New geological and palaeontological age constraint for the gorilla–human lineage split (original) (raw)

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ethiopia, for permissions and facilitation; we thank the Western Hararge Chiro Zone Culture and Tourism Office and the Mieso Woreda for fieldwork support; we thank all participants in the fieldwork, especially the Gololcha people, who were essential to the success of the project. Neutron irradiation for 40Ar–39Ar dating was done under the Visiting Researchers Program at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute. We thank J. Morton for assistance with major and trace element analyses, and the Janet and Elliott Banes Professorship and National Science Foundation EAR-1028789 for support to W.H. We thank H. Ishiguro for assistance with sampling enamel for the isotope analysis, and M. Nakatsukasa and Y. Kunimatsu for comparative materials. We thank D. Geraads for providing field information about previous geochronological sampling localities. This project was supported primarily by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Kakenhi grant numbers 21255005 and 24000015).

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Division of Natural History, Hyogo Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Sanda, 669-1546, Japan
   Shigehiro Katoh
2. Association for Conservation of Culture Awassa, PO Box 6686, Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia
   Yonas Beyene
3. Centre français des études éthiopiennes (CFEE), USR CNRS 3137, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, PO Box 5554, Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia
   Yonas Beyene & Jean-Renaud Boisserie
4. Research Institute of Natural Sciences, Okayama University of Science, Okayama, 700-0005, Japan
   Tetsumaru Itaya & Hironobu Hyodo
5. Research Center for Inland Seas, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan
   Masayuki Hyodo
6. Hiruzen Institute for Geology and Chronology, Okayama, 703-8252, Japan
   Koshi Yagi & Chitaro Gouzu
7. EES-14/MS D462, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA
   Giday WoldeGabriel
8. Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, 133 Culler Hall, Oxford, 45056, Ohio, USA
   William K. Hart
9. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA
   Stanley H. Ambrose
10. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan
    Hideo Nakaya
11. Department of Anatomy, Howard University, Washington DC, 20059, USA
    Raymond L. Bernor
12. Institut de Paléoprimatologie, Paléontologie Humaine : Évolution et Paléoenvironnements (IPHEP), UMR CNRS 7262, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, 86022, France
    Jean-Renaud Boisserie
13. Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany
    Faysal Bibi
14. Institute of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Hyogo, Sanda, 669-1546, Japan
    Haruo Saegusa
15. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan
    Tomohiko Sasaki, Katsuhiro Sano & Gen Suwa
16. Rift Valley Research Service, PO Box 5717, Addis, Ababa, Ethiopia
    Berhane Asfaw

Authors

1. Shigehiro Katoh
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2. Yonas Beyene
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3. Tetsumaru Itaya
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4. Hironobu Hyodo
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5. Masayuki Hyodo
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6. Koshi Yagi
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7. Chitaro Gouzu
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8. Giday WoldeGabriel
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9. William K. Hart
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10. Stanley H. Ambrose
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11. Hideo Nakaya
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12. Raymond L. Bernor
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13. Jean-Renaud Boisserie
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14. Faysal Bibi
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15. Haruo Saegusa
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16. Tomohiko Sasaki
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17. Katsuhiro Sano
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18. Berhane Asfaw
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19. Gen Suwa
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Contributions

G.S., Y.B., B.A., S.K. designed the research; G.S., Y.B., B.A., S.K., T.S., K.S. conducted field work; S.K., T.I., H.H., M.H., K.Y., C.G., G.W, W.H. did the geochronological and geochemical analysis; G.S., H.N., R.B., J.-R.B., F.B., H.S., S.A. did the faunal and isotopic analysis; and G.S., Y.B., B.A., S.K. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all co-authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toGen Suwa.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

The Chorora Formation vertebrate fossils have been deposited in the Paleontology and Paleoanthropology laboratories of the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Cladistic relationships of C. abyssinicus and N. nakayamai.

C. abyssinicus is known from only nine teeth (or fragments)6 and N. nakayamai from a mandibular corpus with M1–M3, and ten other isolated teeth (excluding a possible antimere)8. The only informative dental elements shared by the two reported samples are the lower M3 and the lower M1 (the latter damaged in C. abyssinicus and considerably worn in N. nakayamai). This fragmentary evidence makes cladistic evaluations difficult. C. abyssinicus was considered to share the following derived combination of features with the modern gorilla: large postcanine size, upper molars buccolingually narrow and mesiodistally elongate, with a relatively long and mesiobuccally extending mesial protocone crest, reduced protoconule, and lower molars with a prominent anterior transverse crest. Following ref. 6, we consider Chororapithecus to be a basal member of the gorilla clade. When compared with the Middle Miocene examples of Kenyapthecini and Equatorini, C. abyssinicus and N. nakayamai share reduced cingula in both upper and lower molars, although ref. 8 pointed out that the lower M3 cingulum appears slightly better developed in N. nakayamai. The available N. nakayamai teeth include elements (not reported in C. abyssinicus) that are morphologically more derived than in Kenyapthecini/Equatorini, such as upper premolars that are relatively elongate mesiodistally (narrow buccolingually) and a lower P3 that is not as obliquely elongate and transversly compressed as in the Middle Miocene forms. On the basis of these observations, ref. 8 preferred a stem modern African ape–human cladistic position of N. nakayamai (option 1). However, N. nakayamai also shares two possibly derived features with C. abyssinicus: large postcanine size (although slightly less so) and prominent transverse crest in the lower molars. The latter is inferred from the characteristic wear pattern of the holotype mandible lower M1, the dentine exposures of the lingual cusps that are buccolingually linear (figure 1 of ref. 8). These observations suggest that N. nakayamai may also be a stem member of the gorilla clade but more primitive than C. abyssinicus (option 2).

