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The extinction of the  Paranthropus boisei  estimated to just before 1 Ma occurred when C 4  grasslands dominated landscapes of the Eastern African Rift System (EARS).  P. boisei  has been characterized as an herbivorous C 4  specialist, and paradoxically, its demise coincided with habitats favorable to its dietary ecology. Here we report new pedogenic carbonate stable carbon (δ 13 C PC ) and oxygen (δ 18 O PC ) values (nodules = 53, analyses = 95) from an under-sampled interval (1.4–0.7 Ma) in the Turkana Basin (Kenya), one of the most fossiliferous locales of  P. boisei . We combined our new results with published δ 13 C PC  values from the EARS dated to 3–0 Ma, conducted time-series analysis of woody cover (ƒ WC ), and compared the EARS ƒ WC  trends to regional and global paleo-environmental and -climatic datasets. Our results demonstrate that the long-term rise of C 4  grasslands was punctuated by a transient but significant increase in C 3  vegetation and warmer temperatures, coincident with the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (1.3–0.7 Ma) and implicating a short-term rise in  p CO 2 . The contraction of C 4  grasslands escalated dietary competition amongst the abundant C 4 -feeders, likely influencing  P. boisei ’s demise.

Contracting eastern African C4 grasslands during the extinction of Paranthropus boisei