Fossil elephantoids from the hominid-bearing awash group, middle awash valley, afar depression, Ethiopia. Jon E. Kalb and Assefa Mebrate, 1993, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 83, Part 1, 114 pp., $15.00 (paperbound)
✍ Scribed by Christopher J. O'Brien
- Book ID
- 102221402
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 150 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-6353
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✦ Synopsis
However, deposits of the Middle Awash additionally serve as a chronicle of nonhuman mammal evolution, exemplified by an extraordinarily complete stratigraphic sequence of elephantoids. The evolutionary relationships of these fossil elephants (gomphotheres, stegomorphs, and the more familiar elephantines [modern elephants, mammoths, and their kin]) are succinctly detailed in the Kalb and Mebrate volume.
The authors focus principally upon fossil elephantoids from the pre-Hadar Adu-Asa and Sagantole Formations (late Miocene to mid-Pliocene) and post-Hadar Matabaietu and Wehaietu Formations (late Pliocene to Pleistocene), pointing out that no fewer than 16 distinct taxa are represented in these deposits. Introductory chapters briefly outline current problems in proboscidean taxonomy, describe the fossil collecting locales and stratigraphy of the geologic deposits, and discuss methods and terms used in the analysis. The core of the volume is a reassessment of fossil elephant phylogeny based on detailed descriptions of fossil dentitions recovered from the Middle Awash formations. A systematic description of fossil teeth accompanied by 30 line drawings of type specimens comprises the bulk of the volume. As such, it will be slow reading for archaeologists uninterested in the details of tooth anatomy and proboscidean systematics. Nonetheless, zooarchaeologists will gain by looking at the clearly written chapter on terminology and identification.
The discussion focuses on the reorganization of elephantoid taxonomy derived from the new suite of fossils. Here the authors clarify the phylogenetic relationships between a number of African forms, arguing for both an increasing complexity of elephantoid evolution and greater antiquity of some species. While some issues are resolved with the new fossils, the study also highlights morphological gaps in the elephantoid fossil record. The authors end the discussion by anticipating that the wealth of fossils in the Middle Awash strata will provide a clearer picture of elephantoid evolution in future. The bibliography appears complete with respect to proboscidean paleontology; a n appendix details the cladistic analysis used, provides a data matrix of tooth morphclogy, and illustrates the resulting cladograms.
Outside of the obvious importance of elephantoids as biostratigraphic markers, their bearing on hominid behavioral evolution is largely ignored. The evolutionary relationship between hominids and elephants is not the intended purpose of the volume, but the lack of discussion on this topic restricts its audience to interested paleontologists and cladisticians. Associations of stone tools and elephantoid remains occur at sites throughout the Pleistocene (e.g., the Deinotherium and Elephus recki butchery sites at