Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes (original) (raw)
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Diet and ecology of Neanderthals: Insights from bone and tooth biogeochemistry
After reviewing the current knowledge on paleoecological tracking using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in fossil bones and teeth, the contribution of this new approach to key questions of Neanderthal diet and ecology is examined. In particular, the determination of ungulate habitat (open environment versus closed forest) is discussed. Thanks to the carbon and nitrogen isotopic differences observed in the main ungulates available as prey to Neanderthal of OIS 3, it is possible to evaluate quantitatively the contribution of different prey in the diet of Neanderthals. The results of this approach suggest that megaherbivores, such as mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, were the most important providers of proteins to the Neanderthal from Saint-Césaire and probably also to one Neanderthal specimen from Spy. In addition, the conclusions of zooarcheological and isotopic dietary determinations are not always in agreement, possibly due to taphonomic biases and site specialization.
Journal of Human Evolution, 2005
The carbon and nitrogen isotopic abundances of the collagen extracted from the Saint-Ce´saire I Neanderthal have been used to infer the dietary behaviour of this specimen. A review of previously published Neanderthal collagen isotopic signatures with the addition of 3 new collagen isotopic signatures from specimens from Les Pradelles allows us to compare the dietary habits of 5 Neanderthal specimens from OIS 3 and one specimen from OIS 5c. This comparison points to a trophic position as top predator in an open environment, with little variation through time and space. In addition, a comparison of the Saint-Ce´saire I Neanderthal with contemporaneous hyaenas has been performed using a multi-source mixing model, modified from Phillips and Gregg (2003, Oecologia 127, 171). It appears that the isotopic differences between the Neanderthal specimen and hyaenas can be accounted for by much lower amounts of reindeer and much higher amounts of woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth in the dietary input of the Neanderthal specimen than in that of hyaenas, with relatively similar contributions of bovinae, large deer and horse for both predators,
Isotope evidence for the diet of the Neanderthal type specimen
Antiquity, 2008
Stable isotopes extracted from two hominins and a range of animals from the original Neanderthal site shows these Middle Palaeolithic people to have been hunters predominately on a meat diet. Comparison with other specimens further south suggests this diet – deer, but no fish or plants – to be something of a behavioural norm, whatever the latitude and plant cover.
Dietary competition between Neanderthals and Modern Humans: insights from stable isotopes
Carbon and nitrogen isotopic abundances in mammalian bone collagen directly reflect those of the dietary protein averaged over a period of several years. The isotopic signatures of collagen preserved in fossil bone provide direct information on the type of plants consumed by herbivores, as well as on the potential prey consumed by predators. Numerous Upper Pleistocene humans have been investigated using this approach, including Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthals, Neanderthals from the transition between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, as well as early Upper Palaeolithic modern humans. All studied Neanderthals present a diet rich in proteins from open environment herbivores. Neanderthals from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition do not exhibit any significant deviation from this pattern. The currently available isotopic data point to a similar diet for Neanderthals and early Upper Palaeolithic modern humans. This diet was based primarily on proteins from open environment herbivores. In areas where they coexisted, both hominids would have been in direct dietary competition. Cave bear and brown bear present another case of two related large mammal species with large dietary breadth coexisting in Upper Pleistocene Europe. In contrast with the situation for humans, the available data for cave and brown bears indicate distinctive dietary niches as well as a temporal and spatial coexistence throughout much of the Upper Pleistocene.
Journal of human …, 2008
We report here on the isotopic analysis (carbon and nitrogen) of collagen extracted from a Neanderthal tooth and animal bone from the late Mousterian site of Jonzac (Charente-Maritime, France). This study was undertaken to test whether the isotopic evidence indicates that animal protein was the main source of dietary protein for this relatively late Neanderthal, as suggested by previous studies. This was of particular interest here because this is the first isotopic study of a relatively late Neanderthal associated with Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA, dating to approximately 55,000 to 40,000 BP) technology. We found that the Jonzac Neanderthal had isotopic values consistent with a diet in which the main protein sources were large herbivores, particularly bovids and horses. We also found evidence of different dietary niches between the Neanderthal and a hyena at the site, with the hyena consuming mainly reindeer.
