Grandmothering and the evolution of homo erectus

Despite recent, compelling challenge, the evolution of Homo erectus is still commonly attributed to big game hunting and/or scavenging and family provisioning by men. Here we use a version of the "grandmother" hypothesis to develop an alternative scenario, that climate-driven adjustments in female foraging and food sharing practices, possibly involving tubers, favored significant changes in ancestral life history, morphology, and ecology leading to the appearance, spread and persistence of H. erectus. Available paleoclimatic, environmental, fossil and archaeological data are consistent with this proposition; avenues for further critical research are readily identified. This argument has important implications for widely-held ideas about the recent evolution of long human lifespans, the prevalence of male philopatry among ancestral hominids, and the catalytic role of big game hunting and scavenging in early human evolution.     

Hunting income patterns among the Hadza: big game, common goods, foraging goals and the evolution of the human diet.

The assumption that large mammal hunting and scavenging are economically advantageous to hominid foragers is examined in the light of data collected among the Hadza of northern Tanzania. Hadza hunters disregard small prey in favour of larger forms (mean adult mass greater than or equal to 40 kg). Here we report experimental data showing that hunters would reduce their mean rates if they included small animals in the array they target. Still, daily variance in large animal hunting returns is high, and the risk of failure correspondingly great, significantly greater than that associated with small game hunting and trapping. Sharing large kills reduces the risk of meatless days for big game hunters, and obviates the problem of storing large amounts of meat. It may be unavoidable if large carcasses cannot be defended economically against the demands of other consumers. If so, then large prey are common goods. A hunter may gain no consumption advantage from his own big game acquisition efforts. We use Hadza data to model this 'collective action' problem, and find that an exclusive focus on large game with extensive sharing is not the optimal strategy for hunters concerned with maximizing their own chances of eating meat. Other explanations for the emergence and persistence of this practice must be considered.     

许家窑遗址马科动物的死亡年龄

普氏野马(Equus przewalskii)和野驴(Equus hemionus)是许家窑遗址动物群中的优势属种。本文基于对这两种动物牙齿材料的测量与分析,确定了遗址中马科动物的死亡年龄,并对上、下文化层的死亡年龄分布进行了研究,以期探知古人类获取肉食资源的方式与特点。通过与马科动物在自然生存状态下以及死于不同原因(如疾病或营养衰竭、食肉动物猎杀、现代人类狩猎等)的年龄结构对比,结果表明:古人类在许家窑文化早期(下文化层)可能通过捡拾自然死亡的动物尸体、与食肉类动物抢夺猎物、主动狩猎等多种方式获取马科动物,而在许家窑文化晚期(上文化层)可能以主动狩猎作为获取马科动物的主要方式。此外,古人类在遗址的早期就可能已经具有捕获整个马科动物居群中任意年龄个体的能力,并能做出最优化判断,有选择地去捕猎脂肪和肉量较高的壮年动物群体。     

Provisioning of Game Meat to Rural Communities as a Benefit of Sport Hunting in Zambia

Sport hunting has reportedly multiple benefits to economies and local communities; however, few of these benefits have been quantified. As part of their lease agreements with the Zambia Wildlife Authority, sport hunting operators in Zambia are required to provide annually to local communities free of charge i.e., provision a percentage of the meat obtained through sport hunting. We characterized provisioning of game meat to rural communities by the sport hunting industry in Zambia for three game management areas (GMAs) during 2004–2011. Rural communities located within GMAs where sport hunting occurred received on average > 6,000 kgs per GMA of fresh game meat annually from hunting operators. To assess hunting industry compliance, we also compared the amount of meat expected as per the lease agreements versus observed amounts of meat provisioned from three GMAs during 2007–2009. In seven of eight annual comparisons of these GMAs, provisioning of meat exceeded what was required in the lease agreements. Provisioning occurred throughout the hunting season and peaked during the end of the dry season (September–October) coincident with when rural Zambians are most likely to encounter food shortages. We extrapolated our results across all GMAs and estimated 129,771 kgs of fresh game meat provisioned annually by the sport hunting industry to rural communities in Zambia at an approximate value for the meat alone of >US$600,000 exclusive of distribution costs. During the hunting moratorium (2013–2014), this supply of meat has halted, likely adversely affecting rural communities previously reliant on this food source. Proposed alternatives to sport hunting should consider protein provisioning in addition to other benefits (e.g., employment, community pledges, anti-poaching funds) that rural Zambian communities receive from the sport hunting industry.     

