Abstract The Miocene epoch (23.03–5.33 Ma) was a time interval of global warmth, relative
to today. Continental configurations and mountain topography transitioned toward modern …

Tropical Africa is home to an astonishing biodiversity occurring in a variety of ecosystems.
Past climatic change and geological events have impacted the evolution and diversification …

Terrestrial plant biomarkers and their carbon isotopes provide insights into carbon cycling,
paleovegetation and paleoclimate, ranging in scale from local to global. Over the past …

Poaceae (the grasses) is arguably the most successful plant family, in terms of its global
occurrence in (almost) all ecosystems with angiosperms, its ecological dominance in many …

The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth. Yet the timing of its inception and its response
to climatic forcing is debated, leading to uncertainty over the causes and consequences of …

Aridification is often considered a major driver of long-term ecological change and hominin
evolution in eastern Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene; however, this hypothesis remains …

Present-day African ecosystems serve as referential models for conceptualizing the
environmental context of early hominin evolution, but the degree to which modern …

The assembly of Africa's iconic C4 grassland ecosystems is central to evolutionary
interpretations of many mammal lineages, including hominins. C4 grasses are thought to …

This study describes the hydroclimate evolution of the eastern Mediterranean Basin during
the early Messinian (7.2 to 6.5 Ma) time-interval based on analysis of a succession at Agios …

Living hominoids are distinguished by upright torsos and versatile locomotion. It is
hypothesized that these features evolved for feeding on fruit from terminal branches in …