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Manrique HM, Friston KJ, Walker MJ. 'Snakes and ladders' in paleoanthropology: From cognitive surprise to skillfulness a million years ago. Phys Life Rev 2024; 49:40-70. [PMID: 38513522 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2024.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
A paradigmatic account may suffice to explain behavioral evolution in early Homo. We propose a parsimonious account that (1) could explain a particular, frequently-encountered, archeological outcome of behavior in early Homo - namely, the fashioning of a Paleolithic stone 'handaxe' - from a biological theoretic perspective informed by the free energy principle (FEP); and that (2) regards instances of the outcome as postdictive or retrodictive, circumstantial corroboration. Our proposal considers humankind evolving as a self-organizing biological ecosystem at a geological time-scale. We offer a narrative treatment of this self-organization in terms of the FEP. Specifically, we indicate how 'cognitive surprises' could underwrite an evolving propensity in early Homo to express sporadic unorthodox or anomalous behavior. This co-evolutionary propensity has left us a legacy of Paleolithic artifacts that is reminiscent of a 'snakes and ladders' board game of appearances, disappearances, and reappearances of particular archeological traces of Paleolithic behavior. When detected in the Early and Middle Pleistocene record, anthropologists and archeologists often imagine evidence of unusual or novel behavior in terms of early humankind ascending the rungs of a figurative phylogenetic 'ladder' - as if these corresponded to progressive evolution of cognitive abilities that enabled incremental achievements of increasingly innovative technical prowess, culminating in the cognitive ascendancy of Homo sapiens. The conjecture overlooks a plausible likelihood that behavior by an individual who was atypical among her conspecifics could have been disregarded in a community of Hominina (for definition see Appendix 1) that failed to recognize, imagine, or articulate potential advantages of adopting hitherto unorthodox behavior. Such failure, as well as diverse fortuitous demographic accidents, would cause exceptional personal behavior to be ignored and hence unremembered. It could disappear by a pitfall, down a 'snake', as it were, in the figurative evolutionary board game; thereby causing a discontinuity in the evolution of human behavior that presents like an evolutionary puzzle. The puzzle discomforts some paleoanthropologists trained in the natural and life sciences. They often dismiss it, explaining it away with such self-justifying conjectures as that, maybe, separate paleospecies of Homo differentially possessed different cognitive abilities, which, supposedly, could account for the presence or absence in the Pleistocene archeological record of traces of this or that behavioral outcome or skill. We argue that an alternative perspective - that inherits from the FEP and an individual's 'active inference' about its surroundings and of its own responses - affords a prosaic, deflationary, and parsimonious way to account for appearances, disappearances, and reappearances of particular behavioral outcomes and skills of early humankind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Héctor Marín Manrique
- Department of Psychology and Sociology, Universidad de Zaragoza, Ciudad Escolar, s/n, Teruel 44003, Spain
| | - Karl John Friston
- Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, and The Wellcome Centre for Human Imaging, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Michael John Walker
- Physical Anthropology, Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus Universitario de Espinardo Edificio 20, Murcia 30100, Spain.
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Manrique HM, Walker MJ. To copy or not to copy? That is the question! From chimpanzees to the foundation of human technological culture. Phys Life Rev 2023; 45:6-24. [PMID: 36931123 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2023.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
A prerequisite for copying innovative behaviour faithfully is the capacity of observers' brains, regarded as 'hierarchically mechanistic minds', to overcome cognitive 'surprisal' (see 2.), by maximising the evidence for their internal models, through active inference. Unlike modern humans, chimpanzees and other great apes show considerable limitations in their ability, or 'Zone of Bounded Surprisal', to overcome cognitive surprisal induced by innovative or unorthodox behaviour that rarely, therefore, is copied precisely or accurately. Most can copy adequately what is within their phenotypically habitual behavioural repertoire, in which technology plays scant part. Widespread intra- and intergenerational social transmission of complex technological innovations is not a hall-mark of great-ape taxa. 3 Ma, precursors of the genus Homo made stone artefacts, and stone-flaking likely was habitual before 2 Ma. After that time, early Homo erectus has left traces of technological innovations, though faithful copying of these and their intra- and intergenerational social transmission were rare before 1 Ma. This likely owed to a cerebral infrastructure of interconnected neuronal systems more limited than ours. Brains were smaller in size than ours, and cerebral neuronal systems ceased to develop when early Homo erectus attained full adult maturity by the mid-teen years, whereas its development continues until our mid-twenties nowadays. Pleistocene Homo underwent remarkable evolutionary adaptation of neurobiological propensities, and cerebral aspects are discussed that, it is proposed here, plausibly, were fundamental for faithful copying, which underpinned social transmission of technologies, cumulative learning, and culture. Here, observers' responses to an innovation are more important for ensuring its transmission than is an innovator's production of it, because, by themselves, the minimal cognitive prerequisites that are needed for encoding and assimilating innovations are insufficient for practical outcomes to accumulate and spread intra- and intergenerationally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Héctor M Manrique
- Departamento de Psicología y Sociología, Universidad de Zaragoza, Campus Universitario de Teruel, 44003, Teruel, Spain.
