Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Early Pliocene hominids from Gona, Ethiopia

Nature volume 433, pages 301–305 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Comparative biomolecular studies suggest that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, lived during the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene1,2. Fossil evidence of Late Miocene–Early Pliocene hominid evolution is rare and limited to a few sites in Ethiopia3,4,5, Kenya6 and Chad7. Here we report new Early Pliocene hominid discoveries and their palaeoenvironmental context from the fossiliferous deposits of As Duma, Gona Western Margin (GWM), Afar, Ethiopia. The hominid dental anatomy (occlusal enamel thickness, absolute and relative size of the first and second lower molar crowns, and premolar crown and radicular anatomy) indicates attribution to Ardipithecus ramidus. The combined radioisotopic and palaeomagnetic data suggest an age of between 4.51 and 4.32 million years for the hominid finds at As Duma. Diverse sources of data (sedimentology, faunal composition, ecomorphological variables and stable carbon isotopic evidence from the palaeosols and fossil tooth enamel) indicate that the Early Pliocene As Duma sediments sample a moderate rainfall woodland and woodland/grassland.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A geological map and thematic mapper (TM) image insert depicting the location of the hominid sites at As Duma in the Gona Western Margin, GPRP study area, Afar, Ethiopia.
Figure 2: Stratigraphy of the GWM-3 (a) and GWM-5 (b) sites.
Figure 3: Early Pliocene hominid fossils from As Duma, Gona Western Margin.
Figure 4: δ13C values (GWM-5 block fauna, closed symbols; GWM-3 block fauna, open symbols) of fossil tooth enamel grouped by taxon.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chen, F. C. & Li, W. H. Genomic divergences between humans and other hominoids and the effective population size of the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 68, 444–456 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Salem, A.-H. et al. Alu elements and hominid phylogenetics. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 12787–12791 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Haile-Selassie, Y. Late Miocene hominids from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 412, 178–181 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Haile-Selassie, Y., Suwa, G. & White, T. D. Late Miocene teeth from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and early hominid dental evolution. Science 303, 1503–1505 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. White, T. D., Suwa, G. & Asfaw, B. Australopithecus ramidus, a new species of early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature 371, 306–312 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Senut, B. et al. First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya). C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 332, 137–144 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Brunet, M. et al. A new hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa. Nature 418, 145–151 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Renne, P. R., WoldeGabriel, G., Hart, W. K., Heiken, G. & White, T. D. Chronostratigraphy of the Miocene-Pliocene Sagantole Formation, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Rift, Ethiopia. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 111, 869–885 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Cande, S. C. & Kent, D. V. Revised calibration of the geomagnetic polarity timescale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic. J. Geophys. Res. 100, 6093–6095 (1995)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. White, T. D. in Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins (ed. Vrba, E.) 369–384 (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 1995)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Brunet, M. & White, T. D. Deux nouvelles èspeces de Suini (Mammalia, Suidae) du continent Africain (Éthiopie; Tchad). C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 332, 51–57 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Frost, S. R. New Early Pliocene Cercopithecidae from Aramis, Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. Am. Mus. Novit. 3350, 1–36 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ward, C. V., Leakey, M. G. & Walker, A. C. Morphology of Australopithecus anamensis from Kanapoi and Allia Bay, Kenya. J. Hum. Evol. 41, 255–368 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Bush, M. E., Lovejoy, C. O., Johanson, D. C. & Coppens, Y. Hominid carpal, metacarpal, and phalangeal bones recovered from the Hadar Formation: 1974–1977 collections. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 57, 651–677 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Harris, J. M. & Leakey, M. G. in Lothagam (eds Leakey, M. G. & Harris, J. M.) 485–519 (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 2003)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Fortelius, M. & Solounias, N. Functional characterization of ungulate molars using the abrasion-attrition wear gradient: A new method for reconstructing paleodiets. Am. Mus. Novit. 3301, 1–36 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Dudal, R. Dark gray soils of tropical and sub-tropical regions. FAO Agric. Dev. Pap. 83, 161 (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ahmad, N. in Pedogenesis and Soil Taxonomy II. The Soil Orders. Developments in Soil Science 11B (eds Wilding, L. P., Smeck, N. E. & Hall, G. F.) 91–123 (Elsevier, New York, 1983)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Cerling, T. E. & Quade, J. in Continental Indicators of Climate (eds Swart, P., McKenzie, J. A. & Lohman, K. C.) 217–231 (AGU monogr. 78, American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Renne, P. R. et al. Intercalibration of standards, absolute ages and uncertainties in 40Ar/39Ar dating. Chem. Geol. (Isot. Geosci. Sect.) 1–2, 117–152 (1998)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Semaw, S. et al. 2.5 million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 385, 333–338 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. McIntosh, W. C. & Chamberlin, R. M. 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of Middle to Late Cenozoic ignimbrites, mafic lavas, and volcaniclastic rocks in the Quemado Region, New Mexico. Guidebook New Mexico Geol. Soc. 45, 165–185 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  23. WoldeGabriel, G. et al. Ecological and temporal context of early Pliocene hominids at Aramis, Ethiopia. Nature 371, 330–333 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Kirschvink, J. L. The least squares line and plane and the analysis of palaeomagnetic data. R. Astron. Soc. Geophys. J. 62, 699–718 (1980)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Fisher, R. A. Dispersion on a sphere. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 217, 295–305 (1953)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The L.S.B. Leakey Foundation provided a major grant for the Gona Project, and the National Science Foundation (and Researching Hominid Origins Initiative-RHOI), the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Geographic Society funded the research. We thank N. Toth and K. Schick (co-directors of CRAFT Stone Age Institute, Indiana University) for their overall assistance. S.S. thanks N. Toth and K. Schick, and Friends of CRAFT for the Research Associate position at the Institute. The research permission by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage and the National Museum of Ethiopia is greatly appreciated. We thank the Afar Regional Administration and the Afar colleagues at Eloha and Asayta for their hospitality, and A. Humet for the hard work in the field. Y. Beyene, C. Howell, B. Lasher and A. Almquist encouraged the research. D. Stout, L. Harlacker, M. Everett and T. Pickering assisted in the field, and A. Tamburro at CRAFT. The manuscript has benefited from discussions with B. Asfaw, M. Asnake, R. E. Bernor, J.-R. Boisserie, M. Brunet, S. Frost, Y. Haile-Selassie, O. Lovejoy, M. Pickford, E. Smith, H. Wesselman and T. White. M. Sahnouni and B. Smith helped with computer graphics.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CRAFT Stone Age Institute, Indiana University, 1392 West Dittemore Road, Gosport, Indiana, 47433-9531, USA

