@article {316088,
	title = {Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa},
	journal = {Science},
	year = {2018},
	month = {2018/03/15},
	abstract = {<p>Development of the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) before 300 thousand years ago (ka) raises the question of how environmental change influenced the evolution of behaviors characteristic of early Homo sapiens. We use temporally well-constrained sedimentological and paleoenvironmental data to investigate environmental dynamics before and after the appearance of the early MSA in the Olorgesailie Basin, Kenya. In contrast to the Acheulean archeological record in the same basin, MSA sites are associated with a dramatically different faunal community, more pronounced erosion-deposition cycles, tectonic activity, and enhanced wet-dry variability. As early as 615 ka, aspects of Acheulean technology in this region imply that greater stone material selectivity and wider resource procurement coincided with an increased pace of land-lake fluctuation, potentially anticipating the adaptability of MSA hominins.</p>
},
	url = {http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/03/14/science.aao2200.abstract},
	author = {Potts, Richard and Behrensmeyer, Anna K. and Faith, J. Tyler and Tryon, Christian A. and Brooks, Alison S. and Yellen, John E. and Deino, Alan L. and Kinyanjui, Rahab and Clark, Jennifer B. and Haradon, Catherine and Levin, Naomi E. and Meijer, Hanneke J. M. and Veatch, Elizabeth G. and Owen, R. Bernhart and Renaut, Robin W.}
}