| | - Michael J Walker
- Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus Universitario de Espinardo Edificio 20, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
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A 1.4-million-year-old bone handaxe from Konso, Ethiopia, shows advanced tool technology in the early Acheulean. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:18393-18400. [PMID: 32661154 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2006370117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past decade, the early Acheulean before 1 Mya has been a focus of active research. Acheulean lithic assemblages have been shown to extend back to ∼1.75 Mya, and considerable advances in core reduction technologies are seen by 1.5 to 1.4 Mya. Here we report a bifacially flaked bone fragment (maximum dimension ∼13 cm) of a hippopotamus femur from the ∼1.4 Mya sediments of the Konso Formation in southern Ethiopia. The large number of flake scars and their distribution pattern, together with the high frequency of cone fractures, indicate anthropogenic flaking into handaxe-like form. Use-wear analyses show quasi-continuous alternate microflake scars, wear polish, edge rounding, and striae patches along an ∼5-cm-long edge toward the handaxe tip. The striae run predominantly oblique to the edge, with some perpendicular, on both the cortical and inner faces. The combined evidence is consistent with the use of this bone artifact in longitudinal motions, such as in cutting and/or sawing. This bone handaxe is the oldest known extensively flaked example from the Early Pleistocene. Despite scarcity of well-shaped bone tools, its presence at Konso shows that sophisticated flaking was practiced by ∼1.4 Mya, not only on a range of lithic materials, but also occasionally on bone, thus expanding the documented technological repertoire of African Early Pleistocene Homo.
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Daujeard C, Falguères C, Shao Q, Geraads D, Hublin JJ, Lefèvre D, Graoui ME, Rué M, Gallotti R, Delvigne V, Queffelec A, Arous EB, Tombret O, Mohib A, Raynal JP. Earliest African evidence of carcass processing and consumption in cave at 700 ka, Casablanca, Morocco. Sci Rep 2020; 10:4761. [PMID: 32179824 PMCID: PMC7075909 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-61580-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
To date, in Africa, evidence for animal processing and consumption in caves routinely used as living spaces is only documented in the late Middle Pleistocene of the North and South of the continent and postdates the Middle Pleistocene in East Africa. Here we report the earliest evidence in a North-African cave (Grotte des Rhinocéros at Casablanca, Morocco) of cut, percussion and human gnawing marks on faunal remains directly associated with lithic knapping activities in the same space and in a well-documented stratified context. Ages for this Acheulean site are provided by the dating of herbivorous teeth to 690–720 ka and 520–550 ka (lower and upper sets) by combined Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and U-series techniques. Traces of butchery on gazelle, alcelaphin, and zebra bones demonstrate that hominins had primary access to herbivore carcasses. Hominins brought and consumed meat in the cave, as documented by herbivore bones bearing human tooth marks concentrated in a circumscribed area of the excavation. In Africa, this site provides the earliest evidence for in situ carcass processing and meat-eating in cave, directly associated with lithic production and demonstrates the recurrent use by early Middle Pleistocene hominins of a North African cave site 400 000 years before that by Homo sapiens at Jebel Irhoud (Morocco).
