Modelling Robust australopithecine and early Homo behavioural ecology

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Modelling Robust australopithecine and early Homo
behavioural ecology

• Adam Newton
• University of Liverpool, UK
• anewton_at_liv.ac.uk

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The Oldowan World

• The Plio-Pleistocene

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Why study the Oldowan World?

• Earliest stone tools - Oldowan
• Two types of hominin
• Early Homo
• Robust australopithecines (Robusts)
• Brain enlargement - early Homo
• Hominins move out of Africa
• First modern human body
• Homo ergaster

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Why study the Oldowan World?

• Earliest stone tools - Oldowan
• Two types of hominin
• Early Homo
• Robust australopithecines (Robusts)
• Brain enlargement - early Homo
• Hominins move out of Africa
• First modern human body
• Homo ergaster

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Robusts reassessed

• Highly megadont
• Hard diet specialist?
• Trace element analysis
• Sr/Ca ratios
• Not a specialist
• Stable carbon isotopes
• 13C/12C ratios
• Omnivorous
• Megadont features related to fallback foods?

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What about Early Homo?

• Smaller jaws/teeth
• Away from early hominin trend
• Chemical analyses
• Omnivorous
• Stone tools
• Only stone tool maker?
• Increased meat eating?
• Reliance upon technology?

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Modelling Early Hominins

• Investigating the Oldowan World

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SIMILE

• Visual modelling software
• Earth, environmental and life sciences
• Developed by Simulistics

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What do I want to know?

• What were the likely diets of the Robusts and
  early Homo?
• To what extent did early Homo rely upon tools for
  its subsistence?

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Modelling Work So Far

• Two types of hominin
• Robusts
• Early Homo
• Different anatomical and technological abilities
• Simple environment
• Soft plant foods, hard plant foods, meat

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Future Directions

• Build simple virtual environment
• Hominins can move around to look for resources
• Seasonal changes in resources
• Subdivide the three current resource categories
• Add water and sources of stone as resources
• Simile can link up to GIS

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Conclusions

• Building the model has forced me to think in much
  greater detail than if I had only built
  conceptual models

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The End

• Thanks For Listening
• www.simulistics.com