Late Pleistocene mammalian assemblages of Southeast Asia: New dating, mortality profiles and evolution of the predator-prey relationships in an environmental context

Karstic sites have great potential for yielding data regarding changes in faunal communities in the Pleistocene of Southeast Asia. In this region, the majority of fossil-bearing deposits are karstic breccias, which generally demonstrate a complicated sedimentary history. While most of the mammalian assemblages recovered in these deposits are only composed of isolated teeth, their study remains essential for reconstructing paleoecology and paleoclimatology of the region. We analyzed the assemblages recovered in three mainland and two insular karstic sites: Tam Hang South and Nam Lot in northern Laos, Duoi U'Oi in northern Vietnam, Punung in central Java and Sibrambang in western Sumatra and obtained new chronologies for three of these sites so that their significance could be discussed within their correct chronological context. The resulting age ranges place the sites in MIS5 and M1S4. The comparative analysis of the faunas, in terms of taphonomy, taxonomic diversity and abundance, and mortality profiles (Cervus unicolor, Sus scrofa, Sus vittatus, rhinocerotids and Tapirus indicus), reveals marked differences in prey-predators (carnivores and/or humans) relationships in relation to habitat. The study of homininesbearing sites (Punung, Nam Lot, Duoi U'Oi) allows us to emphasize different interactions with large carnivores (felids, hyaenids, canids). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

OSL DATING : AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR BUILDING A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK–EVIDENCE FROM SITES IN ASIA AND AUSTRALIA

International audienc

Reply to Pierret et al. : stratigraphic and dating consistency reinforces the status of Tam Pa Ling fossil

International audienc

Early modern humans and morphological variation in Southeast Asia : fossil evidence from Tam Pa Ling, Laos

1 page(s

Ecological niche models of human land use in Late Pleistocene Southeast Asia suggest both abiotic and biotic variables can create bariiers to human dispersal. 168, page 278.

International audienc

La Fin du Voyage: The French Colonial Experience in the Americas

ifferent types of activity can affect the morphology and strength of limb bones. This bone functional adaptation means that aspects of behaviour can be inferred in archaeological samples of modern humans. One popular methodological approach is to examine muscle attachment sites. However, this technique can be subjective. An alternative approach is to analyze bone microstructure. This latter method is more objective, because histological units directly linked to bone growth can be quantified. Here, we seek differences in bone microstructure between twenty age-matched adult ‘robust’ and ‘gracile’ male skeletons dated to the British Medieval period. Samples were selected based upon gross skeletal morphometry (37 bilateral postcranial measurements), muscle markers (55 bilateral postcranial sites), and femoral midshaft cross-section cortical thickness. Samples were then assigned as either ‘robust’ (n=10) or gracile (n=10). Following this, standard histological procedures were employed to produce thin sections of the posterior (P), anterior (A), lateral (L), and medial (M) femoral midshaft. Eight microscopic variables were compared between the groups. Intact osteon density (P:p=.013), fragmentary osteon density (P and M:p=.002, L:p=.010), osteon population density (P:p=.002, M:p=.003), Haversian canal area (A:p=.016, P:p=.028, M:p=.005, L:p=.002), Haversian canal diameter (A:p=.010, P:p=.023, M:p=.002, L:p=.007), osteon area (A:p=.002, P:p=.034, M:p=.001, L:p=.010), and osteocyte lacunae density (A:p=.011, P:p=.006, M and L:p=.000) differed significantly between gracile and robust males. Results indicate faster remodelling rates in robust individuals. Differences in behaviour are inferred between the two groups. A more active lifestyle involving excessive leg muscle use is inferred for the robust male group. Methodological suggestions are given

Anatomically modern human in Southeast Asia (Laos) by 46 ka

Uncertainties surround the timing of modern human emergence and occupation in East and Southeast Asia. Although genetic and archeological data indicate a rapid migration out of Africa and into Southeast Asia by at least 60 ka, mainland Southeast Asia is notable for its absence of fossil evidence for early modern human occupation. Here we report on a modern human cranium from Tam Pa Ling, Laos, which was recovered from a secure stratigraphic context. Radiocarbon and luminescence dating of the surrounding sediments provide a minimum age of 51-46 ka, and direct U-dating of the bone indicates a maximum age of ∼63 ka. The cranium has a derived modern human morphology in features of the frontal, occipital, maxillae, and dentition. It is also differentiated from western Eurasian archaic humans in aspects of its temporal, occipital, and dental morphology. In the context of an increasingly documented archaic-modern morphological mosaic among the earliest modern humans in western Eurasia, Tam Pa Ling establishes a definitively modern population in Southeast Asia at &sim50 ka cal BP. As such, it provides the earliest skeletal evidence for fully modern humans in mainland Southeast Asia.6 page(s

Additional evidence for early modern human morphological diversity in Southeast Asia at Tam Pa Ling, Laos

Despite its geographic primacy as the intersection of dispersal paths to Australasia, mainland Southeast Asia has played little role in scenarios of early human migrations. Tam Pa Ling (TPL), a cave site in northern Laos, is the source of early modern human fossils - a partial cranium (TPL1) and a complete mandible (TPL2) - that represent the earliest anatomically modern humans in continental Southeast Asia and introduce new migration routes into the region during Marine Isotope Stage 3. In the current analysis, a new partial mandible from the site, TPL 3, is introduced, described, and evaluated using geometric morphometrics in the context of Pleistocene archaic, early modern and Holocene humans. In addition, the sedimentary context of TPL3 is described and refined through further quartz single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (SG-OSL) measurements and additional feldspar post-infrared infra-red stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) techniques.The TPL3 mandible has discrete traits similar to eastern Asian early modern humans, including a well-developed chin and a lack of lateral corporal robusticity. It does, however, retain a relatively broad anterior mandibular arch that is more commonly associated with archaic populations. In this way, it is similar to the TPL2 mandible as well as other similarly-aged fossils from the region that show a mixture of archaic and derived traits. The combined quartz SG-OSL and feldspar pIR-IRSL techniques provide an age range of 70 ± 8-48 ± 5 ka for the depositional age of the layer containing the TPL3 mandible. This upper age estimate is ∼20 ka older than the depositional ages for the TPL1 and 2 fossils, extending the upper limit for the currently excavated sedimentary and associated fossil evidence

Early modern humans and morphological variation in Southeast Asia: fossil evidence from Tam Pa Ling, Laos.

Little is known about the timing of modern human emergence and occupation in Eastern Eurasia. However a rapid migration out of Africa into Southeast Asia by at least 60 ka is supported by archaeological, paleogenetic and paleoanthropological data. Recent discoveries in Laos, a modern human cranium (TPL1) from Tam Pa Ling's cave, provided the first evidence for the presence of early modern humans in mainland Southeast Asia by 63-46 ka. In the current study, a complete human mandible representing a second individual, TPL 2, is described using discrete traits and geometric morphometrics with an emphasis on determining its population affinity. The TPL2 mandible has a chin and other discrete traits consistent with early modern humans, but it retains a robust lateral corpus and internal corporal morphology typical of archaic humans across the Old World. The mosaic morphology of TPL2 and the fully modern human morphology of TPL1 suggest that a large range of morphological variation was present in early modern human populations residing in the eastern Eurasia by MIS 3