Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia)
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Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia). / Kubat, Jülide; Nava, Alessia; Bondioli, Luca; Dean, M. Christopher; Zanolli, Clément; Bourgon, Nicolas; Bacon, Anne-Marie; Demeter, Fabrice; Peripoli, Beatrice; Albert, Richard; Lüdecke, Tina; Hertler, Christine; Mahoney, Patrick; Kullmer, Ottmar; Schrenk, Friedemann; Müller, Wolfgang.
In: Nature Ecology and Evolution, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2023, p. 279-289.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia)
AU - Kubat, Jülide
AU - Nava, Alessia
AU - Bondioli, Luca
AU - Dean, M. Christopher
AU - Zanolli, Clément
AU - Bourgon, Nicolas
AU - Bacon, Anne-Marie
AU - Demeter, Fabrice
AU - Peripoli, Beatrice
AU - Albert, Richard
AU - Lüdecke, Tina
AU - Hertler, Christine
AU - Mahoney, Patrick
AU - Kullmer, Ottmar
AU - Schrenk, Friedemann
AU - Müller, Wolfgang
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - During the Early to Middle Pleistocene, Java was inhabited by hominid taxa of great diversity. However, their seasonal dietary strategies have never been explored. We undertook geochemical analyses of orangutan (Pongo sp.), Homo erectus and other mammalian Pleistocene teeth from Sangiran. We reconstructed past dietary strategies at subweekly resolution and inferred seasonal ecological patterns. Histologically controlled spatially resolved elemental analyses by laser-based plasma mass spectrometry confirmed the preservation of authentic biogenic signals despite the effect of spatially restricted diagenetic overprint. The Sr/Ca record of faunal remains is in line with expected trophic positions, contextualizing fossil hominid diet. Pongo sp. displays marked seasonal cycles with ~3 month-long strongly elevated Sr/Ca peaks, reflecting contrasting plant food consumption presumably during the monsoon season, while lower Sr/Ca ratios suggest different food availability during the dry season. In contrast, omnivorous H. erectus shows low and less accentuated intra-annual Sr/Ca variability compared to Pongo sp., with δ13C data of one individual indicating a dietary shift from C4 to a mix of C3 and C4 plants. Our data suggest that H. erectus on Java was maximizing the resources available in more open mosaic habitats and was less dependent on variations in seasonal resource availability. While still influenced by seasonal food availability, we infer that H. erectus was affected to a lesser degree than Pongo sp., which inhabited monsoonal rain forests on Java. We suggest that H. erectus maintained a greater degree of nutritional independence by exploiting the regional diversity of food resources across the seasons.
AB - During the Early to Middle Pleistocene, Java was inhabited by hominid taxa of great diversity. However, their seasonal dietary strategies have never been explored. We undertook geochemical analyses of orangutan (Pongo sp.), Homo erectus and other mammalian Pleistocene teeth from Sangiran. We reconstructed past dietary strategies at subweekly resolution and inferred seasonal ecological patterns. Histologically controlled spatially resolved elemental analyses by laser-based plasma mass spectrometry confirmed the preservation of authentic biogenic signals despite the effect of spatially restricted diagenetic overprint. The Sr/Ca record of faunal remains is in line with expected trophic positions, contextualizing fossil hominid diet. Pongo sp. displays marked seasonal cycles with ~3 month-long strongly elevated Sr/Ca peaks, reflecting contrasting plant food consumption presumably during the monsoon season, while lower Sr/Ca ratios suggest different food availability during the dry season. In contrast, omnivorous H. erectus shows low and less accentuated intra-annual Sr/Ca variability compared to Pongo sp., with δ13C data of one individual indicating a dietary shift from C4 to a mix of C3 and C4 plants. Our data suggest that H. erectus on Java was maximizing the resources available in more open mosaic habitats and was less dependent on variations in seasonal resource availability. While still influenced by seasonal food availability, we infer that H. erectus was affected to a lesser degree than Pongo sp., which inhabited monsoonal rain forests on Java. We suggest that H. erectus maintained a greater degree of nutritional independence by exploiting the regional diversity of food resources across the seasons.
U2 - 10.1038/s41559-022-01947-0
DO - 10.1038/s41559-022-01947-0
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 36646949
AN - SCOPUS:85146287021
VL - 7
SP - 279
EP - 289
JO - Nature Ecology & Evolution
JF - Nature Ecology & Evolution
SN - 2397-334X
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 337656881