G. Rodríguez-Gómez, undefined Paul PALMQVIST, undefined Bienvenido MARTÍNEZ-NAVARRO, J. A. Martín-González, José María Bermúndez de Castro
{"title":"Mean body size estimation in large mammals and the computation of biomass in past ecosystems: An application to the Pleistocene sites of Orce and Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain)","authors":"G. Rodríguez-Gómez, undefined Paul PALMQVIST, undefined Bienvenido MARTÍNEZ-NAVARRO, J. A. Martín-González, José María Bermúndez de Castro","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a10","url":null,"abstract":"Estimates of adult body mass are usually considered as equivalent of mean population body size in most studies of ancient mammals. However, given that any population is composed in part of subadult individuals, this approach overestimates the mean population body mass and biomass. For this reason, more realistic estimates of mean population body mass should be used. In this paper, we: 1) test five different proxies of population mean mass; and 2) estimate the total prey biomass in the paleoecosystems from the Orce and Atapuerca sites as an approach for estimating their carrying capacity. Our results for past ecosystems support the use of survival profiles derived from the Weibull model (SPW), as they show values in better agreement with those of extant populations. They also estimate higher carrying capacities for the faunal assemblages of Orce than for those of Atapuerca. We suggest that the environmental conditions of Orce could have played an important role in the first peopling of Europe.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85237446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Pintore, Arnaud Delapré, R. Lefebvre, Léo Botton-Divet, Alexandra Houssaye, R. Cornette
{"title":"The potential and limits of Thin-Plate Spline retrodeformation on asymmetrical objects:simulation of taphonomic deformations andapplication on a fossil sample of limb long bones","authors":"R. Pintore, Arnaud Delapré, R. Lefebvre, Léo Botton-Divet, Alexandra Houssaye, R. Cornette","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a9","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we suggest a method adapted to the retrodeformation of asymmetrical objects – such as limb bones – by quantitatively estimating the effectiveness of the Thin-Plate Splines (TPS) interpolation function as a retrodeformation tool. To do so, taphonomic deformations were first simulated on a single horse femur. The original bone was then used as a reference in order to drive the retrodeformation using anatomical landmarks. This approach, based on a single bone, enabled us to evaluate the performance of the retrodeformation procedure. Then, the same approach was performed on a sample of rhino femora but using a different specimen (from the same species) as the reference in order to account for morphological variation. We also added sliding semi-landmarks on anatomical curves. Finally, retrodeformation was applied on a sample of sauropodomorph dinosaur femora by building a mean shape based on several well-preserved fossil specimens. Results show that entirely flattened and stretched bones are more efficiently retrodeformed than bent and twisted bones. Introduction of morphological variation increased the efficiency of retrodeformation for bent and locally stretched bones. The application to the sample of fossils produced similar results but also highlighted the difficulty of retrodeforming bones with a combination of different deformations. TPS interpolation is an efficient tool of retrodeformation for asymmetrical objects, especially for bones with only one affine deformation such as flattening or stretching. Finding a threshold of landmark number to use for this process would be the next step because it would allow us to ensure the quality of retrodeformation while keeping available a reasonable number of landmarks in order to perform shape analysis on retrodeformed bones. Twisted and bent fossils are frequently discovered and we suggest that these kinds of deformations should be studied with caution, especially when combined with other types of taphonomic distortions.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80408623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
undefined Cyril VIALLET, Louis de Weyer, J. Ivorra, Joseba Rios-Garaizar, Deborah Barsky, Felipe Cuartero, Patricia BELLO-ALONSO, Laurence. Bourguignon
{"title":"Du macro-outillage tranchant utilisé en percussion lancée dans les premières phases de l’Acheuléen européen ? Le cas de l’US4 de Bois-de-Riquet (Lézignan-la-Cèbe, Hérault, France)","authors":"undefined Cyril VIALLET, Louis de Weyer, J. Ivorra, Joseba Rios-Garaizar, Deborah Barsky, Felipe Cuartero, Patricia BELLO-ALONSO, Laurence. Bourguignon","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a8","url":null,"abstract":"Level US4 of the Bois-de-Riquet archeological site represents a mudslide type deposit dating to the early Middle Pleistocene. It has yielded a rich lithic assemblage made from basalt, aplite and quartz, whose components represent all of the operating chains of production: cores, flakes, hammers, worked cobbles and blocks, as well as a biface. The latter, associated with the production of large flakes, testifies to the first phases of the European Acheulian. This article presents the analysis of part of the macro-tools made from basalt. The methodology is based on a techno-morpho-functional and traceological analysis of the artefacts, coupled with the creation of a specific experimental frame of reference. These approaches allow us to distinguish among five tool types. Three groups of tools present a transverse opposition between their cutting edges and gripping zones, while the other two groups present an oblique opposition. These functional structures refer to different gestures. However, the size and weight characteristics of the artefacts, as well as the angle of the cutting edges, allow us to propose a mode of action in direct launched percussion. This hypothesis was experimentally tested on wood and fresh bone to verify, on the one hand, the effectiveness of these tools for these activities and, on the other hand, to analyze the damage produced on the cutting edges and compare it to the archeological tools. The data obtained experimentally support the hypothesis that launched percussion was used in these five groups of sharp-edged macro-tools. We discuss the implications of these results for the characterization of the first phases of the European Acheulean. Indeed, beyond the presence of a biface, the production of massive flakes as tool supports may be perceived as a technological innovation in Europe, possibly characterizing an evolution of cognitive order. At the same time, the use of these sharp tools in launched percussion could indicate that hominins were exploiting their environments in new ways. Finally, this article brings new elements of reflection to the debate on the origins of the European Acheulean.