Les sinusites maxillaires chroniques font actuellement partie des pathologies respiratoires les plus communes. Les modifications des parois osseuses qu’elles entrainent peuvent être observées dans ...les populations du passé permettant ainsi d’apporter de précieux éléments sur leur santé respiratoire. Ces dernières années, plusieurs auteurs ont étudié les sinusites dans des populations médiévales européennes mais aucune recherche n’avait encore porté sur la période mérovingienne. Notre étude com...
L’estimation du sexe biologique d’un individu constitue une étape primordiale de l’analyse anthropologique, que ce soit en contexte archéologique ou forensique. Elle doit se fonder sur des méthodes ...de diagnose sexuelle reproductibles, fiables et validées. Néanmoins, cette tâche peut s’apparenter à un véritable défi lorsque la préservation des éléments diagnostiques osseux n’est pas optimale, et ce d’autant plus s’il s’agit de restes immatures ou brûlés. Face à de tels restes fragmentés, une v...
Many primates intentionally consume earth. This geophagy has probable health benefits, such as mineral supplementation or gastrointestinal tract protection, and is likely to be an important behavior ...for a species’ ecology, health, diet, and conservation. We investigated geophagy in the Critically Endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey (
Lagothrix flavicauda
). We collected observational data and camera trap records over 2 years at La Esperanza study site, northern Peru. Geophagy was rare, with 67 events recorded during the study. All age/sex classes engaged in geophagy, but adult males spent significantly less time consuming earth
in situ
than adult females did. Geophagy occurred predominantly during the dry season and was a solitary behavior. The forest floor is presumably a high-risk environment for these predominantly arboreal primates and our study animals employed various strategies to minimize predation risk. These included using a single route to access and leave geophagy sites, displaying increased vigilance behaviors before and during geophagy events, and minimizing the time spent on the forest floor (mean: 15 ± SD 9 s). They also maximized the benefits of being on the forest floor by removing earth to consume
ex situ.
These findings provide the first steps in the systemic approach required to understand the role geophagy plays in our study species, whose almost exclusive arboreality, coupled with the increased predation risk associated with terrestriality, suggests that geophagy confers an important benefit.
Geophagy is the intentional consumption of soil and has been observed in various animal taxa including human and nonhuman primates. Among the numerous adaptive hypotheses proposed to explain this ...behavior, two of them stand out: soil either protects the gastrointestinal tract from secondary plant compounds, parasites and pathogens, and/or supplements micronutrients in the diet. Few studies have characterized the physical and chemical characteristics of soils consumed by nonhuman primates. Here, we describe the composition of soils consumed by yellow-tailed woolly monkeys (
Lagothrix flavicauda
) in comparison with soils taken from surrounding areas. We also studied the physical aspects of geophagy sites in terms of accessibility, dimensions and vegetation density. This study took place at the La Esperanza field site, in northern Peru, between 2016 and 2018. We conducted focal follows, placed camera traps at geophagy sites and sampled soils. In total, we recorded 77 geophagy events. Our results highlight some aspects of soil and site selection in these arboreal primates, who face an increased predation risk when descending to the ground. Animals preferred smaller sites with denser surrounding vegetation. Composition of consumed soils was similar between geophagy sites. Soils were poor in micronutrients, but contained around 20% clay. High clay content, coupled with the fact that geophagy was performed significantly more in the dry season, when leaf consumption is highest, lends support to geophagy as a mechanism for protection of the gastrointestinal tract in
L. flavicauda
.
Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting ...information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ
13
C, δ
18
O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more
18
O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ
18
O
carb
values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5‰. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ
18
O
carb
values of shoed feet of about 1.4‰ between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P ≥ 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite.
The high temperatures reached during cremation lead to the destruction of organic matter preventing the use of traditional isotopic methods for dietary reconstructions. Still, strontium isotope (
Sr/
...Sr) and concentration (Sr) analyses of cremated human remains offer a novel way to assess changing consumption patterns in past populations that practiced cremation, as evidenced by a large amount of new data obtained from Metal Ages and Gallo-Roman human remains from Destelbergen, Belgium. The Gallo-Roman results show significantly higher Sr and a narrower interquartile range in
Sr/
Sr (0.7093-0.7095), close to the value of modern-day seawater (0.7092). This contrasts with the Metal Ages results, which display lower concentrations and a wider range in
Sr/
Sr (0.7094-0.7098). This typical Sr signature is also reflected in other sites and is most likely related to an introduction of marine Sr in the form of salt as a food preservative (e.g. salt-rich preserved meat, fish and fish sauce). Paradoxically, this study highlights caution is needed when using
Sr/
Sr for palaeomobility studies in populations with high salt consumption.
