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Full-Text Articles in Paleobiology

The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski May 2025

The Human Legacy: Agriculture, Civilizations, Strife, And Pandemics Changing Our Climate, Jacalyn M. Wittmer Malinowski

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

For most of human history, climate has shaped our lives, while our influence on it remained minimal. However, the notion that early humans had no measurable impact on the climate before industrialization is inaccurate. Early in human history, activities – such as the rise of agriculture, the growth of civilizations, periods of conflict, and pandemics – altered greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. These changes contributed to significant periods of climate change long before the burning of fossil fuels set us on the path to today’s global climate crisis.


Primates From Senèze, Eric Delson Apr 2025

Primates From Senèze, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

Senèze has yielded two primate fossils, neither from the recent field work. A partial ulna can be identified as cf. Macaca sylvanus. A nearly complete female skull is the holotype of Dolichopithecus arvernensis Depéret, 1928, now included in Paradolichopithecus. Emended and differential diagnoses are provided for this genus and species for the first time, and the Senèze skull is described and briefly compared to those of other species of the genus. Dental and cranial measurements are provided, along with comparative data. The macaque and Paradolichopithecus are moderately to highly terrestrial, respectively, and they suggest a woodland to more open …


Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan William Dombrosky May 2021

Effects Of Environmental Change On Ancestral Pueblo Fishing In The Middle Rio Grande, Jonathan William Dombrosky

Anthropology ETDs

It has long been assumed that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the U.S. Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from Late pre-Hispanic/Early Historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food choice and fishing decisions during this time. I use behavioral ecology to understand how fishing could have been an optimal food-getting strategy for Ancestral Pueblo farmers. Stable isotope analysis offers a way to account for environmental change. I provide a refined 13C Suess correction model to support …


African Land Mammal Ages, John Van Couvering, Eric Delson Dec 2020

African Land Mammal Ages, John Van Couvering, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

We define 17 African land mammal ages, or AFLMAs, covering the Cenozoic record of the Afro-arabian continent, the planet’s second largest land mass. While fossiliferous deposits are absent on the eroded plateau of the continent’s interior, almost 800 fossil genera from over 350 locations have now been identified in coastal deposits, karst caves, and in the Neogene rift valleys. Given a well-developed geochronologic framework, together with continuing revision to the fossil record—both stimulated by the story of human evolution in Africa—and also to compensate for the variation in fossil ecosystems across such great distances, the AFLMAs are biochronological units defined …


Comparison Of Extraction Methods For Recovering Ancient Microbial Dna From Paleofeces, Richard W. Hagan, Courtney A. Hofman, Alexander Hübner, Karl Reinhard, Stephanie Schnorr, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Krithivasan Sankaranarayanan, Christina G. Warinner Nov 2019

Comparison Of Extraction Methods For Recovering Ancient Microbial Dna From Paleofeces, Richard W. Hagan, Courtney A. Hofman, Alexander Hübner, Karl Reinhard, Stephanie Schnorr, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Krithivasan Sankaranarayanan, Christina G. Warinner

Anthropology Faculty Research

Objectives Paleofeces are valuable to archeologists and evolutionary biologists for their potential to yield health, dietary, and host information. As a rich source of preserved biomolecules from host‐associated microorganisms, they can also provide insights into the recent evolution and changing ecology of the gut microbiome. However, there is currently no standard method for DNA extraction from paleofeces, which combine the dual challenges of complex biological composition and degraded DNA. Due to the scarcity and relatively poor preservation of paleofeces when compared with other archeological remains, it is important to use efficient methods that maximize ancient DNA (aDNA) recovery while also …


An Early Modern Human Outside Africa, Eric Delson Jul 2019

An Early Modern Human Outside Africa, Eric Delson

Publications and Research

Analysis of two fossils from a Greek cave has shed light on early hominins in Eurasia. One fossil is the earliest known specimen of Homo sapiens found outside Africa; the other is a Neanderthal who lived 40,000 years later.


