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Isotopic analyses suggest mammoth and plant in the diet of the oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe.

ABSTRACT: Relatively high ¹⁵N abundances in bone collagen of early anatomically modern humans in Europe have often been interpreted as a specific consumption of freshwater resources, even if mammoth is an alternative high ¹⁵N prey. At Buran-Kaya III, access to associated fauna in a secured archaeological context and application of recently developed isotopic analyses of individuals amino acids offer the opportunity to further examine this hypothesis. The site of Buran-Kaya III is located in south Crimea and has provided a rich archaeological sequence including two Upper Palaeolithic layers, from which human fossils were retrieved and directly dated as from 37.8 to 33.1 ka cal BP. Results from bulk collagen of three human remains suggests the consumption of a high ¹⁵N prey besides the contribution of saiga, red deer, horse and hare, whose butchered remains were present at the site. In contrast to bulk collagen, phenylalanine and glutamic acid ¹⁵N abundances reflect not only animal but also plant protein contributions to omnivorous diet, and allow disentangling aquatic from terrestrial resource consumption. The inferred human trophic position values point to terrestrial-based diet, meaning a significant contribution of mammoth meat, in addition to a clear intake of plant protein.

SUBMITTER: Drucker DG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5533724 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Isotopic analyses suggest mammoth and plant in the diet of the oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe.

Drucker Dorothée G DG Naito Yuichi I YI Péan Stéphane S Prat Sandrine S Crépin Laurent L Chikaraishi Yoshito Y Ohkouchi Naohiko N Puaud Simon S Lázničková-Galetová Martina M Patou-Mathis Marylène M Yanevich Aleksandr A Bocherens Hervé H

Scientific reports 20170728 1

Relatively high <sup>15</sup>N abundances in bone collagen of early anatomically modern humans in Europe have often been interpreted as a specific consumption of freshwater resources, even if mammoth is an alternative high <sup>15</sup>N prey. At Buran-Kaya III, access to associated fauna in a secured archaeological context and application of recently developed isotopic analyses of individuals amino acids offer the opportunity to further examine this hypothesis. The site of Buran-Kaya III is loc ...[more]

PMID: 28754955

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Project description:Anatomical asymmetries of the human brain are a topic of major interest because of their link with handedness and cognitive functions. Their emergence and occurrence have been extensively explored in human fossil records to document the evolution of brain capacities and behaviour. We quantified for the first time antero-posterior endocranial shape asymmetries in large samples of great apes, modern humans and fossil hominins through analysis of "virtual" 3D models of skull and endocranial cavity and we statistically test for departures from symmetry. Once based on continuous variables, we show that the analysis of these brain asymmetries gives original results that build upon previous analysis based on discrete traits. In particular, it emerges that the degree of petalial asymmetries differs between great apes and hominins without modification of their pattern. We indeed demonstrate the presence of shape asymmetries in great apes, with a pattern similar to modern humans but with a lower variation and a lower degree of fluctuating asymmetry. More importantly, variations in the position of the frontal and occipital poles on the right and left hemispheres would be expected to show some degree of antisymmetry when population distribution is considered, but the observed pattern of variation among the samples is related to fluctuating asymmetry for most of the components of the petalias. Moreover, the presence of a common pattern of significant directional asymmetry for two components of the petalias in hominids implicates that the observed traits were probably inherited from the last common ancestor of extant African great apes and Homo sapiens.These results also have important implications for the possible relationships between endocranial shape asymmetries and functional capacities in hominins. It emphasizes the uncoupling between lateralized activities, some of them well probably distinctive to Homo, and large-scale cerebral lateralization itself, which is not unique to Homo.

Dataset Information

Isotopic analyses suggest mammoth and plant in the diet of the oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe.

Publications

Isotopic analyses suggest mammoth and plant in the diet of the oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe.

Similar Datasets

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