Evidence for a Late Pliocene faunal transition based on a new rodent assemblage from Oldowan locality Hadar A.L. 894, Afar Region, Ethiopia

The time interval between 3-2 Ma marks several important transitions in human evolution, including the extinction of Australopithecus afarensis, the origin of the genus Homo, and the appearance of concentrated stone tool assemblages forming recognizable archaeological sites. The period also marks important changes in Earth's climatic history, with the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation starting sometime between 2.8-2.5 Ma and it remains an unresolved question in paleoanthropology whether or not the global climatic events influenced in whole or in part, local terrestrial paleoenvironments in Africa and, through this, the course of human evolution.
Changes in the terrestrial mammalian faunas of East Africa during this time interval are an important source of data about terrestrial paleoenvironments, and it has been argued that during this time period the mammalian faunas of Africa experienced a sudden pulse in the extinction and origination of taxa. The data corroborating this Turn...