The paleoclimatic record and plio-pleistocene paleoenvironments

New evidence from relatively recent methodological advances into hominin autecology presents interesting and often contradictory data. This article presents a broad overview of various paleoecological methods and summarizes what is known about the paleoecology of late Miocene hominins, through the hominin genera that begin to appear in the early Pleistocene, ~2.0 Ma. The use of taxon-free methods is emphasized in elucidating hominin habitats, and a more careful consideration of taphonomic and depositional biases that often result in “mosaic” reconstructions is advocated. Methods that focus on understanding the behavioral ecology of early hominin and other mammalian taxa are reviewed.