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E Trinkaus

Publications and source records attributed to E Trinkaus.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Comparative morphology and paleobiology of Middle Pleistocene human remains from the Bau de l'Aubesier, Vaucluse, France.

The discovery of later Middle Pleistocene human remains from the Bau de l'Aubesier, France reinforces an evolutionary model of the gradual accumulation of Neandertal-derived facial and dental features during the Middle Pleistocene of the northwestern Old World. The pronounced maxillary incisor beveling of Aubesier 4 helps to extend the antiquity of nondietary use of the anterior dentition. The interproximal "toothpick" groove on the Aubesier 10 molar increases the sample for these lesions. The pathological loss of the mandibular dentition of Aubesier 11 indicates advanced antemortem masticatory impairment, at a level previously undocumented before the Late Pleistocene. These remains support a view of later Middle Pleistocene humans able to support debilitated individuals despite the considerable use of their bodies to accomplish routine activities.

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PubMed2001

Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic.

New carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values for human remains dating to the mid-Upper Paleolithic in Europe indicate significant amounts of aquatic (fish, mollusks, and/or birds) foods in some of their diets. Most of this evidence points to exploitation of inland freshwater aquatic resources in particular. By contrast, European Neandertal collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values do not indicate significant use of inland aquatic foods but instead show that they obtained the majority of their protein from terrestrial herbivores. In agreement with recent zooarcheological analyses, the isotope results indicate shifts toward a more broad-spectrum subsistence economy in inland Europe by the mid-Upper Paleolithic period, probably associated with significant population increases.

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PubMed2001

Histomorphometric age assessment of the Boxgrove 1 tibial diaphysis.

Histomorphometric analysis of a medial midshaft chip from the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 500 ka BP) hominid tibia from Boxgrove, U.K. provides a modal age-at-death estimate at the end of the fourth decade of life. This makes Boxgrove 1 one of the older known and systematically aged Middle Pleistocene hominid specimens, and it reinforces the pattern of an underrepresentation of older adults observed in Middle and Late Pleistocene archaic Homo samples.

Age Determination by Skeleton↗
PubMed2001

Human remains from the Austrian Gravettian: the Willendorf femoral diaphysis and mandibular symphysis.

Early excavations at the Willendorf site complex in Austria yielded a femoral diaphysis collected between 1883 and 1887 and a mandibular symphysis discovered in 1908--1909. The femoral section, Willendorf 1, derives from the Willendorf I site and direct AMS (14)C dating (24,250+/-180 years B.P.) assigns it to layer 9. The Willendorf 2 mandibular piece was excavated from layer 9 of the Willendorf II site, which is AMS (14)C dated to 24,000--23,900 years B.P. The Willendorf 1 femoral piece is relatively small and exhibits a pronounced pilaster and linear aspera, moderately elevated relative cortical area, and a level of diaphyseal robusticity in the middle of the European earlier Upper Paleolithic human range of variation, assuming similar body proportions. The Willendorf 2 mandibular symphysis has an inferior lingual torus, a planum alveolare, and a mental trigone with indistinct lateral tubercles, a clear fossa mentalis and a midline basilar rounding. In these features it is close to the majority of European earlier Upper Paleolithic mandibles.

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PubMed2000

Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: the evidence from stable isotopes.

Archeological analysis of faunal remains and of lithic and bone tools has suggested that hunting of medium to large mammals was a major element of Neanderthal subsistence. Plant foods are almost invisible in the archeological record, and it is impossible to estimate accurately their dietary importance. However, stable isotope (delta(13)C and delta(15)N) analysis of mammal bone collagen provides a direct measure of diet and has been applied to two Neanderthals and various faunal species from Vindija Cave, Croatia. The isotope evidence overwhelmingly points to the Neanderthals behaving as top-level carnivores, obtaining almost all of their dietary protein from animal sources. Earlier Neanderthals in France and Belgium have yielded similar results, and a pattern of European Neanderthal adaptation as carnivores is emerging. These data reinforce current taphonomic assessments of associated faunal elements and make it unlikely that the Neanderthals were acquiring animal protein principally through scavenging. Instead, these findings portray them as effective predators.

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PubMed2000

Middle paleolithic human deciduous incisor from Khudji, Tajikistan.

In 1997 a human mandibular second deciduous incisor was discovered during excavations at the central Asian Middle Paleolithic site of Khudji, Tajikistan. The specimen was associated with a late Middle Paleolithic assemblage in a minimally disturbed cultural layer. The specimen is average in size for Late Pleistocene archaic human di(2)s and differs from many late archaic human di(2)s in having minimal marginal ridges and tapering markedly distally. In these features it resembles a minority of specimens from the later Pleistocene.

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PubMed2000

Human patellar articular proportions: recent and Pleistocene patterns.

