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Modesto-Mata M, de la Fuente Valentín L, Hlusko LJ, Martínez de Pinillos M, Towle I, García-Campos C, Martinón-Torres M, Bermúdez de Castro JM. Artificial neural networks reconstruct missing perikymata in worn teeth. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2024; 307:3120-3138. [PMID: 38468123 DOI: 10.1002/ar.25416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 02/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
Dental evolutionary studies in hominins are key to understanding how our ancestors and close fossil relatives grew from the early stages of embryogenesis into adults. In a sense, teeth are like an airplane's 'black box' as they record important variables for assessing developmental timing, enabling comparisons within and between populations, species, and genera. The ability to discern this type of nuanced information is embedded in the nature of how tooth enamel and dentin form: incrementally and over years. This incremental growth leaves chronological indicators in the histological structure of enamel, visible on the crown surface as perikymata. These structures are used in the process of reconstructing the rate and timing of tooth formation. Unfortunately, the developmentally earliest growth lines in lateral enamel are quickly lost to wear once the tooth crown erupts. We developed a method to reconstruct these earliest, missing perilymata from worn teeth through knowledge of the later-developed, visible perikymata for all tooth types (incisors, canines, premolars, and molars) using a modern human dataset. Building on our previous research using polynomial regressions, here we describe an artificial neural networks (ANN) method. This new ANN method mostly predicts within 2 counts the number of perikymata present in each of the first three deciles of the crown height for all tooth types. Our ANN method for estimating perikymata lost through wear has two immediate benefits: more accurate values can be produced and worn teeth can be included in dental research. This tool is available on the open-source platform R within the package teethR released under GPL v3.0 license, enabling other researchers the opportunity to expand their datasets for studies of periodicity in histological growth, dental development, and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Modesto-Mata
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño (La Rioja), Spain
| | | | - Leslea J Hlusko
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Marina Martínez de Pinillos
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Laboratorio de Evolución Humana (LEH), Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
| | - Ian Towle
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
| | - Cecilia García-Campos
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain
| | - María Martinón-Torres
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
| | - José María Bermúdez de Castro
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK
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Blanz M, Balasse M, Frémondeau D, Gál E, Osztás A, Biller AZ, Nyerges ÉÁ, Fiorillo D, Bánffy E, Ivanova M. Early Neolithic pastoral land use at Alsónyék-Bátaszék, Hungary (Starčevo culture): New insights from stable isotope ratios. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0295769. [PMID: 38085722 PMCID: PMC10715649 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The earliest introduction of livestock (cattle, goats, sheep, pigs) into the Carpathian Basin was an important step towards farming expansion into continental Europe. This spread beyond the environments of the southern Balkans was accompanied by a reduction in the spectrum of cultivated crops, changes in the relative representation of different domestic animals, and, most likely, adaptations of husbandry practices. How the earliest farmers in the Carpathian Basin kept their domestic stock is still understudied. We explored early animal management and land use strategies at the Starčevo settlement at Alsónyék-Bátaszék, Hungary (Early Neolithic, ca. 5800-5600 cal BC). Settled at the intersection of wide alluvial plains, waterlogged meadows and marshes to the east, and forested hills to the west, early farmers at Alsónyék had a wide variety of options for nourishing their livestock. We performed stable isotope ratio analysis of bone collagen (n = 99; δ13C, δ15N) and tooth enamel (nteeth = 28, sequentially sampled for δ13C and δ18O) from wild and domestic animals to locate them in the landscape and investigate herding practices on a seasonal scale. The bone collagen isotope ratios mostly indicate feeding in open environments. However, results from the sequential analysis of cattle and sheep enamel suggest diverse dietary strategies for winters, including consumption of forest resources, consumption of summer hay and grazing in an open environment. Most pigs appear to have had herbivorous diets, but several individuals likely supplemented their diet with animal protein. Stable isotope ratio results from the Lengyel phase at Alsónyék (ca. 4800-4300 cal BC) suggest more access to animal protein for pigs, and feeding in more open areas by wild boar, red deer and cattle compared to the Starčevo phase. This study's results demonstrate considerable variability in early animal husbandry practices at Alsónyék.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Blanz
- Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science (VIAS), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marie Balasse
- AASPE ‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements’, CNRS/MNHN, Paris, France
| | - Delphine Frémondeau
- Centre for Archaeological Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Erika Gál
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anett Osztás
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Éva Á. Nyerges
- Department of Archaeology, Savaria Museum, Szombathely, Hungary
| | - Denis Fiorillo
- AASPE ‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements’, CNRS/MNHN, Paris, France
| | - Eszter Bánffy
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest, Hungary
- Römisch-Germanische Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Maria Ivanova
- Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
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Dating the emergence of dairying by the first farmers of Central Europe using 14C analysis of fatty acids preserved in pottery vessels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2109325118. [PMID: 36252027 PMCID: PMC9618069 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2109325118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Calendrical dating for the introduction of new food commodities affords enhanced understanding of major changes in human food procurement. Here, direct dating of milk residues from the Early Neolithic in Central Europe demonstrates the use of this unique secondary product from animals arrived with the earliest Linearbandkeramik settlers in the western (France, the Netherlands, and northwestern Germany) and eastern (Poland) extensions of the cultural group. At a time when most adult humans lacked the lactase-persistence gene variant, the adoption and intensification of a dairy-based economy would have had significant impact on human diet, evolution, and environment. Direct, accurate, and precise dating of archaeological pottery vessels is now achievable using a recently developed approach based on the radiocarbon dating of purified molecular components of food residues preserved in the walls of pottery vessels. The method targets fatty acids from animal fat residues, making it uniquely suited for directly dating the inception of new food commodities in prehistoric populations. Here, we report a large-scale application of the method by directly dating the introduction of dairying into Central Europe by the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) cultural group based on dairy fat residues. The radiocarbon dates (n = 27) from the 54th century BC from the western and eastern expansion of the LBK suggest dairy exploitation arrived with the first settlers in the respective regions and were not gradually adopted later. This is particularly significant, as contemporaneous LBK sites showed an uneven distribution of dairy exploitation. Significantly, our findings demonstrate the power of directly dating the introduction of new food commodities, hence removing taphonomic uncertainties when assessing this indirectly based on associated cultural materials or other remains.
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Ancient Faunal History Revealed by Interdisciplinary Biomolecular Approaches. DIVERSITY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/d13080370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Starting four decades ago, studies have examined the ecology and evolutionary dynamics of populations and species using short mitochondrial DNA fragments and stable isotopes. Through technological and analytical advances, the methods and biomolecules at our disposal have increased significantly to now include lipids, whole genomes, proteomes, and even epigenomes. At an unprecedented resolution, the study of ancient biomolecules has made it possible for us to disentangle the complex processes that shaped the ancient faunal diversity across millennia, with the potential to aid in implicating probable causes of species extinction and how humans impacted the genetics and ecology of wild and domestic species. However, even now, few studies explore interdisciplinary biomolecular approaches to reveal ancient faunal diversity dynamics in relation to environmental and anthropogenic impact. This review will approach how biomolecules have been implemented in a broad variety of topics and species, from the extinct Pleistocene megafauna to ancient wild and domestic stocks, as well as how their future use has the potential to offer an enhanced understanding of drivers of past faunal diversity on Earth.
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