Pages
-
-
A Critical Evaluation of the Down Syndrome Diagnosis for LB1, Type Specimen of Homo floresiensis
-
The Liang Bua hominins from Flores, Indonesia, have been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate since their initial description and classification in 2004. These remains have been assigned to a new species, Homo floresiensis, with the partial skeleton LB1 as the type specimen. The Liang Bua hominins are notable for their short stature, small endocranial volume, and many features that appear phylogenetically primitive relative to modern humans, despite their late Pleistocene age. Recently, some workers suggested that the remains represent members of a small-bodied island population of modern Austro-Melanesian humans, with LB1 exhibiting clinical signs of Down syndrome. Many classic Down syndrome signs are soft tissue features that could not be assessed in skeletal remains. Moreover, a definitive diagnosis of Down syndrome can only be made by genetic analysis as the phenotypes associated with Down syndrome are variable. Most features that contribute to the Down syndrome phenotype are not restricted to Down syndrome but are seen in other chromosomal disorders and in the general population. Nevertheless, we re-evaluated the presence of those phenotypic features used to support this classification by comparing LB1 to samples of modern humans diagnosed with Down syndrome and euploid modern humans using comparative morphometric analyses. We present new data regarding neurocranial, brain, and symphyseal shape in Down syndrome, additional estimates of stature for LB1, and analyses of inter- and intralimb proportions. The presence of cranial sinuses is addressed using CT images of LB1. We found minimal congruence between the LB1 phenotype and clinical descriptions of Down syndrome. We present important differences between the phenotypes of LB1 and individuals with Down syndrome, and quantitative data that characterize LB1 as an outlier compared with Down syndrome and non-Down syndrome groups. Homo floresiensis remains a phenotypically unique, valid species with its roots in Plio-Pleistocene Homo taxa., Keywords: craniofacial morphology, hominin evolution, human occupation, laron-syndrome, late pleistocene, liang-bua, mental defectives, premature loss, southeast-asia, syndrome phenotypes, Publication Note: The publisher’s version of record is available at http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155731
-
-
Annual War Deaths in Small-Scale versus State Societies Scale with Population Size Rather than Violence
-
In The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, psychologist Steven Pinker cites mean ratios of war (battle) deaths suffered annually per 100,000 individuals as evidence for concluding that people who live in states are less violent than those who live or lived in “hunting, gathering, and horticultural societies in which our species spent most of its evolutionary history.” Because such ratios are blind to actual population sizes, it remains to be seen whether the apparent decrease in contemporary violence is an artifact of scaling factors. Here scaling of war deaths is quantified relative to actual population sizes for 11 chimpanzee communities, 24 human nonstates, and 19 and 22 countries that fought in World War I and World War II, respectively. Mean annual battle deaths expressed as percentages of population sizes scale inversely with population sizes in chimpanzees and humans, indicating increased vulnerability rather than increased violence in smaller populations. However, the absolute number of mean annual war deaths increases exponentially (superlinearly) and nearly identically with population sizes across human groups but not chimpanzees. These findings suggest that people evolved to be more violent than chimpanzees and that humans from nonstates are neither more nor less violent than those from states.
-
-
Documenting and Dating Olmec-Style Cave Paintings, Guerrero, Mexico
-
Caves were central elements of the ancient Mesoamerican cultural landscape, and many people continue to worship at caves even today. This research assesses of the role of west Mexican caves in Formative period religion and politics. The iconic paintings of Oxtotitlán Cave, Guerrero, belong stylistically to Mesoamerica’s first international art style, the Olmec (1300-400 B.C.). Painted figures represent supernatural animals as well as powerful human lords. The Guerrero images constitute early examples of a long tradition of mural painting in Mesoamerica. This project uses precision drawing and advanced technologies in imaging, image processing, chemical analysis, and dating to document these early paintings and their cave context. Imaging technologies included nighttime ultraviolet and daytime infrared digital techniques, as well as standard digital photography. Digital images and video were further processed computationally to reveal nuances and visual elements normally difficult to discern. These photographic images, together with field observations, contributed to accurate artistic renderings of the paintings designed to make the data more accessible to both scholars and the general public. Chemical analysis of pigment composition included X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and other sophisticated techniques. The chemical data determine the presence of materials suitable for radiocarbon and calcium oxalate dating. Exposure and tourism are currently endangering the paintings at Oxtotitlán, and this work is essential to their conservation. This “proof of concept” project has provided the basis for future comprehensive recording and dating of the early painted murals in other west Mexican caves such as Juxtlahuaca and Cahuaziziqui.
