ABSTRACT
In this paper we evaluate the evidence of the ecological niche and habitat preferences of Australopithecus boisei in eastern Africa in the light of new sites, new specimens and a new technique for classifying modem and fossil habitats based on bovid faunas. Four sites or general fossiliferous areas in eastern Africa yielded adequate faunal remains to be used here: Olduvai, Koobi Fora, West Turkana, and Omo. Taxonomic attributions of hominids are based in nearly all cases on cranial remains and are conservative, differing little from those given by White (this volume, chapter 27), Day (1986) and others. Australopithecus boisei is taken here to include remains sometimes attributed to A. aethiopicus (see Kimbel et al., this volume, chapter 16). The habitat indications derived from those localities bearing “ robust” australopithecine cranial remains are compared and contrasted with those from the same sites that lack these hominids. In addition, data from these eastern African sites are compared with those from the A. robust us and other hominid-bearing sites from South Africa. Finally, the distribution of three early hominid species (A. boisei, A. robustus and Homo) across the entire sample of East and South African sites is considered, to determine whether any of these species exhibits a distinct habitat preference.