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81956500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
B. Martínez-Navarro, L. Pandolfi, T. Medin, Yosief Libsekal, M. Ghinassi, M. Papini, L. Rook
{"title":"The ontogenetic pattern of Hippopotamus gorgops Dietrich, 1928 revealed by a juvenile cranium from the one-million-years-old paleoanthropological site of Buia (Eritrea)","authors":"B. Martínez-Navarro, L. Pandolfi, T. Medin, Yosief Libsekal, M. Ghinassi, M. Papini, L. Rook","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a7","url":null,"abstract":"An almost complete cranium of a juvenile individual from the late Early Pleistocene site of Buia, in the northern Afar (Danakil) Basin in Eritrea, reveals a different growth pattern of the extinct species Hippopotamus gorgops Dietrich, 1928 compared to the extant species Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus, 1758. The specimen shows important cranial features of Hip. gorgops (also visible in adult specimens), with a derived cranial anatomy that is related to the specialization to a more aquatic life style than other species of Hippopotamidae: elevated nuchal and sagittal crests, strongly elevated orbital cavities, short neurocranium and elongated palate. A geometric morphometrics analysis was performed in the lateral view on skulls of Hip. gorgops and Hip. amphibius, to investigate size-shape relationship and to compare ontogenetic growth trajectories between both taxa. The study revealed that, during growth (increase in size and age), variations in skull shape are prominent in Hip. amphibius; juvenile and adult individuals of Hip. gorgops display strong morphological similarities but size and shape are poorly correlated. The results support the hypothesis that in a relatively early ontogenetic stage, Hip. gorgops was more specialized in its aquatic adaptation than Hip. amphibius.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89926739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vahram Serobyan, T. Danelian, C. Crônier, A. Grigoryan, Bernard Mottequin
{"title":"Aramazdospirifer orbelianus (Abich, 1858) n. comb., a new cyrtospiriferid brachiopod genus and a biostratigraphically important species from the lower Famennian (Upper Devonian) of Armenia","authors":"Vahram Serobyan, T. Danelian, C. Crônier, A. Grigoryan, Bernard Mottequin","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a6","url":null,"abstract":"The new genus Aramazdospirifer n. gen. (Cyrtospiriferidae) is erected to include Spirifer orbelianus Abich, 1858 from the lower Famennian of Central Armenia as its type species and to refute long-standing claims related to the affinities of the latter. The micro-ornament and internal structure of this species are investigated and documented for the first time, on the basis of recently collected material from the Ertych horizon of three different sections. Additionally, a neotype is selected for Abich’s species as the type material is lost. Aramazdospirifer orbelianus (Abich, 1858) n. comb. is a biostratigraphically important species for the lower Famennian strata of the Lesser Caucasus. It appears to be restricted to the South-Armenian Block; reports outside this Gondwanan area are discussed and discarded.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83132110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Viallet, undefined Théo MINET, undefined Paul FERNANDES, undefined Mathieu RUÉ, undefined Aurélie AJAS, undefined Pascal TALLET, Sébastien Bernard-Guelle
{"title":"L’outillage façonné utilisé en percussion lancée du site paléolithique moyen du Bois de l’Hôpital (Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe, Tarn)","authors":"C. Viallet, undefined Théo MINET, undefined Paul FERNANDES, undefined Mathieu RUÉ, undefined Aurélie AJAS, undefined Pascal TALLET, Sébastien Bernard-Guelle","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a5","url":null,"abstract":"The preventive archaeological excavation of the Bois de l’Hôpital site (Saint-Sulpice-la-Pointe, Tarn, France), between November 2015 and April 2016 (Bernard-Guelle et al. 2016), uncovered several archaeological layers dating back to the Upper Pleistocene set in an unprecedented/original context for the Tarn’s lower valley’s Middle Paleolithic. The main level (archeological unit UA3) displays a lithic industry mainly manufactured on quartz, sometimes quartzite or flint, related to a Mousterian technological complex. The product of anvil discoid and Levallois debitage technique, the tools made from flakes (mostly scrapers and denticulates) coexist with pebble tools. Rarely the subject of a detailed study – particularly in Mousterian collections – the pebble tools’ operating chain (chaîne opératoire) has been described, functional purposes included. This technological, morphological and functional analysis identifies several tool groups and is able to link some of them to specific mode of action on material, comparing them with an experimental data repository. The study of the macro-tools from archaeological unit UA3 emphasizes: 1) their high proportion among the tools; 2) an important structural variety among those specific tools; and that 3) most of them are consistent with a cast percussion motion, possibly related to bone-fracturing process. These results prompt us to continue developing the technological and morphological analysis of those tools, whose inherited or reinvested (compared to Lower Paleolithic technological complexes) or alleged functions seem to result in a lack of interest from the researchers. They call for the collection of more experimental data repositories in order to compare other quartz and quartzite macro-tools sets, often described in the Tarn basin during MIS5 and MIS3.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85326858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Ducrocq, A. Soe, C. Sein, Y. Chaimanee, O. Chavasseau, J. Jaeger
