Methodological recommendations for ungulate mortality analyses in paleoanthropology

Age profiling of fossil faunal samples relies on the correlation of animal tooth-wear patterns with life history stages, but the criteria used to infer these stages are not necessarily valid. Here we redefine some commonly used prey age classes, such as “juvenile,” “prime-age adult,” and “old adult,” based on the variable characteristics of tooth wear that we have observed in different ungulate size classes, and argue that prey vulnerability to predation is not so clearly predicted by the simplified age classes in widespread use by zooarchaeologists. We recommend instead classifying the youngest animal remains as either young juvenile or subadult juvenile, and adult remains as early prime, late prime or old, and provide specific criteria of dental eruption and occlusal wear for making these determinations. We argue this refined age profiling system, when used in combination with other types of zooarchaeological and taphonomic data, can provide accurate inferences of faunal accumulation processes.     

Bovid mortality profiles in paleoecological context falsify hypotheses of endurance running–hunting and passive scavenging by early Pleistocene hominins

The world’s first archaeological traces from 2.6 million years ago (Ma) at Gona, in Ethiopia, include sharp-edged cutting tools and cut-marked animal bones, which indicate consumption of skeletal muscle by early hominin butchers. From that point, evidence of hominin meat-eating becomes increasingly more common throughout the Pleistocene archaeological record. Thus, the substantive debate about hominin meat-eating now centers on mode(s) of carcass resource acquisition. Two prominent hypotheses suggest, alternatively, (1) that early Homo hunted ungulate prey by running them to physiological failure and then dispatching them, or (2) that early Homo was relegated to passively scavenging carcass residues abandoned by carnivore predators. Various paleontologically testable predictions can be formulated for both hypotheses. Here we test four predictions concerning age-frequency distributions for bovids that contributed carcass remains to the 1.8 Ma. old FLK 22 Zinjanthropus (FLK Zinj, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) fauna, which zooarchaeological and taphonomic data indicate was formed predominantly by early Homo. In all but one case, the bovid mortality data from FLK Zinj violate test predictions of the endurance running-hunting and passive scavenging hypotheses. When combined with other taphonomic data, these results falsify both hypotheses, and lead to the hypothesis that early Homo operated successfully as an ambush predator.     

Fossil findings from the Sıcak Çermik fissure ridge-type travertines and possible hominid tracks,Sivas, Central Turkey

S?cak Çermik (Sivas) is an important geothermal and recent travertine formation area in Central Anatolia. The majority of travertines found in the region comprise fissure-ridge type travertines according to morphological classification. At the location called Tepe Çermik within the travertine area, fill containing fossil bone fragments of Equus sp., Bovidae and other abundant animals formed within the fracture axis of a N–S striking fissure-ridge travertine developed under control of tectonic forces. The finds of these fossils in fissure-ridge travertines linked to tectonic forces indicates formation of a unique fossil environment created under the control of these forces. The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Dating analyses of fossils from the study area determined the fills were older than 43,000 years. The U/Th age of a sample from the most recently-formed banded travertine in the axis of the fracture was identified as 278,540 ± 18,436 years. As a result, the ages of fossils found within this fill are thought to be between 43,000 and 278,540 ± 18,436 years old. The high amount of perissodactyla and artiodactyla fossils found within fill in the axis of the fissure-ridge travertine probably indicates the presence of hominids who chose the region for hunting or settlement. The Equus sp. and Bovidae fossil samples found in the axis of the fracture indicate that in the dry and cold glacial period the paleogeography in a large portion of Anatolia comprised desert-like steppe.     

The distinction between postcranial bones of Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827 and Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827 from the British pleistocene and the taxonomic status of Bos and Bison

The study of British Pleistocene mammal faunas has been hampered by the difficulty of telling the difference between the postcranial elements of the often abundant remains of the large bovids Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827 and Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827. Here I present qualitative and morphometric criteria whereby Bos primigenius and Bison priscus radii, metacarpals, tibiae, astragali and metatarsals can be told apart using British Pleistocene material.     

New species of Tsaidamotherium (Bovidae,Artiodactyla) from China sheds new light on the skull morphology and systematics of the genus

A new species of Tsaidamotherium(Bovidae,Artiodactyla),T.brevirostrum,described here represents only the second discovery of the genus.Tsaidamotherium is a mid-sized late Miocene bovid with an odd-looking plate-like horn-core apparatus so far known only from northwestern China.The holotype of T.brevirostrum is a cranial part of skull from the Liushu Formation(late Miocene)of the Linxia Basin.The new species differs from the type species,T.bohlini,mainly in horn-core morphology,having the frontal horn-cores proper much smaller and less distinctly separated from the plate-shaped posterior portion.Furthermore,the new species has smaller frontal sinuses,but a thicker layer of compact bone beneath the horn-core apparatus as seen in frontal section.A complete skull with a smaller horn-core apparatus is considered to represent a female individual of T.brevirostrum.The facial part of the skull,which is first known for this genus,is very short and high,with a high nasal cavity,strongly retracted nasals,and shortened premaxillae and premolar rows.All this probably suggests that the animal with an enlarged nasal cavity,like the modern Saiga and Budorcas,may have had a special adaptation to the high plateau environment.