Paleoecology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Africa

(Credit: Terry Harrison)

The study of paleoecology provides critical evidence for understanding the context of early hominin evolution.  It allows scientists to pose questions about hominin habitat preferences, ecology, and paleobiology, and to include these variables in larger scale macroevolutionary models of speciation, biogeography, diversification, and extinction.  An important focus of the research effort at the Pliocene hominin site of Laetoli has been on reconstructing the paleoecology using information from a wide variety of taxa and ecological proxies.

Selected recent publications

Harrison, T. 2017.  The paleoecology of the Upper Ndolanya Beds, Laetoli, Tanzania, and its implications for hominin evolution, in A. Marom & E. Hovers (Eds.) Human Paleontology and Prehistory: Contributions in Honor of Yoel Rak, pp. 31-44. Springer, Dordrecht.

Demarchi, B., Hall, S., Roncal-Herrero, T., Freeman, C.L., Woolley, J., Crisp, M.K., Wilson, J., Fotakis, A., Fischer, R., Kessler, B.M., Jersie-Christensen, R.R., Olsen, J.V., Haile, J., Thomas, J., Marean, C.W., Parkington, J., Presslee, S., Lee-Thorp, J., Ditchfield, P., Hamilton, J.F., Ward, M.W., Wang, C.M., Shaw, M.D., Harrison, T., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., MacPhee, R.D.E., Kwekason, A., Ecker, M., Horwitz, L.K., Chazan, M., Kröger, R., Thomas-Oates, J., Harding, J.H., Cappellini, E., Penkman, K., & Collins, M.J. 2016. Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time. eLife 5:e17092.

Winkler, A.J., Winkler, D.A., & Harrison, T. 2016. Forelimb anatomy of the leporid Serengetilagus praecapensis from Laetoli, Tanzania: functional and taxonomic implications. Historical Biology 28: 252-263.

Su, D. & Harrison, T. 2015. The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds, Laetoli, Tanzania: A review and synthesis.  Journal of African Earth Sciences 101: 405-419.

Harrison, T. 2011. Tortoises (Chelonii, Testudinidae), in T. Harrison (Ed.) Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context.  Volume 2:  Fossil Hominins and the Associated Fauna, pp. 479-503.  Dordrecht: Springer.

Harrison, T. 2011.  Orycteropodidae , in T. Harrison (Ed.) Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context.  Volume 2:  Fossil Hominins and the Associated Fauna, pp. 263-274.  Dordrecht: Springer.

Harrison, T. 2011. Coprolites: Taphonomic and paleoecological implications, in T. Harrison (Ed.) Paleontology and Geology of Laetoli: Human Evolution in Context.  Volume 1:  Geology, Geochronology, Paleoecology and Paleoenvironment, pp. 279-292.  Dordrecht: Springer.

Su, D.F. & Harrison, T. 2007.  The paleoecology of the Upper Laetolil Beds at Laetoli: A reconsideration of the large mammal evidence, in R. Bobe, Z. Alemseged, & A.K. Behrensmeyer (Eds.) Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene: An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence, pp. 279-313. Dordrecht: Springer.

Kingston, J.D. & Harrison, T. 2007. Isotopic dietary reconstructions of Pliocene herbivores at Laetoli: Implications for hominin paleoecology.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecolology 243: 272-306.

Harrison, T. 2005. Fossil bird eggs from Laetoli, Tanzania:  Their taxonomic and paleoecological implications. Journal of African Earth Sciences 41: 289-302.

Harrison, T. & Msuya, C. 2005. Fossil struthionid eggshells from Laetoli, Tanzania: Their taxonomic and biostratigraphic significance.  Journal of African Earth Sciences 41: 303-315.