A giant early Pleistocene bird from eastern Europe: unexpected component of terrestrial faunas at the time of early Homo arrival

Paleontologists use fossil teeth to reconstruct the diets of early hominins and other extinct species. Some evidence is adaptive: nature selects for tooth size, shape, and structure best suited to specific food types. Other evidence includes traces left by actual foods eaten, such as microscopic tooth wear. This critical review considers how molars work, how they are used, and how occlusal topography and dental microwear can be used to infer diet and food preferences in the past, particularly for hominins of the Pliocene and early Pleistocene. Understanding that cheek teeth function as guides for chewing and tools for fracturing allows us to characterize aspects of occlusal form that reflect mechanical properties of foods to which a species is adapted. Living primates that often eat leaves, for example, have longer crests and more sloping occlusal surfaces than those that prefer hard foods. Studies of feeding ecology have shown, however, that tooth shape does not always correspond to preferred food items. It often follows mechanically challenging foods whether eaten often or rarely. Other lines of evidence that reflect actual tooth use are required to work out food preferences. Microwear textures, for example, reflect foods eaten by individuals in the past such that hard seeds and bone tend to leave complex, pitted surface textures, whereas tough leaves and meat more often leave anisotropic ones covered in long, parallel scratches. The study of fossil hominin molars shows how these various attributes are combined to infer diet and food preference in the past. A trend in occlusal morphology suggests decreased dietary specialization from Australopithecus to early Homo, and increasing dispersion in microwear complexity values is consistent with this. On the other hand, occlusal morphology may suggest dietary specialization in Paranthropus, although different species of this genus have different microwear texture patterns despite similar craniodental adaptations.

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The bears from Dmanisi and the first dispersal of early Homo out of Africa

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-54138-6 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tsegai Medin ◽

Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro ◽

Joan Madurell-Malapeira ◽

Borja Figueirido ◽

Giorgi Kopaliani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Position ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Substantial Contribution ◽

Tooth Size ◽

Forest Patches ◽

Early Homo ◽

Morphometric Analyses ◽

Coefficients Of Variation ◽

Out Of Africa ◽

New Evidence

AbstractWe report on the taxonomy and paleodiet of the bear population that inhabited the emblematic palaeoanthropological Early Pleistocene (1.8 Ma) site of Dmanisi (Georgia), based on a dual approach combining morphometrics and microwear of upper and lower teeth. Given that the teeth of Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823 from Dmanisi show considerable size variability, their systematic position has been debated. However, a comparative study of the coefficients of variation for tooth size measurements in several modern bear species shows that the variability in tooth size of the ursid population from Dmanisi could result from sexual dimorphism. The analysis of tooth microwear indicates that these bears inhabited a mixed environment of open plain with forest patches, where they had a browsing diet with a substantial contribution of meat and/or fish. Comparative tooth morphometric analyses of modern ursids and fossil U. etruscus indicate that this extinct species had an omnivorous behavior similar to that of extant brown bears. The ecological interactions of the Dmanisi bears with other members of the large mammals community, including the first hominins that dispersed out of Africa, are discussed in the light of this new evidence.

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Turtles of the genus Sakya (Geoemydidae): new material from the late Miocene of Russia and Ukraine, new taxonomic diversity and expansion of the stratigraphic range

10.7287/peerj.preprints.1089v1 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Syromyatnikova ◽

Igor Danilov

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Late Miocene ◽

Posterior Part ◽

Detailed Comparison ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Phylogenetic Position ◽

