The Exploitation of Toxic Fish from the Terminal Pleistocene in Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study from the Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines

Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record of these Philippines shell middens suggests that porcupinefish were prepared by human inhabitants of the sites to render them safe for consumption, indicating an advanced cultural knowledge of the preparation needed to separate the toxic principle from the edible parts. This constitutes one of the rare examples of poison processing by humans, aside from the contentious wooden stick poison applicator from Border Cave (South Africa)

Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in ‘Green Arabia’

Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to c. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, Middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n=21) from the Middle Pleistocene locality of Ti’s al Ghadah in Saudi Arabia associated with newly-discovered lithics and probable cutmarks. The results demonstrate productive grasslands in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula c. 300-500 ka, as well as aridity levels similar to those found in open savanna settings in eastern Africa today. The association between this palaeoenvironmental information and the earliest traces for hominin activity in this part of the world lead us to argue that Middle Pleistocene hominin dispersal into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula required no major novel adaptation

Les primates quaternaires de Song Terus (Java Est, Indonésie) (implications paléobiogéographiques et archéozoologiques pour l'Asie du Sud-Est)

Les primates non-humains représentent plus de 70% de la faune holocène du site archéologique en grotte de Song Terus, Java Est (Indonésie). En focalisant notre étude sur ce site, qui présente un remplissage stratigraphique d une puissance de 15 m recouvrant la limite Pléistocène-Holocène, nous disposons du contexte temporel et spatial où toutes les questions concernant l interaction homme/primates non-humains peuvent être abordées. Nous commençons cette étude par une présentation générale du contexte, et par la mise en place de référentiels essentiels à notre recherche, mais néanmoins lacunaires jusque là. C est pourquoi nous décrivons en détail le squelette de l holotype naturalisé de l espèce Trachypithecus auratus, jamais décrite du point de vue ostéologique. Nous mettons également en place, plus loin, un système d estimation des âges au décès des fossiles, basé sur les stades d usure dentaire. Après une discussion concernant les problèmes existants quant à la place des primates-non humains dans l actuelle biostratigraphie de Java, nous décrivons en détail les fossiles holocènes de Song Terus. L espèce T. auratus représente plus de 96% des restes de primates non-humains, l espèce Macaca sp. représentant moins de 4%. Les crânes des fossiles de T. auratus sont très proches des spécimens actuels, avec toutefois certains caractères partagés avec les individus de Java uniquement, alors que d autres sont partagés avec les individus de Sumatra et de Bornéo seuls. Nous cherchons à comprendre ceci en étudiant le contour de l orbite qui nous semble discriminer les fossiles des espèces actuelles. Les descripteurs de Fourier ont été utilisés. Un seul des fossiles les plus récents géologiquement ressemble aux spécimens actuels de T. auratus, dont la morphologie des individus de Java, de Sumatra et de Bornéo apparaît continue. En revanche, les autres fossiles sortent de la variabilité des spécimens actuels. Nous décidons alors de tester la part de l endémisme insulaire et des pressions paléoenvironnementales sur ces conformations de l orbite par une analyse de Two-Block Partial Least Square. Les résultats mettent en évidence une migration unique probablement ancienne du genre Trachypithecus en Asie du Sud-Est insulaire. En revanche, des migrations multiples d îles en îles ont eu lieu jusqu à des périodes très récentes, ce qui permet de relativiser l ouverture de l environnement sur le plateau de la Sonde durant le dernier maximum glaciaire. Dans la dernière partie de travail, nous cherchons à comprendre la nature de la relation homme/primates non-humains dans le site de Song Terus. L études des micro-usures dentaires des fossiles de T. auratus met en évidence une grande consommation de fruits/graines, ce qui est inattendu pour cette espèce hautement folivore, considérée pour des raisons biologiques, parmi la moins flexible des primates. La question d une relation commensale de ces primates à l homme est posée. Nous cherchons à l éclaircir par les méthodes de l archéozoologie et de l analyse spatiale. Les résultats obtenus sont complexes et difficiles à interpréter. L ensemble du squelette est représenté dans le site mis à part les mains. Nous nous sommes interrogé sur les raisons de cette absence, qui pourrait être justifiée par des techniques de piégeage, sans que nous puissions y répondre. L analyse spatiale ne met évidence aucun traitement particulier des carcasses. Il est probable que la relation homme/primates non-humains au début de l Holocène ait été multiple, mêlant chasse et parfois apprivoisement comme c est le cas aujourd hui chez certains groupes de chasseurs-collecteurs de l Asie du Sud-Est.Non-human primates represent 70% of the holocene fauna from the archaeological site of Song Terus. On focusing our study on this site, which present a stratigraphical filling of 15 m comprising the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, we possess the temporal and spatial context where all the questions concerning the interaction between human and non-human primates may be approached. After filling some lacunar datas essential for ou research, we describe in details the fossils of Song Terus. The species Trachypithecus auratus represent up to 96% of the non-human primate remaines, and Macaca sp. only 4%. We look for distinguishing javan specimens of T. auratus in one hand and sumatran and bornean specimens in the other hand, as fossils share characters with both of them. We then focus on the contour of the orbites from Elliptical Fourier Analysis as they seem to us, discriminant among actuals and fossils. Two fossils present a completly different shape of the orbite.We test the part of endemism and palaeoenvironment on the shape of the orbites with Two-Block Partial Least Square analysis. Results show a possible very old migration from continent to insular Southeast Asia that occured once. After this period, many migrations occured between the different islands of the region, up to recently. This permit to conclude that probably no savanna corridor existed during the Last Glacial Maximum. To understand the relationship between human and non-human primates, we study dental microwears first. The high frugivory of the T. auratus fossils from Song Terus is surprising as those species are known to be extremely folivorous and poorly flexible. The question of commensalism of those primates to human is asked. Methods of archaeozoology show different results, as the absence of hand remains, while all the skeleton is completly preserved in the site, could be interpreted as trapping technics. The spatial analysis doesn t provide any light on any of these hypothesis. We then suspect a complex relationship between human and non-human primates, mixing commensalism and hunting, as it is still known today.PARIS-Museum Hist.Naturelle (751052304) / SudocSudocFranceF