-
-
Einstein’s Brain
-
Publication Note: This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an book review accepted for publication in Brain following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awy168
-
-
Evolution of Brain and Culture
-
Fossil and comparative primatological evidence suggest that alterations in the development of prehistoric hominin infants kindled three consecutive evolutionary-developmental (evo-devo) trends that, ultimately, paved the way for the evolution of the human brain and cognition. In the earliest trend, infants' development of posture and locomotion became delayed because of anatomical changes that accompanied the prolonged evolution of bipedalism. Because modern humans have inherited these changes, our babies are much slower than other primates to reach developmental milestones such as standing, crawling, and walking. The delay in ancestral babies' physical development eventually precipitated an evolutionary reversal in which they became increasing unable to cling independently to their mothers. For the first time in prehistory, babies were, thus, periodically deprived of direct physical contact with their mothers. This prompted the emergence of a second evo-devo trend in which infants sought contact comfort from caregivers using evolved signals, including new ways of crying that are conserved in modern babies. Such signaling stimulated intense reciprocal interactions between prehistoric mothers and infants that seeded the eventual emergence of motherese and, subsequently, protolanguage. The third trend was for an extreme acceleration in brain growth that began prior to the last trimester of gestation and continued through infants' first postnatal year (early "brain spurt"). Conservation of this trend in modern babies explains why human brains reach adult sizes that are over three times those of chimpanzees. The fossil record of hominin cranial capacities together with comparative neuroanatomical data suggest that, around 3 million years ago, early brain spurts began to facilitate an evolutionary trajectory for increasingly large adult brains in association with neurological reorganization. The prehistoric increase in brain size eventually caused parturition to become exceedingly difficult, and this difficulty, known as the "obstetrical dilemma", is likely to constrain the future evolution of brain size and, thus, privilege ongoing evolution in neurological reorganization. In modern babies, the brain spurt is accompanied by formation and tuning (pruning) of neurological connections, and development of dynamic higher-order networks that facilitate acquisition of grammatical language and, later in development, other advanced computational abilities such as musical or mathematical perception and performance. The cumulative evidence suggests that the emergence and refinement of grammatical language was a prime mover of hominin brain evolution., Keywords: Baby-the-trendsetter, Evo-devo trends, Language evolution, Motherese, Neurological reorganization, Obstetrical dilemma, Grant Number: test-1
-
-
Final Performance Report, November 1, 2012 – June 30, 2018
-
NEH, performace report, Mesoamerica, Title of Project: Origins of the Mesoamerican City: Ritual and Polity Name of Project Directors: Mary D. Pohl (FSU), with project co-directors Christopher L. von Nagy (UNR and FSU) and Paul Schmidt Schoenberg (UNAM)., RZ-51497-12
-
-
Foodways Archaeology
-
Interest in the study of foodways through an archaeological lens, particularly in the American Southeast, is evident in the abundance of literature on this topic over the past decade. Foodways as a concept includes all of the activities, rules, and meanings that surround the production, harvesting, processing, cooking, serving, and consumption of food. We study foodways and components of foodways archaeologically through direct and indirect evidence. The current synthesis is concerned with research themes in the archaeology of Southeastern foodways, including feasting, gender, social and political status, and food insecurity. In this review, I explore the information that can be learned from material remains of the foodstuffs themselves and the multiple lines of evidence that can help us better understand the meanings, rituals, processes, and cultural meanings and motivations of foodways, Keywords: Zooarchaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Archaeobotany, Feast, Feasting, Archaeology, Foodways, Food, Social status, Gastropolitics, Gender, Food security, Southeastern US, Socioeconomic status, Open access, tDAR, Publication Note: The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-017-9104-4
-
-
How Australopithecus provided insight into human evolution
-
In 1925, a Nature paper reported an African fossil of a previously unknown genus called Australopithecus. This finding revolutionized ideas about early human evolution after human ancestors and apes split on the evolutionary tree., Publication Note: The direct link to this News & Views piece is provided by Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02839-3.
