Dissertation Research: The Isotopic Composition and Ecology of Archaic Human Diet in the Eastern Chihuahuan Desert of Texas

在Thomas Hester博士的指导下，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的研究生Jeffery Huebner先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。休伯纳先生已经收集了史前骨骼、组织、粪便、动物和植物样本，并将提交给地质年轮实验室进行碳氮同位素测定。结果将允许他做两件事：1。重建史前饮食在奇瓦瓦沙漠地区在环境显著变化的一段时间内是如何变化的。2. 允许改进一套被科学家广泛用于重建人类饮食的同位素技术。过去的研究表明，不同的动物和植物食物的碳和氮同位素组成各不相同。这些“同位素特征”经过一些改变，传递到食用它们的动物的组织中。例如，对人类骨骼材料的分析表明，同位素变化与个体一生中的饮食有关。由于这一事实，也因为人类骨骼材料经常被保存下来，人类学家越来越多地使用这种技术来试图重建史前的饮食。由于其干燥的环境和有机残留物的良好保存，奇瓦瓦沙漠提供了一个独特的机会来帮助发展这项技术。这里不仅有年代久远的人类骨骼残骸，而且还有干尸组织和粪便残骸。对这三者的分析可以进行有趣的比较，因为软组织的反应与骨骼不同，并且在较短的时间间隔内反映饮食。由于植物和动物的遗体保存得很好，对它们的分析提供了一种对照，从而可以校准组织结果。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将增加我们对人类如何适应困难和不断变化的环境的理解。这将有助于发展一种广泛用于人类学的技术。它还将协助培训一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Thomas Hester, Mr Jeffery Huebner, a graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin, will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Mr. Huebner has amassed and will submit prehistoric skeletal, tissue, fecal, animal and plant samples to Geochron Laboratories for carbon and nitrogen isotopic determination. The results will permit him to do two things: 1. reconstruct how prehistoric diet changed in the Chihuahuan Desert region over a time interval when the enviroment shifted markedly. 2. allow refinement of a set of isotopic techniques widely used by scientists to reconstruct human diet. Past research has shown that different animal and vegetable foods vary in their isotopic composition in both carbon and nitrogen. These "isotopic signatures" are transmitted, with some alteration, to the tissues of animals which consume them. Analysis of human skeletal material for example shows isotopic variation which is related to diet over the course of an individual's life. Because of this fact, and because human skeletal material is often preserved, anthropologists have increasingly used this technique in an attempt to reconstruct prehistoric diet. Because of its dry environment and the excellent preservation of organic remains, the Chihuahuan Desert provides a unique opportunity to help to develop this technique. Not only are well dated human skeletal remains available, but both mummified tissues and fecal remains are also present. Analysis of all three allow an interesting comparison since soft tissue reacts differently than bone and reflects diet over a shorter time interval. Because plant and animal remains are well preserved, analyses of them provides a control against which tissue results can be calibrated. This research is important for several reasons. It will increase our understanding of how humans adapt to a difficult and changing environment. It will help to develop a technique of widespread anthropological use. It will also assist in the training of a promising young scientist.