Y.P. Mcdermott Thesis
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Dental Pathology, Wear and Developmental Defects in South African Hominins
Dental pathology, wear and developmental defects in South African hominins IAN EDWARD TOWLE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Liverpool John Moores University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2017 Abstract Studying different types of dental pathology, wear, and developmental defects can allow inferences into diet and behaviour in a variety of ways. In this project data on these different variables were collected for South African hominins and compared with extant primates. The species studied include Paranthropus robustus, Australopithecus africanus, A. sediba, early Homo, Homo naledi, baboons, chimpanzees and gorillas. Macroscopic examination of each specimen was performed, with a 10X hand lens used to verify certain pathologies. Variables recorded include antemortem chipping, enamel hypoplasia, caries, occlusal wear, tertiary dentine, abscesses, and periodontal disease. Clear differences in frequencies were found in the different South African hominin species. Homo naledi displays high rates of chipping, especially small fractures above molar wear facets, likely reflecting a diet containing high levels of contaminants. Other noteworthy results include the high levels of pitting enamel hypoplasia in P. robustus molars compared to other species, likely due to a species-specific enamel formation property or developmental disturbance. The low rates of chipping in P. robustus does not fit with this species being a hard food specialist. Instead, the wear best supports a diet of low-quality tough vegetation. Australopithecus africanus likely had a broad diet, with angled molar wear, lack of caries, and high chipping frequencies supporting this conclusion. Seven new carious lesions are described, two from H. naledi and five P. -
Sergio Almécija
Sergio Almécija Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology Email: [email protected] Department of Anthropology Cellphone: (646) 943-1159 The George Washington University Science and Engineering Hall 800 22nd Street NW, Suite 6000 Washington, DC 20052 EDUCATION PhD, Cum Laude. Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universitat de Barcelona, Biological Anthropology, (October 30th, 2009). Dissertation: Evolution of the hand in Miocene apes: implications for the appearance of the human hand. Advisor: Salvador Moyà-Solà. MA with Advanced Studies Certificate (DEA). Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Biological Anthropology, 2007. BS. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Biological Sciences, 2005. PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS Assistant Professor. Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University. Present. Research Instructor. Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University. 2012-2015. Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow. Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History and New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology. 2010-2012. Research Associate. Department of Paleoprimatology and Human Paleontology, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont. 2010-present. RESEARCH INTERESTS Evolution of humans and apes. Based on the morphology of living and fossil hominoids (and other primates), to identify key skeletal adaptations defining different stages of great ape and human evolution, as well as the original selective pressures responsible for specific evolutionary transitions. Morphometrics. Apart from describing new great ape and hominin fossil materials, I am interested in broad comparative studies of key regions of the skeleton using state-of-the-art methods such as three-dimensional morphometrics and phylogenetically-informed comparative methods. -
Reassessment of the Phylogenetic Relationships of the Late Miocene Apes Hispanopithecus and Rudapithecus Based on Vestibular Morphology
Reassessment of the phylogenetic relationships of the late Miocene apes Hispanopithecus and Rudapithecus based on vestibular morphology Alessandro Urciuolia,1, Clément Zanollib, Sergio Almécijaa,c,d, Amélie Beaudeta,e,f,g, Jean Dumoncelh, Naoki Morimotoi, Masato Nakatsukasai, Salvador Moyà-Solàa,j,k, David R. Begunl, and David M. Albaa,1 aInstitut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain; bUniv. Bordeaux, CNRS, MCC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600 Pessac, France; cDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024; dNew York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY 10016; eDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QH, United Kingdom; fSchool of Geography, Archaeology, and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, WITS 2050, South Africa; gDepartment of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; hLaboratoire Anthropology and Image Synthesis, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université de Toulouse, 31073 