Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Sampling and Pretreatment of Tooth Enamel Carbonate for Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis
Published on: August 15, 2018
Isotopic evidence for neogene hominid paleoenvironments in the kenya rift valley
Abstract:
Bipedality, the definitive characteristic of the earliest hominids, has been regarded as an adaptive response to a transition from forested to more-open habitats in East Africa sometime between 12 million and 5 million years ago. Analyses of the stable carbon isotopic composition (delta(13)C) of paleosol carbonate and organic matter from the Tugen Hills succession in Kenya indicate that a heterogeneous environment with a mix of C3 and C4 plants has persisted for the last 15.5 million years. Open grasslands at no time dominated this portion of the rift valley. The observed delta(13)C values offer no evidence for a shift from more-closed C3 environments to C4 grassland habitats. If hominids evolved in East Africa during the Late Miocene, they did so in an ecologically diverse setting.
More Related Videos
10:14Reconstructing Terrestrial Paleoclimate and Paleoecology with Fossil Leaves Using Digital Leaf Physiognomy and Leaf Mass Per Area
Published on: October 25, 2024
09:41Isolation of Quartz Grains for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Dating of Quaternary Sediments for Paleoenvironmental Research
Published on: August 2, 2021
Related Concept Videos
The Fossil Record
Global Climate Change
The Evidence for Evolution
Speciation Rates
What is Evolutionary History?
Genetics of Speciation