Scavenging by chimpanzees at Ngogo and the relevance of chimpanzee scavenging to early hominin behavioral ecology

Chimpanzees regularly hunt a variety of prey species. However, they rarely scavenge, which distinguishes chimpanzee carnivory from that of some modern hunter-gatherers and, presumably, at least some Plio-Pleistocene hominins. I use observations made over an 11-year period to document all known opportunities for scavenging encountered by chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, and describe all cases of scavenging. I also review data on scavenging from other chimpanzee research sites. Chimpanzees at Ngogo encountered scavenging opportunities only about once per 100 days and ate meat from scavenged carcasses only four times. Scavenging opportunities are also rare at other sites, even where leopards are present (Mahale, Ta?, Gombe), and scavenging of leopard kills is known only from Mahale. Feeding on prey that chimpanzees had hunted but then abandoned is the most common form of scavenging reported across study sites. For example, several individuals at Ngogo ate meat from a partially consumed red colobus carcass abandoned after a hunt the previous day. Such behavior probably was not common among Oldowan hominins. Ngogo data and those from other sites also show that chimpanzees sometimes eat meat from carcasses of prey that they did not see killed and that were not killed by chimpanzees, and that scavenging allows access to carcasses larger than those of any prey items. However, chimpanzees ignore relatively many opportunities to obtain meat from such carcasses. Scavenging may be rare because fresh carcasses are rare, because the risk of bacterial infections and zoonoses is high, and because chimpanzees may not recognize certain species as potential prey or certain size classes of prey species as food sources. Its minimal nutritional importance, along with the absence of technology to facilitate confrontational scavenging and rapid carcass processing, apparently distinguishes chimpanzee foraging strategies from those of at least some Oldowan hominins.     

The current state of korean paleoanthropology

The hominid fossil and Paleolithic archaeology records from the Korean Peninsula are extensive, but relatively little is known about the Korean human evolutionary record outside this region. The Korean paleoanthropological record is reviewed here in light of major research issues, including the hominid fossil record, relative and chronometric dating, lithic analysis, hominid subsistence, and the presence of bone tools, art and symbolism. Some of the major conclusions drawn from this review include: (1) hominid fossils have been found in nine separate sites on the Korean Peninsula; (2) possible Homo erectus fossils are present in North Korea; (3) Ryonggok Cave, in North Korea, has exposed the remains of at least five archaic Homo sapiens individuals; (4) a possible burial of an anatomically modern Homo sapiens child, discovered in Hungsu Cave in South Korea, has been tentatively dated to roughly 40,000 years ago; (5) handaxes and cleavers have been found at a number of sites near Chongokni and they appear to date to at least 100,000 years ago; and (6) taphonomic studies are necessary for addressing issues related to determining the nature of hominid-carnivore interaction over similar resources (e.g. carcasses and shelter); and the presence/absence of Early Paleolithic bone tools, art, and symbolism in Korea.     

Hominid carnivory and foraging strategies, and the socio-economic function of early archaeological sites.

New evidence for the tissue types exploited by early hominids from carcasses possibly acquired through scavenging is derived from the larger mammal bone assemblages from FLK I, level 22 (Zinjanthropus floor), and FLKN levels 1 and 2 from Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Published skeletal part profiles from the two archaeological sites are evaluated using (i) modern observations on the sequence by which carnivores consume carcass parts in order to assess the timing of hominid access to carcasses, and (ii) measurements of flesh and marrow yields to assess the tissue types sought and acquired. These results suggest that the maximization of marrow (fat) yields, not flesh (protein) yields, was the criterion shaping decisions about carcass processing. Because of evidence for density-dependent destruction of some flesh-bearing parts by scavengers of the hominid-butchered assemblages, however, it is uncertain whether carcass parts were transported and acquired by hominids in a largely defleshed condition. The results on tissue types acquired are combined with a discussion of predation risk, feeding competition and the equipment needs of carcass processing in an attempt to identify archaeological test implications of competing hypotheses for the socio-economic function of the earliest archaeological sites.     

