Carnivore Guilds And The Impact Of Hominin Dispersals

The ecological impact that our species has today on other carnivorous species can be traced back to long before the origins of Homo sapiens. Carnivorans have had a great impact on hominin behavior, ecology, and evolution due to the complexity of our ecological interrelationships. This chapter examines the possible ecological impacts that hominins had on carnivorans and vice versa through time, with a focus on eastern Africa and southern Europe due to the large number of studies of those regions. Changes in hominin behavior and ecology and successive waves of hominin dispersals out of Africa occurred, but not all had the same impact on carnivorans. At various times in both Africa and Eurasia, the extinction of larger carnivorans may have provided niche space that dispersing hominins could expand into. At other times, hominins may have played a role in local extinctions. Climate change or instability also played an important role in the evolution, extinction, and dispersal of hominin and carnivoran species. In both Africa and Eurasia, carnivoran generalists fared better than specialists. Carnivoran populations may have survived in Africa because they evolved alongside Homo sapiens while their conspecifics and congeners in Eurasia went extinct after the arrival of Homo sapiens in those areas.