Non-analog environments supported early Homo sapiens in southern Africa 200 000 years ago

Abstract

In our species’ evolutionary history, the type of environments in which we evolved can provide crucial details about early human adaptive capacities. Such environments might not exist under current climatic and ecological conditions. Reconstructing palaeohydrology and vegetation using multiple proxies at human fossil sites in South Africa provides insights into local conditions at a high level of detail. This paper presents a plant n -alkane stable isotope record for Florisbad and Lombard’s Drift, which is anchored by new luminescence ages that revise the age for the Florisbad human cranium. We observe contrasting, non-analog plant environments during the Middle and Late Pleistocene by combining multiple lines of evidence to better understand the different environments that early Homo sapiens experienced. It also provides the foundation to evaluate their cultural adaptation strategies through time.