Institute of Earth Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1056, 1051 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Hum Evol. 2009 Dec;57(6):656-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.06.003. Epub 2009 Aug 15.
Knowledge about dietary niche is key to understanding hominin evolution, since diet influences body proportions, brain size, cognition, and habitat preference. In this study we provide ecological context for the current debate on modernity (or not) of aquatic resource exploitation by hominins. We use the Homo erectus site of Trinil as a case study to investigate how research questions on possible dietary relevance of aquatic environments can be addressed. Faunal and geochemical analysis of aquatic fossils from Trinil Hauptknochenschicht (HK) fauna demonstrate that Trinil at approximately 1.5Ma contained near-coastal rivers, lakes, swamp forests, lagoons, and marshes with minor marine influence, laterally grading into grasslands. Trinil HK environments yielded at least eleven edible mollusc species and four edible fish species that could be procured with no or minimal technology. We demonstrate that, from an ecological point of view, the default assumption should be that omnivorous hominins in coastal habitats with catchable aquatic fauna could have consumed aquatic resources. The hypothesis of aquatic exploitation can be tested with taphonomic analysis of aquatic fossils associated with hominin fossils. We show that midden-like characteristics of large bivalve shell assemblages containing Pseudodon and Elongaria from Trinil HK indicate deliberate collection by a selective agent, possibly hominin.
关于饮食生态位的知识是理解人类进化的关键，因为饮食会影响身体比例、大脑大小、认知和栖息地偏好。在这项研究中，我们为当前关于人类是否开发水生资源的现代性的争论提供了生态背景。我们以特尼尔直立人遗址为例，研究了如何解决有关水生环境可能的饮食相关性的研究问题。特尼尔主骨层（HK）动物群中的水生化石的动物群和地球化学分析表明，大约 150 万年前的特尼尔包含了近海岸河流、湖泊、沼泽森林、泻湖和沼泽，受海洋影响较小，横向演变为草原。特尼尔 HK 环境中至少有 11 种可食用的软体动物和 4 种可食用的鱼类，可以在没有或最小技术的情况下获取。我们证明，从生态角度来看，默认的假设应该是，在有可捕获的水生动物的沿海栖息地中，杂食性的人类可以食用水生资源。可以通过对与人类化石相关的水生化石的埋藏学分析来检验水生资源开发的假设。我们表明，特尼尔 HK 中含有 Pseudodon 和 Elongaria 的大型双壳类贝壳组合的垃圾堆特征表明，一种选择性的因素，可能是人类，对其进行了有目的的收集。
