Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene

• Approaches to the analysis of faunal change during the East African Pliocene.- Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution.- African Pliocene and Pleistocene cercopithecid evolution and global climatic change.- Patterns of change in the Plio-Pleistocene carnivorans of eastern Africa.- Stratigraphic variation in Suidae from the Shungura Formation and some coeval deposits.- Patterns of abundance and diversity in late Cenozoic bovids from the Turkana and Hadar Basins, Kenya and Ethiopia.- Comparability of fossil data and its significance for the interpretation of hominin environments.- The effects of collection strategy and effort on faunal recovery.- Serengeti micromammals and their implications for Olduvai paleoenvironments.- Taphonomy and paleoecological context of the Upper Laetolil Beds (Localities 8 and 9), Laetoli in northern Tanzania.- The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli.- Fauna, taphonomy, and ecology of the Plio-Pleistocene Chiwondo Beds, Northern Malawi.- Finale and future.

From the reviews: 'This book provides valuable insights into the way archaeologists attempt to unravel human history and the daunting problems they face'. William Ruddiman, EOS Vol. 89 No. 18, April 2008. 'The book delves intensively and extensively into the methodologies for analyzing faunal change using the mammalian fossil record, paleoecology. The 12 papers contributed by more than 30 authors focus on carnivores, bovids, nonhuman primates, and small mammals, and provide suggestions for future research. ... The large amount of data has yielded a significant integration of information and shows how different lines of study can strengthen the understanding of complex evolutionary problems. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals.' D. Bardack, CHOICE, Vol. 45 No. 10, June, 2008. 'The new book by Bobe et al. is much more circumscribed in its aspirations and coverage. ... In addition, most authors are to be congratulated for appropriate taphonomic sensitivity in their approaches to the fossil record. ... is useful to the interested nonspecialist, and they benefit from the uniformly clear style of presentation throughout.' Travis Rayne Pickering, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2008. 'This tome is a timely and welcome contribution to the hominin paleoenvironmental literature ... . a must-have for students and senior researchers alike. ... The volume signifies an important step forward in hominin paleoenvironmental research and certainly foreshadows a promising body of work yet to come from a bright and enthusiastic group of researchers.' Katie M. Binetti, PaleoAnthropology, 2008. 'Rene Bobe, Zeresenay Alemseged and Anna K. Behrensmeyer present a series of papers focused on reconstructing East African Pliocene environments through a diversity of faunal assessments. ... this volume is important for all vertebrate palaeoecologists, as it provides useful case studies of many of the different approaches available in reconstructing ancient environments. ... Overall, this volume is well-written, well-illustrated, and provides a snapshot of palaeoecological methods currently in use. ... it represents a critical resource for researchers interested in vertebrate palaeoecology and/or Plio-Pleistocene hominins.' Julien Louys, Journal of Human Evolution, Vol. 55, 2008. 'It is about a lot more than hominin environments ... . this book is a necessary addition to his or her library, or if it could be used as class reading material. ... The entire book makes an excellent reference for graduate students from the outlining of scales of reference in the fossil record ... . Graduate seminars on mammalian paleoecology and methodologies could well use this book as the basis for in-depth discussions.' Kaye E. Reed, Journal of Mammalian Evolution, Vol. 16, 2009.