Evolution of Holocene African Mammals

This project aims to determine the adaptation capacity of mammals, facing human disturbance and climatic evolution. The investigation is relevant to inter- or intraspecific evolution of morphology (anatomy), changes in size, in community structure, disparity, diversity of mammals that could be due to anthropogenic and/or climatic impact during the last 18 000 years (18 ky) in Africa. The choice of African mammals and the period covering Holocene ( up to the Last Glacial Maximum: 18 ky, LGM) to the present is motivated by the richness of available data: chronological context, well known climatic changes and human societies evolution, and rich ungulate fauna, which are several modern endangered species. The anthropogenic impact can be studied in relation to the cultural, technical and social evolution of many African human societies : the development of earlier civilisations, the emergence of great African empires, associated with food production, settlement process, urbanisation, and a demographical increase. Consideration of the time dimension in such ecological studies can provide invaluable insight into the understanding of the recent mammalian evolution. This analyse yields an excellent case study of the response of biodiversity to an ecological disturbance. It will be possible to determine the species reaction (profit, adaptation, migration, decline) in a context of rapid climatic desiccation. Such studies were performed only at the local or regional scale in Africa, and a global synthesis is still lacking. Through the record of past fauna, the example of disturbance in size and anatomy and of difference in faunal assemblages have already been observed for some ungulates since the LGM, but this analysis lacks objectivity because of the small size of studied samples, that would be increase with a new compilation of zooarchaeological works in a database Databases will record both past and present occurrences and sizes of ungulates through the analysis of bibliographical and osteological data, mainly from the Mammals Collection of the NHM Wien, and through accessible and new databases. To evaluate this data, analytical method will use modern tools such as databases and GIS, but also statistical investigation and models. This project will then provide a document that will be constructive for many palaeozoological and archaeological studies, and also for a conservative perspective, including for the host collections. Distribution maps of species will yield an invaluable archive to better understand the faunal resources, the ecological requirements of fauna, and their evolution through space and time.