Human footprints provide snapshot of last interglacial ecology in the Arabian interior

Stewart, Mathew; Clark-Wilson, Richard; Breeze, Paul S.; Janulis, Klint; Candy, Ian; Armitage, Simon; Ryves, David B.; Louys, Julien; Duval, Mathieu; Price, Gilbert J.; Cuthbertson, Patrick; Bernal, Marco Antonio; Drake, Nick; Alsharekh, Abdullah; Zahrani, Badr; Al-Omari, Abdulaziz; Roberts, Patrick; Groucutt, Huw S.; Petraglia, Michael D.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba8940

Cited by 41 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 144 publications

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“…Modern human fossils have been recovered in northeastern Africa and the Levant that date back to these times 4,5 . Moreover, human occupation layers in the Sodmein cave in the Eastern Egypt desert 53 and artefacts and human fossils from Al Wusta in Saudi Arabia 54 , Skhul and Quafzeh 55 as well as human footprints in ancient lake sediments 56 also fall into MIS 5. These time windows have also been proposed by population modelers as possible episodes for early modern human expansion 57 (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal

Schaebitz

Asrat

Lamb

et al. 2021

Commun Earth Environ

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Reconstructions of climatic and environmental conditions can contribute to current debates about the factors that influenced early human dispersal within and beyond Africa. Here we analyse a 200,000-year multi-proxy paleoclimate record from Chew Bahir, a tectonic lake basin in the southern Ethiopian rift. Our record reveals two modes of climate change, both associated temporally and regionally with a specific type of human behavior. The first is a long-term trend towards greater aridity between 200,000 and 60,000 years ago, modulated by precession-driven wet-dry cycles. Here, more favorable wetter environmental conditions may have facilitated long-range human expansion into new territory, while less favorable dry periods may have led to spatial constriction and isolation of local human populations. The second mode of climate change observed since 60,000 years ago mimics millennial to centennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles and Heinrich events. We hypothesize that human populations may have responded to these shorter climate fluctuations with local dispersal between montane and lowland habitats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal

Schaebitz

Asrat

Lamb

et al. 2021

Commun Earth Environ

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“…Here, we conduct a detailed taphonomic analysis of a large wild carnivore-accumulated bone assemblage from the Umm Jirsan lava tube located in the Harrat Khaybar lava field, northern Saudi Arabia. Despite growing evidence for the importance of the Arabian Peninsula in human (and hominin) history and prehistory (e.g., Delagnes et al 2012;Groucutt and Petraglia 2012;Groucutt et al 2018;Stewart et al 2020;Petraglia et al 2015), only a single carnivore neo-taphonomic study has been conducted for the entire peninsula: a study of a small possible striped hyena accumulation from the coast of Qatar (Andrews 2008). Exploratory work has shown that bones in the Umm Jirsan lava tube system date from at least ~ 4.5 ka to recent times (Pint 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory

Stewart

Andrieux

Clark-Wilson

et al. 2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Studies of modern carnivore accumulations of bone (i.e., neo-taphonomy) are crucial for interpreting fossil accumulations in the archaeological and paleontological records. Yet, studies in arid regions have been limited in both number and detailed taphonomic data, prohibiting our understanding of carnivore bone-accumulating and -modifying behavior in dry regions. Here, we present a taphonomic analysis of an impressive carnivore-accumulated bone assemblage from the Umm Jirsan lava tube in the Harrat Khaybar region, Saudi Arabia. The size and composition of the bone accumulation, as well as the presence of hyena skeletal remains and coprolites, suggest that the assemblage was primarily accumulated by striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena). Our findings (1) identify potentially useful criteria for distinguishing between accumulations generated by different species of hyenas; (2) emphasize the need for neo-taphonomic studies for capturing the full variation in carnivore bone-accumulating and modifying behavior; (3) suggest that under the right settings, striped hyena accumulations can serve as good proxies for (paleo)ecology and livestock practices; and (4) highlight the potential for future research at Umm Jirsan, as well as at the numerous nearby lava tube systems. We encourage continued neo-taphonomic efforts in regions important in human prehistory, particularly in arid zones, which have received little research attention.

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“…Footprints provide invaluable data on the number individuals who made them and on their biological (stature, age, body mass) and biomechanical (posture, gait, speed) characteristics 2 – 5 . However, and despite important recent discoveries 5 – 9 , the number of sites with such footprints remains relatively uncommon compared to archaeological or palaeoanthropological sites, especially for those occupied by Neandertals 5 . This is the case of the Iberian Peninsula, where there are several localities with osteological and technological remains of Neandertals 10 – 12 , but only one potential poorly preserved footprint in the dune complex from Catalán Bay (28,000 years) at Gibraltar 13 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking late Pleistocene Neandertals on the Iberian coast

Mayoral

Díaz-Martínez

Duveau

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Here, we report the recent discovery of 87 Neandertal footprints on the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula (Doñana shoreline, Spain) located on an upper Pleistocene aeolian littoral setting (about 106 ± 19 kyr). Morphometric comparisons, high resolution digital photogrammetric 3D models and detailed sedimentary analysis have been provided to characterized the footprints and the palaeoenvironment. The footprints were impressed in the shoreline of a hypersaline swamped area related to benthic microbial mats, close to the coastline. They have a rounded heel, a longitudinal arch, relatively short toes, and adducted hallux, and represent the oldest upper Pleistocene record of Neandertal footprints in the world. Among these 87 footprints, 31 are longitudinally complete and measure from 14 to 29 cm. The calculated statures range from 104 to 188 cm, with half of the data between 130 and 150 cm. The wide range of sizes of the footprints suggests the existence of a social group integrated by individuals of different age classes but dominated, however, by non-adult individuals. The footprints, which are outside the flooded area are oriented perpendicular to the shoreline. These 87 footprints reinforce the ecological scenario of Neandertal groups established in coastal areas.

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Human footprints provide snapshot of last interglacial ecology in the Arabian interior

Cited by 41 publications

References 144 publications

Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal

Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal

Taphonomy of an excavated striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) den in Arabia: implications for paleoecology and prehistory

Tracking late Pleistocene Neandertals on the Iberian coast

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