-
-
Identification of In Vivo Sulci on the External Surface of Eight Adult Chimpanzee Brains
-
The only direct source of information about hominin brain evolution comes from the fossil record of endocranial casts (endocasts) that reproduce details of the external morphology of the brain imprinted on the walls of the braincase during life. Surface traces of sulci that separate the brain’s convolutions (gyri) are reproduced sporadically on early hominin endocasts. Paleoneurologists rely heavily on published descriptions of sulci on brains of great apes, especially chimpanzees (humans’ phylogenetically closest living relatives), to guide their identifications of sulci on ape-sized hominin endocasts. However, the few comprehensive descriptions of cortical sulci published for chimpanzees usually relied on post mortem brains, (now) antiquated terminology for some sulci, and photographs or line drawings from limited perspectives (typically right or left lateral views). The shortage of adequate descriptions of chimpanzee sulcal patterns partly explains why identities of certain sulci on australopithecine endocasts (e.g., the inferior frontal and middle frontal sulci) have been controversial. Here, we provide images of lateral and dorsal surfaces of 16 hemispheres from four male and four female adult chimpanzee brains that were obtained using in vivo magnetic resonance imaging. Sulci on the exposed surfaces of the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes are identified on the images, based on their locations, positions relative to each other, and homologies known from comparative studies of cytoarchitecture in primates. These images and sulcal identifications exceed the quantity and quality of previously published illustrations of chimpanzee brains with comprehensively labeled sulci and, thus, provide a larger number of examples for identifying sulci on hominin endocasts than hitherto available. Our findings, even in a small sample like the present one, overturn published claims that australopithecine endocasts reproduce derived configurations of certain sulci in their frontal lobes that never appear on chimpanzee brains. The sulcal patterns in these new images also suggest that changes in two gyri that bridge between the parietal and occipital lobes may have contributed to cortical reorganization in early hominins. It is our hope that these labeled in vivo chimpanzee brains will assist future researchers to identify sulci on hominin endocasts, which is a necessary first step in the quest to learn how and when the external morphology of the human cerebral cortex evolved from apelike precursors., Keywords: Annectant gyri, Arcuate fasciculus, Australopithecines, Broca’s area, Chimpanzee brains, 21 Cortical sulci, Hominin endocasts, Language evolution, Lunate sulcus, Publication Note: This is the accepted manuscript of the article published by Brain, Behavior and Evolution and can be found at https://doi.org/10.1159/000487248. © 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel
-
-
Implications of Brain Evolution in Cetaceans and Primates for Highly Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life
-
There are stars and Earth-like planets believed to be over 10 billion years in age. “Water worlds” and moons that contain salty oceans may be commonplace in this galaxy. The evolution of cetaceans and primates may provide some clues as to how intelligent life may have evolved on other planets. The most intelligent species of primate, Homo sapiens, has an average brain mass (~1350 g) that is considerably larger than any of the other primates but much smaller than the averages for many cetaceans, which are also believed to be very intelligent. The factors that led a subset of primates rather than the comparatively huge-brained cetaceans to dominate (from a human perspective) our planet are reviewed, including language and tool making capability. If intelligent cetacean-like beings evolved convergently in other worlds in response to aquatic habitats similar to Earth's, they would not be expected to have complex tools and technologies, whereas primate-like beings that may have evolved convergently on other planets that are much older than Earth might have long ago developed technologies that surpass our own., Brain size, primates, cetaceans, intelligence, extraterrestrial intelligence, water worlds in the galaxy, evolution, technology, Dyson Spheres
