ANTHROPOLOGIE

Volume 37/3, 1999, pp. 221-231

KULLMER O., SANDROCK O., SCHRENK F., BROMAGE T. G.
The Malawi Rift: Biogeography, Ecology and Coexistence of Homo and Paranthropus

Remains of earliest Homo and Paranthropus have been recovered from two contemporaneous sites (Uraha and Malema) in the ”Hominid Corridor” in northern Malawi (Chiwondo Beds). Faunal dating suggests an age of 2.5 – 2.3 Mya for both hominids. The associated bovid and suid faunas show an overlap of a small amount of southern African with a great amount of eastern African faunal elements. Biogeographic variation in south-eastern Africa may be linked to habitat change occurring due to climate change after 2.8 Ma. The Hominid taxa present in the Malawi Rift, Homo rudolfensis and Paranthropus aff. boisei, both represent eastern African endemic elements originating from the eastern African australopithecine stem group. Their different lifestyles and survival strategies are linked to climate and habitat change as well as biogeographic variation and dispersal. A panafrican scenario of early hominid evolution is developed on this basis. This scenario suggests a single origin for the Paranthropus lineage but separate origins for Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis from Australopithecus anamensis/afarensis and Australopithecus africanus ancestors respectively.

Plio-Pleistocene – Climate Change – Palaeobiogeography – Homo – Paranthropus – Malawi Rift – Africa