Information on the structure of the brain of the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur Amurosaurus riabinini, from the Late Maastrichtian of Blagoveschensk, Far Eastern Russia, is presented based on ...endocranial casts. The endocasts are compared with physical and digital endocasts of other dinosaurs. The olfactory tract was large. The cerebral hemispheres are enlarged and round, illustrating the important development of this part of the brain in hadrosaurids. The pituitary body is enlarged as well, perhaps prefiguring the large size attained by hadrosaurids. The EQ of Amurosaurus was similar to that of the lambeosaurine dinosaur Hypacrosaurus altispinus and was relatively larger than in most extant non-avian reptiles, including sauropod and ceratopsian dinosaurs. However, it was apparently relatively smaller than those of most theropod dinosaurs. The relatively large size of the cerebrum is consistent with the range and complexity of social behaviors inferred for lambeosaurine dinosaurs.
Frugivorous vertebrates such as primates are important dispersal agents in tropical forests, although the role of folivorous colobines is generally not considered. However, recent studies reported ...seed dispersal by endo- and epizoochory in colobine primates, including the proboscis monkey (
Nasalis larvatus
), suggesting that the role colobines play in seed dispersal might have been underestimated. In the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we investigated whether seeds were still able to germinate after being ingested by proboscis monkeys. Faecal samples (
n
= 201) from proboscis monkeys were collected between 2015 and 2017. Intact seeds belonging to eight plant species were found in 77% of the faecal samples.
Nauclea
spp. were the most abundant plant species, accounting for 98% of all intact seeds. This study is the first to conduct germination trials on seeds defecated by proboscis monkeys. Higher germination success was recorded in ingested
Nauclea
spp. seeds than in control seeds, from both ripe and unripe
Nauclea orientalis
fruits (
P
< 0.001). Therefore, we suggest that proboscis monkeys play a role in seed dispersal by enhancing the germination success of defecated seeds for at least some plant species. Similar to other colobines, although proboscis monkeys may provide a lower contribution to seed dispersal (low seed diversity over short distances) than other sympatric frugivores, this study emphasises that proboscis monkeys do contribute to the dispersal of intact seeds, such as
Nauclea
spp., in potentially suitable riverine habitats.
This study aims to better understand the development of group identity, mobility, and health in the Early Medieval Meuse Valley. This is achieved by combining existing demographic and ...palaeopathological information from 73 cremation deposits from Echt, the Netherlands, with new strontium isotope ratios (
87
Sr/
86
Sr) and strontium concentrations (Sr) that are performed on pars petrosa, diaphysis, and rib fragments. Although the surrounding Early Medieval cemeteries practiced inhumation, the initial burial community of Echt persisted in expressing the divergent burial ritual of cremation. Thirty-two radiocarbon dates demonstrate the fifth- to sixth-century cremation deposits to be chronologically separated from the seventh-century inhumations that were preserved in situ, suggesting a subsequent burial community replaced cremation with inhumation in the seventh century. Nutritionally inadequate diets may have contributed to the relatively high prevalence of porotic hyperostosis (~ 34%), resulting from decreasing foods supplies caused by deteriorating climatic conditions. The inhabitants are postulated to have mainly consumed foods originating from the land directly surrounding their farmsteads, expressed by the great variability in the
87
Sr/
86
Sr of the diaphyses and ribs (0.7096 to 0.7131), matching the geological complexity of the area. The lack of significant differences between the
87
Sr/
86
Sr and Sr of ribs and diaphyses connotes little change in the geological origin of the foods occurred over time, stressing the importance of the yield of local harvests. In contrast, large differences in childhood (i.e. pars petrosa) vs. adult (i.e. ribs and diaphyses)
87
Sr/
86
Sr suggest the regional movement of individuals to possibly support inter-farmstead relationships (e.g. via marriages).
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