-
-
Interpreting Sulci on Hominin Endocasts
-
Paleoneurologists analyze internal casts (endocasts) of fossilized brain cases, which provide information about the size, shape and, to a limited degree, sulcal patterns reproduced from impressions left by the surface of the brain. When interpreted in light of comparative data from the brains of living apes and humans, sulcal patterns reproduced on hominin endocasts provide important information for studying the evolution of the cerebral cortex and cognition in human ancestors. Here, new evidence is discussed for the evolution of sulcal patterns associated with cortical reorganization in threeparts of the hominin brain: (1) the parietotemporo-occipital association cortex (2) Broca’s speech area, and (3) dorsolateral prefrontal association cortex. Of the three regions, the evidence regarding the last is the clearest. Compared to great apes, Australopithecus endocasts reproduce a clear middle frontal sulcus in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that is derived toward the human condition. This finding is consistent with data from comparative cytoarchitectural studies of ape and human brains as well as shape analyses of australopithecie endocasts. The comparative and direct evidence for all three regions suggests that hominin brain reorganization was under way by at least the time of Australopitecusafricanus (∼2.5to3.0mya), despite the ape-sized brains of these hominins, and that it entailed expansion of both rostral and caudal association cortices., Keywords: Affenspalte, Endocasts, Lunatesulcus, MH1, Middle Frontal Sulcus, Prefrontal Cortex, Stw 505, Taung, Preferred Citation: Falk D (2014) Interpreting sulci on hominin endocasts: old hypotheses and new findings. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:134. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00134
-
-
More on Asperger’s Career
-
Czech’s claims that my paper abounds with mistranslations, misrepresentations, and factual errors are refuted point-by-point, as is his declaration that the paper contains no relevant or new evidence. Asperger’s statements that Franz Hamburger saved him from the Gestapo are reaffirmed and supported with a personal communication from Asperger’s daughter, Dr. Maria Asperger Felder. Czech’s criticism of anonymous peer reviewers and his call for retraction of my paper are, at best, unconstructive. In light of the current resurgence of authoritarian governments that promote xenophobic and racist ideology in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, it is essential that details about the Nazi euthanasia program continue to be recalled and deliberated, as they are in this exchange. I stand by my paper., Keywords: Am Spiegelgrund, Euthanasia, Hans Asperger, Herwig Czech, Nazi-era Vienna, T4, Publication Note: This full-text link is provided by Springer Nature: https://rdcu.be/bGkSy
-
-
Non-complicit
-
Recent allegations that pediatrician Hans Asperger legitimized Nazi policies, including forced sterilization and child euthanasia, are refuted with newly translated and chronologically-ordered information that takes into account Hitler’s deceptive ‘halt’ to the T4 euthanasia program in 1941. It is highly unlikely that Asperger was aware of the T4 program when he referred Herta Schreiber to Am Spiegelgrund or when he mentioned that institution 4 months later on the medical chart of another (unrelated) girl, Elisabeth Schreiber. Asperger campaigned vigorously from 1938 to 1943 to have his specialization, Curative Education, take priority in the diagnosis and treatment of disabled children over other fields that promoted Nazi racial hygiene policies. He neither disparaged his patients nor was he sexist. By 1938, he had identified the essentials of Asperger syndrome and described an unnamed boy whom he later profiled (as Ernst K.) in 1944. Rather than doing ‘thin’ research, Asperger made discoveries that were prescient, and some of his activities conformed to definitions of “individual resistance.”, Keywords: Asperger syndrome, Euthanasia, Forced sterilization, Hans Asperger, Nazi-era Vienna, T4, Publication Note: The open provided by Springer Nature link to view this article: https://rdcu.be/brKkd
