It has been a while since I have posted anything on fossil man. The most
interesting news item concerns the discovery of a very small brained hominid
at Dmanisi, Georgia. This skull was found in association with larger brained
H. erectus' and it dates to 1.7 million years. The first two skulls found at
Dmanisi have brain-sizes of 800 cc, this one has a brain-size of 600
cc--smaller than the brain size of any normal human being (the smallest was
Daniel Lyon, an Irishman of the last century who had a brain size of 700 cc.
There is some spculation that this new skull might very well be habilis, in
which case it would be the only known case of habilis living with erectus
and would have serious implications for how the habilines evolved into
erectines.
Migration of Homo erectus out of Africa
Speaking of the first H. erectus outside of Africa (above), there is new
evidence of when H. erectus left africal. At Erk-el-Ahmar,Jordon, Oldowan
tools were found (Oldowan tools are the oldest form of stone tools known).
Dating by magnetostratigraphy shows that the stone tools are between 1.8-2
million years old. This would be consistent with the earliest known
occurrences of H. erectus outside of Africa. He had the technology and
intelligence to essentially inhabit the vast majority of the Old World.
Erectus is found from Java to China, to Georgia, to Italy prior to 800,000
years ago.
> Early human sites
> Longupo Cave, China 1.9 myr
> Java 1.8 myr
> Turkana Kenya 1.6-1.9 myr
> Dmanisi Georgia 1.7 myr
> Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania 1.2-1.8 myr
> Ubeidiya, Israel 1.5 myr
> Gongwanling, China 1.1 myr
see Constance Holden, ìVery Old Tools,î Science, 295(2002):795
No other animal spread so rapidly as did H. erectus. It appears that he was
much more capable than we often give him credit.
Neanderthal Efficiency.
A new study of Levallois stone tool techniques show how they maximize the
cutting edge and minimize wastage. It seems that the Neanderthals, who
invented this technique, were not so stupid after all. The temporal
persistence of this tool type may not have been due to lack of inventiveness
on the part of the Neanderthals, but simply that most experiments resulted
in worse results. The report says:
ìRecent volumetric definitions of Levallois core technology are amenable to
mathematical modelling. We present a simple geometric model that permits
controlled manipulation of a few of the key parameters defining Levallois
core morphology. The models indicate that Levallois cores are relatively
efficient at minimizing raw material waste while at the same time maximizing
productivity in terms of total number of tool blanks and amount of cutting
edge produced. Deviations from an ideal Levallois geometry produce
significant declines in both efficiency and productivity. These results
implicate mechanical and economic constraints as factors underlying the
broad geographic distribution and temporal persistence of Levallois core
technologies during the Middle and Late Pleistocene.î P. Jeffrey
Brantingham, Steven L. Kuhn, ìConstraints on Levallois Core Technology: A
Mathematical Modelî Journal of Archaeological Science,Vol. 28, No. 7, July
1, 2001pp. 747-761
Ornamentation may simply be due to population expansion
A study by Mary Stiner concerning the food remains in caves in Turkey and
Lebanon have convinced Stiner and her team that there was a population
explosion in those regions between 40-50 kyr ago. The news account says:
"The archaeologists have noticed a shift in diet during this time from
slow-reproducing animals that are relatively easy to capture ("unless," says
Kuhn "you have a really bad back"), like tortoises and shellfish, to quickly
reproducing, hard-to-catch game like rabbits and birds. They speculate that
a burgeoning human population forced people to broaden their diet to include
animals that were more difficult to hunt."
"Finds of shell beads from places like ÐÁagizli Cave in Turkey and Ksar'
Akil in Lebanon also suggest a growing population. "You use ornaments to
identify things about yourself," says Kuhn. "The target audience for the
beads is people who are more or less strangers, that know just enough about
you to understand what ornaments mean. As populations grow, you deal with
more strangers. Beads are a new form of communication, so that you know at a
distance who the person is and how you should deal with them."--ERIC A.
