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人类的行为提供了丰富的数据来源。它们的牙齿特别重要，尽管关于它们的许多事情仍然无法解释。也许最独特的谜团是在门牙上发现的不寻常的磨损模式。对于过度磨损和唇舌（颊舌）变圆，最普遍接受的解释是前牙的非饮食使用。这是通过类比从阿拉斯加爱斯基摩人和加拿大和格陵兰因纽特人的人种学记录中推断出来的，他们使用门牙作为工具。本研究的目的是调查尼安德特人前牙磨损的可能原因，使用牙齿微磨损纹理分析。尼安德特人的前牙的微观磨损表面的点云，早期解剖学上的现代人类，这些灭绝的古人类在时间上重叠，比较生物考古人类群体与记录的生存行为将使用白光扫描共聚焦轮廓仪创建。这些将使用尺度敏感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。然后将气候模型和稳定同位素数据与微磨损数据相结合，以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现代人前牙的牙齿微磨损的研究将有助于重建牙齿使用行为，并有助于确定这些群体之间的差异和相似之处。 用于将门牙磨损模式与使用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学人群的饮食和前牙使用。 这项研究的更广泛的影响包括：这个博士论文研究项目将有助于在EPSCoR状态的女研究生的学术培训。 研究经验将提供给本科生和少数民族高中学生在一个向上的约束大学预科课程。

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.