Published Data ◽

Two New Species ◽

New Material

Background. Sakya Bogachev, 1960 is a genus of geoemydid turtles with unusual scalation of the carapace consisting of 9–10 vertebrals and 8–10 pairs of pleurals. It is known from Neogene localities of Eastern Europe and includes two species: Sakya riabinini (Khosatzky, 1946) (= S. pontica Bogachev, 1960), from the late Miocene (MN13) to early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe (Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine) and Sakya kolakovskii Chkhikvadze, 1968 from the Pliocene of Abkhazia. Attribution of Melanochelys etuliensis Khosatzky and Redkozubov, 1986 from the early Pliocene of Moldova to Sakya is poorly corroborated. Here we report new material of Sakya from the late Miocene of Russia and Ukraine, which, probably, belongs to one or two new species of this genus and expands its stratigraphic distribution. Methods. We examined new material of Sakya, that includes posterior part of carapace and incomplete plastron from Morskaya 2 locality (MN 13, Rostov Province, Russia), incomplete carapace and plastron from Egorovka locality (MN 12, Odessa Province, Ukraine), and fragmentary shell remains from Fortepianka locality (MN 11, Republic of Adygea, Russia). For comparison we used published data and personal observations on other specimens of Sakya. Results. The specimens from Morskaya 2 and Egorovka are assigned to Sakya based on the presence of increased number of vertebrals and pleurals. Both specimens differ from the described species of Sakya by reduced number of vertebrals (seven in the Morskaya 2 specimen, and five in the Egorovka specimen), and extension of the posteriormost vertebral onto pygal. In addition, they differ from S. riabinini in the presence of eight neurals, longer than wide pleurals, and from S. kolakovskii in the presence of two suprapygals and serrated posterior edge of the carapace. The material from Fortepianka is too fragmentary for detailed comparison, but also differs from S. riabinini in the reduced number of vertebrals. Discussion. The reported material may represent one or two new species of Sakya. The reduced number of vertebrals in these forms probably represents a primitive condition, whereas the extension of the posteriormost vertebral onto the pygal may be a synapomorphy, which unites the new forms. Thus, the Morskaya 2 and Egorovka specimens of Sakya may represent a separate primitive lineage of this genus. In this case, S. kolakovskii and S. riabinini form a more advanced clade with increased number of carapacial scales. These issues as well as phylogenetic position of Sakya within Geoemydidae will be checked by future phylogenetic analysis. The Sakya material from Fortepianka (MN11, late Sarmatian) represents the earliest reliable record of this genus, known previously beginning from MN 12 (Meotic).

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Into the Woods Early Homo sapiens and Tropical Forest Colonization

Tropical Forests in Prehistory, History, and Modernity ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198818496.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Patrick Roberts

Keyword(s):

Tropical Forests ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Homo Sapiens ◽

Homo Erectus ◽

Rapid Expansion ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Human Populations ◽

Tropical Regions ◽

Early Homo ◽

Middle And Late Pleistocene

Popular philosophical associations of tropical forests, and forests in general, with an inherent ancestral state, away from the stresses, pollution, and technosphere of modern life, are nicely summarized by Murakami’s quote above (2002). Given the probable origins of the hominin clade in tropical forests, this quote is also apt from an evolutionary standpoint. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, tropical forests have frequently been considered impenetrable barriers to the global migration of Homo sapiens (Gamble, 1993; Finlayson, 2014). As was the case with the focus on ‘savannastan’ in facilitating the Early Pleistocene expansion of Homo erectus discussed in Chapter 3 (Dennell and Roebroeks, 2005), the movement of H. sapiens into tropical regions such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia has tended to be linked to Late Pleistocene periods when forests contracted and grasslands expanded (Bird et al., 2005; Boivin et al., 2013). Alternative narratives have focused on the importance of coastal adaptations as providing a rich source of protein and driving cultural and technological complexity, as well as mobility, in human populations during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (Mellars, 2006; Marean, 2016). The evidence of early art and symbolism at coastal cave sites such as Blombos in South Africa (Henshilwood et al., 2002, 2011; Vanhaeren et al., 2013) and Taforalt in North Africa (Bouzouggar et al., 2007) is often used to emphasize the role of marine habitats in the earliest cultural emergence of our species. Indeed, for the last decade, the pursuit of rich marine resources (Mellars, 2005, 2006) has been a popular explanation for the supposed rapidity of the ‘southern dispersal route’, whereby humans left Africa 60 ka, based on genetic information (e.g., Macaulay et al., 2005), to reach the Pleistocene landmass that connected Australia and New Guinea (Sahul) by c. 65 ka (Clarkson et al., 2017). In both of these cases, the coast or expanses of grassland have been seen as homogeneous corridors, facilitating rapid expansion without novel adaptation.

