The bears from Dmanisi and the first dispersal of early Homo out of Africa
| Autor: | Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro, Giorgi Kopaliani, Joan Madurell-Malapeira, Tsegai Medin, Borja Figueirido, David Lordkipanidze, Paul Palmqvist, Gocha Kiladze, Florent Rivals |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Male
010506 paleontology Early Pleistocene Population Zoology lcsh:Medicine 010502 geochemistry & geophysics 01 natural sciences Georgia (Republic) Article Ursus etruscus stomatognathic system Animals education lcsh:Science Author Correction 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Morphometrics education.field_of_study Sex Characteristics Multidisciplinary biology Fossils lcsh:R Palaeoecology Paleontology Hominidae Animal behaviour biology.organism_classification Animal Feed Sexual dimorphism stomatognathic diseases Geography Africa Biological dispersal Taxonomy (biology) lcsh:Q Female Omnivore Animal Distribution Tooth Ursidae |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2019) Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya instname Recercat: Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Popis: | We report on the taxonomy and paleodiet of the bear population that inhabited the emblematic palaeoanthropological Early Pleistocene (1.8 Ma) site of Dmanisi (Georgia), based on a dual approach combining morphometrics and microwear of upper and lower teeth. Given that the teeth of Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823 from Dmanisi show considerable size variability, their systematic position has been debated. However, a comparative study of the coefficients of variation for tooth size measurements in several modern bear species shows that the variability in tooth size of the ursid population from Dmanisi could result from sexual dimorphism. The analysis of tooth microwear indicates that these bears inhabited a mixed environment of open plain with forest patches, where they had a browsing diet with a substantial contribution of meat and/or fish. Comparative tooth morphometric analyses of modern ursids and fossil U. etruscus indicate that this extinct species had an omnivorous behavior similar to that of extant brown bears. The ecological interactions of the Dmanisi bears with other members of the large mammals community, including the first hominins that dispersed out of Africa, are discussed in the light of this new evidence. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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