Carcass transport decisions in Homo antecessor subsistence strategies

Pleistocene foragers used several prey acquisition and processing strategies. These strategies and their associated decisions are elucidated by taphonomic studies that cover animal transport, modifications by different agents and archaeological remains. Interpretative models of archaeological sites are by necessity based on natural and experimental observations. Ethno-archaeological data shows that several factors influenced decisions about carcass transport from the kill site to the home site. These factors often have little archaeological visibility. Díez et al. (1999) has previously interpreted the general characteristics of the macro-mammal remains from Gran Dolina Level TD6-2 (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) as the result of anthropic accumulation, in which the anatomical profiles appeared to be the result of selective transport based on the animals’ weight. Recent taphonomic analysis has shown that carcasses with different weights may be subject to similar transport strategies, suggesting that other factors influenced these choices. The hominins that occupied TD6-2 (the TD6-2 hominin group), at least sometimes, transported large carcasses to the cave in their entirety, implying participation by groups of individuals in hunting parties. These individuals delayed their consumption of large amounts of food, instead moving it to Gran Dolina, where it was shared with other group members. These decisions are evidence of social cooperation and food sharing amongst early European hominins.     

Modeling the formation of Early Stone Age artifact concentrations

The nature of stone artifact concentrations at early Plio-Pleistocene sites in East Africa is evaluated with regard to hominid transport behaviors responsible for their formation. These archaeological occurrences indicate ranging behaviors involving deliberate and repeated transport of flaked stone artifacts. The stone transported to archaeological sites within the time range of Homo habilis indicates planned transport of tools or material for tool manufacture to an extent far beyond transport behaviors reported among living apes, even stone hammer-using chimpanzees. Analysis of technological evidence in a lithic assemblage at a Plio-Pleistocene site at Koobi Fora (c. 1·5 ya) indicates on-site manufacturing activities and transport of flaked stone both to and from the site locale. Possible explanations for transport of stone artifacts are discussed in view of hominid strategies of environmental exploitation and resource utilization. A model is proposed for planned, habitual transport of artifacts by hominids positively correlated with distance of planned foraging range. In this model, larger-scale sites tended to develop at locales favorably located near abundant resources, where stone imports were high but export was relaxed due to the proximity of resources to be processed.     

晋西南旧石器考古学研究现状及其展望

晋西南古称河东,位于汾渭地堑中部,包括临汾盆地、运城盆地以及中条山南麓黄河沿岸。这里自古就是中华民族文明重要发祥地,也是研究人类起源、发展、演化的重要地区。20世纪50年代以来,考古工作者在山西地堑发现了300余处旧石器时代遗址和地点。这些发现业已证明晋西南的临汾、运城以及中条山南麓黄河沿岸,从早更新世初期直到更新世结束一直有人类在这片土地上繁衍生息。其中西侯度遗址、匼河遗址群、丁村遗址群、下川遗址群、柿子滩遗址群,代表了东亚旧石器时代人类200万年以来从能人→直立人→早期智人→晚期智人各个不同发展阶段一个完整的演化历程。因此,这里成为中国大陆一个非常重要的远古人类演化场。本文试图通过对这一区域旧石器考古的回顾,找出我们工作中的不足以及需要努力的方向,并向本地区考古学研究的开拓者贾兰坡、王建、王择义等老一辈考古学家致敬。     

Hadza meat sharing

In most human foraging societies, the meat of large animals is widely shared. Many assume that people follow this practice because it helps to reduce the risk inherent in big game hunting. In principle, a hunter can offset the chance of many hungry days by exchanging some of the meat earned from a successful strike for shares in future kills made by other hunters. If hunting and its associated risks of failure have great antiquity, then meat sharing might have been the evolutionary foundation for many other distinctively human patterns of social exchange. Here we use previously unpublished data from the Tanzanian Hadza to test hypotheses drawn from a simple version of this argument. Results indicate that Hadza meat sharing does not fit the expectations of risk-reduction reciprocity. We comment on some variations of the “sharing as exchange” argument; then elaborate an alternative based partly on the observation that a successful hunter does not control the distribution of his kill. Instead of family provisioning, his goal may be to enhance his status as a desirable neighbor. If correct, this alternative argument has implications for the evolution of men's work.     