The degrees of mediolateral asymmetry of the patellar articular facet, as well as the median and lateral articular angles of the facet, were compared across samples of recent humans and of Pleistocene archaic and modern fossil humans. All samples exhibit considerable variability in these patellar proportions. The articular angles are similar across the different samples, but there is a trend towards decreasing lateral angles with decreasing robusticity. The archaic humans exhibit significantly more symmetry of the medial and lateral facets than do any of the recent human samples. However, given the variability in medial versus lateral patellofemoral contact forces documented for extant humans and the roles of the distal oblique portions of vastus medialis and vastus lateralis in patellar stabilisation, it is unclear to what extent this variation in patellar articular proportions may affect knee kinesiology. The contrasts may be related to different levels of patellar stability and/or musculoskeletal hypertrophy, but they appear unlikely to have affected primary knee function.

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PubMed1999

Direct radiocarbon dates for Vindija G(1) and Velika Pecína late Pleistocene hominid remains.

New accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates taken directly on human remains from the Late Pleistocene sites of Vindija and Velika Pecina in the Hrvatsko Zagorje of Croatia are presented. Hominid specimens from both sites have played critical roles in the development of current perspectives on modern human evolutionary emergence in Europe. Dates of approximately 28 thousand years (ka) before the present (B.P.) and approximately 29 ka B.P. for two specimens from Vindija G(1) establish them as the most recent dated Neandertals in the Eurasian range of these archaic humans. The human frontal bone from Velika Pecina, generally considered one of the earliest representatives of modern humans in Europe, dated to approximately 5 ka B.P., rendering it no longer pertinent to discussions of modern human origins. Apart from invalidating the only radiometrically based example of temporal overlap between late Neandertal and early modern human fossil remains from within any region of Europe, these dates raise the question of when early modern humans first dispersed into Europe and have implications for the nature and geographic patterning of biological and cultural interactions between these populations and the Neandertals.

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PubMed1999

The early Upper Paleolithic human skeleton from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) and modern human emergence in Iberia.

The discovery of an early Upper Paleolithic human burial at the Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal, has provided evidence of early modern humans from southern Iberia. The remains, the largely complete skeleton of a approximately 4-year-old child buried with pierced shell and red ochre, is dated to ca. 24,500 years B.P. The cranium, mandible, dentition, and postcrania present a mosaic of European early modern human and Neandertal features. The temporal bone has an intermediate-sized juxtamastoid eminence. The mandibular mentum osseum and the dental size and proportions, supported by mandibular ramal features, radial tuberosity orientation, and diaphyseal curvature, as well as the pubic proportions align the skeleton with early modern humans. Body proportions, reflected in femorotibial lengths and diaphyseal robusticity plus tibial condylar displacement, as well as mandibular symphyseal retreat and thoracohumeral muscle insertions, align the skeleton with the Neandertals. This morphological mosaic indicates admixture between regional Neandertals and early modern humans dispersing into southern Iberia. It establishes the complexities of the Late Pleistocene emergence of modern humans and refutes strict replacement models of modern human origins.

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PubMed1999

The anomalous archaic Homo femur from Berg Aukas, Namibia: a biomechanical assessment.

The probably Middle Pleistocene human femur from Berg Aukas, Namibia, when oriented anatomically and analyzed biomechanically, presents an unusual combination of morphological features compared to other Pleistocene Homo femora. Its midshaft diaphyseal shape is similar to most other archaic Homo, but its subtrochanteric shape aligns it most closely with earlier equatorial Homo femora. It has an unusually low neck shaft angle. Its relative femoral head size is matched only by Neandertals with stocky hyperarctic body proportions. Its diaphyseal robusticity is modest for a Neandertal, but reasonable compared to equatorial archaic Homo femora. Its gluteal tuberosity is relatively small. Given its derivation from a warm climatic region, it is best interpreted as having had relatively linear body proportions (affecting proximal diaphyseal proportions, shaft robusticity, and gluteal tuberosity size) combined with an elevated level of lower limb loading during development (affecting femoral head size and neck shaft angle).

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PubMed1999

Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry of the Boxgrove 1 Middle Pleistocene human tibia.

Cross-sectional geometric analysis of the early Middle Pleistocene human tibia from Boxgrove, West Sussex, U.K. reveals a mosaic pattern relative to other archaic Homo tibiae. The specimen has relatively low percent cortical area within its cross sections. However, it exhibits the high mediolateral strength characteristic of archaic Homo tibiae. Scaled solely to tibial length it is robust, similar to those of the Neandertals and above those of early modern and pre-Late Pleistocene African and Asian humans. However, given ecogeographically-patterned variance in relative tibial length and body laterality, it is most likely that it exhibits a level of robusticity within the range encompassed by Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene archaic Homo combined with arctic body proportions. Given its association with late interglacial cool temperate climatic indicators, the inferred body proportions of the Boxgrove hominid were probably promoted by their minimal level of cultural buffering, requiring a significant biological conservation of body heat.

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PubMed1999

Neandertal knees: power lifters in the Pleistocene?

