Ecogeographic Variation in Neandertal Diet: Evidence from Occlusal Microwear

在超过10万年的时间里，尼安德特人居住在欧亚大陆西部的各种生态区，介于冰期和间冰期之间。为了阐明气候变化和变化与竞争对尼安德特人生存模式的影响仍然知之甚少，这项研究将使用咬合微服分析来重建欧洲和中东许多广泛分布的地点尼安德特人的饮食习惯。这些磨损模式将与同一地区尼安德特人之前和旧石器时代早期的人群进行比较。具有已知和不同饮食习惯的现代狩猎采集人群的微型服装特征将用于比较和解释目的。这个项目意义重大，因为它将阐明有关尼安德特人行为和命运方面的有争议的问题。该项目将产生更广泛的影响，因为它将导致大量尼安德特人和旧石器时代早期牙列的高分辨率铸模的集合。由于这些化石分散在欧洲和中东部分地区，往往无法获取，这些藏品将存放在石溪大学，将为对旧石器时代感兴趣的广泛研究人员提供宝贵的资源。此外，该项目需要与美国和欧洲其他大学和机构的科学家和研究生合作，该项目产生的所有磨牙微磨损图像和数据将通过石溪大学维护的网站广泛提供。这个项目将通过让本科生参与数据收集和分析过程来整合研究和教育。最后，拟议的活动促进代表不足的群体参与古人类学研究，因为共同参与活动的是一名黎巴嫩妇女。

For over 100,000 years, the Neandertals inhabited a variety of ecological zones across western Eurasia, between glacial and interglacial times. To elucidate the still poorly understood effects of climatic change and variability versus competition on Neandertal subsistence patterns, this study will employ occlusal microwear analysis to reconstruct the dietary habits of Neandertal groups from numerous widely dispersed sites in Europe and the Middle East. These wear patterns will be compared to those of Pre-Neandertal and early Upper Paleolithic groups from the same regions. The microwear signatures of modern hunter-gatherer populations with known and diverse dietary habits will be used for comparative and interpretive purposes. This project is significant because it will shed light on the controversial issues concerning aspects of Neandertal behavior and fate. This project will have broader impacts in that it will result in the assembly of a large collection of high-resolution casts of Neandertal and early Upper Paleolithic dentitions. Because these fossils are scattered throughout Europe and parts of the Middle East and are often inaccessible, this collection, which will be housed at Stony Brook University, will provide an invaluable resource to a broad range of researchers interested in the Paleolithic. In addition, this project entails collaboration with scientists and graduate students at other universities and institutions in both the United States and Europe, and all molar microwear images and data resulting from this project will be made broadly available through a website maintained at Stony Brook University. This project will integrate research and education by involving undergraduate students in the data collection and analysis process. Finally, the proposed activity promotes the participation of under-represented groups in paleoanthropological research inasmuch as the co-PI is a Lebanese woman.