Toulouse, France; iLaboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606 8502 Kyoto, Japan; jInstitució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain; kUnitat d’Antropologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain; and lDepartment of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada Edited by Justin S. Sipla, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, and accepted by Editorial Board Member C. O. Lovejoy December 3, 2020 (received for review July 19, 2020) Late Miocene great apes are key to reconstructing the ancestral Dryopithecus and allied forms have long been debated. Until a morphotype from which earliest hominins evolved. Despite con- decade ago, several species of European apes from the middle sensus that the late Miocene dryopith great apes Hispanopithecus and late Miocene were included within this genus (9–16). -
A Description of the Geological Context, Discrete Traits, and Linear Morphometrics of the Middle Pleistocene Hominin from Dali, Shaanxi Province, China
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 150:141–157 (2013) A Description of the Geological Context, Discrete Traits, and Linear Morphometrics of the Middle Pleistocene Hominin from Dali, Shaanxi Province, China Xinzhi Wu1 and Sheela Athreya2* 1Laboratory for Human Evolution, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China 2Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 KEY WORDS Homo heidelbergensis; Homo erectus; Asia ABSTRACT In 1978, a nearly complete hominin Afro/European Middle Pleistocene Homo and align it fossil cranium was recovered from loess deposits at the with Asian H. erectus.Atthesametime,itdisplaysa site of Dali in Shaanxi Province, northwestern China. more derived morphology of the supraorbital torus and It was subsequently briefly described in both English supratoral sulcus and a thinner tympanic plate than and Chinese publications. Here we present a compre- H. erectus, a relatively long upper (lambda-inion) occi- hensive univariate and nonmetric description of the pital plane with a clear separation of inion and opis- specimen and provide comparisons with key Middle thocranion, and an absolute and relative increase in Pleistocene Homo erectus and non-erectus hominins brain size, all of which align it with African and Euro- from Eurasia and Africa. In both respects we find pean Middle Pleistocene Homo. Finally, traits such as affinities with Chinese H. erectus as well as African the form of the frontal keel and the relatively short, and European Middle Pleistocene hominins typically broad midface align Dali specifically with other referred to as Homo heidelbergensis.Specifically,the Chinese specimens from the Middle Pleistocene Dali specimen possesses a low cranial height, relatively and Late Pleistocene, including H. -
Cognitive Inferences in Fossil Apes (Primates, Hominoidea): Does Encephalization Reflect Intelligence?
JASs Invited Reviews Journal of Anthropological Sciences Vol. 88 (2010), pp. 11-48 Cognitive inferences in fossil apes (Primates, Hominoidea): does encephalization reflect intelligence? David M. Alba Institut Català de Paleontologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB s/n, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona (Spain); Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Firenze. Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze (Italy); e-mail: [email protected] Summary – Paleobiological inferences on general cognitive abilities (intelligence) in fossil hominoids strongly rely on relative brain size or encephalization, computed by means of allometric residuals, quotients or constants. This has been criticized on the basis that it presumably fails to reflect the higher intelligence of great apes, and absolute brain size has been favored instead. Many problems of encephalization metrics stem from the decrease of allometric slopes towards lower taxonomic level, thus making it difficult to determine at what level encephalization metrics have biological meaning. Here, the hypothesis that encephalization can be used as a good neuroanatomical proxy for intelligence is tested at two different taxonomic levels. A significant correlation is found between intelligence and encephalization only at a lower taxonomic level, i.e. on the basis of a low allometric slope, irrespective of whether species data or independent contrasts are employed. This indicates that higher-level slopes, resulting from encephalization grade shifts between subgroups (including hylobatids vs. great apes), do not reflect functional equivalence, whereas lower-level metrics can be employed as a paleobiological proxy for intelligence. Thus, in accordance to intelligence rankings, lower-level metrics indicate that great apes are more encephalized than both monkeys and hylobatids. -
Fleagle and Lieberman 2015F.Pdf
15 Major Transformations in the Evolution of Primate Locomotion John G. Fleagle* and Daniel E. Lieberman† Introduction Compared to other mammalian orders, Primates use an extraordinary diversity of locomotor behaviors, which are made possible by a complementary diversity of musculoskeletal adaptations. Primate locomotor repertoires include various kinds of suspension, bipedalism, leaping, and quadrupedalism using multiple pronograde and orthograde postures and employing numerous gaits such as walking, trotting, galloping, and brachiation. In addition to using different locomotor modes, pri- mates regularly climb, leap, run, swing, and more in extremely diverse ways. As one might expect, the expansion of the field of primatology in the 1960s stimulated efforts to make sense of this diversity by classifying the locomotor behavior of living primates and identifying major evolutionary trends in primate locomotion. The most notable and enduring of these efforts were by the British physician and comparative anatomist John Napier (e.g., Napier 1963, 1967b; Napier and Napier 1967; Napier and Walker 1967). Napier’s seminal 1967 paper, “Evolutionary Aspects of Primate Locomotion,” drew on the work of earlier comparative anatomists such as LeGros Clark, Wood Jones, Straus, and Washburn. By synthesizing the anatomy and behavior of extant primates with the primate fossil record, Napier argued that * Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University † Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University 257 You are reading copyrighted material published by University of Chicago Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. fig. 15.1 Trends in the evolution of primate locomotion. -
A New Hominoid-Bearing Locality from the Late Miocene of the Valles-Penedes Basin
Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2018) 1e11 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol Can Pallars i Llobateres: A new hominoid-bearing locality from the late Miocene of the Valles-Pened es Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) * David M. Alba a, , Isaac Casanovas-Vilar a, Marc Furio a, b, Israel García-Paredes c, a, Chiara Angelone d, a, e, Sílvia Jovells-Vaque a, Angel H. Lujan f, a, g, Sergio Almecija h, a, 1, Salvador Moya-Sol a a, i, j a Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain b Departament de Geologia, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain c Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geologicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, c/ Jose Antonio Novais 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain d Dipartimento di Scienze, Universita Roma Tre, Largo San Leonardo Murialdo, 1, 00146, Roma, Italy e Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xizhimen Wai Da Jie 142, Beijing 100044, China f Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Chemin de Musee 6, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland g Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno, 611 37, Czech Republic h Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA i Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain j Unitat d'Antropologia Biologica, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain article info abstract Article history: In the Iberian Peninsula, Miocene apes (Hominoidea) are generally rare and mostly restricted to the Received 27 November 2017 Valles-Pened es Basin. -
A Volumetric Technique for Fossil Body Mass Estimation Applied to Australopithecus
*Revised Manuscript Unmarked Click here to view linked References 1 A volumetric technique for fossil body mass estimation applied to Australopithecus 2 afarensis 3 4 Charlotte A. Brasseya, *, +, Thomas O’Mahoneyb, +, Andrew T. Chamberlainb, William I. 5 Sellersb 6 7 aSchool of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester 8 Street, Manchester, M1 5GD, UK 9 bSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, 10 Manchester, M13 9PT, UK 11 12 *Corresponding author; [email protected] 13 +These authors contributed equally to this work 14 15 16 Keywords: Lucy; reconstruction; convex hull; hominin; primate; 1 17 Abstract 18 Fossil body mass estimation is a wellestablished practice within the field of physical 19 anthropology. Previous studies have relied upon traditional allometric approaches, in which 20 the relationship between one/several skeletal dimensions and body mass in a range of 21 modern taxa is used in a predictive capacity. The lack of relatively complete skeletons has 22 thus far limited the potential application of alternative mass estimation techniques, such as 23 volumetric reconstruction, to fossil hominins. Yet across vertebrate palaeontology more 24 broadly, novel volumetric approaches are resulting in predicted values for fossil body mass 25 very different to those estimated by traditional allometry. Here we present a new digital 26 reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis (A.L. 288-1; ‘Lucy’) and a convex hull-based 27 volumetric estimate of body mass. The technique relies upon identifying a predictable 28 relationship between the ‘shrink-wrapped’ volume of the skeleton and known body mass in a 29 range of modern taxa, and subsequent application to an articulated model of the fossil taxa 30 of interest. -
In the Beginning Was… the Monkey!
E no princípio... era o macaco! WALTER A. NEVES Introdução ONFORME TENTAREI demonstrar neste artigo, muito já sabemos sobre a evolução de nossa linhagem, a dos hominíneos1 (Figura 1). Mais ainda, Ctentarei demonstrar como é inquestionável o fato de sermos, como to- das as demais criaturas do planeta, resultado de um processo natural de modi- ficação ao longo do tempo; no nosso caso, a partir de um grande símio. Em outras palavras, tentarei, da maneira mais didática que consiga, convencer os leitores de que o homem, inexoravelmente, veio mesmo do macaco, mas por curvas extremamente sinuosas. Não é menos verdade, porém, que muita coisa ainda precisamos aprender sobre os detalhes desse processo e de como e por que viemos a ser o que somos. Décadas de pesquisas em campo e em laboratório ainda serão necessárias para que a comunidade científica possa disponibilizar para todo o mundo, dentro e fora da academia, um quadro detalhado do que ocorreu conosco e com nossos ancestrais nos últimos sete milhões de anos, quando nossa linhagem evolutiva se separou do ancestral comum que compartilhamos com os chimpanzés. Nunca é demais lembrar que os chimpanzés de hoje resultaram também de um processo evolutivo de sete milhões de anos. Prova disso é que, a partir dos chimpanzés comuns, diferenciou-se, há cerca de 2,5 milhões de anos, uma outra linhagem, ainda viva, conhecida como bonobos ou chimpanzés pigmeus. Para aqueles que como eu se dedicam ao estudo da evolução humana, é muito comum ouvir dos colegas e dos alunos, pelos corredores acadêmicos, que basta um novo fóssil ser encontrado na África para que tudo o que conhecemos sobre nossos antepassados se modifique completamente. -
The Evolution of Human and Ape Hand Proportions
ARTICLE Received 6 Feb 2015 | Accepted 4 Jun 2015 | Published 14 Jul 2015 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8717 OPEN The evolution of human and ape hand proportions Sergio Alme´cija1,2,3, Jeroen B. Smaers4 & William L. Jungers2 Human hands are distinguished from apes by possessing longer thumbs relative to fingers. However, this simple ape-human dichotomy fails to provide an adequate framework for testing competing hypotheses of human evolution and for reconstructing the morphology of the last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees. We inspect human and ape hand-length proportions using phylogenetically informed morphometric analyses and test alternative models of evolution along the anthropoid tree of life, including fossils like the plesiomorphic ape Proconsul heseloni and the hominins Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus sediba. Our results reveal high levels of hand disparity among modern hominoids, which are explained by different evolutionary processes: autapomorphic evolution in hylobatids (extreme digital and thumb elongation), convergent adaptation between chimpanzees and orangutans (digital elongation) and comparatively little change in gorillas and hominins. The human (and australopith) high thumb-to-digits ratio required little change since the LCA, and was acquired convergently with other highly dexterous anthropoids. 1 Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. 2 Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. 3 Institut Catala` de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), Universitat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Edifici Z (ICTA-ICP), campus de la UAB, c/ de les Columnes, s/n., 08193 Cerdanyola del Valle`s (Barcelona), Spain. -
Stable Isotope and Trace Element Paleoecology of the Rudabánya II Fauna: Paleoenvironmental Implications for the Late Miocene Hominoid, Rudapithecus Hungaricus
Stable Isotope and Trace Element Paleoecology of the Rudabánya II Fauna: Paleoenvironmental Implications for the Late Miocene Hominoid, Rudapithecus hungaricus by Laura Campbell Eastham A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Anthropology University of Toronto © Copyright by Laura C. Eastham 2017 Stable Isotope and Trace Element Paleoecology of the Rudabánya II Fauna: Paleoenvironmental Implications for the Late Miocene Hominoid, Rudapithecus hungaricus Laura C. Eastham Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Anthropology University of Toronto 2017 Abstract The Late Miocene extinction of great apes in Europe has generally been regarded as the consequence of environmental changes that occurred in correlation with global Late Miocene cooling. However, given the range of dietary and locomotor adaptations observed among the different hominoid genera it is unlikely that the same environmental factors can account for the decline of the entire group. To better understand the factors that influenced the extinction of European Miocene apes it is necessary to evaluate their paleoecology on a regional scale. This research utilizes stable carbon and oxygen isotope (δ13C and δ18O) and strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) trace element ratios measured in fossil ungulate tooth enamel to reconstruct the paleoecology and paleoclimate of Rudabánya II (R. II), an early Late Miocene (~10 Ma) hominoid locality in northeastern Hungary. The fossiliferous deposits at R. II preserve abundant samples of the extinct great ape Rudapithecus hungaricus. Primary aims of this research include: 1) evaluating the types of habitats present in terms of forest canopy cover, 2) examining trophic niche dynamics among the diverse ungulate community, and 3) estimating key climatic variables including mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), and degree of seasonality. -