000063306 001__ 63306 000063306 005__ 20171129112117.0 000063306 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1371/journal.pone.0076514 000063306 0248_ $$2sideral$$a84186 000063306 037__ $$aART-2013-84186 000063306 041__ $$aeng 000063306 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0001-6527-3972$$aLarrasoaña, J.C.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000063306 245__ $$aDynamics of Green Sahara Periods and Their Role in Hominin Evolution 000063306 260__ $$c2013 000063306 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000063306 5203_ $$aAstronomically forced insolation changes have driven monsoon dynamics and recurrent humid episodes in North Africa, resulting in green Sahara Periods (GSPs) with savannah expansion throughout most of the desert. Despite their potential for expanding the area of prime hominin habitats and favouring out-of-Africa dispersals, GSPs have not been incorporated into the narrative of hominin evolution due to poor knowledge of their timing, dynamics and landscape composition at evolutionary timescales. We present a compilation of continental and marine paleoenvironmental records from within and around North Africa, which enables identification of over 230 GSPs within the last 8 million years. By combining the main climatological determinants of woody cover in tropical Africa with paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data for representative (Holocene and Eemian) GSPs, we estimate precipitation regimes and habitat distributions during GSPs. Their chronology is consistent with the ages of Saharan archeological and fossil hominin sites. Each GSP took 2-3 kyr to develop, peaked over 4-8 kyr, biogeographically connected the African tropics to African and Eurasian mid latitudes, and ended within 2-3 kyr, which resulted in rapid habitat fragmentation. We argue that the well-dated succession of GSPs presented here may have played an important role in migration and evolution of hominins. 000063306 536__ $$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E72$$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MEC/PR2011-0480 000063306 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 000063306 590__ $$a3.534$$b2013 000063306 591__ $$aMULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES$$b8 / 56 = 0.143$$c2013$$dQ1$$eT1 000063306 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000063306 700__ $$aRoberts, A.P. 000063306 700__ $$aRohling, E.J. 000063306 7102_ $$12000$$2428$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDepartamento de Ciencias de la Tierra$$cGeodinámica Interna 000063306 773__ $$g8, 10 (2013), e76514 [12 pp]$$pPLoS One$$tPLoS One$$x1932-6203 000063306 8564_ $$s533861$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/63306/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000063306 8564_ $$s125273$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/63306/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000063306 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:63306$$particulos$$pdriver 000063306 951__ $$a2017-11-29-10:01:05 000063306 980__ $$aARTICLE