Cochlear shape distinguishes southern African early hominin taxa with unique auditory ecologies

Scientific Reports · 2021 · 25 citations

• Biology
• Evolutionary biology
• Zoology

Insights into potential differences among the bony labyrinths of Plio-Pleistocene hominins may inform their evolutionary histories and sensory ecologies. We use four recently-discovered bony labyrinths from the site of Kromdraai to significantly expand the sample for Paranthropus robustus. Diffeomorphometry, which provides detailed information about cochlear shape, reveals size-independent differences in cochlear shape between P. robustus and Australopithecus africanus that exceed those among modern humans and the African apes. The cochlea of P. robustus is distinctive and relatively invariant, whereas cochlear shape in A. africanus is more variable, resembles that of early Homo, and shows a degree of morphological polymorphism comparable to that evinced by modern species. The curvature of the P. robustus cochlea is uniquely derived and is consistent with enhanced sensitivity to low-frequency sounds. Combined with evidence for selection, our findings suggest that sound perception shaped distinct ecological adaptations among southern African early hominins.

Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift toward C ₄ foods in eastern African <i>Paranthropus</i>

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 43 citations

• Biology
• Zoology
• Evolutionary biology

grazing by cooccurring mammalian taxa from the same sequence. However, the timing and geographic patterns of hominin diets in this region differ from those observed elsewhere in the same basin, where environmental controls on the underlying availability of various food sources were likely quite different. These results highlight the complexities of dietary responses by hominins to changes in the availability of food resources.

Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 49 citations

• Ecology
• Biology
• Geography

, and has implications for key morphological and behavioral adaptations in our lineage.