Brief communication A cranial morphometric assessment of the taxonomic affinities of Trachypithecus auratus (E. Geoffroy, 1812 Primates : Colobinae) with a reassessment of the T. auratus type specimen

International audienceThe debate over the taxonomic position and affinities of Trachypithecus auratus has been ongoing since its identification by E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1812. The type specimen of this species is housed in Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris (MNHN-ZM-2005-912). This point is debated due to the complex and fluctuating taxonomy of Southeast Asian Colobinae (Brandon-Jones et al.: Int J Primatol 25 (2004) 97-164)and to the fact that this individual is represented by a mounted skeleton. By means of 3D medical imaging methodologies we describe for the first time the cranial anatomy of the specimen MNHN-ZM-2005-912 and compare it with other Trachypithecus species, in order to test the molecularsystematic hypotheses for affinities among the T. auratus-T. cristatus group. We ascertain the taxonomic attribution of this individual to the species Trachypithecus auratus species. The most diagnostic characters shared by the type specimen and Trachypithecus auratus compared to other species of Trachypithecus are the rounded orbits and the straight facial profile. We then try to clarify the inconsistencies concerning the geographical provenance of the type. The island of Java appears to be the most probable locality from a cluster analysis based on linear morphometry. After this approach and a discriminant analysis, a northeastern Javanese provenance of this specimen, as proposed by Brandon-Jones et al. (Int J Primatol 25 (2004) 97-164) is dubious. Finally we provide 3D models of the skull and the endocast, and a list of cranial landmark coordinates of the holotype for future research

A new species of Celebochoerus (Suidae, Mammalia) from the Philippines and the paleobiogeography of the genus Celebochoerus Hooijer, 1948

Celebochoerus is a unique suid having extremely large upper tusks, and which was to date only known from the Pliocene-Pleistocene of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. Here, we report on the discovery of a canine fragment referable to Celebochoerus from the Cagayan Valley of Luzon, Northern Philippines. We name a new species, Celebochoerus cagayanensis nov. sp., which differs from the Sulawesi species Celebochoerus heekereni in having mesial and distal enamel bands on the upper canines. We see these characteristics as symplesiomorphic in suids and propose a migration route from the Philippines to Sulawesi, possibly out of Taiwan, which would have occurred independently from the better known Pleistocene migration route from India into Java

