Improving mortality profile analysis in zooarchaeology: a revised zoning for ternary diagrams

Discamps, Emmanuel; Costamagno, Sandrine

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2015.03.021

Cited by 59 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…It seems however, that this strategy was more productive in situations where mass kill of fat animals was feasible just before winter (Brink, ). There is some evidence that Neandertals also practiced mass kills (Costamagno et al, ; Rendu et al, ), although widespread occurrence of mass kills is difficult to deduce, both temporally and spatially, from the zooarchaeological record (Discamps and Costamagno, ).…”

Section: The Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Neandertals' large lower thorax may represent adaptation to high protein diet

Ben-Dor

Gopher

Barkai

2016

American J Phys Anthropol

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Humans are limited in their capacity to convert protein into energy. We present a hypothesis that a "bell" shaped thorax and a wide pelvis evolved in Neandertals, at least in part, as an adaptation to a high protein diet. A high protein diet created a need to house an enlarged liver and urinary system in a wider lower trunk. To test the hypothesis, we applied a model developed to identify points of nutritional stress. A ratio of obligatory dietary fat to total animal fat and protein sourced calories is calculated based on various known and estimated parameters. Stress is identified when the obligatory dietary fat ratio is higher than fat content ratios in available prey. The model predicts that during glacial winters, when carbohydrates weren't available, 74%-85% of Neandertals' caloric intake would have had to come from animal fat. Large animals contain around 50% fat calories, and their fat content is diminished during winter, so a significant stressful dietary fat deficit was identified by the model. This deficit could potentially be ameliorated by an increased capability to convert protein into energy. Given that high protein consumption is associated with larger liver and kidneys in animal models, it appears likely that the enlarged inferior section of the Neandertals thorax and possibly, in part, also his wide pelvis, represented an adaptation to provide encasement for those enlarged organs. Behavioral and evolutionary implications of the hypothesis are also discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:367-378, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: The Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Neandertals' large lower thorax may represent adaptation to high protein diet

Ben-Dor

Gopher

Barkai

2016

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…In this context, and given the impressive number of well‐preserved hominin specimens in the Drimolen sample, an analysis of the ages at which the hominins died has the potential to inform us about the mechanism(s) by which their remains were accumulated at the site. Indeed, in taphonomic studies, age‐at‐death distribution are used to discriminate different mechanism of accumulation (Discamps & Costamagno, ; Stiner, ). To wit, Mann () conducted just such an analysis on >100 hominin fossil specimens from Swartkrans, demonstrating that the distribution of ages‐at‐death of that sample does not reflect that of natural deaths in a wild primate population, but instead mimics a mortality profile produced by carnivore predation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ages‐at‐death distribution of the early Pleistocene hominin fossil assemblage from Drimolen (South Africa)

Riga

Mori

Pickering

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: A prevailing hypothesis in paleoanthropology is that early Pleistocene hominin bones were accumulated in South African caves by carnivores, which used those shelters, and the trees surrounding them, as refuge and feeding sites. We tested this hypothesis at the site of Drimolen, by comparing its hominin age-at-death distribution to that of the nearby and roughly contemporaneous site of Swartkrans. Materials and methods:We employed standard dental aging systems in order to categorize the Drimolen hominin teeth into age classes of 5 years each. We then compared the age-at-death distribution for Drimolen with the published data available for the Swartkrans hominins.Results: Age-at-death distributions indicate that the age category "young adults" is the best represented age category at Swartkrans and the most poorly represented one at Drimolen.Moreover, Drimolen has a preponderance of infant specimens. Both sites have a low frequency of old adult specimens.Conclusions: Differences observed in frequencies of the age-at-death categories suggest different mechanisms of hominin skeletal accumulation at Drimolen and Swartkrans. Swartkrans' frequency curve reflects mortality in a population subjected to predation and is thus consistent with the carnivore-accumulating hypothesis. In contrast, the Drimolen curve is similar to that of wild populations of living apes. Living primates have been observed exploiting caves as sleeping shelters, for nutritional, security, drinking, and thermoregulatory purposes. We suggest that similar cave use by Pleistocene hominins can explain, in large part, the accumulation of hominin bones at Drimolen. Such a conclusion is another illustration of the growing awareness that a "one-size-fits-all" taphonomic model for South African early Pleistocene hominin sites is probably insufficient.

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“…We believe our study is the first attempt in marine biology to use an estimated age structure from thanatocoenosis to assess natural mortality, though similar approaches for example are widely applied to Holocene mammals using relative animal ages (Stiner, 1990;Steele, 2003;Discamps and Costamagno, 2015). Thanatocoenosis is an important source of information to estimate natural mortality in some scallop species, although in this case scientists use percentage of empty shells still attached by the hinge in respect to numbers of live scallops from the same hauls (Brand, 2006) However, investigation of age structure of dead shells is not carried out.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%