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Problems of the taxon Archidiskodon meridionalis gromovi Garutt et Alexejeva, 1964 validity: diagnosis, stratigraphic spreading and paleoecology

Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS ◽

10.31610/trudyzin/2018.322.3.222 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 322 (3) ◽

pp. 222-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

V.S. Baygusheva ◽

V.V. Titov

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Cross Sections ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Small Samples ◽

Sea Of Azov ◽

Primitive Form ◽

Enamel Thickness ◽

Azov Region ◽

Valid Taxon ◽

Sand Pits

Elephants of the mammoth lineage are important for the biostratigraphy of the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia. For Eastern Europe and adjacent regions, a sequence of subspecies has been distinguished, which replaced each other during the Villafranchian. Archidiskodon meridionalis gromovi is the middle Villafranchian phase of these elephants’ evolution and a characteristic member of the Khapry faunal complex of Eastern Europe. This species was described based on a serial collection of teeth from the Khaprovian layers that are outcropping in the Northeast Sea of Azov Region in several sand pits and coastal cross sections (Khapry, Liventsovka, Morskaya 1 and others). The holotype of this species is a nearly complete skull with significantly worn teeth. Therefore, some of its tooth characteristics (lamellar frequency, enamel thickness) have a relatively progressive level and coincides with those of A. m. meridionalis lectotype. This fact led to attempts to replace the taxon A. m. gromovi to others, based on single finds or mixed small samples. The existing objections to the validity of this taxon are mainly related to the underestimation or reassessment of the range of variability of the samples’s characteristics from different localities. It is shown that the lectotype of A. m. meridionalis was chosen not very well, because the lamellar frequency and the enamel thickness of its teeth significantly differ from the average characteristics of the Late Villafranchian sample from the Upper Valdarno. Some authors, recognizing the existence of a primitive form of southern elephants, refer the Middle Villafranchian meridionaloid elephants to Early Villafranchian Mammuthus (=Archidiskodon) rumanus or to the typical Late Villafranchian M. (=A.) meridionalis. Attempts to abandon the use of Gromov’s elephant taxon leads to confusion in the taxonomy of the genus and the inability to use such definitions for biostratigraphic and paleogeographic structures. The work provides a renewed diagnosis of the subspecies A. m. gromovi. The range of variability and the average sampling rates from the Khaprovian layers of the Sea of Azov Region differ from those of the Late Villafranchian A. m. meridionalis from Upper Valdarno. A. m. gromovi is a valid taxon, and is characterized both by cranial and serial dental stratigraphically attached material.

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Early Homo , plasticity and the extended evolutionary synthesis

Interface Focus ◽

10.1098/rsfs.2017.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 20170004 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Susan C. Antón ◽

Christopher W. Kuzawa

Keyword(s):

Phenotypic Variation ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Evolutionary Process ◽

Homo Erectus ◽

Evolutionary Synthesis ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Human Populations ◽

