Travis Rayne Pickering

2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia

CRAFT Research Center, 419 N. Indiana Avenue, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1355, USA Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA Departmento de Prehistoria y Arquelogia, Facultad de Geografia, e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria 28040, Madrid, Spain Department of Anthropology and CRAFT Research Center, 419 N. Indiana Avenue, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA Sterkfontein Research Unit, University of Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University-School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106-4930, USA Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

Configurational approach to identifying the earliest hominin butchers

The announcement of two approximately 3.4-million-y-old purportedly butchered fossil bones from the Dikika paleoanthropological research area (Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia) could profoundly alter our understanding of human evolution. Butchering damage on the Dikika bones would imply that tool-assisted meat-eating began approximately 800,000 y before previously thought, based on butchered bones from 2.6- to 2.5-million-y-old sites at the Ethiopian Gona and Bouri localities. Further, the only hominin currently known from Dikika at approximately 3.4 Ma is Australopithecus afarensis, a temporally and geographically widespread species unassociated previously with any archaeological evidence of butchering. Our taphonomic configurational approach to assess the claims of A. afarensis butchery at Dikika suggests the claims of unexpectedly early butchering at the site are not warranted. The Dikika research group focused its analysis on the morphology of the marks in question but failed to demonstrate, through recovery of similarly marked in situ fossils, the exact provenience of the published fossils, and failed to note occurrences of random striae on the cortices of the published fossils (incurred through incidental movement of the defleshed specimens across and/or within their abrasive encasing sediments). The occurrence of such random striae (sometimes called collectively “trampling” damage) on the two fossils provide the configurational context for rejection of the claimed butchery marks. The earliest best evidence for hominin butchery thus remains at 2.6 to 2.5 Ma, presumably associated with more derived species than A. afarensis.

Savanna chimpanzees use tools to harvest the underground storage organs of plants.

It has been hypothesized that plant underground storage organs (USOs) played key roles in the initial hominin colonization of savanna habitats, the development of the distinctive skull and tooth morphology of the genus Australopithecus, and the evolution of the genus Homo by serving as “fallback foods” exploited during periods of food shortage. These hypotheses have been tested mostly by morphological, isotopic, and microwear analyses of hominin bones and teeth. Archaeological evidence of USO digging technology is equivocal. Until now relevant data from studies of chimpanzees, useful in behavioral models of early hominins because of their phylogenetic proximity and anatomical similarities, have been lacking. Here we report on the first evidence of chimpanzees using tools to dig for USOs, suggesting that exploitation of such resources was within the cognitive and technological reach of the earliest hominins. Consistent with scenarios of hominin adaptation to savannas, these data come from Ugalla (Tanzania), one of the driest, most open and seasonal chimpanzee habitats. USOs are, however, exploited during the rainy season, well after the period of most likely food shortage, contradicting the specific prediction of fallback food hypotheses. The discovery that savanna chimpanzees use tools to obtain USOs contradicts yet another claim of human uniqueness and provides a model for the study of variables influencing USO use among early hominins.

Importance of limb bone shaft fragments in zooarchaeology: a response to “On in situ attrition and vertebrate body part profiles” (2002), by M.C. Stiner

Abstract M.C. Stiners (J. Archaeol. Sci. 29 (2002) 979) recent defense of anatomical regions profiling (ARP) prompted this response, because conclusions drawn from a large body of actualistic research, generated by numerous zooarchaeologists over the past 30+ years, are consistent in highlighting the differential survivorship of intra-element portions of limb bone specimens. Further, these results argue for the rigorous identification of limb bone shaft specimens and their systematic inclusion in the analyses of archaeofaunas. Stiners “flexible hunter-scavenger” model of Neandertal ecology in coastal Italy is based, in part, on results from ARP, a technique that we believe does not fully recognize and incorporate these important findings.