Biometric Differentiation of Wild Philippine Pigs from Introduced Sus scrofa in Modern and Archaeological Assemblages

In many parts of Eurasia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia where native wild suids occur, it is notoriously difficult to differentiate these from introduced domestic pigs in the prehistoric archaeological record. Yet, correct identification of the initial appearance or introduction of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) is essential for determining the timing for the transition from purely hunting to the adoption of managed animal populations within different regions across the globe. In a recent review of techniques used by zooarchaeologists to distinguish between domestic and wild pig populations, the analysts concluded that the most reliable method was metrical analyses, when the data produce a clear two-population pattern, one domestic, the other wild. In this study, we demonstrate how linear metrics are an effective tool, albeit at different levels of confidence, for differentiating the native and endemic species of Philippine pig from S. scrofa, both within modern contemporary assemblages, and the archaeological recor

First fossil evidence of the extinct Philippine cloud rat Crateromys paulus (Muridae: Murinae: Phloeomyini) from Ilin Island, Mindoro, and insights into its Holocene abundance

The Ilin cloud rat Crateromys paulus, identified from a single individual in 1981 and collected from an undocumented location in Ilin Island, Mindoro, Philippines, is now considered to be "data deficient" and possibly extinct. 96 murid dental fossil remains were recently recovered within a two-meter excavation of well stratified and chronometrically dated deposits at the archaeological sites of Bubog I and Bubog II on Ilin Island. Research on these well-preserved murid rodent remains confirms the past presence of C. paulus on Ilin Island and describes for the first time variability in dental morphology of this species. The succession of fossils within the detailed stratigraphic sequence also provides us with information on C. paulus throughout the Holocene and on its possible recent extinctionThe archaeological investigation of Bubog I and Bubog II is supported by the National Geographic Society Global Exploration Fund (GEFNE 129-14), and by the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research (EIDR) Program Grant of the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) of the University of the Philippines as part of the Mindoro Project, Palaeoenvironmental and Biodiversity Study of Mindoro Island: An Archaeological Science Initiative Project (OVPAA-EIDR code 2-002-1111212). The study of MCR was enabled by the Science Visiting Scholarship supported by the Field Museum Scholarship Committee, and the GDR-i PalBioDiv ASE (CNRS) headed by V. Zeitoun. The research of PJP was facilitated by the ARC Future Fellowship Grant FT100100527. The work of AFP was funded by the UP System Enhanced Creative Work and Research Grant (ECWRG 2016-2-032)

The Oldest Gibbon Fossil (Hylobatidae) from Insular Southeast Asia: Evidence from Trinil, (East Java, Indonesia), Lower/Middle Pleistocene

<div><p>A fossil femur excavated by Eugène Dubois between 1891–1900 in the Lower/Middle Pleistocene bonebed of the Trinil site (Java, Indonesia) was recognised by us as that of a Hylobatidae. The specimen, Trinil 5703 of the Dubois Collection (Leiden, The Netherlands), has the same distinctive form of fossilization that is seen in many of the bonebed fossils from Trinil in the collection. Anatomical comparison of Trinil 5703 to a sample of carnivore and primate femora, supported by morphometric analyses, lead to the attribution of the fossil to gibbon. Trinil 5703 therefore provides the oldest insular record of this clade, one of the oldest known Hylobatidae fossils from Southeast Asia. Because living Hylobatidae only inhabit evergreen rain forests, the paleoenvironment within the river drainage in the greater Trinil area evidently included forests of this kind during the Lower/Middle Pleistocene as revealed here.</p></div

Linear regressions of the log-transformed total length of the femur over the log-transformed femoral neck height for each of the following clades: small apes, langurs and macaques; and estimation by each of the three different models of the original total length of Trinil 5703 (red square) from its log-transformed femoral neck height.

<p>Linear regressions of the log-transformed total length of the femur over the log-transformed femoral neck height for each of the following clades: small apes, langurs and macaques; and estimation by each of the three different models of the original total length of Trinil 5703 (red square) from its log-transformed femoral neck height.</p

List of species used in this study.

<p>List of species used in this study.</p