Matt Sponheimer*†, Kaye E. Reed‡§ & Julia A. Lee-Thorp† *Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414, U.S.A. E-mail: spon@rci.rutgers.edu †Archaeometry Research Unit, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. E-mail: jlt@beattie.uct.ac.za ‡Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-4101, U.S.A. §BPI for Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. E-mail: kreed.iho@asu.edu Received 2 June 1998 Revision received 1 February 1999 and accepted 9 February 1999 Keywords: carbon isotopes, ecomorphology, bovids, diet, paleoenvironments, Makapansgat. Combining isotopic and ecomorphological data to refine bovid paleodietary reconstruction: a case study from the Makapansgat Limeworks hominin locality The relationship between environmental change and hominin evolution remains obscure. For the most part, this stems from the difficulty of reconstructing ancient hominin habitats. Bovids are among the most frequently utilized paleoenvironmental indicators, but little is known about the habitat preferences of extinct taxa. It is generally assumed that fossil bovids both ate the same things and occupied the same habitats as their closest extant relatives. We test the first part of this assumption by reconstructing the diets of seven bovids from Makapansgat Limeworks, South Africa. Since diet and habitat are linked, these reconstructions have implications for our understanding of fossil bovid habitat tolerances. Ecomorphological and stable carbon isotope analyses are employed, allowing us to take advantage of the strengths and overcome the weaknesses of both. In most cases, fossil bovids did have similar diets to their extant relatives, and probably occupied similar habitats. Gazella vanhoepeni and Aepyceros sp., however, were almost exclusive browsers, and not mixed feeders like their living counterparts.  1999 Academic Press Journal of Human Evolution (1999) 36, 705–718 Article No. jhev.1999.0300 Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Introduction Environmental change has been considered an important force behind hominin evol- ution since Darwin’s publication of The Descent of Man in 1871 (e.g., Dart, 1925; Robinson, 1963; Coppens, 1975; Howell, 1978; Brain, 1981; Vrba, 1985; Tobias, 1991; Stanley, 1992; Potts, 1996). While researchers disagree as to how environ- mental shifts affected the development of the human lineage, most agree that they did exert some influence, even if in poorly understood ways. To some degree, this ambiguity results from the difficulty of reconstructing early hominin habitats, despite the panoply of faunal, geological and geochemical techniques now available, making it difficult to test hypotheses about the relationship between evolutionary and environmental change. If this situation is to improve, we must find ways to refine our paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Bovids are particularly useful paleo- environmental indicators (e.g., Gentry, 1970; Kappelman, 1984; Vrba, 1985; Shipman & Harris, 1988; Harris, 1991; Plummer & Bishop, 1994; Spencer, 1997) 0047–2484/99/060705+14$30.00/0  1999 Academic Press