Charles R. Peters

The Early Hominid Plant-Food Niche: Insights From an Analysis of Plant Exploitation by Homo, Pan, and Papio in Eastern and Southern Africa [and Comments and Reply]

African plant-food genera exploited by Homo, Pan, and Papio have been catalogued and analyzed to provide an estimation of the size and composition of the fundamental plant-food niche of the early hominids. Results to date include recognition of more than 100 widely distributed African plant genera which are the best known candidates for plant-food exploitation by the Plio/Pleistocene hominids of eastern and southern Africa. An analysis of staples reveals that fruits would be the most common type of plant part contributing to the early hominid plant-food diet. Six plant genera (four providing edible fruits) are the first genera to be identified as members of the most probable early-hominid fundamental plant-food niche. Potential interspecies competition for plant-food staples has also been estimated. It is highly significant and must be considered in models predicting the realized niche of these primates and the early hominids.

Wild plant foods of the Makapansgat area : a modern ecosystems analogue for Australopithecus africanus adaptations

To provide information on the nature of the plant food diet probably available to Australopithecus africanus in the Makapansgat area, under climatic conditions similar to those at present, wild plant foods were collected during the 1980–81 dry and wet seasons. The structural toughness of the food items was estimated from force deformation during compression loading with the standard Instron Universal Testing Machine and a specially designed field apparatus. During the late wet season, in contrast with the dry season, there is relative abundance and a variety of wild plant foods available. Moreover, the most important potential plant food staples include very tough dry berries, beans and nuts, which require an average of 50–250 kg of compressive force to crack and crush them. Comparisons of food toughness measures, previously reported data on human maximum bite forces (91–158 kg), and maximum bite force values hypothesized for Australopithecus africanus (150–200+kg), suggest that although these fossil hominids would have been able to prepare orally many of the tough food species, it also appears likely that they would have had to process artifactually (with simple stone tools) the toughest of these food items to assure their survival in this environment.

Shell Strength and Primate Seed Predation of Nontoxic Species in Eastern and Southern Africa

The large African primates that eat fruit destroy the seeds of a number of fruiting species. This paper addresses several questions about seed-eating: What is the nature of the dietary niche provided by the nonpoisonous seeds of eastern and southern Africa? How well are these seeds mechanically protected? What other means of reducing seed predation are employed by the plants? and is the niche ecologically stable? Measurements of seed shell strength on 37 species from 17 families reveal a range of values, from <100-kg (numerous species) to over 2000-kg (palm nuts) breaking load. Primates crack open with their teeth seed shells from species exhibiting test strengths less than 600 kg. Variation in shell strength appears to increase dramatically for average species strengths above 100 kg. Plant species are not characterized by specific shell strengths but instead, display envelopes of shell strength overlapping broadly with other species. Taking this into account, adult male baboons (Papio spp.) appear to be dentally capable of preying upon most of the seed species of eastern and southern Africa. The possibility for predation of nonpoisonous seeds exists primarily because the plants periodically produce large crops in synchrony and the hard-shelled seeds are effectively dispersed, sometimes explosively but more often by means of edible fruits. The concomitant primate seed predation is a facultative specialization, of little apparent threat to the community of plants that support it.

Plant types and seasonality of wild-plant foods, Tanzania to Southwestern Africa: Resources for models of the natural environment*

Pursuant to understanding the ecological adaptations of the African hominids, we have analysed some of the characteristics of 419 wild plant species exploited for food by humans in a broad portion of the African summer-rain climatic region running from Tanzania to southwestern Africa. With regard to general growth form: trees, arborescents (other woody forms that can mature as trees), and forbs provide the majority of edible species. Although the grasses are diverse and abundant, most appear not to provide food items for humans. Woody rosette forms (e.g. palms and cycads) and truc shrubs (as opposed to arborescents) are both species-poor. The woody vines and lianas appear to provide even fewer edible species. Stem succulents, parasites, and ferns provide almost no edible species. When scasonality and growth form are both taken into consideration, deciduous trees, perennial forbs, and mushrooms are the most species rich “edible” plant types. Deciduous trees primarily provide edible fruit/seed/pods, particularly during the rainy season, leaves in the rainy season and some underground parts on a more or less year-round basis. Perennial forbs provide flowers, fruit/seed/pods, or leaves in the rainy season, but most (78%) of the edible species also provide underground parts on a more or less year-round basis. The general pattern of species providing edible above-ground parts in the rainy season is reinforced by the mushrooms, evergreen/semi-evergreen trees, and arborescents, as well as the speciespoor plant types. The overall potential dictary pattern is that of a pronounced seasonal change in the quality of plant foods, from a variety of types of food items provided by several different types of plants during the rainy season to mainly fruit/seed/pods and/or underground parts in the dry season. This implies a predictable qualitative as well as quantitative scasonal shift in the wild-plant-food diet of prehistoric humans wherever the tropical summerrain climate imposed itself or remained in effect.

Ricinodendron rautanenii (Euphorbiaceae): Zambezian wild food plant for all seasons

Ricinodendron rautanenii provides an easily stored sweet-tasting fruit containing a nut whose seed is rich in fat, protein, and minerals. Its distribution is largely confined to the Zambezian phytogeographical region of Africa, centered on the nutrient- poor Kalahari sands of southeastern Angola and northeastern Namibia. There the estimates of annual nut production range from ca. 250 kg/ha to 800 kg/ ha. In this subhumid summer-rain climate this tree flowers in late spring and the fruits fall in autumn. A significant proportion of the nuts are still edible after having lain on the ground for a year. The nuts were traditionally a staple food for the subregion’s rural populations.

Wild fruit trees and shrubs of Southern Africa: Geographic distribution of species richness

Fruit trees and shrubs dominate the edible flora of Africa. Does their geographic distribution differ significantly from that of the woody flora in general? Based on analyses of macro-scale geographic variations in the species richness (hereinafter SR) of southern Africa’s trees and shrubs, there is a west-to-east trend of increasing edible-fruit-providing SR that is similar to that of woody plants as a whole and in accord with changes in climate and vegetation. Distinct from this pattern, the percentage of edible fruit-providing species increases northwards and towards the interior of Africa, with an unexpected broad subcontinental zone of relatively high percentages of edible fruit species separating rich nutritional resource areas (high edible SR) from nutritional deserts (low edible SR). This is consistent with humans and other wide-ranging vertebrates (e.g., elephants) dispersing edible fruit species into normally less than ideal (nutritional) environments during cyclical and/or episodic periods of wetter climate.

On Hominid Diet before Fire

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