Lead exposure in free-flying turkey vultures is associated with big game hunting in California

Predatory and scavenging birds are at risk of lead exposure when they feed on animals injured or killed by lead ammunition. While lead ammunition has been banned from waterfowl hunting in North America for almost two decades, lead ammunition is still widely used for hunting big game and small game animals. In this study, we evaluated the association between big game hunting and blood lead concentration in an avian scavenger species that feeds regularly on large mammals in California. We compared blood lead concentration in turkey vultures within and outside of the deer hunting season, and in areas with varying wild pig hunting intensity. Lead exposure in turkey vultures was significantly higher during the deer hunting season compared to the off-season, and blood lead concentration was positively correlated with increasing wild pig hunting intensity. Our results link lead exposure in turkey vultures to deer and wild pig hunting activity at these study sites, and we provide evidence that spent lead ammunition in carrion poses a significant risk of lead exposure to scavengers.     

Cutmarked bones from Pliocene archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia: implications for the function of the world's oldest stone tools

Newly recorded archaeological sites at Gona (Afar, Ethiopia) preserve both stone tools and faunal remains. These sites have also yielded the largest sample of cutmarked bones known from the time interval 2.58-2.1 million years ago (Ma). Most of the cutmarks on the Gona fauna possess obvious macroscopic (e.g., deep V-shaped cross-sections) and microscopic (e.g., internal microstriations, Herzian cones, shoulder effects) features that allow us to identify them confidently as instances of stone tool-imparted damage caused by hominid butchery. In addition, preliminary observations of the anatomical placement of cutmarks on several of the recovered bone specimens suggest that Gona hominids may have eviscerated carcasses and defleshed the fully muscled upper and intermediate limb bones of ungulates--activities that further suggest that Late Pliocene hominids may have gained early access to large mammal carcasses. These observations support the hypothesis that the earliest stone artifacts functioned primarily as butchery tools and also imply that hunting and/or aggressive scavenging of large ungulate carcasses may have been part of the behavioral repertoire of hominids by c. 2.5 Ma, although a larger sample of cutmarked bone specimens is necessary to support the latter inference.     

A Papionin Multilevel Society as a Model for Hominin Social Evolution

Multilevel societies are unique in their ability to facilitate the maintenance of strong and consistent social bonds among some individuals while allowing separation among others, which may be especially important when social and sexual bonds carry significant and reliable benefits to individuals within social groups. Here we examine the importance of social and sexual bonds in the multilevel society of hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) and apply these principles to social evolution in Plio-Pleistocene hominins. The behavior, adaptations, and socioecology of baboons (Papio spp.) have long been recognized as providing an important comparative sample to elucidate the processes of human evolution, and the social system of hamadryas baboons in particular shares even more similarities with humans than that of other baboons. Here we draw parallels between processes during the evolution of hamadryas social organization and those characterizing late Pliocene or early Pleistocene hominins, most likely Homo erectus. The higher costs of reproduction faced by female Homo erectus, exacerbated by an increased reliance on difficult to acquire, nutrient-dense foods, are commonly thought to have been alleviated by a strengthening of male–female bonds (via male provisioning and the evolution of monogamy) or by the assistance of older, postreproductive females (via grandmothering). We suggest that both of these social arrangements could have been present in Plio-Pleistocene hominins if we assume the development of a multilevel society such as that in hamadryas baboons. The evolution of a multilevel society thus underlies the adaptive potential for the complexity that we see in modern human social organization.     

A study of carnivore competition in riparian and open habitats of modern savannas and its implications for hominid behavioral modelling

Some of the models proposed to explain Plio-Pleistocene hominid behavior and the formation of early East African archaeological sites are based on the assumption that the riparian habitats in which most of them occur were places of low interspecific competition. Competition is expressed here in terms of carnivore and hominid interactions. In this paper, a study of carnivore interaction in open and closed habitats is presented. The results indicate that riparian woodland shows the lowest degree of competition in savanna ecosystems. This suggests that if Plio-Pleistocene carnivores were adapted like their modern counterparts, the paleoecological settings of early sites could have provided hominids with enough safety to process carcasses and behave as shown in "central-place", "near-kill location" and "refuge" foraging models.     