Mainland Southeast Asia In The Longue Durée: A Zooarchaeological Test Of The "Broad Spectrum Revolution" In Northern Thailand, Cyler Norman Conrad Jul 2018

Mainland Southeast Asia In The Longue Durée: A Zooarchaeological Test Of The "Broad Spectrum Revolution" In Northern Thailand, Cyler Norman Conrad

Anthropology ETDs

In northern Thailand, previous zooarchaeological research suggests that hunter-gatherers consumed a broad diversity of animal resources during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and afterwards (Gorman 1971a). This is a pattern characteristic of Kent Flannery’s (1969) “broad spectrum revolution” hypothesis. Based primarily on presence and absence evidence, faunal assemblages in northern Thailand typically include species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and shellfish, suggesting that prehistoric foragers consumed a wide range of taxa within this mainland Southeast Asian tropical environment. Although zooarchaeological analyses commonly identify this pattern within prehistoric cave and rockshelter sites, past investigations have 1) not attempted to formally test Flannery’s hypothesis, …


Another Possible Source Of Archeological Maize Found In Chaco Canyon, Nm: The Tohatchi Flats Area, Nm, Usa, Deanna Grimstead, Sharon M. Buck, Bradley J. Vierra, Larry V. Benson Jan 2015

Another Possible Source Of Archeological Maize Found In Chaco Canyon, Nm: The Tohatchi Flats Area, Nm, Usa, Deanna Grimstead, Sharon M. Buck, Bradley J. Vierra, Larry V. Benson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Understanding the linkage and relationship between Chaco Canyon and its residents to surrounding communities has been a primary research question for several decades. This research has focused on identifying the Chacoan road systems, similar architectural designs, and the sourcing of economic and non-economic goods to outlier communities of origin. Extensive fieldwork has been completed to identify potential source regions of Chacoan corncobs, but the San Juan Basin and surrounding regions are vast and many potential agricultural features remain uninvestigated. One such region is the Tohatchi Flats, located near modern day Gallup, New Mexico. This paper uses 87Sr/86Sr …


Tempo And Mode Of Domestication During The Neolithic Revolution: Evidence From Dental Mesowear And Microwear Of Sheep, Melissa Zolnierz Aug 2014

Tempo And Mode Of Domestication During The Neolithic Revolution: Evidence From Dental Mesowear And Microwear Of Sheep, Melissa Zolnierz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Neolithic Revolution marked a dramatic change in human subsistence practices. In order to explain this change, we must understand the motive forces behind it. Researchers have proposed many different stimuli, with most theories invoking environmental dynamics, human population density increases beyond environmental carrying capacity, and the natural outgrowth of human and plant/animal interactions. However, unanswered questions remain concerning the mechanics of animal domestication. Traditional studies of changing faunal morphology and skeletal population profiles offer some clues, but such research has had limited success identifying stages intermediate between wild and domesticated forms, which makes it difficult to discern initial attempts …


Climate Change At The Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary In The Pacific Northwest: A Comparison Of Proxy Datasets And The Archaeologicial Record, Tiffany J. Fulkerson Jan 2012

Climate Change At The Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary In The Pacific Northwest: A Comparison Of Proxy Datasets And The Archaeologicial Record, Tiffany J. Fulkerson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"The relationship between climate change at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary (ca. 12,600-10,200 cal B.P.) and cultural responses to attendant shifts in the environment remains a vexing issue for archaeologists. This study compiles and analyzes glacial, palynological, faunal, and stratigraphic/geomorphological proxy datasets for climate change in the Pacific Northwest of North America and compares them to the coeval archaeological record. The primary purpose of this exercise is to consider the potential ways in which climate change at the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary affected cultural development for Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic peoples in the Pacific Northwest. Results indicate that climatic and environmental change at this interval …


The Evolution Of Zinjanthropus Boisei, Paul J. Constantino, Bernard A. Wood Mar 2007

The Evolution Of Zinjanthropus Boisei, Paul J. Constantino, Bernard A. Wood

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Many people assume that OH 5, the type specimen of Paranthropus boisei, collected in 1959, was the first evidence of that taxon to be found, but OH 3, recovered in 1955, predated the discovery of OH 5 by four years. Thus, Paranthropus boisei recently celebrated the equivalent of its fiftieth birthday. This review marks that milestone by examining the way our understanding of this taxon has changed during its fifty, or so, year history.


Eddy Bluff Shelter Of Beaver Reservoir Of Northwest Arkansas, James D. Morrison Jan 1970

Eddy Bluff Shelter Of Beaver Reservoir Of Northwest Arkansas, James D. Morrison

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.