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Daujeard
- HNHP-UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Sorbonne Universités, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Christophe Falguères
- HNHP-UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Sorbonne Universités, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Qingfeng Shao
- College of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, 1, Wenyuan Road, 210023, Nanjing, China
| | - Denis Geraads
- CR2P-UMR 7207, CNRS, MNHN, Sorbonne Universités, CP 38, 8 rue Buffon, 75231, Paris cedex 05, France.,Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jean-Jacques Hublin
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005, Paris, France
| | - David Lefèvre
- Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CNRS, UMR 5140 Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes, Campus Saint Charles, 34199, Montpellier, France
| | - Mohssine El Graoui
- Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP), Madinat al-Irfane, les Instituts - Hay Riyad, B.P. 6828, 10100, Rabat, Morocco
| | - Mathieu Rué
- Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CNRS, UMR 5140 Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes, Campus Saint Charles, 34199, Montpellier, France.,Paléotime SARL, 6173 avenue JS Achard-Picard, 38250, Villard-de-Lans, France
| | - Rosalia Gallotti
- Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CNRS, UMR 5140 Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes, Campus Saint Charles, 34199, Montpellier, France.,Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199 PACEA, Bâtiment B2, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615, Pessac cedex, France
| | - Vincent Delvigne
- Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199 PACEA, Bâtiment B2, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615, Pessac cedex, France.,Service de Préhistoire, Université de Liège, place du XX août, 4000, Liège, Belgium
| | - Alain Queffelec
- Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199 PACEA, Bâtiment B2, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615, Pessac cedex, France
| | - Eslem Ben Arous
- HNHP-UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Sorbonne Universités, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Olivier Tombret
- HNHP-UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Sorbonne Universités, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Abderrahim Mohib
- Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP), Madinat al-Irfane, les Instituts - Hay Riyad, B.P. 6828, 10100, Rabat, Morocco.,Direction provinciale de la Culture, Avenue Mohammed V, quartier administratif, Kénitra, Morocco
| | - Jean-Paul Raynal
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199 PACEA, Bâtiment B2, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615, Pessac cedex, France
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Complete permanent mandibular dentition of early Homo from the upper Burgi Member of the Koobi Fora Formation, Ileret, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2019; 131:152-175. [PMID: 31182200 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2018] [Revised: 03/15/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The KNM-ER 64060 dentition derives from a horizon that most likely dates to between 2.02 and 2.03 Ma. A proximate series of postcranial bones (designated KNM-ER 64061) derives from the same siltstone unit and may be associated with the dentition, but their separation on the surface of the site leaves some room for doubt. KNM-ER 64060 is one of fewer than ten hominin specimens from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa that comprises a full or nearly complete mandibular dentition. Its taxonomic attribution is potentially significant, especially if the postcranial elements are related. At least three, and probably four hominin species, including Paranthropus boisei and Homo erectus (= H. ergaster), are known at about this time in East Africa. Other penecontemporaneous fossils have been referred to a single, highly variable species, H. habilis, or two taxa, namely H. habilis and H. rudolfensis. Although the weight of evidence supports the attribution of these specimens to two species, there is notable lack of agreement over the assignation of individual fossils. We take a conservative approach and group all such specimens under the designation "early Homo sp." for comparative purposes. KNM-ER 64060 is clearly attributable to Homo rather than Paranthropus. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that the affinities of KNM-ER 64060 are with fossils assigned to the early Homo sp. category rather than with H. erectus. This is indicated by the overall sizes of the KNM-ER 64060 canine, premolar and molar crowns, the size relationships of the P3 to P4, the relative narrowness of its premolar crowns, the cusp proportions of the M1 and especially those of the M2 and M3, and seemingly the possession of a two-rooted P4. Some of these comparisons suggest further that among the fossils comprising the early Homo sp. sample, the KNM-ER 64060 dentition exhibits greater overall similarity to specimens such as OH 7 and OH 16 that represent Homo habilis sensu stricto.