Isotopic evidence for dietary ecology of late Neandertals in North-Western Europe
The Late Pleistocene site "Troisi eme caverne" of Goyet (Belgium) has yielded the broadest set of Neandertal remains in North-Western Europe and is associated with a rich and diverse large mammal assemblage. We reconstructed the dietary ecology at the site using stable isotope tracking (d 13 C and d 15 N) of bone collagen. The d 13 C and d 15 N values of all species are consistent with those observed in other "mammoth steppe" sites. The relative contribution of potential prey species to the diet of carnivores (including Neandertals) was evaluated using a Bayesian model. The distribution of individuals from herbivorous species and carnivorous ones was determined through cluster analysis in order to identify ecological niches, regardless of the individual species attribution. The Neandertals within the predator guild and the mammoth and reindeer as representatives of the herbivores occupied the most specific and most narrow ecological niches. The "Troisi eme caverne" of Goyet can be regarded as a key site for the investigation of Late Pleistocene Neandertal ecology north of the Alps.
Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet in Eastern Europe
Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, 2009
The Late Pleistocene environments of Eastern Europe -especially the cool and dry environments of the East European Plain -offer a unique setting for comparison of Neanderthal and modern human diet. There are some taphonomic factors specific to this setting, however, including those related to the scarcity of natural shelters and distribution of woody plants on the central plain, which complicate the analysis of Late Pleistocene human diet. Neanderthals occupied southern upland areas, and sometimes the southwest and central plain, probably sustaining themselves primarily on the hunting of large mammals, which often included steppe species such as Bison priscus and Saiga tatarica. It is difficult to understand how recent hunter-gatherers in some of these environments (e.g., southwest plain during the Middle Pleniglacial) could have sustained themselves throughout the year on the basis of large mammal hunting without food storage. The key to Neanderthal survival in such habitats may have been the hunting of mammoth and rhinoceros -very large herbivores not available to recent hunter-gatherers in northern interior settings. Modern humans -who are present on the East European Plain as early as anywhere in Europebroadened the diet to include small mammals, birds, and/or fish during the Middle Pleniglacial. Evidence of this shift, which seems to have been achieved through the design of novel foodgetting technologies, is derived both from the faunal remains and stable isotope analysis of human bone. Modern humans occupied the loess-steppe habitat on the central plain during the Late Pleniglacial and often used their food debris as fuel.
Diet and behavior of the Saint-Césaire Neanderthal inferred from biogeochemical data inversion
Journal of Human Evolution, 2006
Biogeochemistry is a powerful tool for dietary reconstruction, and mixing equations can be used to quantify the contribution of multiple sources to an individual's diet. The goals of this paper are: 1) to generalize the inverse method to dietary mixtures; and 2) to reconstruct the diet of the Saint-Césaire Neanderthal using Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca data of the mineral fraction of bone (hydroxylapatite), and with published d 13 C and d 15 N data of the associated organic fraction of bone (collagen). A new method is proposed to calculate the maximum diagenetic contribution of the Sr/Ba ratio, assuming that the soil soluble fraction is the diagenetic end-member and, for a given fraction of diagenesis, allows the restoration of the original Sr/Ba ratio. Considering the Saint-Césaire Châtelperronian mammalian assemblage as the meat source, and on the basis of available Sr, Ba, and Ca contents of plants, the results indicate that the percentage of plants in the Neanderthal's diet must have been close to zero for realistic Sr and Ba impoverishment between diet and hydroxylapatite. Contrary to previous studies, it is shown that fish could constitute a significant proportion (30%) of the diet of the Saint-Césaire Neanderthal. However, this mass balance solution is not supported by the zooarchaeological data. When the entire faunal assemblage is considered as the dietary source, the calculation shows that bovids (except reindeer) represent the greatest percentage of consumed meat (58%), followed by horses/rhinoceros (22%), reindeer (13%), and mammoths (7%). These respective percentages are in close accordance with zooarchaeological records, suggesting that the faunal assemblage associated with the Neanderthal of Saint-Césaire reliably reflects what he ate during the last few years of his life. In behavioral terms, this result supports the hypothesis that this Neanderthal carried the foodstuffs back to the Saint-Césaire shelter before their consumption.