Brief communication: An early case of hydrocephalus: The Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh 12 child (Israel)

Tillier, Anne-Marie; Arensburg, Baruch; Duday, Henri; Vandermeersch, Bernard

doi:10.1002/1096-8644(200102)114:2<166::aid-ajpa1017>3.0.co;2-3

Cited by 26 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…For Neandertals this includes Aubesier 11, dated to at least 0.17 mya, which shows significant tooth loss and alveolar lesions (Lebel and Trinkaus 2002;Lebel et al 2001) and Shanidar 1 dated at 73-40 kya who lost much of his right arm, may have been blind on one side, and suffered from hyperostotic disease (Crubezy and Trinkaus 1992;Hublin 2009). H. sapiens individuals that survived severe conditions include: a child, Qafzeh 12 dated to approximate 0.095 mya, who showed signs of hydrocephaly and survived until about 3 years old (Tillier et al 2001), an older child Qafzeh 11, also dated to 0.95 mya, that had a healed cranial fracture (Coqueugniot et al 2014), and an adult female, Dolní Vĕstonice 3, dated to approximately 0.027 mya, who sustained a severe injury to her face that might have interfered with eating (Trinkaus et al 2006;Trinkaus and Jelinek 1997).…”

Section: Care-giving In the Fossil Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection to outsmart the germs: The evolution of disease recognition and social cognition

Kessler

Bonnell

Byrne

et al. 2017

Journal of Human Evolution

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The emergence of providing care to diseased conspecifics must have been a turning point during the evolution of hominin sociality. On a population level, care may have minimized the costs of socially transmitted diseases at a time of increasing social complexity, although individual care-givers probably incurred increased transmission risks. We propose that care-giving likely originated within kin networks, where the costs may have been balanced by fitness increases obtained through caring for ill kin. We test a novel hypothesis of hominin cognitive evolution in which disease may have selected for the cognitive ability to recognize when a conspecific is infected. Because diseases may produce symptoms that are likely detectable via the perceptual-cognitive pathways integral to social cognition, we suggest that disease recognition and social cognition may have evolved together. Using agent-based modeling, we test 1) under what conditions disease can select for increasing disease recognition and care-giving among kin, 2) whether providing care produces greater selection for cognition than an avoidance strategy, and 3) whether care-giving alters the progression of the disease through the population. The greatest selection was produced by diseases with lower risks to the care-giver and prevalences low enough not to disrupt the kin networks. When care-giving and avoidance strategies were compared, only care-giving reduced the severity of the disease outbreaks and subsequent population crashes. The greatest selection for increased cognitive abilities occurred early in the model runs when the outbreaks and population crashes were most severe. Therefore, over the course of human evolution, repeated introductions of novel diseases into naïve populations could have produced sustained selection for increased disease recognition and care-giving behavior, leading to the evolution of increased cognition, social complexity, and, eventually, medical care in humans. Finally, we lay out predictions derived from our disease recognition hypothesis that we encourage paleoanthropologists, bioarchaeologists, primatologists, and paleogeneticists to test.

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Section: Care-giving In the Fossil Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection to outsmart the germs: The evolution of disease recognition and social cognition

Kessler

Bonnell

Byrne

et al. 2017

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…The paleopathological literature also includes a possible case of hydrocephalia, affecting the child from Rochereil (Vallois, 1971, but see Tillier et al, 2001). Hydrocephalia is a disease of congenital or acquired origin whose earliest known example is found in the Qafzeh 12 child (Tillier et al, 2001). The Rochereil remains, which are attributed to the Magdalenian, show signs of postmortem trephination carried out from the internal part of the frontal bone in view of acquiring a rondelle.…”

Section: Paleopathologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hunters of the Ice Age: The biology of Upper Paleolithic people

Holt

Formicola

2008

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

115

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The Upper Paleolithic represents both the phase during which anatomically modern humans appeared and the climax of hunter-gatherer cultures. Demographic expansion into new areas that took place during this period and the diffusion of burial practices resulted in an unprecedented number of well-preserved human remains. This skeletal record, dovetailed with archeological, environmental, and chronological contexts, allows testing of hypotheses regarding biological processes at the population level. In this article, we review key studies about the biology of Upper Paleolithic populations based primarily on European samples, but integrating information from other areas of the Old World whenever possible. Data about cranial morphology, skeletal robusticity, stature, body proportions, health status, diet, physical activity, and genetics are evaluated in Late Pleistocene climatic and cultural contexts. Various lines of evidence delineate the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as a critical phase in the biological and cultural evolution of Upper Paleolithic populations. The LGM, a long phase of climatic deterioration culminating around 20,000 BP, had a profound impact on the environment, lifestyle, and behavior of human groups. Some of these effects are recorded in aspects of skeletal biology of these populations. Groups living before and after the LGM, Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) and Late Upper Paleolithic (LUP), respectively, differ significantly in craniofacial dimensions, stature, robusticity, and body proportions. While paleopathological and stable isotope data suggest good health status throughout the Upper Paleolithic, some stress indicators point to a slight decline in quality of life in LUP populations. The intriguing and unexpected incidence of individuals affected by congenital disorders probably indicates selective burial practices for these abnormal individuals. While some of the changes observed can be explained through models of biocultural or environmental adaptation (e.g., decreased lower limb robusticity following decreased mobility; changes in body proportions along with climatic change), others are more difficult to explain. For instance, craniodental and upper limb robusticity show complex evolutionary patterns that do not always correspond to expectations. In addition, the marked decline in stature and the mosaic nature of change in body proportions still await clarifications. These issues, as well as systematic analysis of specific pathologies and possible relationships between genetic lineages, population movements and cultural complexes, should be among the goals of future research. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 51: 70-99, 2008. V

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“…The Qafzeh 12 Neandertal child from Israel has an enlarged skull and growth retardation suggestive of hydrocephalus (Tillier et al, 2001). The Qafzeh 12 Neandertal child from Israel has an enlarged skull and growth retardation suggestive of hydrocephalus (Tillier et al, 2001).…”

Section: Fossil Humans and Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Paleopathology

Cook

2015

Basics in Human Evolution

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Brief communication: An early case of hydrocephalus: The Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh 12 child (Israel)

Cited by 26 publications

References 8 publications

Selection to outsmart the germs: The evolution of disease recognition and social cognition

Selection to outsmart the germs: The evolution of disease recognition and social cognition

Hunters of the Ice Age: The biology of Upper Paleolithic people

Paleopathology

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