Erik Trinkaus

Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic

New carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values for human remains dating to the mid-Upper Paleolithic in Europe indicate significant amounts of aquatic (fish, mollusks, and/or birds) foods in some of their diets. Most of this evidence points to exploitation of inland freshwater aquatic resources in particular. By contrast, European Neandertal collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values do not indicate significant use of inland aquatic foods but instead show that they obtained the majority of their protein from terrestrial herbivores. In agreement with recent zooarcheological analyses, the isotope results indicate shifts toward a more broad-spectrum subsistence economy in inland Europe by the mid-Upper Paleolithic period, probably associated with significant population increases.

An early modern human from the Peştera cu Oase, Romania

The 2002 discovery of a robust modern human mandible in the Peştera cu Oase, southwestern Romania, provides evidence of early modern humans in the lower Danubian Corridor. Directly accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C)-dated to 34,000–36,000 14C years B.P., the Oase 1 mandible is the oldest definite early modern human specimen in Europe and provides perspectives on the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in the northwestern Old World. The moderately long Oase 1 mandible exhibits a prominent tuber symphyseos and overall proportions that place it close to earlier Upper Paleolithic European specimens. Its symmetrical mandibular incisure, medially placed condyle, small superior medial pterygoid tubercle, mesial mental foramen, and narrow corpus place it closer to early modern humans among Late Pleistocene humans. However, its cross-sectional symphyseal orientation is intermediate between late archaic and early modern humans, the ramus is exceptionally wide, and the molars become progressively larger distally with exceptionally large third molars. The molar crowns lack derived Neandertal features but are otherwise morphologically undiagnostic. However, it has unilateral mandibular foramen lingular bridging, an apparently derived Neandertal feature. It therefore presents a mosaic of archaic, early modern human and possibly Neandertal morphological features, emphasizing both the complex population dynamics of modern human dispersal into Europe and the subsequent morphological evolution of European early modern humans.

The Energetic Paradox of Human Running and Hominid Evolution [and Comments and Reply]

The energetic cost of running is relatively high in man. In spite of this, humans are adept endurance runners, capable of running down, for example, zebra and kangaroo. Distance running is made possible for man in part by an exceptional ability to dissipate exercise heat loads. Most mammals lose heat by panting, which is coupled to breathing and locomotor cycles during running. This interdependence may limit the effectiveness of panting as a means of heat dissipation. Because sweating is not dependent on respiration, it may be more compatible with running as a thermoregulatory mechanism. Furthermore, mans lack of body hair improves thermal conductance while running, as it facilitates convection at the skin surface. While horses, for example, have been shown to possess energetically optimal speeds in each gait, the energetic cost for a man to run a given distance does not change with speed. It is hypothesized that this is because bipedality allows breathing frequency to vary relative to stride frequency. Mans constant cost of transport may enable human hunters to pursue the prey animal at speeds that force it to run inefficiently, thereby expediting its eventual fatigue. Given what is known of heat dissipation in Old World Anthropoidea, the bipedality of early hominids, and human exercise physiology, one factor important in the origin of the Hominidae may have been the occupation of a new niche as a diurnal endurance predator.

Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

We report here on the direct isotopic evidence for Neanderthal and early modern human diets in Europe. Isotopic methods indicate the sources of dietary protein over many years of life, and show that Neanderthals had a similar diet through time (≈120,000 to ≈37,000 cal BP) and in different regions of Europe. The isotopic evidence indicates that in all cases Neanderthals were top-level carnivores and obtained all, or most, of their dietary protein from large herbivores. In contrast, early modern humans (≈40,000 to ≈27,000 cal BP) exhibited a wider range of isotopic values, and a number of individuals had evidence for the consumption of aquatic (marine and freshwater) resources. This pattern includes Oase 1, the oldest directly dated modern human in Europe (≈40,000 cal BP) with the highest nitrogen isotope value of all of the humans studied, likely because of freshwater fish consumption. As Oase 1 was close in time to the last Neanderthals, these data may indicate a significant dietary shift associated with the changing population dynamics of modern human emergence in Europe.

The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe

The earliest anatomically modern humans in Europe are thought to have appeared around 43,000–42,000 calendar years before present (43–42 kyr cal bp), by association with Aurignacian sites and lithic assemblages assumed to have been made by modern humans rather than by Neanderthals. However, the actual physical evidence for modern humans is extremely rare, and direct dates reach no farther back than about 41–39 kyr cal bp, leaving a gap. Here we show, using stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological data, that a fragment of human maxilla from the Kent’s Cavern site, UK, dates to the earlier period. The maxilla (KC4), which was excavated in 1927, was initially diagnosed as Upper Palaeolithic modern human. In 1989, it was directly radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry to 36.4–34.7 kyr cal bp. Using a Bayesian analysis of new ultrafiltered bone collagen dates in an ordered stratigraphic sequence at the site, we show that this date is a considerable underestimate. Instead, KC4 dates to 44.2–41.5 kyr cal bp. This makes it older than any other equivalently dated modern human specimen and directly contemporary with the latest European Neanderthals, thus making its taxonomic attribution crucial. We also show that in 13 dental traits KC4 possesses modern human rather than Neanderthal characteristics; three other traits show Neanderthal affinities and a further seven are ambiguous. KC4 therefore represents the oldest known anatomically modern human fossil in northwestern Europe, fills a key gap between the earliest dated Aurignacian remains and the earliest human skeletal remains, and demonstrates the wide and rapid dispersal of early modern humans across Europe more than 40 kyr ago.