Extended Evolutionary Synthesis ◽

Early Homo ◽

Regional Diversification

The Modern Synthesis led to fundamental advances in understandings of human evolution. For human palaeontology, a science that works from ancestral phenotypes (i.e. the fossil record), particularly important have been perspectives used to help understand the heritable aspects of phenotypes and how fossil individuals might then be aggregated into species, and relationships among these groups understood. This focus, coupled with the fragmentary nature of the fossil record, however, means that individual phenotypic variation is often treated as unimportant ‘noise’, rather than as a source of insight into population adaptation and evolutionary process. The emphasis of the extended evolutionary synthesis on plasticity as a source of phenotypic novelty, and the related question of the role of such variation in long-term evolutionary trends, focuses welcome attention on non-genetic means by which novel phenotypes are generated and in so doing provides alternative approaches to interpreting the fossil record. We review evidence from contemporary human populations regarding some of the aspects of adult phenotypes preserved in the fossil record that might be most responsive to non-genetic drivers, and we consider how these perspectives lead to alternate hypotheses for interpreting the fossil record of early genus Homo. We conclude by arguing that paying closer attention to the causes and consequences of intraspecific phenotypic variation in its own right, as opposed to as noise around a species mean, may inspire a new generation of hypotheses regarding species diversity in the Early Pleistocene and the foundations for dispersal and regional diversification in Homo erectus and its descendants .

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Turtles of the genus Sakya (Geoemydidae): new material from the late Miocene of Russia and Ukraine, new taxonomic diversity and expansion of the stratigraphic range

10.7287/peerj.preprints.1089 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Syromyatnikova ◽

Igor Danilov

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Late Miocene ◽

Posterior Part ◽

Detailed Comparison ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Phylogenetic Position ◽

Published Data ◽

Two New Species ◽

New Material

Background. Sakya Bogachev, 1960 is a genus of geoemydid turtles with unusual scalation of the carapace consisting of 9–10 vertebrals and 8–10 pairs of pleurals. It is known from Neogene localities of Eastern Europe and includes two species: Sakya riabinini (Khosatzky, 1946) (= S. pontica Bogachev, 1960), from the late Miocene (MN13) to early Pleistocene of Eastern Europe (Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine) and Sakya kolakovskii Chkhikvadze, 1968 from the Pliocene of Abkhazia. Attribution of Melanochelys etuliensis Khosatzky and Redkozubov, 1986 from the early Pliocene of Moldova to Sakya is poorly corroborated. Here we report new material of Sakya from the late Miocene of Russia and Ukraine, which, probably, belongs to one or two new species of this genus and expands its stratigraphic distribution. Methods. We examined new material of Sakya, that includes posterior part of carapace and incomplete plastron from Morskaya 2 locality (MN 13, Rostov Province, Russia), incomplete carapace and plastron from Egorovka locality (MN 12, Odessa Province, Ukraine), and fragmentary shell remains from Fortepianka locality (MN 11, Republic of Adygea, Russia). For comparison we used published data and personal observations on other specimens of Sakya. Results. The specimens from Morskaya 2 and Egorovka are assigned to Sakya based on the presence of increased number of vertebrals and pleurals. Both specimens differ from the described species of Sakya by reduced number of vertebrals (seven in the Morskaya 2 specimen, and five in the Egorovka specimen), and extension of the posteriormost vertebral onto pygal. In addition, they differ from S. riabinini in the presence of eight neurals, longer than wide pleurals, and from S. kolakovskii in the presence of two suprapygals and serrated posterior edge of the carapace. The material from Fortepianka is too fragmentary for detailed comparison, but also differs from S. riabinini in the reduced number of vertebrals. Discussion. The reported material may represent one or two new species of Sakya. The reduced number of vertebrals in these forms probably represents a primitive condition, whereas the extension of the posteriormost vertebral onto the pygal may be a synapomorphy, which unites the new forms. Thus, the Morskaya 2 and Egorovka specimens of Sakya may represent a separate primitive lineage of this genus. In this case, S. kolakovskii and S. riabinini form a more advanced clade with increased number of carapacial scales. These issues as well as phylogenetic position of Sakya within Geoemydidae will be checked by future phylogenetic analysis. The Sakya material from Fortepianka (MN11, late Sarmatian) represents the earliest reliable record of this genus, known previously beginning from MN 12 (Meotic).

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