Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Neandertal Behavior as Inferred from Incisor Microwear Texture Analysis

来自欧洲和近东的尼安德特人化石为研究这种古人类的行为提供了丰富的数据来源。它们的牙齿尤其重要，尽管它们的许多方面仍未得到解释。也许最独特的谜团是门牙上发现的不寻常的磨损模式。最普遍接受的解释是过度的毛磨损和唇-舌（颊-舌）圆是前牙的非饮食使用。这是从阿拉斯加爱斯基摩人、加拿大人和格陵兰因纽特人使用门牙作为工具的人种志中推断出来的。本研究的目的是利用牙齿微磨损纹理分析来探讨尼安德特人前牙磨损的可能原因。将使用白光扫描共聚焦剖面仪创建尼安德特人前牙微观磨损表面的点云，解剖学上与这些已灭绝的古人类重叠的早期现代人，以及具有生存行为记录的生物考古人类群体的比较。这些将使用尺度敏感的分形分析计算机软件包Toothfrax和SFrax进行分析。将测量五个变量，每个变量描述微磨损表面纹理的不同方面。气候模型和稳定同位素数据将与微磨损数据相结合，重建尼安德特人的前牙使用行为。对尼安德特人和早期解剖学意义上的现代人前牙微磨损的研究将有助于重建牙齿使用行为，并有助于识别这些群体之间的异同。用于将门牙磨损与使用模式联系起来的基线系列将是迄今为止最全面的类型，并将允许推断其他化石人类以及其他生物考古人群的饮食和前牙使用情况。本研究的更广泛影响包括：本博士论文研究项目将有助于EPSCoR状态下女研究生的学术培养。研究经验将提供给本科生和少数民族高中学生在向上发展大学前的发展计划。

Neandertal fossils from Europe and the Near East provide a rich source of data for the investigation of this hominin's behavior. Their teeth are especially important, although much about them remains unexplained. Perhaps the most distinctive enigma is the unusual wear pattern found on the incisors. The most commonly accepted explanation for the excessive gross wear and labio-lingual (cheek-tongue) rounding is non-dietary use of the anterior teeth. This was inferred by analogy from ethnographic accounts of Alaskan Eskimo and Canadian and Greenland Inuit populations that used their front teeth as tools. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible causes of Neandertal anterior tooth wear using dental microwear texture analysis. Point clouds of microscopic wear surfaces of anterior teeth of Neandertals, early anatomically modern humans that overlapped these extinct hominins in time, and comparative bioarcheological human groups with documented subsistence behaviors will be created using a white-light scanning confocal profiler. These will be analyzed using the scale-sensitive fractal analysis computer software packages Toothfrax and SFrax. Five variables will be measured, each describing different aspects of microwear surface textures. Climatic models and stable isotope data will then be integrated with the microwear data to reconstruct anterior tooth use behaviors of Neandertals. Studies of dental microwear on the anterior teeth of Neandertals and early anatomically modern humans will facilitate the reconstruction of tooth use behaviors, and help identify differences and similarities between these groups. The baseline series used to relate patterns of incisor wear to use will be the most comprehensive of its type to date, and will allow for the inference of diet and anterior tooth use in other fossil hominins as well as other bioarcheological populations. The broader impacts of this study include: This doctoral dissertation research project will contribute to the academic training of a female graduate student in an EPSCoR state. Research experience will be provided for undergraduates and minority high school students in an Upward Bound pre-college advancement program.