Defining the ‘generalist specialist’ niche for Pleistocene Homo sapiens

Roberts, Patrick; Stewart, Brian

doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0394-4

Cited by 167 publications

(124 citation statements)

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“…tudies of Pleistocene hominin dispersals beyond Africa are important for understanding the course of global human evolution and prehistory. In particular, analysis of the environmental context under which members of the genus Homo moved into Europe and Asia in the early and middle Pleistocene (2.6 Ma to 126 ka) relative to that of Homo sapiens populations expanding around the globe in the late Pleistocene (126-12 ka) can provide an insight into the potential ecologically unique nature of our species [1][2][3] . It has recently been highlighted that our species occupied and used a diversity of extreme environments, including deserts, tropical rainforests, palaearctic environments, and high-altitude settings, around the world during the late Pleistocene 3 .…”

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“…In particular, analysis of the environmental context under which members of the genus Homo moved into Europe and Asia in the early and middle Pleistocene (2.6 Ma to 126 ka) relative to that of Homo sapiens populations expanding around the globe in the late Pleistocene (126-12 ka) can provide an insight into the potential ecologically unique nature of our species [1][2][3] . It has recently been highlighted that our species occupied and used a diversity of extreme environments, including deserts, tropical rainforests, palaearctic environments, and high-altitude settings, around the world during the late Pleistocene 3 . By contrast, the dispersals of other earlier and contemporaneous Homo species into Europe and Asia appear to be best associated with the generalized use of different forest and grassland mosaics proximate to riverine and lacustrine settings 2,4 .…”

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Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’

et al. 2018

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Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n = 21) from the middle Pleistocene locality of Ti's al Ghadah in Saudi Arabia associated with newly discovered stone tools and probable cutmarks. The results demonstrate productive grasslands in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula ca. 300-500 ka, as well as aridity levels similar to those found in open savannah settings in eastern Africa today. The association between this palaeoenvironmental information and the earliest traces for hominin activity in this part of the world lead us to argue that middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula required no major novel adaptation.

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Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’

et al. 2018

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“…In addition to increasing home range, primates may also expand dietary breadth to cope with the wide distribution of resources that characterize drier, mosaic habitats. In a comparative study of hominin dietary niches, Nelson and Hamilton () showed that early hominins (e.g., Ardipithecus ) most closely resemble modern chimpanzee niche‐space in the types and amounts of resources they consume, whereas later hominin species may have exploited aquatic sources (see also Braun et al, ) to meet subsistence requirements, expanding their dietary niche and gradually becoming more generalist over time (Roberts & Stewart, ). Subsequent analyses that incorporate red‐tailed monkey food source distribution and diversity should reveal whether dietary composition, in addition to home range sizes, also differs between forest and savana mosaic populations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Food abundance and weather influence habitat‐specific ranging patterns in forest‐ and savanna mosaic‐dwelling red‐tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius)

McLester

Brown

Stewart

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Primates that live in predominantly forested habitats and open, savanna mosaics should exhibit behavioral responses to differing food distributions and weather. We compared ecological constraints on red-tailed monkey ranging behavior in forest and savanna mosaic environments. Intraspecific variation in adaptations to these conditions may reflect similar pressures faced by hominins during the Plio-Pleistocene.Methods: We followed six groups in moist evergreen forest at Ngogo (Uganda) and one group in a savanna-woodland mosaic at the Issa Valley (Tanzania). We used spatial analyses to compare home range sizes and daily travel distances (DTD) between sites. We used measures of vegetation density and phenology to interpolate spatially explicit indices of food (fruit, flower, and leaves) abundance. We modeled DTD and range use against food abundance. We modeled DTD and at Issa hourly travel distances (HTD), against temperature and rainfall.Results: Compared to Issa, monkeys at Ngogo exhibited significantly smaller home ranges and less variation in DTD. DTD related negatively to fruit abundance, which had a stronger effect at Issa. DTD and HTD related negatively to temperature but not rainfall. This effect did not differ significantly between sites. Home range use did not relate to food abundance at either site. Conclusions: Our results indicate food availability and thermoregulatory constraints influence red-tailed monkey ranging patterns. Intraspecific variation in home range sizes and DTD likely reflects different food distributions in closed and open habitats. We compare our results with hypotheses of evolved hominin behavior associated with the Plio-Pleistocene shift from similar closed to open environments. K E Y W O R D S guenon, hominin adaptation, movement ecology, resource distribution, savanna-woodland mosaic

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“…36,40 Recent archaeological studies of our deep history between 40,000-10,000 years show that as Homo sapiens was expanding around the globe, and well before the origins of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle, these populations were able to inhabit both high-altitude and cold places such as the Peruvian Andes, the glacial Bale mountains of Ethiopia and Arctic Siberia [41][42][43] but also hot rainforest and desert environments. 44,45 Some concomitant physiological adaptations to extreme temperatures throughout the last 100,000 years are also indicated by DNA, aDNA and anatomical research. [46][47][48][49] Migrating into Europe by ~40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens faced the Neanderthals, which show clear anatomical adaptations to cold stress and more temperate climates in their postcranial and cranial features.…”

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confidence: 99%

Temperature-related disasters in Europe – a cross-sectional analysis of the emergency events database from a pediatric perspective

Brennenstuhl

Will

Ries

et al. 2019

Preprint

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This study investigates patterns of extreme temperature-related events in Europe and its significance for the public health, with a focus on the vulnerable pediatric population. A generalized additive model of average surface temperature development for the European countries is described and discussed with an in-depth analysis of the influence of temperature on evolutional and behavioral aspects. Methods: Extreme temperature related events are recorded in the publicly available epidemiological database of Emergency Events (EM-DAT). A comparative and descriptive statistical analysis of this data was conducted with a focus on (prospective) records from 1988 onwards. Average surface temperature data was provided by the World Bank's Climate Change Knowledge Portal. The criteria for strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) were respected. Results: Within EM-DAT, extreme temperature-related disasters in Europe were categorized as either heat waves, drought, forest or land fires, or cold waves and severe winter conditions, accordingly. The most frequent type of event recorded were cold waves (36.2%). However, cold waves and severe winter conditions only accounted for about 6,460 casualties (4.4%), while heat waves were responsible for a total of 137,533 casualties (95.1%). During the prospective observational period of the EM-DAT database, heat waves in 2003, 2006, 2010, and 2015, claimed a total of 119,760 casualties. These most severe heatwaves were geographically distributed over Russia (2010), as well as France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, each in 2003. Accordingly, analysis of temperature data revealed an increasing average surface temperature for all assessed European countries, correlating with in an increasing frequency of extreme temperature-related events. Conclusion: This study shows that according to EM-DAT data extreme temperatures are an increasingly important public health threat to the European population as the average European surface temperatures are rising. Although cold waves are more frequently reported in EM-DAT, heat waves are the major cause for temperature-related casualties. Therefore, we conclude that evolutional and cultural resilience against cold and drought is significantly higher than it is against heat. Our results project that the frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves will further increase due to current climatic changes and become a more prevalent problem for future generations. Hence, we propose an emergency plan to inform the public and authorities about measurements to be taken in such extreme heat conditions to overcome the prevailing lack of information available to the public.

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Defining the ‘generalist specialist’ niche for Pleistocene Homo sapiens

Cited by 167 publications

References 125 publications

Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’

Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’

Food abundance and weather influence habitat‐specific ranging patterns in forest‐ and savanna mosaic‐dwelling red‐tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius)

Temperature-related disasters in Europe – a cross-sectional analysis of the emergency events database from a pediatric perspective

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