It has been proposed (Trinkaus, 1983 a; Miller & Gross, 1998) that the marked thickness of Neandertal patellae and/or the posterior displacement of their tibial condyles increased their relative M. quadriceps femoris moment arms, thereby making their legs powerful in extension. However, it is necessary to compare these reflections of muscle moment arm length to appropriate measures of the body weight moment arm and body mass estimates, both of which are influenced by ecogeographically determined body proportions. Reassessment of tibial condylar displacement and patellar thickness, as well as patellar height, relative to an appropriate measure of the moment arm for the baseline load on the knee (body weight), to that moment arm times estimated body mass, and to that moment arm times a skeletal reflection of body mass (femoral head diameter) rejects the hypothesis that the Neandertals had exceptionally powerful knee extension. Relative tibial condylar displacement remains above that of a modern industrial society sample, but similar to that of the Broken Hill tibia, Late Pleistocene early modern humans and a recent human nonindustrial sample. Relative patellar thickness is similar to that of early modern humans, who have relatively thick patellae compared to the late Holocene human samples. Consequently, once body proportions are taken into account, there is little difference between the Neandertals and other later Pleistocene humans in knee extensor mechanical advantage, and all of these fossil hominids are similar in the more important proximal tibial proportions to those of nonindustrial recent humans.

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PubMed1998

Locomotion and body proportions of the Saint-Césaire 1 Châtelperronian Neandertal.

The initial Upper Paleolithic (Châtelperronian) of western Europe was associated with late European Neandertals, best known through the Saint-Césaire 1 partial skeleton. Biomechanical cross-sectional analysis of the Saint-Césaire 1 femoral diaphysis at the subtrochanteric and midshaft levels, given the plasticity of mammalian diaphyseal cortical bone, provides insights into the habitual levels and patterns of loading on the lower limbs from body mass, proportions, and locomotion. The overall robustnesses of the femoral diaphyses of European Neandertals and early modern humans are similar once contrasts in body proportions are incorporated into the body size scaling. Saint-Césaire 1 matches these samples only if it is provided with Neandertal-like hyperarctic body proportions. And the rounded proximal femoral diaphysis of Saint-Césaire 1 is similar to those of earlier Neandertals, likely also reflecting similar cold-adapted broad pelvic regions. However, although morphologically similar to those of archaic Homo, the Saint-Césaire 1 femoral midshaft exhibits the anteroposterior reinforcement characteristic of early modern humans. Consequently, Saint-Césaire 1 appears as a morphological Neandertal with hyperarctic body proportions who nonetheless had shifted locomotor patterns to more closely resemble those of other Upper Paleolithic humans.

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PubMed1998

Discrete trait and dental morphometric affinities of the Tabun 2 mandible.

Evolutionary scenarios of Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic hominids depend to an extent upon whether the terminal Middle Pleistocene Tabun 2 mandible has its primary affinities with the late archaic (Neandertal sensu lato) or early modern (Qafzeh-Skhul) human lineage in the region. Since the specimen has been assigned to each group or seen as bridging them, we have re-examined its morphological affinities relative to these two samples, as well as to European samples of later Pleistocene hominids. This has been done with respect to posterior corporeal and ramal discrete traits, symphyseal morphology, and proportional morphometric patterns along the dental arcade. Taking within and between sample ranges of variation into account, the lateral corporeal and ramal discrete characters are either ambiguous or suggest Neandertal affinities. Anterior symphyseal morphology is largely unknown, but a mentum osseum is indicated by a moderate incisura mandibulare anterior, and the tuber symphyseos did not extend superiorly toward the alveoli, a non-modern arrangement. The lingual symphysis presents the largest planum alveolare known for a Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic hominid. Morphometric analysis of proportions along the dental arcade separate Tabun 2 from Near Eastern and European early modern humans and place it among the late archaic humans. It is dentally closest to the Near Eastern late archaic human lineage and the Krapina sample. These analyses therefore indicate that it is best seen as part of the Near Eastern late archaic human lineage with only the mentum osseum and incisure shape indicating any approach to the Qafzeh-Skhul humans within the Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic.

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PubMed1998

The Middle Pleistocene human tibia from Boxgrove.

The Boxgrove tibia was discovered in 1993, associated with Middle Pleistocene fauna, and Lower Palaeolithic archaeology. The sediments at Boxgrove were deposited during a temperate interglacial episode and ensuing cold stage. They thus represent a wide range of modes and environments of deposition. Archaeological remains have been excavated from all the major stratigraphic units, giving a continuity of occupation for this part of southern England over a 10(4) year timescale, through markedly changing climatic regimes. The stratigraphic, archaeological and sedimentological contexts of the tibia are described, as well as its preservation and morphology. Measurements are given, with discussion of reconstructed bone length, and stature estimates. Comparative measurements are provided for fossil and recent human samples: the large dimensions of its diaphysis place the Boxgrove tibia near or beyond the upper size limits of the comparative samples, but its reconstructed length and estimated stature are less exceptional. The elevated robusticity of the specimen indicates exceptional diaphyseal strength and/or cold adapted body proportions paralleling those of the Neanderthals. Disagreement about the taxonomy of Middle Pleistocene hominids and lack of comparable fossil material make a specific assignment for the Boxgrove tibia problematic. The tibia can only definitely be assigned to non-modern Homo sp., with possible further reference to Homo cf. heidelbergensis (Schoetensack, 1908) on temporal and geographic grounds, if the validity of that species is accepted.

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