A large stable isotope dataset from East and Central Africa from ca. 30 regional collection sites that range from forest to grassland shows that most extant East and Central African large herbivore taxa have diets dominated by C4 grazing or C3 browsing. Comparison with the fossil record shows that faunal assemblages from ca. 4.1–2.35 Ma in the Turkana Basin had a greater diversity of C3–C4 mixed feeding taxa than is presently found in modern East and Central African environments. In contrast, the period from 2.35 to 1.0 Ma had more C4-grazing taxa, especially nonruminant C4-grazing taxa, than are found in modern environments in East and Central Africa. Many nonbovid C4 grazers became extinct in Africa, notably the suid Notochoerus, the hipparion equid Eurygnathohippus, the giraffid Sivatherium, and the elephantid Elephas. Other important nonruminant C4-grazing taxa switched to browsing, including suids in the lineage Kolpochoerus-Hylochoerus and the elephant Loxodonta. Many modern herbivore taxa in Africa have diets that differ significantly from their fossil relatives. Elephants and tragelaphin bovids are two groups often used for paleoecological insight, yet their fossil diets were very different from their modern closest relatives; therefore, their taxonomic presence in a fossil assemblage does not indicate they had a similar ecological function in the past as they do at present. Overall, we find ecological assemblages of C3-browsing, C3–C4-mixed feeding, and C4-grazing taxa in the Turkana Basin fossil record that are different from any modern ecosystem in East or Central Africa.

We use stable isotope ratios in feces of wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei) to test the hypothesis that diet shifts within a single year, as measured by dry mass intake, can be recovered. Isotopic separation of staple foods indicates that intraannual changes in the isotopic composition of feces reflect shifts in diet. Fruits are isotopically distinct compared with other staple foods, and peaks in fecal δ 13 C values are interpreted as periods of increased fruit feeding. Bayesian mixing model results demonstrate that, although the timing of these diet shifts match observational data, the modeled increase in proportional fruit feeding does not capture the full shift. Variation in the isotopic and nutritional composition of gorilla foods is largely independent, highlighting the difficulty for estimating nutritional intake with stable isotopes. Our results demonstrate the potential value of fecal sampling for quantifying short-term, intraindividual dietary variability in primates and other animals with high temporal resolution even when the diet is composed of C 3 plants.C3 photosynthesis | feeding ecology | great apes | Uganda

The opening and closing of the equatorial East African forest belt during the Quaternary is thought to have influenced the biogeographic histories of early modern humans and fauna, although precise details are scarce due to a lack of archaeological and paleontological records associated with paleoenvironmental data. With this in mind, we provide a description and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age (MSA) artifact- and fossil-bearing sediments from Karungu, located along the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Artifacts recovered from surveys and controlled excavations are typologically MSA and include points, blades, and Levallois flakes and cores, as well as obsidian flakes similar in geochemical composition to documented sources near Lake Naivasha (250 km east). A combination of sedimentological, paleontological, and stable isotopic evidence indicates a semi-arid environment characterized by seasonal precipitation and the dominance of C4 grasslands, likely associated with a substantial reduction in Lake Victoria. The well-preserved fossil assemblage indicates that these conditions are associated with the convergence of historically allopatric ungulates from north and south of the equator, in agreement with predictions from genetic observations. Analysis of the East African MSA record reveals previously unrecognized north-south variation in assemblage composition that is consistent with episodes of population fragmentation during phases of limited dispersal potential. The grassland-associated MSA assemblages from Karungu and nearby Rusinga Island are characterized by a combination of artifact types that is more typical of northern sites. This may reflect the dispersal of behavioral repertoires-and perhaps human populations-during a paleoenvironmental phase dominated by grasslands.