An ecomorphological model of the initial hominid dispersal from Africa

We use new data on the timing and extent of the early Pleistocene dispersal of Homo erectus to estimate diffusion coefficients of early Homo from Africa. These diffusion coefficients indicate more rapid and efficient dispersals than those calculated for fossil Macaca sp., Theropithecus darti, and Mesopithecus pentelicus. Increases in home range size associated with changes in ecology, hominid body size, and possibly foraging strategy may underlay these differences in dispersal efficiency. Ecological data for extant primates and human foragers indicate a close relationship between body size, home range size, and diet quality. These data predict that evolutionary changes in body size and foraging behavior would have produced a 10-fold increase in the home range size of H. erectus compared with that of the australopithecines. These two independent datasets provide a means of quantifying aspects of the dispersal of early Homo and suggest that rapid rates of dispersal appear to have been promoted by changes in foraging strategy and body size in H. erectus facilitated by changes in ecosystem structure during the Plio-Pleistocene.     

Increasing the resolution of the Broad Spectrum Revolution in the Southern Levantine Epipaleolithic (19-12 ka)

We analyze terminal Pleistocene archaeofaunal diversity trends in the Southern Levant by examining eight Epipaleolithic (ca. 19-12 ka) assemblages from the Western Galilee/Mt. Carmel, Israel subregion. We test predictions from a Broad Spectrum Revolution model of the population dynamics of human foragers and their prey. The study emphasizes control over geographic variability and archaeological recovery and recording methods, as we analyze a time series that samples the Epipaleolithic more fully than have previous studies. This provides a new opportunity to examine human population and economic change in the long-term transition to sedentism and agriculture.We use the Mantel test to evaluate the significance of temporal trends in body-size-based big game diversity, as well as in diversity of small game prey types. Results demonstrate a highly significant decline through time in the relative abundance of medium and large big game, measured relative to small big game. This suggests that the apparent “gazelle specialization” by Late Epipaleolithic (Natufian) hunters reflects longer-term anthropogenic overexploitation of the largest prey types in the spectrum. While large and medium big game abundance declined, our results show small game increased in economic importance over time.Considered with associated climate change data, the results provide substantial support for the hypothesis that local human populations expanded rapidly in size after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We suggest that following the post-LGM population pulse, human foragers adopted a shifting series of intensification strategies mediated by changes in residential mobility.     

The effect of treating method of game on the content of biogenic amines in wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) meat during the course of storage

The aim of present study was to assess the correlation between the method of treating the carcasses of shot wild ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and the formation of biogenic amines in the their muscles. The carcasses of wild ducks (n?=?180) were divided into three groups of 60 carcasses according to the method of treatment: eviscerated, drawn, and left untreated. Each group was further divided into three subgroups of 20 duck carcasses on the basis of the storage temperature (0, 7, and 15 °C) and stored for 21 days. Samples of breast and thigh muscles were taken at regular weekly intervals. Biogenic amines (cadaverine, putrescine, tyramine, histamine, phenylethylamine, and tryptamine) in samples of breast and thigh muscles were separated by reverse-phase liquid chromatography and detected by tandem mass spectrometry. The sum of biogenic amines was compared with a value of 5 mg/kg, indicating the critical content for fresh meat of high hygienic quality. The results of this study indicated that the sum of biogenic amines in wild duck meat exceeded this limit in an extremely short period of time after the commencement of storage (during the first week of storage). Higher content of biogenic amines were recorded in thigh muscle compared to breast muscle of drawn ducks and untreated ducks. According to our results, the generally recommended method for treating the carcasses of feathered game after hunting (evisceration) does not represent a method that would ensure a longer period of freshness or higher hygiene quality of the game than the other two possible methods of treatment from the biogenic amines point of view.     

Who was the first? An experimental application of carnivore and hominid overlapping marks at the Pleistocene archaeological sites

There are many types of evidence that provide information about methods for obtaining animal nutrients. Several researchers suggest that the main element to be considered is the skeletal representation of the different species identified in the faunal assemblage. This element must be associated to the animals’ age at death and the localisation of processing marks of the carcasses (both those of anthropic origin and those produced by carnivores). Occasionally, these marks coincide on the same point of the bone, giving cause for overlapping marks. These marks can be considered an aid more to identify the anthropic manner for obtaining animal recourses. However, these cases are very unusual at archaeological sites, and it is not always easy to identify which of the two predators has obtained the prey first. Through the experimental process presented in this article, we have observed diagnostic elements on overlapping marks that show the action sequence of the predators (hominids and carnivores) on carcasses. These experimental criteria were applied to different archaeological sites of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene in the Iberian Peninsula: Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain) and level TD10-1 and TD6-2 of Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Burgos). In these assemblages, we were able to distinguish hunting and scavenging events through overlapping marks, providing a new element to the general interpretation of these sites.