-
-
Pests in the Garden: Testing the Garden-Hunting Model at the Rutherford-Kizer Site, Sumner County, Tennessee
-
Garden hunting as a prehistoric subsistence strategy has been studied in the American Tropics and the American Southwest, and as a modern strategy in the Peruvian Amazon. The concept of garden hunting is centered on the idea that as human groups focus more time on agriculture-related activities, they have less time to spend on hunting. This case study is the first time the garden-hunting model has been tested with data from the Mississippian period in the South-eastern United States. We build on previously published primary zooarchaeological data from the Rutherford-Kizer site, located in Middle Tennessee, to test the garden-hunting model of animal exploitation. Our analysis indicates the Rutherford-Kizer site residents practiced a selective hunting strategy that targeted terrestrial animals that thrive in disturbed habitats, such as cultivated fields., Keywords: Zooarchaeology, Garden-hunting, Risk management, Middle Tennessee, Mississippian Period
-
-
Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, and the peopling of the Americas
-
Stone tools and mastodon bones occur in an undisturbed geological context at the Page-Ladson site, Florida. Seventy-one radiocarbon ages show that similar to 14,550 calendar years ago (cal yr B.P.), people butchered or scavenged amastodon next to a pond in a bedrock sinkhole within the Aucilla River. This occupation surface was buried by similar to 4 m of sediment during the late Pleistocenemarine transgression, which also left the site submerged. Sporormiella and other proxy evidence from the sediments indicate that hunter-gatherers along the Gulf Coastal Plain coexisted with and utilized megafauna for similar to 2000 years before these animals became extinct at similar to 12,600 cal yr B. P. Page-Ladson expands our understanding of the earliest colonizers of the Americas and human-megafauna interaction before extinction., Keywords: abundance, Bone, butchery, extinction, fungal spores, holocene, lake-sediments, north-america, sea-level, sporormiella, Publication Note: The publisher’s version of record is available at http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600375
-
-
Recent Research in the Middle Cumberland River Valley
-
Keywords: Archaeology, Shell midden, Shell mound archaic, Looting, Flood, Nashville, Middle Tennessee, Cumberland river, Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Preferred Citation: Deter-Wolf, A., and T. M. Peres (2012). Recent Research in the Middle Cumberland River Valley. Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):5-17.
-
-
Shell-Bearing Archaic in the Middle Cumberland River Valley
-
The Middle Cumberland River Valley of Tennessee comprises a unique regional environment that has continually supported human occupation along the natural river levees and adjacent terrace landforms since the Late Pleistocene. Over thousands of years Archaic period inhabitants of the Middle Cumberland River Valley harvested the invertebrate species that populated the streams and waterways of the region, using them for subsistence and raw materials and taking an active role in managing the riverine resources. The cumulative result of this process appears in the archaeological record as abundant and often-dense deposits of invertebrate zooarchaeological remains. However, few formal archaeological investigations have been conducted on Archaic shell-bearing sites in the region. In this field report we present initial results of site file analysis, radiocarbon dating, and species composition research in order to introduce the Middle Cumberland River Valley manifestation of the cultural phase traditionally known as the Shell Mound Archaic., Keywords: Shell Mound Archaic, Shell Midden, Zooarchaeology, Cumberland River, Archaic Period, Tennessee, Archaeology, Shell Mounds, Shell Midden, Publication Note: Publisher's version available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0734578X.2016.1154428, Preferred Citation: The Shell-Bearing Archaic in the Middle Cumberland River Valley
Tanya M. Peres , Aaron Deter-Wolf
Southeastern Archaeology, Grant Number: National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1048351; Tennessee Historical Commission Grant
Pages
