TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trauth, Martin H.
A1  - Maslin, Mark A.
A1  - Deino, Alan
A1  - Strecker, Manfred
T1  - Late Cenozoic Moisture History of East Africa
N2  - Lake sediments in 10 Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Tanzanian rift basins suggest that there were three humid periods at 2.7 to 2.5 million years ago (Ma), 1.9 to 1.7 Ma, and 1.1 to 0.9 Ma, superimposed on the longer-term aridification of East Africa. These humid periods correlate with increased aridity in northwest and northeast Africa and with substantial global climate transitions. These episodes could have had important impacts on the speciation and dispersal of mammals and hominins, because a number of key events, such as the origin of the genus Homo and the evolution of the species Homo erectus, took place in this region during that time.
Y1  - 2005
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1112964
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trauth, Martin H.
A1  - Deino, Alan
A1  - Strecker, Manfred
T1  - Response of the East African climate to orbital forcing during the Last Interglacial (130-117 kyr BP) and the early Last Glacial (117-60 kyr BP)
Y1  - 2001
SN  - 0091-7613
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Trauth, Martin H.
A1  - Deino, Alan
A1  - Bergner, Andreas G. N.
A1  - Strecker, Manfred
T1  - East African climate change and orbital forcing during the last 175 kyr BP
N2  - Variations in the temporal and spatial distribution of solar radiation caused by orbital changes provide a partial explanation for the observed long-term fluctuations in African lake levels. The understanding of such relationships is essential for designing climate-prediction models for the tropics. Our assessment of the nature and timing of East African climate change is based on lake-level fluctuations of Lake Naivasha in the Central Kenya Rift (0°55'S 36°20'E), inferred from sediment characteristics, diatoms, authigenic mineral assemblages and 17 single-crystal 40Ar/39Ar age determinations. Assuming that these fluctuations reflect climate changes, the Lake Naivasha record demonstrates that periods of increased humidity in East Africa mainly followed maximum equatorial solar radiation in March or September. Interestingly, the most dramatic change in the Naivasha Basin occurred as early as 146 kyr BP and the highest lake level was recorded at about 139 to 133 kyr BP. This is consistent with other well-dated low-latitude climate records, but does not correspond to peaks in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation as the trigger for the ice- age cycles. The Naivasha record therefore provides evidence for low-latitude forcing of the ice-age climate cycles.
Y1  - 2003
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Foerster, Verena
A1  - Asrat, Asfawossen
A1  - Ramsey, Christopher Bronk
A1  - Brown, Erik T.
A1  - Chapot, Melissa S.
A1  - Deino, Alan
A1  - Düsing, Walter
A1  - Grove, Matthew
A1  - Hahn, Annette
A1  - Junginger, Annett
A1  - Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie
A1  - Lane, Christine S.
A1  - Opitz, Stephan
A1  - Noren, Anders
A1  - Roberts, Helen M.
A1  - Stockhecke, Mona
A1  - Tiedemann, Ralph
A1  - Vidal, Celine M.
A1  - Vogelsang, Ralf
A1  - Cohen, Andrew S.
A1  - Lamb, Henry F.
A1  - Schaebitz, Frank
A1  - Trauth, Martin H.
T1  - Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution
JF  - Nature geoscience
N2  - Despite more than half a century of hominin fossil discoveries in eastern Africa, the regional environmental context of hominin evolution and dispersal is not well established due to the lack of continuous palaeoenvironmental records from one of the proven habitats of early human populations, particularly for the Pleistocene epoch. Here we present a 620,000-year environmental record from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia, which is proximal to key fossil sites. Our record documents the potential influence of different episodes of climatic variability on hominin biological and cultural transformation. The appearance of high anatomical diversity in hominin groups coincides with long-lasting and relatively stable humid conditions from similar to 620,000 to 275,000 years bp (episodes 1-6), interrupted by several abrupt and extreme hydroclimate perturbations. A pattern of pronounced climatic cyclicity transformed habitats during episodes 7-9 (similar to 275,000-60,000 years bp), a crucial phase encompassing the gradual transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age technologies, the emergence of Homo sapiens in eastern Africa and key human social and cultural innovations. Those accumulative innovations plus the alignment of humid pulses between northeastern Africa and the eastern Mediterranean during high-frequency climate oscillations of episodes 10-12 (similar to 60,000-10,000 years bp) could have facilitated the global dispersal of H. sapiens.
KW  - Evolutionary ecology
KW  - Limnology
KW  - Palaeoclimate
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01032-y
SN  - 1752-0894
SN  - 1752-0908
VL  - 15
IS  - 10
SP  - 805
EP  - 811
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -