8 research outputs found
The Old man and the Giant clam: climate variability and prehistoric human migration in the Pacific
The Lapita migration, which occurred 3,000 years ago, is one of the most remarkable prehistoric human migration: the Lapita seafarers went across 4,000 km of uncharted seas to settle in the islands of the southwest Pacific. The factors that drove this event are still unknown. It has been hypothesized that an increase in the El Niño Southern Oscillation –ENSO – may have triggered this migration. To explore the possible influence of ENSO forcing the Lapita migration, bulk oxygen stable isotopes records were obtained from fossil giant clams, unearthed from Lapita archaeological sites of SW Pacific and a modern baseline was obtained from modern conspecifics. Fossil giant clams showed that climate oscillated between 1) present day conditions and 2) warmer / fresher conditions at the inter-annual time-scale. This suggests that Lapita migration occurred concomitantly with a strong ENSO variability. The potential dramatic environmental degradations caused by the increased ENSO variability (droughts, malaria, wildfires…) may have acted as a push factor for the Lapita migration. Frequent shifts in prevailing wind regimes associated with ENSO may have also facilitated the discovery of new islands
Patterns of ectoparasite infection in wild-caught and laboratory-bred cichlid fish, and their hybrids, implicate extrinsic rather than intrinsic causes of species differences in infection
Drosophila melanogaster females restore their attractiveness after mating by removing male anti-aphrodisiac pheromones
Lapita diet in remote oceania: new stable isotope evidence from the 3000-year-old Teouma site, Efate Island, Vanuatu.
Remote Oceania was colonized ca. 3000 BP by populations associated with the Lapita Cultural Complex, marking a major event in the prehistoric settlement of the Pacific Islands. Although over 250 Lapita sites have been found throughout the Western Pacific, human remains associated with Lapita period sites are rare. The site of Teouma, on Efate Island, Vanuatu has yielded the largest burial assemblage (n=68 inhumations) of Lapita period humans ever discovered, providing a unique opportunity for assessing human adaptation to the environment in a colonizing population. Stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) of human bone collagen from forty-nine Teouma adults were analyzed against a comprehensive dietary baseline to assess the paleodiet of some of Vanuatu's earliest inhabitants. The isotopic dietary baseline included both modern plants and animals (n=98) and prehistoric fauna from the site (n=71). The human stable isotope data showed that dietary protein at Teouma included a mixture of reef fish and inshore organisms and a variety of higher trophic marine (e.g. marine turtle) and terrestrial animals (e.g. domestic animals and fruit bats). The domestic pigs and chickens at Teouma primarily ate food from a C3 terrestrial environment but their δ15N values indicated that they were eating foods from higher trophic levels than those of plants, such as insects or human fecal matter, suggesting that animal husbandry at the site may have included free range methods. The dietary interpretations for the humans suggest that broad-spectrum foraging and the consumption of domestic animals were the most important methods for procuring dietary protein at the site. Males displayed significantly higher δ15N values compared with females, possibly suggesting dietary differences associated with labor specialization or socio-cultural practices relating to food distribution