Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya

Braun, David R.; Harris, J. W.; Levin, Naomi E.; McCoy, Jack T.; Herries, Andy I.R.; Bamford, Marion K.; Bishop, Laura C.; Richmond, Brian G.; Kibunjia, Mzalendo

doi:10.1073/pnas.1002181107

Cited by 247 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…At Lake Turkana in Kenya, Early Pleistocene hominins at about 1,950,000 ybp (pre-dating Homo erectus) butchered and consumed many turtles, in addition to small and large mammals (notably hippopotamus), crocodiles, and fish (notably air-breathing catfish) (Braun et al 2010). Stone tool marks recorded from the insides of turtle carapacial fragments found there have indicated that they were actively butchered (Braun et al 2010;Archer et al 2014).…”

Section: Hominin Chelonophagymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

Rhodin¹,

Thomson²,

Georgalis³

et al. 2015

Chelonian Research Monographs

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ABsTrAcT. -We provide a first checklist and review of all recognized taxa of the world's extinct Pleistocene and Holocene (Quaternary) turtles and tortoises that existed during the early rise and global expansion of humanity, and most likely went extinct through a combination of earlier hominin (e.g., Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensis) and later human (H. sapiens) exploitation, as well as being affected by concurrent global or regional climatic and habitat changes. This checklist complements the broader listing of all modern and extant turtles and tortoises by the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (2014). We provide a comprehensive listing of taxonomy, names, synonymies, and stratigraphic distribution of all chelonian taxa that have gone extinct from approximately the boundary between the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, ca. 2.6 million years ago, up through 1500 AD, at the beginning of modern times. We also provide details on modern turtle and tortoise taxa that have gone extinct since 1500 AD. This checklist currently includes 100 fossil turtle and tortoise taxa, including 84 named and apparently distinct species, and 16 additional taxa that appear to represent additional valid species, but are only identified to genus or family. Modern extinct turtles and tortoises include 8 species, 3 subspecies, and 1 unnamed taxon, for 12 taxa. Of the extinct fossil taxa, terrestrial tortoises of the family Testudinidae (including many large-bodied island forms) are the most numerous, with 60 taxa. When the numbers for fossil tortoises are combined with the 61 modern (living and extinct) species of tortoises, of the 121 tortoise species that have existed at some point since the beginning of the Pleistocene, 69 (57.0%) have gone extinct. This likely reflects the high vulnerability of these large and slow terrestrial (often insular) species primarily to human exploitation. The other large-bodied terrestrial turtles, the 000e.2 Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises • Chelonian Research Monographs, No. 5As an addition to the annual checklist of extant modern turtle taxa (Turtle Taxonomy Working Group [TTWG] 2014), we here present an annotated checklist of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene turtle and tortoise species that existed in relatively recent times, prior to 1500 AD, during the history of the rise and global spread of humanity and concurrent global climatic and habitat changes. These species, recorded from archaeological and paleontological sites from the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs (Quaternary period), approximately the last 2.6 million years, are currently considered to be valid, and not synonymous with modern (post-1500 AD) taxa.These fossil species, including some unnamed taxa of indeterminate or undescribed generic or specific allocation, represent the majority of the chelonian diversity that has gone extinct relatively recently. Many of these taxa were likely extirpated by anthropogenic exploitation over the relatively long prehistory of earlier hominin (e.g., Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensi...

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Section: Hominin Chelonophagymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stone tool marks recorded from the insides of turtle carapacial fragments found there have indicated that they were actively butchered (Braun et al 2010;Archer et al 2014).…”

Section: Hominin Chelonophagymentioning

confidence: 99%

Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

Rhodin¹,

Thomson²,

Georgalis³

et al. 2015

Chelonian Research Monographs

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“…At the same time, cultural changes entail changes in the dietary spectrum, such as e.g. the inclusion of meat in the diet of early Homo (Lordkipanidze et al 2005;Lordkipanidze et al 2007;Braun et al 2010;Ungar 2012). Furthermore, various studies have established links between antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) and cultural behaviors (Costa 1980a;Lukacs 2007).…”

Section: Implications For the Paleobiology Of The Dmanisi Demementioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

