Environment and Behavior of 2.5-Million-Year-Old Bouri Hominids

Heinzelin, Jean de; Clark, Junebug; White, Tim D.; Hart, William K.; Renne, Paul R.; WoldeGabriel, Giday; Beyene, Yonas; Vrba, Elisabeth S.

doi:10.1126/science.284.5414.625

Cited by 413 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Immunization to the lost Neu5Gc in ancestral hominid populations could have occurred one of two ways. Hominin ancestors increased eating of Neu5Gc-rich red meat via scavenging and hunting about 3 Mya (25). This would have exposed ancestral populations to Neu5Gc through diet and direct contact with the bodily fluids of their prey (26).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection by female immunity against paternal antigens can fix loss of function alleles

Ghaderi

Springer

et al. 2011

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

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Humans lack the common mammalian cell surface molecule N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) due to a CMAH gene inactivation, which occurred approximately three million years ago. Modern humans produce antibodies specific for Neu5Gc. We hypothesized that anti-Neu5Gc antibodies could enter the female reproductive tract and target Neu5Gc-positive sperm or fetal tissues, reducing reproductive compatibility. Indeed, female mice with a human-like Cmah(−/−) mutation and immunized to express anti-Neu5Gc antibodies show lower fertility with Neu5Gc-positive males, due to prezygotic incompatibilities. Human anti-Neu5Gc antibodies are also capable of targeting paternally derived antigens and mediate cytotoxicity against Neu5Gc-bearing chimpanzee sperm in vitro. Models of populations polymorphic for such antigens show that reproductive incompatibility by female immunity can drive loss-offunction alleles to fixation from moderate initial frequencies. Initially, the loss of a cell-surface antigen can occur due to drift in isolated populations or when natural selection favors the loss of a receptor exploited by pathogens, subsequently the same loss-offunction allele can come under sexual selection because it avoids being targeted by the female immune system. Thus, we provide evidence of a link between sexual selection and immune function: Antigenicity in females can select against foreign paternal antigens on sperm and rapidly fix loss-of-function alleles. Similar circumstances existed when the CMAH null allele was polymorphic in ancestral hominins, just before the divergence of Homo from australopithecines.glycan antigen | sialic acid | xeno-antigens

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual selection by female immunity against paternal antigens can fix loss of function alleles

Ghaderi

Springer

et al. 2011

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

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“…Hunting prey also pursued by felids, canids, and hyaenids may have exposed early humans to a suite of parasites already well established on the savannahs of Africa during the late Tertiary and Quaternary. Accordingly, hominids would have first acquired Trichinella when their diets shifted from herbivory to scavenging and facultative carnivory during the Pliocene or early Pleistocene, (17,(36)(37)(38).…”

Section: Human Trichinellosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Miocene expansion, colonization, and host switching drove speciation among extant nematodes of the archaic genus Trichinella

Zarlenga

Rosenthal

Rosa

et al. 2006

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

141

124

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Parasitic nematodes of the genus Trichinella cause significant food-borne illness and occupy a unique evolutionary position at the base of the phylum Nematoda, unlike the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Although the forthcoming genome sequence of Trichinella spiralis can provide invaluable comparative information about nematode biology, a basic framework for understanding the history of the genus Trichinella is needed to maximize its utility. We therefore developed the first robust and comprehensive analysis of the phylogeny and biogeographic history of Trichinella using the variation in three genes (nuclear small-subunit rDNA, and second internal transcribed spacer, mitochondrial large-subunit rDNA, and cytochrome oxidase I DNA) from all 11 recognized taxa. We conclude that (i) although Trichinellidae may have diverged from their closest extant relatives during the Paleozoic, all contemporary species of Trichinella diversified within the last 20 million years through geographic colonization and pervasive host switching among foraging guilds of obligate carnivores; (ii) mammalian carnivores disseminated encapsulated forms from Eurasia to Africa during the late Miocene and Pliocene, and to the Nearctic across the Bering Land Bridge during the Pliocene and Pleistocene, when crown species ultimately diversified; (iii) the greatest risk to human health is posed by those species retaining an ancestral capacity to parasitize a wide range of hosts; and (iv) early hominids may have first acquired Trichinella on the African savannah several million years before swine domestication as their diets shifted from herbivory to facultative carnivory.biogeography ͉ mitochondrial DNA ͉ phylogeny ͉ ribosomal DNA E xceptional biological diversity among nematodes is exemplified by certain attributes of the parasite Trichinella spiralis. Organization of its mitochondrial genome more closely resembles that of coelomate metazoans than that of its presumed closest relatives, the secernentean nematodes (1). In addition, T. spiralis (Dorylaimia) shares a similar proportion (45%) of its ESTs with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (Rhabditina) as it does with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Arthropoda: Drosophilidae) (2). Thus, many ESTs common to T. spiralis and C. elegans are not necessarily specific to nematodes but may be conserved among diverse taxonomic groups of invertebrates. C. elegans is often thought of as a prototypical nematode because of its acceptance as a model for studying biological processes; however, genomic variation among nematodes is extensive and commensurate with their phylogenetic and ecological diversity. Therefore, the forthcoming genome sequence of T. spiralis will contribute substantially to our understanding of nematode biology and the origins of parasitism.In 1998, Blaxter et al. (3) used genetic data to delineate the phylum Nematoda into supertaxa consisting of five clades. Trichinella, a parasite of vertebrates, occupies a basal lineage (clade I) consisting of free-living Mononchida, ...

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“…Moreover, cut marks on bone are easier ascribed to human utilisation than any nearby found fossilised fish bones or molluscan shells that only seldomly bear cut marks (260,261) and are often not even examined. Hence, while human remains are nearly always found in the vicinity of water and the fossil record of nearby found fish is extensive (74,262) , the exploitation of aquatic resources is difficult to relate to early man (263) .…”

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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Environment and Behavior of 2.5-Million-Year-Old Bouri Hominids

Cited by 413 publications

References 14 publications

Sexual selection by female immunity against paternal antigens can fix loss of function alleles

Sexual selection by female immunity against paternal antigens can fix loss of function alleles

Post-Miocene expansion, colonization, and host switching drove speciation among extant nematodes of the archaic genus Trichinella

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

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