On the environment of Aramis a comment on White in Domínguez-Rodrigo

Department of Geology, University of Utah, 115 South 1460 East, Room 383 Sutton Building, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, U.S.A. (Cerling and Brown) ([e-mail])/ Department of Geology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, U.S.A. (Wynn). This paper was submitted 9 I 14 and accepted 9 I 14. Tim D. White incorrectly represents our work and the use of stable isotopes to understand Aramis paleoenvironments (Domı'nguez-Rodrigo 2014, comment by Tim D. White). He states that Cerling and colleagues (2010, 2011) "parsed Ardipithecus habitat as grassland rather than a mosaic spanning grassy woodlands to wooded grassland" (Domı´nguez-Rodrigo 2014, comment by White, 75). However, Cerling et al. (2010) wrote, "we find the environmental context of Ardipithecus ramidus at Aramis to be represented by what is commonly referred to as tree- or bush-savanna, with 25% or less woody canopy cover. The habitats involved probably ranged from riparian forest to grassland," and further, "if woodland or closed forest habitat was indeed present, . . . [it] might be found in a riparian corridor bordered by mixed and more open environments, including woody grasslands with ! 25% canopy cover." And yet further, "Evidence from Aramis and elsewhere clearly shows that open savanna grassland was not the environmental context of Ardipithecus." None of these statements parses the Ardipithecus habitat "as grassland."