from nearby sections. In addition, new(40)Ar/(39)Ar ages on tuffaceous units near the base and top of the formation along the Kapthurin River yield 3.19+/-0.03 and 1.60+/-0.05 Ma respectively. The base of the formation along the Kapthurin River is thus approximately 0.5 Ma younger than the uppermost Chemeron Formation strata exposed at Tabarin, 23 km to the north-northwest. The upper half of the formation along the Kapthurin River was deposited at an average rate of approximately 11 cm/ka, compared to 21-23 cm/ka at Tabarin., (Copyright 2002 Academic Press.)

A densely sampled, diverse new fauna from the uppermost Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, indicates that the basic pattern of faunal composition for the Late Cretaceous of North America was already established by the Albian-Cenomanian boundary. Multiple, concordant 40Ar/39Ar determinations from a volcanic ash associated with the fauna have an average age of 98.39 +/- 0.07 million years. The fauna of the Cedar Mountain Formation records the first global appearance of hadrosaurid dinosaurs, advanced lizard (e.g., Helodermatidae), and mammal (e.g., Marsupialia) groups, and the first North American appearance of other taxa such as tyrannosaurids, pachycephalosaurs, and snakes. Although the origin of many groups is unclear, combined biostratigraphic and phylogenetic evidence suggests an Old World, specifically Asian, origin for some of the taxa, an hypothesis that is consistent with existing evidence from tectonics and marine invertebrates. Large-bodied herbivores are mainly represented by low-level browsers, ornithopod dinosaurs, whose radiations have been hypothesized to be related to the initial diversification of angiosperm plants. Diversity at the largest body sizes (>10(6) g) is low, in contrast to both preceding and succeeding faunas; sauropods, which underwent demise in the Northern hemisphere coincident with the radiation of angiosperms, apparently went temporarily unreplaced by other megaherbivores. Morphologic and taxonomic diversity among small, omnivorous mammals, multituberculates, is also low. A later apparent increase in diversity occurred during the Campanian, coincident with the appearance of major fruit types among angiosperms, suggesting the possibility of adaptive response to new resources.