Leakey, Louise Nicol; (2001) Body weight estimation of Bovidae and Plio-Pleistocene faunal change, Turkana Basin, Kenya. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Plio-Pleistocene mammalian faunal evolution has been causally linked to global climate change. This study investigates the extent to which climate affected the faunal representation of large mammals in the fossil assemblages from the Turkana Basin, in East Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. The research project involved the collection and study of both modem and fossil specimens Relative abundances of fossil mammalian families and the Bovidae are explored. To interpret climatically driven faunal change, comparisons are made with fossil faunas from the Nachukui, Shungura and Koobi Fora Formations. The combined relative abundances of bovid tribes through time are used to infer changes in habitat representation. The reduncines, wet habitats indicators, are abundant around 2.5 ma in contrast to the Shungura Formation represented by closed-dry habitats. This suggests that local rather than global scale climatic influences are affecting habitat representation. At 1.7 ma the inferred habitat in the Nachukui Formation shows similarity with more distant localities, namely the Olduvai Basin in Tanzania, where more arid and open environments become increasingly dominant. In a second part of this study, data were collected from modem antelope remains to develop new body weight estimation equations, essential for the estimation of body weights of fossil antelopes from the Nachukui Formation assemblage. Dental remains are less accurate estimators of body weight than are postcranial remains. The body weight estimation equations developed in this study are more accurate than published estimation equations when compared. The body weights of Nachukui Formation fossil bovids were estimated using the equations developed in this study. Variation in body weight representation of bovid tribes through time, in the context of changing habitats, and the use of bovid body weights in taxonomic identification of isolated teeth are explored for the Nachukui Formation.

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