    Sileshi Semaw

  2. Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University-School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue

    Scott W. Simpson

  3. Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106, USA

    Scott W. Simpson

  4. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA

    Jay Quade, Robert F. Butler & Naomi Levin

  5. Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road

    Paul R. Renne

  6. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California,, 94709, USA

    Paul R. Renne

  7. New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources,

    William C. McIntosh

  8. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, 87801, USA

    William C. McIntosh

  9. Departmento de Prehistoria y Arquelogia, Facultad de Geografia e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo

  10. Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06515-1355, USA

    Michael J. Rogers

Authors
  1. Sileshi Semaw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Scott W. Simpson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jay Quade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paul R. Renne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Robert F. Butler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. William C. McIntosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Naomi Levin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Michael J. Rogers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sileshi Semaw.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table S1

Supplementary Table 1 provides preliminary identification of fauna collected from the Early Pliocene hominid-bearing deposits from As Duma, Gona Project Area, Ethiopia. (DOC 27 kb)

Supplementary Table S2

This contains argon isotope data for plagioclase crystals from tuffs GONASH-51 and GONASH-52, which provides the basis for the age data depicted in Supplementary Figures S1 and S2. (DOC 92 kb)

Supplementary Table S3

This contains the complete 40Ar/39Ar analytical data obtained from two basalt flows (WM-25 and WM-27) from the Western Margin samples at Gona. Results for individual groundmass concentrate subsamples, along with the integrated and plateau ages for the two basalt flows are presented. (DOC 158 kb)

Supplementary Table S4

This contains a list of all the samples of soil carbonate collected in the Gona project from the Gona Western Margin, the carbon isotope (expressed as δ13C VPDB) values for each sample and the average δ13C value in each paleosol pooled from individual results. (DOC 117 kb)

Supplementary Table S5

This contains a list of all the samples of fossil tooth enamel collected in the Gona project from the Gona Western Margin, the tooth element and animal species analysed and the carbon isotope (expressed as δ13C VPDB) value for each sample. (DOC 103 kb)

Supplementary Figure S1

Age-probability diagram for Run 31200, Sample G-51. This summarizes the results of 40Ar/39Ar age determinations and compositional data of individual palgoioclase crystals from tuff GONASH-51. (GIF 45 kb)

Supplementary Figure S2

Age-probability diagram for Run 31202, Sample G-52. This summarizes the results of 40Ar/39Ar age determinations and compositional data of individual palgoioclase crystals from tuffs GONASH-52. (GIF 48 kb)

Supplementary Figure S3

This shows age spectrum and isotope correlation diagram for Run 52560, Sample WMASH-25, groundmass concentrate. (GIF 80 kb)

Supplementary Figure S4

This displays age spectrum and isotope correlation diagram for Run 552558-01, Sample WMASH-27, groundmass concentrate. (GIF 81 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Semaw, S., Simpson, S., Quade, J. et al. Early Pliocene hominids from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 433, 301–305 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03177

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03177

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing