56 AAPA Abstracts Abstracts of AAPA Poster and Podium Presentations Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the to the other South African Plio-Pleistocene volume (GM, WM) in 25 right-handers (14 Jomon and Epi-Jomon individuals in karstic deposits, GD 2 contrasts these F, 11 M, avg. age 28.5) and 23 left- Hokkaido, Japan. other contemporaneous assemblages in its handers (15 F, 8 M, avg. age 36.2). Hand lack of recovered hominin and other pri- knobs were manually traced on contiguous N. Adachi1, K. Shinoda2, K. Umetsu3, Y. mate specimens. Recent comprehensive axial slices (1mm thick), after identifica- Dodo1. 1Department of Anatomy and An- reanalysis of the GD 2 assemblage has tion of landmarks following Yousry et al. thropology, Tohoku University School of considered taphonomic aspects of the en- Volumes of the frontal lobes and precen- Medicine, 2Department of Anthropology, tire sample. Faunal representation, tral gyrus were also determined. National Science Museum, Tokyo, skeletal element abundance and patterns Asymmetry scores indicate that WM 3Department of Experimental and Foren- of pre- and post-depositional modification volume in males and females regardless of sic Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Yama- to remains in the GD 2 assemblage con- handedness is strongly rightwardly gata University. firm aspects of the original taphonomic asymmetric. In males only (either hand- reconstruction. When combined with edness), GM volume is also larger on the From the morphological point of view, geological data on the original cave sys- right. Preliminary results of the precen- prehistoric populations in Hokkaido are tem, it appears that the GD 2 deposits tral gyrus indicate that that structure is considered to have been least influenced were accumulated over a rapid period of symmetric in right-handers, thus right- by Yayoi immigrants. Therefore, genetic time by a predator, likely a felid, which ward asymmetry may be limited to the study of these people can be expected to brought nearly complete carcasses into motor hand area. provide important information on the the deposits via a large, lateral entrance. These results indicate that there has genealogy of the early settlers of the This reanalysis has also revealed strong been a reorganization of the motor hand Japanese archipelago. In the present contrasts between the GD 2 faunal as- area during hominid evolution. How this study, we examined the genealogy of the semblage and the other South African structural asymmetry relates to the evolu- seventy-six Jomon and Epi-Jomon skele- Plio-Pleistocene karstic deposits in several tion of handedness remains to be deter- tons excavated in Hokkaido, Japan by aspects of its taphonomy beyond faunal mined. mitochondiral DNA analysis. representation. The summed results of Funding: Program Project Grant To identify their genealogy securely, we intersite comparisons suggest that the NINDS NS 19632 and the Mathers Foun- analyzed the coding region of mtDNA by incorporation of hominin and other pri- dation. using amplified product-length polymor- mate remains into South African karstic phisms (Umetsu et al., 2001, 2005) and deposits during the Plio-Pleistocene were Analysis of the human skeletal re- direct sequencing. We also sequenced the mediated by a series of factors including mains from the Fate Bell Shelter segments of two hypervariable regions of predator activity, aspects of cave morphol- (41VV74). mtDNA, and assigned the mtDNA under ogy, and the extent to which primates study to relevant haplogroups using the made use of specific cave entrances and C.Alvarez. Department of Anthropology, known mtDNA databases. systems. Texas State University--San Marcos. Haplogroups D4, G1, M7a, and N9b were observed in the individuals, and N9b Rightward volumetric asymmetry in Fate Bell Shelter (41VV74) is a rock was by far the most predominant. The the motor hand region of the brain in shelter within Seminole Canyon, located frequencies of the haplogroups were quite right- and left-handers. in the Lower Pecos archeological region of different from any modern populations Texas. The shelter contained artifacts, including Ainu and Okinawans. Hap- J.S. Allen1,2, J. Bruss1, H. Damasio1,3. elaborate rock art and burials that indi- logroup N9b is hitherto observed almost 1Department of Neurology, University of cate an occupation of over 8,000 years, only in Japanese populations; therefore, Iowa, Department of Anthropology, from the Middle Archaic (5500-3200 BP) this haplogroup might be the (pre-) Jomon 2University of Southern California, to the Late Prehistoric Period (1320-450 contribution to the modern Japanese 3Department of Psychology, University of BP). University of Texas archaeologists mtDNA pool. Southern California. carried out the first major excavation of the shelter in 1932. The site report indi- Taphonomy of the GD 2 in situ depos- The motor hand region of the brain (the cates that eight burials were uncovered, its at Gondolin, North West Province, “hand knob”) is located in the superior three of which had no skeletal remains, South Africa. part of the precentral gyrus (Yousry et al. while the remaining burials were com- 1997). In great apes, the left hand knob is prised of two infant burials, one child J.W. Adams1,2. 1Department of Anthropol- larger than the right (Hopkins and Pilcher burial, one adult burial, and one group ogy, Washington University in St. Louis, 2001); handedness may be associated with burial containing four adult skeletons and 2School of Anatomical Sciences, University asymmetries in the hand knob favoring scattered subadult remains (Pearce and of the Witwatersrand Medical School. the contralateral side (Hopkins and Can- Jackson, 1933). Associated artifacts sug- talupo 2004). Hand knob volumetric gest human skeletal remains at the site Fossiliferous in situ breccias from Gon- asymmetries in humans have not been date to the Middle through the Late Ar- dolin GD 2 were originally excavated in examined. Although structural asymme- chaic period (5500-1300 BP). 1979. Preliminary taphonomic analysis of tries associated with functional laterality Analyses revealed that a total of 13 part of the faunal assemblage suggested may be expected in this part of the brain, individuals were represented among the that the fossil deposits were accumulated non-volumetric investigations (VBM) of eight burials reported, including five by felids that were possibly using this asymmetries in the hand knob region adults, one adolescent, four children, and portion of the cave system as a den site. have not provided consistent results. three infants. Of the five adults and one While this reconstruction implied a simi- We used high-resolution MRI to meas- adolescent present, four females, one male lar taphonomic history for the assemblage ure hand knob gray and white matter and one individual of indeterminate sex AAPA Abstracts 57 are represented. The results of analyses of Sexual swelling is used to infer ovula- and (3) they are socially flexible. As a general pathology and oral health on both tion in wild female baboons. Previous consequence of these behavioral parallels, adults and subadults are examined and studies reported conflicting results on the the evolutionary history of the wolf-like provide a biological profile of the indi- relationship between turgescence and canids can be used to infer the probable viduals at the site. A comparative analysis timing of ovulation in captive populations. evolutionary effect of two defining aspects of the Fate Bell Shelter to other mortuary Reliability of predicting ovulation in wild of Pleistocene Homo: (1) their relative sites in the Lower Pecos region is also animals subjected to various natural habitat tolerance, predicted from evidence presented and provides insight into the stressors has not been tested. Moreover, of their dietary breadth, technical sophis- health and mortuary practices of indi- previous research has investigated only tication, and social plasticity; and (2) their viduals living in the region during the ovulatory cycles and not addressed the high mobility, predicted from morphologi- Archaic period. predictability of ovulation. This study cal indicators of a capacity for endurance explores the predictability of the timing locomotion. The analogy suggests that Species and varieties of early Homo. and occurrence of ovulation in relation to Pleistocene Homo would not have had the turgescence within a stressful situation in opportunity to speciate, especially in Af- S.C. Antón. Department of Anthropology, captive Papio sp. rica. Unlike an earlier single-species hy- New York University. Twenty female baboons were trans- pothesis based on the Competitive Exclu- ferred from group enclosures to individual sion Principle, this analysis examines The fossil record of early Homo, com- cages. They were monitored daily for four constraints on the speciation process itself monly assigned to H. habilis and H. erec- months for turgescence, menstrual bleeds among allopatric populations, rather than tus, is scant, widely dispersed, and the and urinary FSH, estrone conjugates and attempting to specify niche relationships subject of taxonomic arguments. Whether pregnanediol-3-glucuronide. The occur- between sympatric species. we recognize more than eight or only one rence and timing of ovulation were esti- species is predicated on paradigmatic mated hormonally using modifications of Sequence variation in mtDNA hyper- differences in how to recognize species in published algorithms. variable segment 1 indicates within