Margvelashvili

Zollikofer

Lordkipanidze

et al. 2016

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Due to the scarcity of the fossil record, in-vivo changes in the dentognathic system of early Homo are typically documented at the level of individual fossil specimens, and it remains difficult to draw population-level inferences about dietary habits, diet-related activities and lifestyle from individual patterns of dentognathic alterations. The Plio-Pleistocene hominin sample from Dmanisi (Georgia), dated to 1.77 million years ago, offers a unique opportunity to study in-vivo changes in the dentognathic system of individuals belonging to a single paleodeme of early Homo. Materials and Methods: We analyze dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi sample, and in comparative samples of modern Australian and Greenlander hunter-gatherer populations, applying clinical protocols of dentognathic diagnostics. Results: The Dmanisi hominins exhibit a similarly wide diversity and similar incidence of dentognathic pathologies as the modern human hunter-gatherer population samples investigated here. Dmanisi differs from the modern population samples in several respects: At young age tooth wear is already advanced, and pathologies are more prevalent. At old age, hypercementosis is substantial. Discussion: Results indicate that dentognathic pathologies and disease trajectories are largely similar in early Homo and modern humans, but that the disease load was higher in early Homo, probably as an effect of higher overall stress on the dentognathic system. Key words: aging, tooth wear, caries, periodontitisThe Plio-Pleistocene site of Dmanisi has yielded a large sample of hominin fossils associated with abundant and diverse faunal remains and Mode I stone artifacts (Gabunia et al. 2001;Ferring et al. 2011;Mgeladze et al. 2011). Occupation of the site began shortly after 1.85 Ma. The fossil hominin finds are dated to 1.77 Ma (Ferring et al. 2011). Dmanisi thus represents the earliest evidence of Homo outside of Africa. The well-preserved cranial, mandibular and postcranial remains of five individuals are unique in offering detailed insights into patterns of morphological variation within a paleodeme of early Homo, and into patterns of growth and aging Margvelashvili et al. 2013;Zollikofer et al. 2014). The craniomandibular morphology of the Dmanisi paleodeme has been described previously (Gabunia and Vekua 1995;Gabunia et al. 2000;Gabunia et al. 2001;Gabounia et al. 2002;Lordkipanidze et al. 2005;Lordkipanidze et al. 2006;Rightmire et al. 2006;Rightmire and Lordkipanidze 2010;Lordkipanidze et al. 2013;Margvelashvili et al. 2013). Cranial and mandibular morphological variation within the Dmanisi paleodeme is wide, but well within the range of variation seen in modern humans populations, and in populations of chimpanzee subspecies (Skinner et al. 2006;Lordkipanidze et al. 2013;Margvelashvili et al. 2013;Zollikofer et al. 2014). Variation in size, shape and dentognathic features among the Dmanisi mandibles has received special attention and has been studied to address questions of phylogeny, taxonomy, sexual dimorphism, die...

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“…Because sea levels have risen up to 150 m in the past 17 000 years, a substantial part of the evidence for the exploitation of aquatic resources is hidden below sea level, if not permanently destroyed by the water (267,268) . However, in Kenya, a site in East Turkana provides solid evidence that at about 1·95 Mya hominins enjoyed carcasses of both terrestrial and aquatic animals including turtles, crocodiles and fish, which were associated with Oldowan artifacts (261) . More ambiguous evidence for the exploitation of freshwater fish, crocodiles, turtles, amphibians and molluscs by Homo habilis in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania goes back as far as 1·8-1·1 Mya (267,269) .…”

Section: Archeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A multidisciplinary reconstruction of Palaeolithic nutrition that holds promise for the prevention and treatment of diseases of civilisation

2012

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Evolutionary medicine acknowledges that many chronic degenerative diseases result from conflicts between our rapidly changing environment, our dietary habits included, and our genome, which has remained virtually unchanged since the Palaeolithic era. Reconstruction of the diet before the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions is therefore indicated, but hampered by the ongoing debate on our ancestors' ecological niche. Arguments and their counterarguments regarding evolutionary medicine are updated and the evidence for the long-reigning hypothesis of human evolution on the arid savanna is weighed against the hypothesis that man evolved in the proximity of water. Evidence from various disciplines is discussed, including the study of palaeo-environments, comparative anatomy, biogeochemistry, archaeology, anthropology, (patho)physiology and epidemiology. Although our ancestors had much lower life expectancies, the current evidence does neither support the misconception that during the Palaeolithic there were no elderly nor that they had poor health. Rather than rejecting the possibility of ‘healthy ageing’, the default assumption should be that healthy ageing posed an evolutionary advantage for human survival. There is ample evidence that our ancestors lived in a land–water ecosystem and extracted a substantial part of their diets from both terrestrial and aquatic resources. Rather than rejecting this possibility by lack of evidence, the default assumption should be that hominins, living in coastal ecosystems with catchable aquatic resources, consumed these resources. Finally, the composition and merits of so-called ‘Palaeolithic diets’, based on different hominin niche-reconstructions, are evaluated. The benefits of these diets illustrate that it is time to incorporate this knowledge into dietary recommendations.

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Early hominin diet included diverse terrestrial and aquatic animals 1.95 Ma in East Turkana, Kenya

Cited by 247 publications

References 32 publications

Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

Turtles and Tortoises of the World During the Rise and Global Spread of Humanity: First Checklist and Review of Extinct Pleistocene and Holocene Chelonians.

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

A multidisciplinary reconstruction of Palaeolithic nutrition that holds promise for the prevention and treatment of diseases of civilisation

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