Long‐Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Human Brain Evolution

Crawford, Michael

doi:10.1002/9780470609880.ch2

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Another aspect of fat metabolism is the hypothesis that the early human brain's enlargement was made possible through acquiring aquatic foods. Presumably, these foods were the only source of high amounts of docosahexaenoic acid (a long‐chain omega‐3 fatty acid; DHA) found in the expanding human brain (Crawford, 2010; Cunnane & Crawford, 2014; Kyriacou et al, 2016). In contrast, Cordain et al (2002) argue that terrestrial animal organs contained sufficient DHA amounts for brain growth.…”

Section: Physiological Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene

Ben-Dor

Sirtoli

Barkai

2021

American J Phys Anthropol

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The human trophic level (HTL) during the Pleistocene and its degree of variability serve, explicitly or tacitly, as the basis of many explanations for human evolution, behavior, and culture. Previous attempts to reconstruct the HTL have relied heavily on an analogy with recent hunter-gatherer groups' diets. In addition to technological differences, recent findings of substantial ecological differences between the Pleistocene and the Anthropocene cast doubt regarding that analogy's validity. Surprisingly little systematic evolution-guided evidence served to reconstruct HTL. Here, we reconstruct the HTL during the Pleistocene by reviewing evidence for the impact of the HTL on the biological, ecological, and behavioral systems derived from various existing studies. We adapt a paleobiological and paleoecological approach, including evidence from human physiology and genetics, archaeology, paleontology, and zoology, and identified 25 sources of evidence in total. The evidence shows that the trophic level of the Homo lineage that most probably led to modern humans evolved from a low base to a high, carnivorous position during the Pleistocene, beginning with Homo habilis and peaking in Homo erectus. A reversal of that trend appears in the Upper Paleolithic, strengthening in the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, and culminating with the advent of agriculture. We conclude that it is possible to reach a credible reconstruction of the HTL without relying on a simple analogy with recent hunter-gatherers' diets. The memory of an adaptation to a trophic level that is embedded in modern humans' biology in the form of genetics, metabolism, and morphology is a fruitful line of investigation of past HTLs, whose potential we have only started to explore.

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Section: Physiological Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene

Ben-Dor

Sirtoli

Barkai

2021

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…The increasing focus in archaeology on early human development, supported by, for example, improved and faster methods for the analysis of ancient DNA, suffers a central problem in that a large part of the relevant palaeo-landscape is today submerged and difficult to detect with existing maritime archaeological methods. Further underlining the significance of this obstacle is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that a coastal lifestyle with a maritime economy played a central role in human development, reproduction and mobility in the course of human history [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Since the sea level has been lower than today for 90% of human history and fell to around -120 m at the height of glaciations, we lack data from up to 9% of the Earth's surface, representing highly productive prehistoric coastal ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic Mapping of Submerged Stone Age Sites—A HALD Approach

et al. 2021

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Acoustic response from lithics knapped by humans has been demonstrated to facilitate effective detection of submerged Stone Age sites exposed on the seafloor or embedded within its sediments. This phenomenon has recently enabled the non-invasive detection of several hitherto unknown submerged Stone Age sites, as well as the registration of acoustic responses from already known localities. Investigation of the acoustic-response characteristics of knapped lithics, which appear not to be replicated in naturally cracked lithic pieces (geofacts), is presently on-going through laboratory experiments and finite element (FE) modelling of high-resolution 3D-scanned pieces. Experimental work is also being undertaken, employing chirp sub-bottom systems (reflection seismic) on known sites in marine areas and inland water bodies. Fieldwork has already yielded positive results in this initial stage of development of an optimised Human-Altered Lithic Detection (HALD) method for mapping submerged Stone Age sites. This paper reviews the maritime archaeological perspectives of this promising approach, which potentially facilitates new and improved practice, summarizes existing data, and reports on the present state of development. Its focus is not reflection seismics as such, but a useful resonance phenomenon induced by the use of high-resolution reflection seismic systems.

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“…There are currently two sets of hypotheses regarding the diets and subsistence strategies likely to have supported the earliest members of our species: those that emphasise the selective consumption of fat-rich portions of terrestrial animals (Speth, 2010), and others that regard the contribution of marine resources as highly advantageous or even essential (Broadhurst et al, 2002;Parkington, 2003;Cunnane et al, 2007;Crawford, 2010;Erlandson, 2010;Cunnane and Crawford, 2014). Debates surrounding the importance of marine resources are part of the wider narrative concerning the evolution of anatomically and cognitively modern H. sapiens in southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%