{"title":"Neochorlakkia myaingensis n. gen., n. sp., a new Dichobunidae (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla) from the middle Eocene Pondaung Formation, Myanmar","authors":"S. Ducrocq, A. Soe, C. Sein, Y. Chaimanee, O. Chavasseau, J. Jaeger","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a4","url":null,"abstract":"The diversity of basal ungulates is significant in the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation (Myanmar). However, the precise identification or attribution of some fossils is sometimes difficult because of the scarcity and poor preservation of the material. We describe here a new genus and species of a Dichobunidae from Paukkaung Kyitchaung 2 locality, that is morphologically and probably phylogenetically close to a taxon from the early-middle Eocene of Pakistan, and we discuss the attribution of dental material to Myanmarius chitseini Tsubamoto, Egi, Takai, Htike & Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein, 2013, an inderterminate artiodactyl from Pondaung. This study also confirms that dispersals were possible between the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia during the first part of the Eocene.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79213311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New dalmanitid trilobite taxa from the Lower Devonian of Argentina: comments on spinosity in endemic taxa from southern high paleolatitudes","authors":"E. Randolfe, J. Rustán, Arnaud Bignon","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a2","url":null,"abstract":"Three new Lower Devonian dalmanitid trilobite taxa are recognized from the Talacasto Formation in the Precordillera Basin, Argentina, which includes two monospecific genera (Ivanites leonorae n. gen., n. sp. and Aguaditaspis mediaspina n. gen., n. sp.), and one additional new genus and species left in open nomenclature. These taxa combine characters of the subfamilies Dalmanitinae Vogdes, 1890 and Synphoriinae Delo, 1935, challenging their taxonomic distinction. Forty percent of the dalmanitids from high paleolatitudinal basins from southwestern Gondwana (Malvinokaffric) exhibit non-homologous dorsal spinosity. Aguaditaspis mediaspina n. gen., n. sp. shares similar spines with Trypaulites calypso (Hall, 1861). The unnamed new genus resembles the spinosity of endemic Malvinokaffric dalmanitids, like Dalmanitoides Delo, 1935 and Fenestraspis Braniša & Vaněk, 1973. Considered defensive, the recorded spinosity along with putative sublethal-attack marks, suggest higher predation pressure than previously thought at high paleolatitudes. This evidence is in accordance with some hypothesis on rising predation pressure in the mid-Paleozoic marine ecosystems.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76190375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Phylogenetic signal in characters from Aristotle’s History of Animals","authors":"M. Laurin, Marcel Humar","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a1","url":null,"abstract":"The influential Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) is almost unanimously acclaimed as the founder of zoology. There is a consensus that he was interested in attributes of animals, but whether or not he tried to develop a zoological taxonomy remains controversial. Fürst von Lieven and Humar compiled a data matrix from Aristotle’s Historia animalium and showed, through a parsimony analysis published in 2008, that these data produced a hierarchy that matched several taxa recognized by Aristotle. However, their analysis leaves some questions unanswered because random data can sometimes yield fairly resolved trees. In this study, we update the scores of many cells and add four new characters to the data matrix (147 taxa scored for 161 characters) and quote passages from Aristotle’s Historia animalium to justify these changes. We confirm the presence of a phylogenetic signal in these data through a test using skewness in length distribution of a million random trees, which shows that many of the characters discussed by Aristotle were systematically relevant. Our parsimony analyses on the updated matrix recover far more trees than reported by Fürst von Lieven and Humar, but their consensus includes many taxa that Aristotle recognized and apparently named for the first time, such as selachē (selachians) and dithyra (Bivalvia Linnaeus, 1758). This study suggests that even though taxonomy was obviously not Aristotle’s chief interest in Historia animalium, it was probably among his secondary interests. These results may pave the way for further taxonomic studies in Aristotle’s zoological writings in general. Despite being almost peripheral to Aristotle’s writings, his taxonomic contributions are clearly major achievements.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82477227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Erratum: volume 20 (45) 2021: 931-939, December 13, 2021. Hoffmanigraptus n. gen., a new retiolitine (Graptolithina), an early member of the Plectograptus lineage from the Silurian of Baltica, Poland","authors":"Anna Kozłowska","doi":"10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2021v20a46","url":null,"abstract":"On page 933, the paragraph “Diagnosis” of the new genus Hoffmanigraptus n. gen. is missing. The “Diagnosis” paragraph has been reproduced here.","PeriodicalId":51002,"journal":{"name":"Comptes Rendus Palevol","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79567386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}