Ecogeographic variation in Neandertal dietary habits: Evidence from occlusal molar microwear texture analysis

Zaatari, Sireen El; Grine, Frederick E.; Ungar, Peter S.; Hublin, Jean‐Jacques

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.05.004

Cited by 106 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 89 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies of modern foragers document a cline in plant food consumption, with groups living in tropical latitudes consuming more plant foods than those in temperate or arctic latitudes (Kelly, 1995). Studies of Neanderthal dietary behavior have also suggested that ecogeographic factors influence dental microwear and mesowear (El Zaatari et al, 2011;Fiorenza et al, 2011). We predict that the geographic region from which samples came should also influence plant food consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…First, detailed analyses of both Neanderthal dental microwear (El Zaatari et al, 2011) and dental mesowear (Fiorenza et al, 2011) have suggested more variation within Neanderthal diets than previously expected. In both cases, Neanderthal groups living in southern and wooded environments had dental wear more similar to that of modern forager groups that consume a variety of foods, while Neanderthals in more northern and dry environments had diets similar to modern forager groups that consume predominantly meat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…There are many 2 The excavators of Klasies River suggest that the samples from Cave 1 Layer 14 and Shelter 1b layer 10 represent the same occupation of the site (Singer and Wymer, 1982). environments subsumed within both our European and African samples (as has been considered by El Zaatari et al, 2011;Fiorenza et al, 2011), and their effect on plant diet may be masked by lumping them together. Future studies including more sites and finer ecogeographic divisions may reveal these patterns.…”

Section: Tests Of Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Henry

Brooks

Piperno

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

200

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Tests Of Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Henry

Brooks

Piperno

2014

Journal of Human Evolution

200

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Studies of Neanderthal tools from Eastern and Western European sites have shown that they were using several kinds of plants (Hardy et al, 2001;Hardy, 2004). Dental microwear studies suggest that Neanderthals from lower latitudes consumed a mixed diet including plants (El Zaatari et al, 2011). Macrobotanical analysis at the Middle Palaeolithic site of Kebara (Israel) identified the charred remains of seeds preserved in hearths and found evidence for use of legumes, acorns and pistachio nuts (Lev et al, 2005).…”

Section: Evidence Of Neanderthal Plant Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tDuring recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Neanderthal dietary ecologyThe dietary behaviours of Neanderthals and the relationship between their diet and their social organization, technological abilities, and even their eventual disappearance, have been hotly debated in the anthropological literature. Examining the diets of Neanderthals requires the synthesis of data that have been collected by numerous researchers over the last 150 years. In many cases, the differences between Neanderthal and early modern human diets have been emphasized, at the expense of cogent discussion of the variation within each group. Early modern humans lived in a wide variety of environmental contexts and likely pursued a variety of behaviours throughout this range of environments. The exclusively Eurasian distribution of Neanderthals did not include as many environments, but neither was it the exclusively cold Arctic climate that many have supposed it to be. A more detailed examination of the Neanderthal range and the effects of shifting global climates reveals that this group would have been exposed to a diverse range of environments (Hoffecker, 2009;MacDonald et al., 2009). Just as modern human dietary behaviour likely varied with environments, so, too, can we predict that Neanderthals had different diets in different environments.Our understanding of the diets of Neanderthals comes from three main lines of evidence. The first is the study of the human remains themselves, including the isotope signal recorded in their bones, the microwear on their teeth, and how factors of their lifehistory are related to diet. The second line of evidence includes the study of the remains of their food, in the form of animal and plant remains preserved ...

show abstract

“…If microwear was caused by environmental grit alone, variation among samples could well reflect habitat differences rather than diet per se. This is a fundamental issue for paleobiologists today because microwear analysis is commonly used to reconstruct diets of fossil species ranging from Paleozoic conodonts (17) to Pleistocene hominins (18).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New model to explain tooth wear with implications for microwear formation and diet reconstruction

Xia

Zheng

Huang

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

105

114

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Paleoanthropologists and vertebrate paleontologists have for decades debated the etiology of tooth wear and its implications for understanding the diets of human ancestors and other extinct mammals. The debate has recently taken a twist, calling into question the efficacy of dental microwear to reveal diet. Some argue that endogenous abrasives in plants (opal phytoliths) are too soft to abrade enamel, and that tooth wear is caused principally by exogenous quartz grit on food. If so, variation in microwear among fossil species may relate more to habitat than diet. This has important implications for paleobiologists because microwear is a common proxy for diets of fossil species. Here we reexamine the notion that particles softer than enamel (e.g., silica phytoliths) do not wear teeth. We scored human enamel using a microfabrication instrument fitted with soft particles (aluminum and brass spheres) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) fitted with silica particles under fixed normal loads, sliding speeds, and spans. Resulting damage was measured by AFM, and morphology and composition of debris were determined by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Enamel chips removed from the surface demonstrate that softer particles produce wear under conditions mimicking chewing. Previous models posited that such particles rub enamel and create ridges alongside indentations without tissue removal. We propose that although these models hold for deformable metal surfaces, enamel works differently. Hydroxyapatite crystallites are "glued" together by proteins, and tissue removal requires only that contact pressure be sufficient to break the bonds holding enamel together. dental microwear | diet reconstruction | tooth wear

show abstract

Ecogeographic variation in Neandertal dietary habits: Evidence from occlusal molar microwear texture analysis

Cited by 106 publications

References 89 publications

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

New model to explain tooth wear with implications for microwear formation and diet reconstruction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About