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，尽管关于它们的许多事情仍未得到解释。也许最独特的谜团是门牙上发现的不寻常的磨损图案。对于过度的粗磨和唇舌(面颊-舌尖)圆，最普遍接受的解释是前牙的非饮食使用。这是通过对阿拉斯加、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学描述的类比而推断出来的。本研究的目的是通过牙体微磨损纹理分析来研究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、在时间上与这些灭绝的原始人重叠的早期解剖学现代人，以及具有已记录生存行为的比较生物考古人类群体的前牙微观磨损表面的点云。这些将使用规模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。然后，气候模型和稳定的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。研究尼安德特人和早期解剖学上的现代人前牙上的牙齿微磨损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差异和相似之处。用于关联门牙磨损模式与使用的基线系列将是迄今为止同类类型中最全面的，并将允许推断其他化石人种以及其他生物考古种群的饮食和前牙使用情况。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括：这一博士论文研究项目将有助于EPSCoR州的一名女研究生的学术培训。将为本科生和少数民族高中生提供研究经验，参加向上跳跃的大学预科进修计划。

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.