Prey size and putatively fat-rich prey decline in the southern African Middle and Later Stone Age in the context of the Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction Where Late Quaternary extinctions were severe, archaeological, climatic, and extinction signals are compressed into short intervals, which makes their causes difficult to infer. Southern Africa offers a longer view because most of its large mammals survived. We tested whether, over a quarter of a million years, the size composition of hunted prey shifted toward smaller species and whether the estimated contribution of fat-rich prey changed. Methods We reconstructed large-mammal records from 28 southern African sites and analyzed 71 human-accumulated assemblages from South Africa and Lesotho. We used the number of identified specimens (NISP) and a parallel dataset of minimum numbers of individuals (MNI). For each assemblage, we estimated the share of prey biomass contributed by each body-size class, and we related mean prey mass to assemblage age on a logarithmic scale. We estimated the biomass share of putatively fat-rich taxa using a size-based proxy, not a direct measure of dietary fat. We also assessed whether coastal inundation could account for the observed trends. Results Large prey declined substantially through time. On MNI, animals above 296 kg supplied 84–89% of prey biomass in the Middle and late Middle Stone Age but 53% in the Later Stone Age. The megaherbivore (>1,000 kg) share fell from approximately half to 8%. For every tenfold decrease in age, mean prey mass fell by 41% on NISP and 55% on MNI. The biomass share of putatively fat-rich taxa declined less, stayed above half throughout, and fell mainly between the Middle and the Later Stone Age. Coastal inundation explains a late pulse of large prey at the Cape coast, but not the broader decline across regions and earlier periods. Discussion Interpretation is limited because the Middle Stone Age sample is mostly coastal and the Later Stone Age sample mostly inland. The robust result is a long-term decline in the proportion of large prey among kills. Fat-directed hunting under the protein ceiling and human depletion of large prey remain compatible hypotheses. Availability-referenced null models, mortality profiles, and genomic population histories can test them.
Source: Frontiers in Mammal Science
Authors: Miki Ben-Dor, Ran Barkai
Institution: Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,353
OpenAlex ID: W7225795342