An article I contributed to on dietary reconstructions of Neandertals from Hortus Cave was published online this week in Comptes Rendus Palevol. The research was a collaborative effort between Frank L’Engle Williams, Jessica L. Droke, Christopher W. Schmidt, Gaël Becam, Marie-Antoinette de Lumley, and me. This is another paper that stems from the DENTALWEAR Project directed by Christopher W. Schmidt at the University of Indianapolis that I referenced in an earlier post. Our study is interesting because the Hortus Neandertal sample includes a wide range of age variation: a juvenile, 4 adults, and an older adult (50+ years old - "old" by Pleistocene standards). The Hortus individuals also come from different stratigraphic sequences in the site which are associated with different climatic conditions. Thus, we were able to investigation patterning in diet by both age and in relation to climate. Two-dimensional photosimulations (left, grey images) and their 3D enamel surface reconstructions counterparts for the Hortus Neandertals. for (a) Hortus III, (b) Hortus IV, (c) Hortus V, (d) Hortus VI, (e) Hortus VIII and (f) Hortus XI. The ones for Hortus III and XI are quite similar. We found that the This plot above summarizes are results well. The bivariate plot contains data for two dental microwear texture variables (complexity [Asfc] and anisotropy [epLsar]) that are known to characterize human dietary variation well. The black arrows are generalizations about diet based on comparative data from 12 recent human foraging, farming, and pastoralist groups from the DENTALWEAR Project (Karriger et al., 2016). The variation in diet related to climate is shown by the box labeled "Sub-Phase Vb". The Sub-Phase Vb Neandertals group together which indicates similar dietary strategies during this period of greater coldness and aridity than other phases at the site. The dashed line shows that the adults group separately from the "older" adult and young (juvenile) individual. Thus, age also contributes to unique patterns of dental microwear texture at Hortus. Our results were fairly consistent with our predictions. We now have an even greater understanding of dietary variation and adaptability among the Hortus Neandertals, but also Neandertals in general. References:
Williams FLE, Droke JL, Schmidt CW, Willman JC, Becam G, and de Lumley M-A. 2018 Dental microwear texture analysis of Neandertals from Hortus cave, France / Analyse de la texture des de la micro-usure dentaire chez les Néandertaliens de la grotte de l’Hortus, France. Comptes Rendus Palevol. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2018.04.003 Karriger WM, Schmidt CW, and Smith FH. 2016. Dental microwear texture analysis of Croatian Neandertal molars. PaleoAnthropology 2016:172-184. http://www.paleoanthro.org/journal/volumes/2016/ I am currently on a research trip at the Universidad de Alicante where I am working with Alejandro Romero on 3D methdologies for the IDENTITIES Project. The campus and weather are beautiful to say the least. Departamento de Biotecnología, Universidad de Alicante where I am currently working. My task for the two weeks that I am in Alicante is to scan as many teeth as possible and begin to work with the software needed to manipulate and analyze the 3D models we create. Below you can see the scanner in the background and a dental cast sitting on a rotating platter. The platter rotates automatically and scans are taken at set increments. The scans are then automatically fused together after the platter completes a full rotation. The image to the right shows fused scan before further post-processing takes place. The weird "glob" at the top of the scan is some modeling clay that held the tooth stationary on the platter which will be removed later.
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John C. Willman
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