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Li H, Kuman K, Lotter MG, Leader GM, Gibbon RJ. The Victoria West: earliest prepared core technology in the Acheulean at Canteen Kopje and implications for the cognitive evolution of early hominids. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2017; 4:170288. [PMID: 28680682 PMCID: PMC5493924 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 06/01/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Prepared core technology illustrates in-depth planning and the presence of a mental template during the core reduction process. This technology is, therefore, a significant indicator in studying the evolution of abstract thought and the cognitive abilities of hominids. Here, we report on Victoria West cores excavated from the Canteen Kopje site in central South Africa, with a preliminary age estimate of approximately 1 Ma (million years ago) for these cores. Technological analysis shows that the Victoria West cores bear similarities to the 'Volumetric Concept' as defined for the Levallois, a popular and widely distributed prepared core technology from at least 200 ka (thousand years ago). Although these similarities are present, several notable differences also occur that make the Victoria West a unique and distinctive prepared core technology; these are: elongated and convergent core shapes, consistent blow directions for flake removal, a predominance of large side-struck flakes, and the use of these flakes to make Acheulean large cutting tools. This innovative core reduction strategy at Canteen Kopje extends the roots of prepared core technology to the latter part of the Early Acheulean and clearly demonstrates an increase in the cognitive abilities and complexities of hominids in this time period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Li
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of China
| | - Kathleen Kuman
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg WITS 2050, South Africa
| | - Matt G. Lotter
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Pretoria, Lynnwood Road, Pretoria 0083, South Africa
| | - George M. Leader
- Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ryan J. Gibbon
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
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Large cutting tools in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, central China. J Hum Evol 2014; 76:129-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2013] [Revised: 08/04/2014] [Accepted: 08/05/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Marlowe FW, Berbesque JC, Wood B, Crittenden A, Porter C, Mabulla A. Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and human evolution. J Hum Evol 2014; 71:119-28. [PMID: 24746602 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2012] [Revised: 03/17/2014] [Accepted: 03/17/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Honey is the most energy dense food in nature. It is therefore not surprising that, where it exists, honey is an important food for almost all hunter-gatherers. Here we describe and analyze widespread honey collecting among foragers and show that where it is absent, in arctic and subarctic habitats, honey bees are also rare to absent. Second, we focus on one hunter-gatherer society, the Hadza of Tanzania. Hadza men and women both rank honey as their favorite food. Hadza acquire seven types of honey. Hadza women usually acquire honey that is close to the ground while men often climb tall baobab trees to raid the largest bee hives with stinging bees. Honey accounts for a substantial proportion of the kilocalories in the Hadza diet, especially that of Hadza men. Cross-cultural forager data reveal that in most hunter-gatherers, men acquire more honey than women but often, as with the Hadza, women do acquire some. Virtually all warm-climate foragers consume honey. Our closest living relatives, the great apes, take honey when they can. We suggest that honey has been part of the diet of our ancestors dating back to at least the earliest hominins. The earliest hominins, however, would have surely been less capable of acquiring as much honey as more recent, fully modern human hunter-gatherers. We discuss reasons for thinking our early ancestors would have acquired less honey than foragers ethnographically described, yet still significantly more than our great ape relatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank W Marlowe
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Rm. 2.3, Henry Wellcome Building, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK.
| | - J Colette Berbesque
- Centre for Research in Evolutionary and Environmental Anthropology, University of Roehampton, London, UK
| | - Brian Wood
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Alyssa Crittenden
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | - Claire Porter
- Polar Geospatial Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Audax Mabulla
- Department of Archaeology, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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Abstract
