Anthro 105 Lecture 13: Foraging In order to be a fit individual you must be well fed. Very fundamental subject How we use the fossil record to reconstruct and -- material residue they left behind Fossil record is direct material remains, archaeological is not bones Teeth: bones become lithified Partially organic (collagen protein) inorganic part as well When you die, the collagen content is replaced over time with inorganic Teeth tell us a lot about diets in different ways 1. Structure of teeth is different than teeth of cat, we have boonaton teeth that tells us something about our diet. Overall form is reflective of diet 2. Also helpful for reconstructing fossil record and foraging because when you eat food it leaves presence on teeth (like chips on teeth from eating very hard foods) 3. Microwear on surfaces -- leaves and grass will leave different mark than something hard and brittle. Microwear is last few meals, macrowear is long term dietary restrictions 10:49 Look up what an isotope is and carbon fixation · Different types of plants use carbon differently C3 plants . Trees, bushes, shrubs -- when they fix carbon, they select against isotope 13, try not to use it when they convert carbon dioxide into C4 plants · Grasses and hedges, more easily use isotope 13 There are different amounts of isotope 13 vs. 12 in c3 and c4 Animals incorporate the isotopic outline of the plants they eat into their bodies Antelopes are browsers vs. grazers, going to have different signatures and carbon ratios Those signatures are contained in the optilatical tissues in the teeth- even after dying, the chemical signatures are still there, in other areas it can change but teeth resist dyogenimus, so have original signature in high accuracy -- (23) carbon 13 carbon 12 ratio -- opposite high 12 low 13 brazzer
We can do the same w hominin teeth (browse- things growing on bushes) c3- hominins could be actually eating browsers or directly things going low --- c4 -- grass eating hominin or more likely incorporating animals who eat hrasses (like termites or a grazing antelope) into diet Between 3-2 million y a humans created stone tools ---- we see butcher marks and slicing damage left behind. Some stone tools from the past keep residues Sexual division of labor · About 2 million years ago humans were foraging in modern human sense -- modern hunter gatherers. Based on gathering ... added component is obvious in sites across Africa -- not just eating of vertebrates: big change is evidence that in addition to sma;l animals and plants, there is eating of big animals, and component to the diet that includes large game animals that supplement the eating of plants . This is divided with women more doing plants and men more hunting animals -- then gather to eat at sites together and share, interfamily sharing as well Evolutionary basis of behavioral differences between men and women 40:00 · Gamete production o Limited in women