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Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present

Elton, S.

Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present Thumbnail


Authors



Contributors

Sally C. Reynolds
Editor

Andrew Gallagher
Editor

Abstract

The southern African cercopithecid (monkey) fauna has undergone a profound change in composition and diversity since the Plio-Pleistocene, with modern species representing only a small part of the diversity that existed in the past. During the Plio-Pleistocene, eleven cercopithecid species were found in southern Africa, as many as six of which might have been contemporaneous. The move to more open environments, plus dispersal from and to southern Africa, have probably contributed significantly to changes in monkey diversity over the past three million years. Some of the Plio-Pleistocene cercopithecids are likely to have lived in the same ecological communities as hominins. In modern primate communities, niche partitioning is sometimes used as a way to minimise competition for resources. This would have been a plausible way to maintain relatively high species diversity in the Plio-Pleistocene primate fauna of southern Africa. Nonetheless, the presence of hominins in the generalist feeder niche could have affected the behaviour of other primates in their communities, specifically the monkeys that today have an eclectic diet. It is also possible that Plio-Pleistocene hominins influenced community structure and behaviour through predation. In conclusion, environmental changes as well as interaction with hominins each contributed to shaping the community structure that is seen in South African monkeys today, but further work is required to reconstruct in more depth the interactions of the ecological communities to which hominins belonged.

Citation

Elton, S. (2012). Impacts of environmental change and community ecology on the composition and diversity of the southern African monkey fauna from the Plio-Pleistocene to the present. In S. C. Reynolds, & A. Gallagher (Eds.), African genesis : perspectives on hominin evolution (471-486). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139096164.028

Online Publication Date Apr 1, 2012
Publication Date Apr 1, 2012
Deposit Date May 20, 2013
Publicly Available Date Feb 17, 2016
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 471-486
Series Title Cambridge studies in biological and evolutionary anthropology
Book Title African genesis : perspectives on hominin evolution.
Chapter Number 23
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139096164.028
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1652344

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Copyright Statement
This material has been published in African Genesis: Perspectives on Hominin Evolution edited by Sally C. Reynolds and Andrew Gallagher. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University Press 2012.






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