In this review, we propose that the neural basis for the spontaneous, diversified human tool use is an area devoted to the execution and observation of tool actions, located in the left anterior supramarginal gyrus (aSMG). The aSMG activation elicited by observing tool use is typical of human subjects, as macaques show no similar activation, even after an extensive training to use tools. The execution of tool actions, as well as their observation, requires the convergence upon aSMG of inputs from different parts of the dorsal and ventral visual streams. Non-semantic features of the target object may be provided by the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) for tool-object interaction, paralleling the well-known PPC input to anterior intraparietal (AIP) for hand-object interaction. Semantic information regarding tool identity, and knowledge of the typical manner of handling the tool, could be provided by inferior and middle regions of the temporal lobe. Somatosensory feedback and technical reasoning, as well as motor and intentional constraints also play roles during the planning of tool actions and consequently their signals likewise converge upon aSMG. We further propose that aSMG may have arisen though duplication of monkey AIP and invasion of the duplicate area by afferents from PPC providing distinct signals depending on the kinematics of the manipulative action. This duplication may have occurred when Homo Habilis or Homo Erectus emerged, generating the Oldowan or Acheulean Industrial complexes respectively. Hence tool use may have emerged during hominid evolution between bipedalism and language. We conclude that humans have two parietal systems involved in tool behavior: a biological circuit for grasping objects, including tools, and an artifactual system devoted specifically to tool use. Only the latter allows humans to understand the causal relationship between tool use and obtaining the goal, and is likely to be the basis of all technological developments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guy A Orban
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma Parma, Italy
| | - Fausto Caruana
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma Parma, Italy ; Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition, Italian Institute of Technology Parma, Italy
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Gallotti R. An older origin for the Acheulean at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia): Techno-economic behaviours at Garba IVD. J Hum Evol 2013; 65:594-620. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2013] [Revised: 06/28/2013] [Accepted: 07/07/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013; 110:1584-91. [PMID: 23359714 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221285110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Acheulean technological tradition, characterized by a large (>10 cm) flake-based component, represents a significant technological advance over the Oldowan. Although stone tool assemblages attributed to the Acheulean have been reported from as early as circa 1.6-1.75 Ma, the characteristics of these earliest occurrences and comparisons with later assemblages have not been reported in detail. Here, we provide a newly established chronometric calibration for the Acheulean assemblages of the Konso Formation, southern Ethiopia, which span the time period ∼1.75 to <1.0 Ma. The earliest Konso Acheulean is chronologically indistinguishable from the assemblage recently published as the world's earliest with an age of ∼1.75 Ma at Kokiselei, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. This Konso assemblage is characterized by a combination of large picks and crude bifaces/unifaces made predominantly on large flake blanks. An increase in the number of flake scars was observed within the Konso Formation handaxe assemblages through time, but this was less so with picks. The Konso evidence suggests that both picks and handaxes were essential components of the Acheulean from its initial stages and that the two probably differed in function. The temporal refinement seen, especially in the handaxe forms at Konso, implies enhanced function through time, perhaps in processing carcasses with long and stable cutting edges. The documentation of the earliest Acheulean at ∼1.75 Ma in both northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia suggests that behavioral novelties were being established in a regional scale at that time, paralleling the emergence of Homo erectus-like hominid morphology.
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14
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Anemone R, Emerson C, Conroy G. Finding fossils in new ways: an artificial neural network approach to predicting the location of productive fossil localities. Evol Anthropol 2012; 20:169-80. [PMID: 22034235 DOI: 10.1002/evan.20324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Chance and serendipity have long played a role in the location of productive fossil localities by vertebrate paleontologists and paleoanthropologists. We offer an alternative approach, informed by methods borrowed from the geographic information sciences and using recent advances in computer science, to more efficiently predict where fossil localities might be found. Our model uses an artificial neural network (ANN) that is trained to recognize the spectral characteristics of known productive localities and other land cover classes, such as forest, wetlands, and scrubland, within a study area based on the analysis of remotely sensed (RS) imagery. Using these spectral signatures, the model then classifies other pixels throughout the study area. The results of the neural network classification can be examined and further manipulated within a geographic information systems (GIS) software package. While we have developed and tested this model on fossil mammal localities in deposits of Paleocene and Eocene age in the Great Divide Basin of southwestern Wyoming, a similar analytical approach can be easily applied to fossil-bearing sedimentary deposits of any age in any part of the world. We suggest that new analytical tools and methods of the geographic sciences, including remote sensing and geographic information systems, are poised to greatly enrich paleoanthropological investigations, and that these new methods should be embraced by field workers in the search for, and geospatial analysis of, fossil primates and hominins.