First Partial Skeleton of a 1.34-Million-Year-Old Paranthropus boisei from Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Recent excavations in Level 4 at BK (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) have yielded nine hominin teeth, a distal humerus fragment, a proximal radius with much of its shaft, a femur shaft, and a tibia shaft fragment (cataloged collectively as OH 80). Those elements identified more specifically than to simply Hominidae gen. et sp. indet are attributed to Paranthropus boisei. Before this study, incontrovertible P. boisei partial skeletons, for which postcranial remains occurred in association with taxonomically diagnostic craniodental remains, were unknown. Thus, OH 80 stands as the first unambiguous, dentally associated Paranthropus partial skeleton from East Africa. The morphology and size of its constituent parts suggest that the fossils derived from an extremely robust individual who, at 1.338±0.024 Ma (1 sigma), represents one of the most recent occurrences of Paranthropus before its extinction in East Africa.

Reply to McPherron et al.: Doubting Dikika is about data, not paradigms

We critiqued the claim that bone surface marks on two ∼3.4 Ma fossils from Dikika (Ethiopia) are the earliest evidence of hominin butchery damage (1) by ( i ) providing a detailed argument showing site- and assemblage-level weaknesses for the claim and ( ii ) matching those marks morphologically to marks produced on modern bones by trampling in coarse-grained sedimentary substrates, similar to those of the Dikika site (2). The letter by McPherron et al. (3), responding to our critique, completely ignores these substantive issues and, instead, seeks to disqualify our assessment by arguing that we are unwilling to accept a paradigm shift. McPherron et al. (3) still provide … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: m.dominguez.rodrigo{at}gmail.com. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Intrinsic qualities of primate bones as predictors of skeletal element representation in modern and fossil carnivore feeding assemblages

Plio-Pleistocene faunal assemblages from Swartkrans Cave (South Africa) preserve large numbers of primate remains. Brain, C.K., 1981. The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago suggested that these primate subassemblages might have resulted from a focus by carnivores on primate predation and bone accumulation. Brains hypothesis prompted us to investigate, in a previous study, this taphonomic issue as it relates to density-mediated destruction of primate bones (J. Archaeol. Sci. 29, 2002, 883). Here we extend our investigation of Brains hypothesis by examining additional intrinsic qualities of baboon bones and their role as mediators of skeletal element representation in carnivore-created assemblages. Using three modern adult baboon skeletons, we collected data on four intrinsic bone qualities (bulk bone mineral density, maximum length, volume, and cross-sectional area) for approximately 81 bones per baboon skeleton. We investigated the relationship between these intrinsic bone qualities and a measure of skeletal part representation (the percentage minimum animal unit) for baboon bones in carnivore refuse and scat assemblages. Refuse assemblages consist of baboon bones not ingested during ten separate experimental feeding episodes in which individual baboon carcasses were fed to individual captive leopards and a spotted hyena. Scat assemblages consist of those baboon bones recovered in carnivore regurgitations and feces resulting from the feeding episodes. In refuse assemblages, volume (i.e., size) was consistently the best predictor of element representation, while cross-sectional area was the poorest predictor in the leopard refuse assemblage and bulk bone mineral density (i.e., a measure of the proportion of cortical to trabecular bone) was the poorest predictor in the hyena refuse assemblage. In light of previous documentation of carnivore-induced density-mediated destruction to bone assemblages, we interpret the current findings as suggestive of the secondary importance of bulk bone mineral density to other intrinsic qualities of skeletal elements (e.g., size, maximum dimension, and average cross-sectional area). It is only when skeletal elements are too large for consumption (e.g., many long bones) that they are fragmented following intra-element patterns of density-mediated carnivore destruction. There appears to be a size threshold beneath which bulk bone mineral density contributes little to mediating carnivore destruction of carcasses. Thus, depending on body size of the predator, body size of the prey, and specific size of the element, bulk bone mineral density may play little or no role of primary importance in mediating the destruction of skeletal elements. We compare patterns in modern comparative assemblages to patterns in primate fossil assemblages from Swartkrans. One of the fossil assemblages, Swartkrans Member 1, Hanging Remnant, most closely approximates a hyena (possibly refuse) assemblage pattern, while the Swartkrans Member 2 assemblage most closely approximates a leopard (possibly scat) assemblage pattern. The Swartkrans Member 1, Lower Bank, assemblage does not closely approximate any of our modern comparative assemblage patterns.