POWELL
http://www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=0205/newsbriefs/cave
Of Mice and Men
While we may only be 2% different in DNA from us to the chimps (99.6% if
only genes are considered), there is only 2.5% difference between mice and
men. This says that only small changes in the DNA are required to radically
alter body plan.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992352
Neanderthal plant use
Neanderthals were not so different from us. They used plants in much the
same way was modern, technologically primitive humans do. The report says:
"The Amud Neanderthals emphasized both wood and grass exploitation. Ligneous
parts of trees and shrubs were used mainly for fuel. Herbaceous plants were
used for bedding, possibly fuel, and for food. There is clear and repetitive
evidence for the exploitation of mature grass panicles, inferred to have
been collected for their seeds. These findings suggest that, as with the
pattern recently discerned for faunal resources, a broad spectrum of plants
has been exploited from at least the end of the Middle Palaeolithic.
Phytolith analysis now provides a tool for testing models explaining
subsistence and mobility patterns during the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic
and for better understanding the role of vegetal resources in shaping these
patterns." Marco Madella et al, "The Exploitation of Plant Resources by
Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel): The Evidence from Phytolith Studies",
Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 29, No. 7, July 1, 2002, pp. 703-719
Evidence for active hunting 1.5 myr ago.
There has been a long running controversy in anthropology about when active
hunting began. By this it is meant active hunting as opposed to scavenging
the kills of lions and hyaenas. A recent abstract adds evidence in favor of
hunting. It says:
ìAn assemblage of 1…5Ma Oldowan sites situated on a paleosol of Maritanane,
Peninj (Tanzania) presents a new type of archaeological record characterized
by abundant faunal remains associated to a small amount of stone tools over
an extensive area. The widespread nature of the archaeological materials,
together with different weathering stages of the fauna and articulated
clusters of bones suggests that hominids redundantly visited the area to
obtain and process animal carcasses. Bone surface analyses indicate that
hominids had primary access to fully fleshed carcasses, and that carnivore
activity was restricted to post-depositional ravaging. Given that a high
degree of competition among carnivores seems to have existed in the
paleohabitats near the location where the ST Site Complex was formed, as
inferred by a landscape taphonomy study, passive scavenging does not seem to
have been a feasible option available to hominids. Cut mark patterns suggest
that hominids were actively involved in obtaining animal resources rather
than visiting other carnivores' kills. The data presented would initially
support behavioural interpretations such as those proposed by O'Connell
(1997) suggesting that the ST site complex might have been the result of
"near-kill locations" redundantly visited by hominids.î Manuel
DomÌnguez-Rodrigo, , Ignacio de La Torre1, Luis de Luque, Luis Alcal·,
Rafael Mora, Jordi Serrallonga, Victoria Medina, ìThe ST Site Complex at
Peninj, West Lake Natron, Tanzania: Implications for Early Hominid
Behavioural Modelsî Journal of Archaeological Science
Vol. 29, No. 6, June 1, 2002,pp. 639-665
Horse or man?
An extremely controversial Spanish site, is still battling for recognition.
The site is 1.6 myr old and is claimed to contain human fossil FRAGMENTS.
Many people have doubted that conclusion and claim the fossils are horse.
The argument started before Dmanisi was found proving that H. erectus was
indeed out of Africa that long ago. However, the argument has continued
until today. The two fossils in question are VM-1960 and VM 3691 and even
the shape of the bone sutures have been the occasion of argumentation. Thus
these researchers looked for chemical evidence of what species the bones
belong to. The abstract says:
"Fossil extracts were tested with antibodies against human IgG and against
horse IgG with two independent immunological methods: dot-blotting (DB) and
a modification of this latter method: quantitative dot-blotting (QDB). IgG
was detected by DB and was quantifiable by QDB in some of the fossils
tested. Equid fossils from Atapuerca and Venta Micena gave stronger
reactions with the antibodies against horse IgG than with the antibodies
against human IgG. Fossils VM3691 and VM1960 reacted more strongly with the
antibodies against human IgG than with antibodies against horse IgG, whereas
no IgG was detected in fossils CV1 and CV2. These findings show that
species-specific IgG can be detected in fossils as old as 1…6Myr. The
immunological analysis of fossil proteins may help to solve palaeontological
controversies. ì Jes™s M. Torres, ConcepciÛn Borja, Enrique G. Olivares,
ìImmunoglobulin G in 1…6 Million-year-old Fossil Bones from Venta Micena
(Granada, Spain)î Journal of Archaeological Science Vol. 29, No. 2,
February 1, 2002,pp. 167-175
This supports the human hypothesis rather than the horse hypothesis.
glenn
see http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
anthropology/geology/paleontology/theology\
personal stories of struggle
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 06 2002 - 13:04:24 EDT