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15
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de Sousa A, Cunha E. Hominins and the emergence of the modern human brain. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2012; 195:293-322. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-444-53860-4.00014-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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17
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Anemone RL, Conroy GC, Emerson CW. GIS and paleoanthropology: incorporating new approaches from the geospatial sciences in the analysis of primate and human evolution. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2011; 146 Suppl 53:19-46. [PMID: 22101686 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.21609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The incorporation of research tools and analytical approaches from the geospatial sciences is a welcome trend for the study of primate and human evolution. The use of remote sensing (RS) imagery and geographic information systems (GIS) allows vertebrate paleontologists, paleoanthropologists, and functional morphologists to study fossil localities, landscapes, and individual specimens in new and innovative ways that recognize and analyze the spatial nature of much paleoanthropological data. Whether one is interested in locating and mapping fossiliferous rock units in the field, creating a searchable and georeferenced database to catalog fossil localities and specimens, or studying the functional morphology of fossil teeth, bones, or artifacts, the new geospatial sciences provide an essential element in modern paleoanthropological inquiry. In this article we review recent successful applications of RS and GIS within paleoanthropology and related fields and argue for the importance of these methods for the study of human evolution in the twenty first century. We argue that the time has come for inclusion of geospatial specialists in all interdisciplinary field research in paleoanthropology, and suggest some promising areas of development and application of the methods of geospatial science to the science of human evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- R L Anemone
- Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA.
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Carnivoran remains from the Malapa hominin site, South Africa. PLoS One 2011; 6:e26940. [PMID: 22073222 PMCID: PMC3207828 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2011] [Accepted: 10/06/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent discoveries at the new hominin-bearing deposits of Malapa, South Africa, have yielded a rich faunal assemblage associated with the newly described hominin taxon Australopithecus sediba. Dating of this deposit using U-Pb and palaeomagnetic methods has provided an age of 1.977 Ma, being one of the most accurately dated, time constrained deposits in the Plio-Pleistocene of southern Africa. To date, 81 carnivoran specimens have been identified at this site including members of the families Canidae, Viverridae, Herpestidae, Hyaenidae and Felidae. Of note is the presence of the extinct taxon Dinofelis cf. D. barlowi that may represent the last appearance date for this species. Extant large carnivores are represented by specimens of leopard (Panthera pardus) and brown hyaena (Parahyaena brunnea). Smaller carnivores are also represented, and include the genera Atilax and Genetta, as well as Vulpes cf. V. chama. Malapa may also represent the first appearance date for Felis nigripes (Black-footed cat). The geochronological age of Malapa and the associated hominin taxa and carnivoran remains provide a window of research into mammalian evolution during a relatively unknown period in South Africa and elsewhere. In particular, the fauna represented at Malapa has the potential to elucidate aspects of the evolution of Dinofelis and may help resolve competing hypotheses about faunal exchange between East and Southern Africa during the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene.
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Herries AIR. A chronological perspective on the acheulian and its transition to the middle stone age in southern Africa: the question of the fauresmith. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2011; 2011:961401. [PMID: 21785711 PMCID: PMC3139141 DOI: 10.4061/2011/961401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2010] [Revised: 01/25/2011] [Accepted: 03/27/2011] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
An understanding of the age of the Acheulian and the transition to the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa has been hampered by a lack of reliable dates for key sequences in the region. A number of researchers have hypothesised that the Acheulian first occurred simultaneously in southern and eastern Africa at around 1.7-1.6 Ma. A chronological evaluation of the southern African sites suggests that there is currently little firm evidence for the Acheulian occurring before 1.4 Ma in southern Africa. Many researchers have also suggested the occurrence of a transitional industry, the Fauresmith, covering the transition from the Early to Middle Stone Age, but again, the Fauresmith has been poorly defined, documented, and dated. Despite the occurrence of large cutting tools in these Fauresmith assemblages, they appear to include all the technological components characteristic of the MSA. New data from stratified Fauresmith bearing sites in southern Africa suggest this transitional industry maybe as old as 511-435 ka and should represent the beginning of the MSA as a broad entity rather than the terminal phase of the Acheulian. The MSA in this form is a technology associated with archaic H. sapiens and early modern humans in Africa with a trend of greater complexity through time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy I R Herries
- Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory, School of Historical and European Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
