The influence of smoke density on hearth location and activity areas at Lower Paleolithic Lazaret Cave, France

Kedar, Yafit; Kedar, Gil; Barkai, Ran

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-05517-z

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…This suggests that humans might have evolved learning mechanisms focused on controlling/maintaining and starting fire ( Fessler, 2006 ). Paleolithic humans 170–150 ka ago optimally located the cave fireplace enabling maximum fire use and minimum exposure to smoke ( Kedar et al, 2022 ). Fire provided our ancestors with heat, light, protection against predators and hostile conspecifics, smoke repellent of insects, aid in hunting and in preparing tasty, sterilized, preserved, and easily digestible cooked food, cremation of the dead, even improving flaking properties of stones, and aiding other tool manufacturing ( Rolland, 2004 ; Coolidge and Wynn, 2006 ; Fessler, 2006 ; Brown et al, 2009 ; Wrangham, 2009 ; Dunbar and Gowlett, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

Varella

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations. Evolutionary explanations focus on recurrent adaptive problems that human musicality possibly solved in ancestral environments, such as mate selection and competition, social bonding/cohesion and social grooming, perceptual and motor skill development, conflict reduction, safe time-passing, transgenerational communication, mood regulation and synchronization, and credible signaling of coalition and territorial/predator defense. Although not mutually exclusive, these different hypotheses are still not conceptually integrated nor clearly derived from independent principles. I propose The Nocturnal Evolution of Human Musicality and Performativity Theory in which the night-time is the missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle of human musicality and performing arts. The expansion of nocturnal activities throughout human evolution, which is tied to tree-to-ground sleep transition and habitual use of fire, might help (i) explain the evolution of musicality from independent principles, (ii) explain various seemingly unrelated music features and functions, and (iii) integrate many ancestral adaptive values proposed. The expansion into the nocturnal niche posed recurrent ancestral adaptive challenges/opportunities: lack of luminosity, regrouping to cook before sleep, imminent dangerousness, low temperatures, peak tiredness, and concealment of identity. These crucial night-time features might have selected evening-oriented individuals who were prone to acoustic communication, more alert and imaginative, gregarious, risk-taking and novelty-seeking, prone to anxiety modulation, hedonistic, promiscuous, and disinhibited. Those night-time selected dispositions may have converged and enhanced protomusicality into human musicality by facilitating it to assume many survival- and reproduction-enhancing roles (social cohesion and coordination, signaling of coalitions, territorial defense, antipredatorial defense, knowledge transference, safe passage of time, children lullabies, and sexual selection) that are correspondent to the co-occurring night-time adaptive challenges/opportunities. The nocturnal dynamic may help explain musical features (sound, loudness, repetitiveness, call and response, song, elaboration/virtuosity, and duetting/chorusing). Across vertebrates, acoustic communication mostly occurs in nocturnal species. The eveningness chronotype is common among musicians and composers. Adolescents, who are the most evening-oriented humans, enjoy more music. Contemporary tribal nocturnal activities around the campfire involve eating, singing/dancing, storytelling, and rituals. I discuss the nocturnal integration of musicality’s many roles and conclude that musicality is probably a multifunctional mental adaptation that evolved along with the night-time adaptive landscape.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

Varella

2023

Front. Psychol.

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“…This is in contrast to most modern human-specific genetic variants, for which ancestral alleles exist in low frequencies in present-day populations due to archaic gene flow or persistence of ancestral variants (see https://bioinf.eva.mpg.de/catalogbrowser ) ( 2 ). It has been speculated that the reduction of the AHR pathway activity was an adaptation toward a lifestyle dependent on the use of fire ( 8 ), as smoke from the burning of wood is a rich source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( 30 , 31 ). Support for this comes from the observation that fish exposed to high levels of AHR ligands from industrial pollution accumulate mutations in genes of the AHR signaling pathway leading to reduced expression of AHR target genes ( 32 , 33 ), for example by a reduced ability of AHR to bind ligands.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The modern human aryl hydrocarbon receptor is more active when ancestralized by genome editing

Helmbrecht,

Lackner,

Maricic

et al. 2024

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

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The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a transcription factor that has many functions in mammals. Its best known function is that it binds aromatic hydrocarbons and induces the expression of cytochrome P450 genes, which encode enzymes that metabolize aromatic hydrocarbons and other substrates. All present-day humans carry an amino acid substitution at position 381 in the AHR that occurred after the divergence of modern humans from Neandertals and Denisovans. Previous studies that have expressed the ancestral and modern versions of AHR from expression vectors have yielded conflicting results with regard to their activities. Here, we use genome editing to modify the endogenous AHR gene so that it encodes to the ancestral, Neandertal-like AHR protein in human cells. In the absence of exogenous ligands, the expression of AHR target genes is higher in cells expressing the ancestral AHR than in cells expressing the modern AHR, and similar to the expression in chimpanzee cells. Furthermore, the modern human AHR needs higher doses of three ligands than the ancestral AHR to induce the expression of target genes. Thus, the ability of AHR to induce the expression of many of its target genes is reduced in modern humans.

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“…The global effects of historical pollution are not just limited to Industrial Revolutions. Pre-Industrial metal pollution in the atmosphere and in human remains can be traced back to the Roman exploitation of metals [174][175][176][177][178] and prehistoric caves [179][180][181][182]. These co-selective processes across time merit investigation to perceive how cultural transitions cause historical changes in AMR.…”

Section: The Evolution Of Amr Mechanisms In the Oral Microbiomementioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring diet, disease and antibiotic resistance from ancient human oral microbiomes

Dahlquist-Axe,

Standeven,

Speller

et al. 2024

Microbial Genomics

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The interaction between a host and its microbiome is an area of intense study. For the human host, it is known that the various body-site-associated microbiomes impact heavily on health and disease states. For instance, the oral microbiome is a source of various pathogens and potential antibiotic resistance gene pools. The effect of historical changes to the human host and environment to the associated microbiome, however, has been less well explored. In this review, we characterize several historical and prehistoric events which are considered to have impacted the oral environment and therefore the bacterial communities residing within it. The link between evolutionary changes to the oral microbiota and the significant societal and behavioural changes occurring during the pre-Neolithic, Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Antibiotic Era is outlined. While previous studies suggest the functional profile of these communities may have shifted over the centuries, there is currently a gap in knowledge that needs to be filled. Biomolecular archaeological evidence of innate antimicrobial resistance within the oral microbiome shows an increase in the abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes since the advent and widespread use of antibiotics in the modern era. Nevertheless, a lack of research into the prevalence and evolution of antimicrobial resistance within the oral microbiome throughout history hinders our ability to combat antimicrobial resistance in the modern era.

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The influence of smoke density on hearth location and activity areas at Lower Paleolithic Lazaret Cave, France

Cited by 8 publications

References 77 publications

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle

The modern human aryl hydrocarbon receptor is more active when ancestralized by genome editing

Inferring diet, disease and antibiotic resistance from ancient human oral microbiomes

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