TY - JOUR
T1 - Paleoecology of Fort Ternan reconsidered
AU - Shipman, Pat
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank the director and staffof the National Museums of Kenya and the Government of Kenya for making this research possible. The National Science Foundation (BNS 76004822) and the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation generously provided funding for the analysis upon which this paper was based. I also thank Peter Andrews, Nikos Solounias, and Alan Walker for reading and commenting on this manuscript.
PY - 1986/3
Y1 - 1986/3
N2 - The Middle Miocene site of Fort Ternan is of unusual interest to paleoanthropologists because the fauna includes hominoid species and because the assemblage is an excellent subject for paleoecological reconstruction. Despite this, recent researchers (Andrews & Nesbit Evans, Pickford, and Shipman) have reached widely different conclusions about the habitat(s) sampled by the Fort Ternan fauna; their reconstructions run the gamut from open to closed habitats. These recent studies are here reviewed: their methodologies are evaluated and possible sources of error identified. It is concluded that the most probable interpretation is that the Fort Ternan paleoenvironment was predominantly open country, with a forested area nearby but at sufficient distance to be poorly represented in the fauna.
AB - The Middle Miocene site of Fort Ternan is of unusual interest to paleoanthropologists because the fauna includes hominoid species and because the assemblage is an excellent subject for paleoecological reconstruction. Despite this, recent researchers (Andrews & Nesbit Evans, Pickford, and Shipman) have reached widely different conclusions about the habitat(s) sampled by the Fort Ternan fauna; their reconstructions run the gamut from open to closed habitats. These recent studies are here reviewed: their methodologies are evaluated and possible sources of error identified. It is concluded that the most probable interpretation is that the Fort Ternan paleoenvironment was predominantly open country, with a forested area nearby but at sufficient distance to be poorly represented in the fauna.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0047-2484(86)80045-8
DO - 10.1016/S0047-2484(86)80045-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0000631485
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 15
SP - 193
EP - 204
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
IS - 3
ER -