The “Bear” Essentials: Actualistic Research on Ursus arctos arctos in the Spanish Pyrenees and Its Implications for Paleontology and Archaeology

Neotaphonomic studies of large carnivores are used to create models in order to explain the formation of terrestrial vertebrate fossil faunas. The research reported here adds to the growing body of knowledge on the taphonomic consequences of large carnivore behavior in temperate habitats and has important implications for paleontology and archaeology. Using photo- and videotrap data, we were able to describe the consumption of 17 ungulate carcasses by wild brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) ranging the Spanish Pyrenees. Further, we analyzed the taphonomic impact of these feeding bouts on the bones recovered from those carcasses. The general sequence of consumption that we charted starts with separation of a carcass’s trunk; viscera are generally eaten first, followed by musculature of the humerus and femur. Long limb bones are not broken open for marrow extraction. Bears did not transport carcasses or carcass parts from points of feeding and did not disperse bones appreciably (if at all) from their anatomical positions. The general pattern of damage that resulted from bear feeding includes fracturing, peeling, crenulation, tooth pitting and scoring of axial and girdle elements and furrowing of the upper long limb bones. As predicted from observational data, the taphonomic consequences of bear feeding resemble those of other non-durophagus carnivores, such as felids, and are distinct from those of durophagus carnivores, such as hyenids. Our results have paleontological and archaeological relevance. Specifically, they may prove useful in building analogical models for interpreting the formation of fossil faunas for which bears are suspected bone accumulators and/or modifiers. More generally, our comparative statistical analyses draw precise quantitative distinctions between bone damage patterns imparted respectively by durophagus (modelled here primarily by spotted hyenas [Crocuta crocuta] and wolves [Canis lupus]) and non-durophagus (modelled here by brown bears and lions [Panthera leo]) carnivorans.

Newly discovered fossil- and artifact-bearing deposits, uranium-series ages, and Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Swartkrans cave, South Africa.

We report on new research at Swartkrans Cave, South Africa, that provides evidence of two previously unrealized artifact- and fossil-bearing deposits. These deposits underlie a speleothem dated by the uranium-thorium disequilibrium technique to 110,000+/-1,980 years old, the first tightly constrained, geochronological date available for the site. Recovered fauna from the two underlying deposits-including, prominently, the dental remains of Paranthropus (Australopithecus) robustus from the uppermost layer (Talus Cone Deposit)-indicate a significantly older, late Pliocene or early Pleistocene age for these units. The lowest unit (LB East Extension) is inferred to be an eastward extension of the well-known Lower Bank of Member 1, the earliest surviving infill represented at the site. The date acquired from the speleothem also sets the maximum age of a rich Middle Stone Age lithic assemblage.

Earliest modern human-like hand bone from a new >1.84-million-year-old site at Olduvai in Tanzania.

Modern humans are characterized by specialized hand morphology that is associated with advanced manipulative skills. Thus, there is important debate in paleoanthropology about the possible cause–effect relationship of this modern human-like (MHL) hand anatomy, its associated grips and the invention and use of stone tools by early hominins. Here we describe and analyse Olduvai Hominin (OH) 86, a manual proximal phalanx from the recently discovered >1.84-million-year-old (Ma) Philip Tobias Korongo (PTK) site at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). OH 86 represents the earliest MHL hand bone in the fossil record, of a size and shape that differs not only from all australopiths, but also from the phalangeal bones of the penecontemporaneous and geographically proximate OH 7 partial hand skeleton (part of the Homo habilis holotype). The discovery of OH 86 suggests that a hominin with a more MHL postcranium co-existed with Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis at Olduvai during Bed I times.