Home > Articles > Published articles > The bears from Dmanisi and the first dispersal of early Homo out of Africa |
Date: | 2019 |
Abstract: | We report on the taxonomy and paleodiet of the bear population that inhabited the emblematic palaeoanthropological Early Pleistocene (1. 8 Ma) site of Dmanisi (Georgia), based on a dual approach combining morphometrics and microwear of upper and lower teeth. Given that the teeth of Ursus etruscus Cuvier, 1823 from Dmanisi show considerable size variability, their systematic position has been debated. However, a comparative study of the coefficients of variation for tooth size measurements in several modern bear species shows that the variability in tooth size of the ursid population from Dmanisi could result from sexual dimorphism. The analysis of tooth microwear indicates that these bears inhabited a mixed environment of open plain with forest patches, where they had a browsing diet with a substantial contribution of meat and/or fish. Comparative tooth morphometric analyses of modern ursids and fossil U. etruscus indicate that this extinct species had an omnivorous behavior similar to that of extant brown bears. The ecological interactions of the Dmanisi bears with other members of the large mammals community, including the first hominins that dispersed out of Africa, are discussed in the light of this new evidence. |
Grants: | Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2016-78577-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL201680975-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL-2014-54373-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad HAR2016-76760-C3-1-P Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-859 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-416 |
Note: | Aquest article té una correcció a 10.1038/s41598-021-82920-y |
Rights: | Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. |
Language: | Anglès |
Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
Published in: | Scientific reports, Vol. 9 (November 2019) , art. 17752, ISSN 2045-2322 |
16 p, 1.9 MB |