Patterns of Trauma among the Neandertals

Abstract A high frequency of traumatic lesions and post-traumatic degenerative changes have been noted in Neandertal skeletons. To asses the implications of the anatomical distribution of these lesions, we have assigned them to one of seven regions: head/neck, trunk, shoulder/arm, hand, pelvis, leg and foot. The resultant distributions, both including and deleting injuries indicated only by post-traumatic degenerations and from Shanidar 1, were compared to anatomical lesion distributions for three Recent human archaeological samples (Bt-5, Libben and a pooled Nubian one), three modern clinical samples (late 20th century Albuquerque, early 20th century London and late 19th century New York City), and a specialized athletic sample (North American Rodeo performers). The majority of the Neandertal samples (as adjusted) are highly significantly different from the six normal Recent human samples, with only the most trimmed Neandertal sample being non-significantly different from the New York sample. However, all of the Neandertal distributions provide a close match to the Rodeo traumatic lesion pattern, primarily as a result of a high incidence of head & neck trauma. Although small sample size, preservation and a dearth of older individuals with inhibited mobility may contribute to the Neandertal lesion distribution, the similarity to the Rodeo lesion distribution suggests frequent close encounters with large ungulates unkindly disposed to the humans involved.

European early modern humans and the fate of the Neandertals.

A consideration of the morphological aspects of the earliest modern humans in Europe (more than ≈33,000 B.P.) and the subsequent Gravettian human remains indicates that they possess an anatomical pattern congruent with the autapomorphic (derived) morphology of the earliest (Middle Paleolithic) African modern humans. However, they exhibit a variable suite of features that are either distinctive Neandertal traits and/or plesiomorphic (ancestral) aspects that had been lost among the African Middle Paleolithic modern humans. These features include aspects of neurocranial shape, basicranial external morphology, mandibular ramal and symphyseal form, dental morphology and size, and anteroposterior dental proportions, as well as aspects of the clavicles, scapulae, metacarpals, and appendicular proportions. The ubiquitous and variable presence of these morphological features in the European earlier modern human samples can only be parsimoniously explained as a product of modest levels of assimilation of Neandertals into early modern human populations as the latter dispersed across Europe. This interpretation is in agreement with current analyses of recent and past human molecular data.

Human remains from Zhirendong, South China, and modern human emergence in East Asia

The 2007 discovery of fragmentary human remains (two molars and an anterior mandible) at Zhirendong (Zhiren Cave) in South China provides insight in the processes involved in the establishment of modern humans in eastern Eurasia. The human remains are securely dated by U-series on overlying flowstones and a rich associated faunal sample to the initial Late Pleistocene, >100 kya. As such, they are the oldest modern human fossils in East Asia and predate by >60,000 y the oldest previously known modern human remains in the region. The Zhiren 3 mandible in particular presents derived modern human anterior symphyseal morphology, with a projecting tuber symphyseos, distinct mental fossae, modest lateral tubercles, and a vertical symphysis; it is separate from any known late archaic human mandible. However, it also exhibits a lingual symphyseal morphology and corpus robustness that place it close to later Pleistocene archaic humans. The age and morphology of the Zhiren Cave human remains support a modern human emergence scenario for East Asia involving dispersal with assimilation or populational continuity with gene flow. It also places the Late Pleistocene Asian emergence of modern humans in a pre-Upper Paleolithic context and raises issues concerning the long-term Late Pleistocene coexistence of late archaic and early modern humans across Eurasia.

Neanderthal mortality patterns

Abstract Consideration of the mortality distributions of 206 European and Near Eastern Neanderthals (40 associated skeletons and 166 isolated elements), compared to those of 11 Recent human ethnographic and palaeodemographic samples and two non-human mammalian samples. indicate that there is a clear representational bias in the total sample, with too few infants and older adults plus too many adolescents and prime-age adults. Manipulations of the Neanderthal data produce immature mortality distributions within the ranges of the Recent human samples, but they maintain the high prime-age adult and low older adult mortality. This high young adult mortality in the Neanderthal sample does not appear to be a product of differential preservation or recognition of fossil remains or the systematic underageing of older adults. However. it is likely to be the product of a combination of demographic stress (associated with high levels of stress indicators), the effects of pooling across temporally and geographically diverse and fluctuating Neanderthal populations, the need for full mobility among all individuals and hence a dearth of older individuals dying in shelters, and (possibly) differential disposal of older individuals in shelters. The first three factors support the interpretations of high levels of adaptive stress previously suggested by palaeopathological analyses of their remains.

An early modern human from Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, China

Thirty-four elements of an early modern human (EMH) were found in Tianyuan Cave, Zhoukoudian, China in 2003. Dated to 42,000–39,000 calendrical years before present by using direct accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon, the Tianyuan 1 skeleton is among the oldest directly dated EMHs in eastern Eurasia. Morphological comparison shows Tianyuan 1 to have a series of derived modern human characteristics, including a projecting tuber symphyseos, a high anterior symphyseal angle, a broad scapular glenoid fossa, a reduced hamulus, a gluteal buttress, and a pilaster on the femora. Other features of Tianyuan 1 that are more common among EMHs are its modest humeral pectoralis major tuberosities, anteriorly rotated radial tuberosity, reduced radial curvature, and modest talar trochlea. It also lacks several mandibular features common among western Eurasian late archaic humans, including mandibular foramen bridging, mandibular notch asymmetry, and a large superior medial pterygoid tubercle. However, Tianyuan 1 exhibits several late archaic human features, such as its anterior to posterior dental proportions, a large hamulus length, and a broad and rounded distal phalangeal tuberosity. This morphological pattern implies that a simple spread of modern humans from Africa is unlikely.