Extended Data Figure 2 Chorora Formation type locality.

a, View north-northwest from the southeastern margin of the type locality. Yellow and red arrows show the rhyolitic ignimbrite units considered by previous workers to overlie the Chorora Formation sediments1,2,3. The ignimbrite unit (yellow arrows) adjacent to the sediment exposures has been interpreted to directly overlie the Chorora Formation sediments including the gravel unit that forms the resistant ledge along the western margin of the whitish lacustrine exposures. A second ridge top unit (red arrows) was considered to cap the entire sequence. RhyUn, RhyOv1 and RhyOv2 indicate sampling localities of the present study for K–Ar dating. The RhyUn unit dips westwards and stratigraphically underlies the Chorora Formation sediments. The horizontally bedded light brown sediments are Middle Pleistocene in age and unconformably cap both RhyUn and Chorora Formation sediments. The yellow and red dotted lines indicate approximate positions of the step faults that resulted in uplifted RhyOv1 and RhyOv2 exposures. b, View northeast at the RhyOv1 sampling spot. Yellow arrows point to the RhyOv1 rhyolitic ignimbrite unit forming a planar terrace. c, View west of the b RhyOv1 section (yellow arrows). Note that the rhyolitic ignimbrite unit terminates abruptly (dotted line) in fault contact with sediments previously considered to underlie the ignimbrite2,3.

Extended Data Figure 3 Electron-probe microanalysis (Or–Ab–An diagrams) of the K–Ar-dated samples.

Results of the electron-probe microanalysis of feldspar separates of the mesh size fraction that was used in the K–Ar dating of samples listed in Extended Data Table 1. The full data are shown in Supplementary Table 3.

Extended Data Figure 4 Single crystal step-heating 40Ar–39Ar analysis.

Results of individual crystals with stable ages (indicated by arrows) are shown. Errors are 1_σ_. Samples 10TC-1 and 10TC-58 are from the same consolidated tuff unit collected <5 m apart. Samples 10TC-52 and 10TC-53 are from the same pumiceous tuff collected ~30 m apart. The weighted means of these are shown in Fig. 3 and Extended Data Table 1.

Extended Data Figure 5 Chorora Formation stratigraphic columns of the type locality, Beticha and nearby localities.

The sections were taken at exposures adjacent to or continuous with the sampling locations of the dated volcanic samples (coordinates tabulated in Extended Data Table 1). Radioisotopic dates (K–Ar ages) and samples correspond to those shown in Fig. 3 and Extended Data Table 1. Eight tephra units are considered to occur at multiple localities, and shown as marker tuffs CT-1 to CT-8. The analytical details of the tuffs are presented in Supplementary Tables 1 and 2. CT-6 is identified at Adadi from lithologic, petrographic, glass morphology and refractive index analyses. Results of the remanent magnetism analysis are given in Supplementary Table 4. See Extended Data Fig. 6 for explanation of the lithological codes.

Extended Data Figure 6 Chorora Formation stratigraphic columns of the western localities.

The sections were taken at exposures adjacent to or continuous with the sampling locations of the dated volcanic samples (coordinates tabulated in Extended Data Table 1). Radioisotopic dates (K–Ar ages) and samples correspond to those shown in Fig. 3 and Extended Data Table 1. Tephra unit CT-4 occurs at multiple localities. The analytical details of the tuffs are presented in Supplementary Tables 1 and 2. Analytical results of the remanent magnetism analysis are given in Supplementary Table 4.

Extended Data Table 1 Summary of K–Ar and 40Ar–39Ar dating

Full size table

Extended Data Table 2 List of mammalian taxa recovered from the Chorora Formation, and comparison with the 9.5–9.9 Myr old Nakali/Samburu Hills fauna and the 6.5–7.4 Myr old Lothagam Lower Nawata Member fauna

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Extended Data Table 3 Values of δ13C and δ18O of Chorora Formation hipparionin and hippopotamid tooth enamel

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Katoh, S., Beyene, Y., Itaya, T. et al. New geological and palaeontological age constraint for the gorilla–human lineage split.Nature 530, 215–218 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16510

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• Received: 27 September 2015
• Accepted: 03 December 2015
• Published: 10 February 2016
• Issue Date: 11 February 2016
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16510