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de la Torre I. The Early Stone Age lithic assemblages of Gadeb (Ethiopia) and the Developed Oldowan/early Acheulean in East Africa. J Hum Evol 2011; 60:768-812. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2010] [Revised: 01/16/2011] [Accepted: 01/17/2011] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Manzi G. Before the Emergence of Homo sapiens: Overview on the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene Fossil Record (with a Proposal about Homo heidelbergensis at the subspecific level). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2011; 2011:582678. [PMID: 21716742 PMCID: PMC3119516 DOI: 10.4061/2011/582678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2010] [Revised: 01/05/2011] [Accepted: 02/24/2011] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The origin of H. sapiens has deep roots, which include two crucial nodes: (1) the emergence and diffusion of the last common ancestor of later Homo (in the Early Pleistocene) and (2) the tempo and mode of the appearance of distinct evolutionary lineages (in the Middle Pleistocene). The window between 1,000 and 500 thousand years before present appears of crucial importance, including the generation of a new and more encephalised kind of humanity, referred to by many authors as H. heidelbergensis. This species greatly diversified during the Middle Pleistocene up to the formation of new variants (i.e., incipient species) that, eventually, led to the allopatric speciation of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. The special case furnished by the calvarium found near Ceprano (Italy), dated to 430–385 ka, offers the opportunity to investigate this matter from an original perspective. It is proposed to separate the hypodigm of a single, widespread, and polymorphic human taxon of the Middle Pleistocene into distinct subspecies (i.e., incipient species). The ancestral one should be H. heidelbergensis, including specimens such as Ceprano and the mandible from Mauer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgio Manzi
- Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy
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Pappu S, Gunnell Y, Akhilesh K, Braucher R, Taieb M, Demory F, Thouveny N. Early Pleistocene Presence of Acheulian Hominins in South India. Science 2011; 331:1596-9. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1200183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 162] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shanti Pappu
- Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, 28, I Main Road, C.I.T. Colony, Mylapore, Chennai 600004, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Yanni Gunnell
- Department of Geography, Université Lumière-Lyon 2, CNRS-UMR 5600, 5 Avenue. P. Mendès-France, 69676 Bron cedex, France
| | - Kumar Akhilesh
- Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, 28, I Main Road, C.I.T. Colony, Mylapore, Chennai 600004, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Régis Braucher
- Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
| | - Maurice Taieb
- Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
| | - François Demory
- Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
| | - Nicolas Thouveny
- Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Europôle de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France
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Fine-tuning paleoanthropological reconnaissance with high-resolution satellite imagery: the discovery of 28 new sites in Tanzania. J Hum Evol 2011; 59:680-4. [PMID: 21056726 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2009] [Revised: 06/06/2010] [Accepted: 05/21/2010] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Evolutionary Perspectives on Fat Ingestion and Metabolism in Humans. Front Neurosci 2010. [DOI: 10.1201/9781420067767-c1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] Open
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Human evolution: Emergence of the group-self. Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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The gradual evolution of enhanced control by plans: A view from below. Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Abstract
AbstractThis book proposes a theory of human cognitive evolution, drawing from paleontology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, and especially neuropsychology. The properties of humankind's brain, culture, and cognition have coevolved in a tight iterative loop; the main event in human evolution has occurred at the cognitive level, however, mediating change at the anatomical and cultural levels. During the past two million years humans have passed through three major cognitive transitions, each of which has left the human mind with a new way of representing reality and a new form of culture. Modern humans consequently have three systems of memory representation that were not available to our closest primate relatives: mimetic skill, language, and external symbols. These three systems are supported by new types of “hard” storage devices, two of which (mimetic and linguistic) are biological, one technological. Full symbolic literacy consists of a complex of skills for interacting with the external memory system. The independence of these three uniquely human ways of representing knowledge is suggested in the way the mind breaks down after brain injury and confirmed by various other lines of evidence. Each of the three systems is based on aninventivecapacity, and the products of those capacities – such as languages, symbols, gestures, social rituals, and images – continue to be invented and vetted in the social arena. Cognitive evolution is not yet complete: the externalization of memory has altered the actual memory architecture within which humans think. This is changing the role of biological memory and the way in which the human brain deploys its resources; it is also changing the form of modern culture.
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From cooperative computation to man/machine symbiosis. Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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A natural history of the mind: A guide for cognitive science. Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Stages versus continuity. Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Correct data base: Wrong model? Behav Brain Sci 2010. [DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x00032878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Ruff C. Body size and body shape in early hominins – implications of the Gona Pelvis. J Hum Evol 2010; 58:166-78. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 170] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2009] [Revised: 10/10/2009] [Accepted: 10/25/2009] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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