@article {309187, title = {Kantis: A new Australopithecus site on the shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya}, journal = {Journal of Human Evolution}, volume = {94}, year = {2016}, month = {05/2016}, pages = {28 - 44}, abstract = {

Most Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Gregory Rift Valley that have yielded abundant fossil hominins lie on the Rift Valley floor. Here we report a new Pliocene site, Kantis, on the shoulder of the Gregory Rift Valley, which extends the geographical range\ of\ Australopithecus\ afarensis\ to the highlands of Kenya. This species, known from sites in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and possibly Kenya, is believed to be adapted to a wide spectrum of habitats, from open grassland to woodland. The Kantis fauna is generally similar to that reported from other contemporaneous\ A.\ afarensis\ sites on the Rift Valley floor. However, its faunal composition and stable carbon isotopic data from dental enamel suggest a stronger C4\ environment than that present at those sites. Although the Gregory Rift Valley has been the focus of paleontologists{\textquoteright} attention for many years, surveys of the Rift shoulder may provide new perspective on African Pliocene mammal and hominin evolution.

}, keywords = {Carbon stable isotope, Hominin; Fossils, Paleoenvironment, Pliocene}, issn = {0047-2484}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.01.006}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248416000208}, author = {Emma Mbua and Soichiro Kusaka and Yutaka Kunimatsu and Denis Geraads and Yoshihiro Sawada and Francis H. Brown and Tetsuya Sakai and Jean-Renaud Boisserie and Mototaka Saneyoshi and Christine Omuombo and Samuel Muteti and Takafumi Hirata and Akira Hayashida and Hideki Iwano and Tohru Danhara and Ren{\'e} Bobe and Brian Jicha and Masato Nakatsukasa} }