@article {329821,
	title = {Adaptive foraging behaviours in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption},
	journal = {Nature},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024/03/20},
	abstract = {<p>Although modern humans left Africa multiple times over 100,000 years ago, those broadly ancestral to non-Africans dispersed less than 100,000 years ago1. Most models hold that these events occurred through green corridors created during humid periods because arid intervals constrained population movements2. Here we report an archaeological site\&mdash;Shinfa-Metema 1, in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia, with Youngest Toba Tuff cryptotephra dated to around 74,000 years ago\&mdash;that provides early and rare evidence of intensive riverine-based foraging aided by the likely adoption of the bow and arrow. The diet included a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Stable oxygen isotopes from fossil mammal teeth and ostrich eggshell show that the site was occupied during a period of high seasonal aridity. The unusual abundance of fish suggests that capture occurred in the ever smaller and shallower waterholes of a seasonal river during a long dry season, revealing flexible adaptations to challenging climatic conditions during the Middle Stone Age. Adaptive foraging along dry-season waterholes would have transformed seasonal rivers into \&lsquo;blue highway\&rsquo; corridors, potentially facilitating an out-of-Africa dispersal and suggesting that the event was not restricted to times of humid climates. The behavioural flexibility required to survive seasonally arid conditions in general, and the apparent short-term effects of the Toba supereruption in particular were probably key to the most recent dispersal and subsequent worldwide expansion of modern humans.</p>
},
	isbn = {1476-4687},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07208-3},
	url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07208-3},
	author = {Kappelman, John and Todd, Lawrence C. and Davis, Christopher A. and Cerling, Thure E. and Feseha, Mulugeta and Getahun, Abebe and Johnsen, Racheal and Kay, Marvin and Kocurek, Gary A. and Nachman, Brett A. and Negash, Agazi and Negash, Tewabe and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Kaedan and Pante, Michael and Ren, Minghua and Smith, Eugene I. and Tabor, Neil J. and Tewabe, Dereje and Wang, Hong and Yang, Deming and Yirga, Solomon and Crowell, Jordan W. and Fanuka, Matthew F. and Habtie, Teshager and Hirniak, Jayde N. and Klehm, Carla and Loewen, Natalia D. and Melaku, Sahleselasie and Melton, Sierra M. and Myers, Timothy S. and Millonig, Sarah and Plummer, Megan C. and Riordan, Keenan J. and Rosenau, Nicholas A. and Skinner, Anne and Thompson, Abraham K. and Trombetta, Lindsey M. and Witzel, Adrienne and Assefa, Ephrem and Bodansky, Maria and Desta, Ayenachew A. and Campisano, Christopher J. and Dalmas, Daniel and Elliott, Connor and Endalamaw, Metasebia and Ford, Nicholas J. and Foster, Frederick and Getachew, Tomas and Haney, Yibai Li and Ingram, Brittney H. and Jackson, Jonayah and Marean, Curtis W. and Mattox, Sissi and de la Cruz Medina, Karla and Mulubrhan, Gebretsadkan and Porter, Keri and Roberts, Alexis and Santillan, Perla and Sollenberger, Alaric and Sponholtz, Julia and Valdes, Jessica and Wyman, Lani and Yadeta, Meklit and Yanny, Sierra}
}
