ORIGINAL PAPER The carnivore guild circa 1.98 million years: biodiversity and implications for the palaeoenvironment at Malapa, South Africa Brian F. Kuhn 1 & Adam Hartstone-Rose 2 & Rodrigo S. Lacruz 3 & Andy I. R. Herries 4,1 & Lars Werdelin 5 & Marion K. Bamford 6 & Lee R. Berger 6 Received: 4 August 2015 /Revised: 23 March 2016 /Accepted: 5 July 2016 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract The Malapa fossil assemblage was likely accumu- lated as a result of a death trap. Given this, the carnivoran species found there must have lived in proximity, close prox- imity for the smaller species, to the site, offering the possibility of expanding our interpretation of the habitats available to Australopithecus sediba via pinpoint palaeoenvironmental in- terpretation. To date, the identified carnivorans are the most abundant identified non-hominin taxa at Malapa, and given their territorial behaviour, are important when interpreting the palaeoecology of the site. The extinct false saber-tooth felid (Dinofelis barlowi) suggests that the presence of closed envi- ronments and the ancestral form of modern water mongoose (Atilax mesotes) indicates the presence of water in the vicinity. Canids generally support the presence of open habitats. The first appearance in the fossil record of Vulpes skinneri and Felis nigripes indicates the presence of drier open grassland/ scrub. The Malapa carnivorans support widespread shifts in carnivore turnover circa 2.0 Ma in Africa and suggest, togeth- er with other lines of evidence, the occurrence of a regional transitioning environment during the time of Au. sediba. Keywords Paleoecology . Carnivore . Malapa . Australopithecus sediba Introduction The Malapa fossil locality, north of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans and due east of Gladysvale (Fig. 1), has yielded a rich assem- blage of Australopithecus sediba and non-hominin vertebrate fauna (Berger et al. 2010; Dirks et al. 2010; Kuhn et al. 2011). The mosaic nature of Au. sediba anatomy, deemed a Homo-like australopith, together with its geological age of ∼1.98 Ma, sug- gests that this taxon is a potential candidate to occupy a key evolutionary place in the Australopithecus-Homo transition (Kivell et al. 2011; Kibii et al. 2011; Zipfel et al. 2011; Pickering et al. 2011a; Berger 2013; Churchill et al. 2013; Schmid et al. 2013; DeSilva et al. 2013). The associated verte- brate fauna is also remarkable, representing a taxonomically di- verse assemblage that includes new species as well as last-and- first appearances of taxa in the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record. To date, the identified Carnivora dominate the Malapa assemblage. The identified bovids, equids, and non-hominin primates are less abundant and hence the ecological interpretations of Malapa benefit from assessments of the adaptations and habitats associ- ated with the carnivoran clade. Here, we review the ecology at Malapa using the carnivorans as an environmental proxy and further describe the surrounding palaeoenvironments using data derived from isotopic analysis and identification of fossilized plant remains in support of the carnivoran assemblage. * Brian F. Kuhn kuhnbf@gmail.com 1 Centre for Anthropological Research (CfAR), University of Johannesburg, House 10, Humanities Research Village, Bunting Road Campus, Auckland Park 2092, South Africa 2 USC School of Medicine, CBA bldg 1, rm. C-36, 6439 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC 29209, USA 3 Department of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology, New York University College of Dentistry, New York, NY 10010, USA 4 Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, Environment and Community Planning, La Trobe University, Melbourne Campus, Bundoora 3086, VIC, Australia 5 Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-10405 Stockholm, Sweden 6 Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa Palaeobio Palaeoenv DOI 10.1007/s12549-016-0245-0