Ecological stability of Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Lesotho, southern Africa, facilitated human upland habitation

Investigation of Homo sapiens’ palaeogeographic expansion into African mountain environments are changing the understanding of our species’ adaptions to various extreme Pleistocene climates and habitats. Here, we present a vegetation and precipitation record from the Ha Makotoko rockshelter in western Lesotho, which extends from ~60,000 to 1,000 years ago. Stable carbon isotope ratios from plant wax biomarkers indicate a constant C3-dominated ecosystem up to about 5,000 years ago, followed by C4 grassland expansion due to increasing Holocene temperatures. Hydrogen isotope ratios indicate a drier, yet stable, Pleistocene and Early Holocene compared to a relatively wet Late Holocene. Although relatively cool and dry, the Pleistocene was ecologically reliable due to generally uniform precipitation amounts, which incentivized persistent habitation because of dependable freshwater reserves that supported rich terrestrial foods and provided prime locations for catching fish

Ecological stability of Late Pleistocene-to-Holocene Lesotho, southern Africa, facilitated human upland habitation

Investigation of Homo sapiens’ palaeogeographic expansion into African mountain environments are changing the understanding of our species’ adaptions to various extreme Pleistocene climates and habitats. Here, we present a vegetation and precipitation record from the Ha Makotoko rockshelter in western Lesotho, which extends from ~60,000 to 1,000 years ago. Stable carbon isotope ratios from plant wax biomarkers indicate a constant C3-dominated ecosystem up to about 5,000 years ago, followed by C4 grassland expansion due to increasing Holocene temperatures. Hydrogen isotope ratios indicate a drier, yet stable, Pleistocene and Early Holocene compared to a relatively wet Late Holocene. Although relatively cool and dry, the Pleistocene was ecologically reliable due to generally uniform precipitation amounts, which incentivized persistent habitation because of dependable freshwater reserves that supported rich terrestrial foods and provided prime locations for catching fish

The genome sequence of the ringlet, Aphantopus hyperantus Linnaeus 1758

We present a genome assembly based on an individual female Aphantopus hyperantus , also known as Maniola hyperantus (the ringlet butterfly; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae), scaffolded using data from a second, unrelated specimen. The genome sequence is 411 megabases in span. The majority of the assembly is scaffolded into 29 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome

Art and Influence, Presence and Navigation in Southern African Forager Landscapes

With earlier origins and a rebirth in the late 1990s, the New Animisms and the precipitate ‘ontological turn’ have now been in full swing since the mid-2000s. They make a valuable contribution to the interpretation of the rock arts of numerous societies, particularly in their finding that in animist societies, there is little distinction between nature and culture, religious belief and practicality, the sacred and the profane. In the process, a problem of perspective arises: the perspectives of such societies, and the analogical sources that illuminate them, diverge in more foundational terms from Western perspectives than is often accounted for. This is why archaeologists of religion need to be anthropologists of the wider world, to recognise where animistic and shamanistic ontologies are represented, and perhaps where there is reason to look closely at how religious systems are used to imply Cartesian separations of nature and culture, religious and mundane, human/person and animal/non-person, and where these dichotomies may obscure other forms of being-in-the-world. Inspired by Bird-David, Descola, Hallowell, Ingold, Vieiros de Castro, and Willerslev, and acting through the lens of navigation in a populated, enculturated, and multinatural world, this contribution locates southern African shamanic expressions of rock art within broader contexts of shamanisms that are animist

Another testimony of cross-cultural interaction? The wall grooves of Bushman Rock Shelter

International audienceIn the Limpopo Basin, many wall groove sites are found, sometimes in a very large number. Their function remains debated (rock art? ritual practice? tool sharpening?) and their chronocultural attribution varies between hunter-gatherers, herders and farmers, according to the sites and researchers concerned. New data from ongoing studies at Bushman Rock Shelter indicate an appearance of this graphic practice during the Later Stone Age. These marks could thus be another perceptible transcultural element within the material culture of hunter-gatherers and herders, further blurring their respective archaeological signatures. Is this a simple convergence? Or, is the sharing of beliefs, ritual practices and patterns of rock modification testimony to a new proof of cultural permeability between these two populations in this region

The influence of heel pad confinement on heel pad mechanical properties

This study examined the effects of different amounts of heel pad confinement on the mechanical behaviour of the human heel pad. Confinement can be manipulated in two ways: containment defined as the act of heel pad confinement by an external device (representing the heel counter) from the impact surface superiorly, and exposure defined as the amount of heel pad left unconfined distally before the start of the containment device. It is hypothesised that with greater containment, the heel pad will demonstrate less maximal deformation and increased heel pad stiffness compared with the uncontained heel pad. With increasing exposure, it is hypothesised that the heel pad will demonstrate greater maximum deformation and decreased heel pad stiffness compared with the uncontained heel pad. Cadaver heel pads were compressed using loading profiles based on vertical ground reaction force profiles collected from 11 subjects running at their preferred running velocities. Ten cadaver heel pads were each loaded 60 times to peak forces scaled to body weight with a constant time interval between loadings, under different conditions of containment and exposure. Statistical comparisons indicated that fully containing the human heel pad significantly alters the heel pad mechanical behaviour by decreasing the maximum deformation and increasing its stiffness. Thus, these results supported the first hypothesis. Statistical comparisons indicated that partially exposing human heel pad significantly alters the heel pad mechanical behaviour by decreasing the maximum deformation and increasing its stiffness, to a greater extent than fully containing the heel pad. These results are the reverse of the predictions of the second hypothesis. Overall these results have implications for heel pad mechanical behaviour when shod, and for footwear design

Prostaglandin H(2) synthase-1 and -2 expression in guinea pig gestational tissues during late pregnancy and parturition

Increased intrauterine prostaglandin (PG) production is crucial for the initiation of parturition. To investigate the mechanisms controlling intrauterine PG synthesis, we examined the expression of the key PG biosynthetic isoenzymes, PG-H(2) synthase (PTGS)-1 and -2, in the amnion, visceral yolk sac (VYS), placenta and myo-endometrium of pregnant guinea pigs. This animal model was chosen because the hormonal milieu of pregnancy and the role of PGs in the hormonal control of parturition are similar to those in the human. PTGS1 mRNA abundance, measured by real-time RT-PCR, increased in the amnion and the placenta during the last third of gestation. During labour, PTGS1 mRNA levels decreased precipitously in all four tissues. PTGS1 protein abundance, assessed by immunoblotting, increased to high levels in the amnion and the placenta by the end of pregnancy and remained high during labour. PTGS2 mRNA expression was higher in the placenta than in the other tissues, but did not change before and during labour. PTGS2 protein expression decreased in the placenta and remained low in the other tissues during labour. Immunohistochemistry showed pervasive PTGS1 protein expression in the amnion and strong expression in the parietal yolk sac membrane (PYS) covering the placenta. PTGS2 was expressed in the PYS and the endometrium. The PTGS inhibitor piroxicam, administered in doses that inhibited PTGS1 but not PTGS2, significantly prolonged gestation. These data suggest that PGs generated by intrauterine PTGS1 are involved in the timing of birth in guinea pigs. The induction of PTGS1 in the amnion and the PYS is a critical event leading to labour in guinea pigs and models analogous changes in the human gestational tissues before labour