Dietary trends in herbivores from the Shungura Formation, southwestern Ethiopia

Studying the diet of fossil herbivores is a critical aspect of understanding past ecology. Here, we present carbon isotope data from the collective herbivore fauna in the Shungura Formation, Ethiopia, a key sequence for the study of mammalian evolution in eastern Africa. We document temporal patterns in the diet of nine mammalian herbivore families in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. The diet of herbivores has significantly changed in the last 3.5 Ma, and major dietary transitions are observed in several taxa around ∼2.7 Ma and then at ∼2.0 Ma. These patterns reflect response of the fauna to major ecological and environmental changes and provide a comparative framework for the study of hominin diet during this time.