TY - JOUR
T1 - Trophic ecology of a Late Pleistocene early modern human from tropical Southeast Asia inferred from zinc isotopes
AU - Bourgon, Nicolas
AU - Jaouen, Klervia
AU - Bacon, Anne-Marie
AU - Dufour, Elise
AU - McCormack, Jeremy
AU - Tran, N.-Han
AU - Trost, Manuel
AU - Fiorillo, Denis
AU - Dunn, Tyler E.
AU - Zanolli, Clément
AU - Zachwieja, Alexandra
AU - Duringer, Philippe
AU - Ponche, Jean Luc
AU - Boesch, Quentin
AU - Antoine, Pierre-Olivier
AU - Westaway, Kira E.
AU - Joannes-Boyau, Renaud
AU - Suzzoni, Eric
AU - Frangeul, Sébastien
AU - Crozier, Françoise
AU - Aubaile, Françoise
AU - Patole-Edoumba, Elise
AU - Luangkhoth, Thonglith
AU - Souksavatdy, Viengkeo
AU - Boualaphane, Souliphane
AU - Sayavonkhamdy, Thongsa
AU - Sichanthongtip, Phonephanh
AU - Sihanam, Daovee
AU - Demeter, Fabrice
AU - Shackelford, Laura L.
AU - Hublin, Jean-Jacques
AU - Tütken, Thomas
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Tam Pà Ling, a cave site in northeastern Laos, has yielded the earliest skeletal evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The reliance of Pleistocene humans in rainforest settings on plant or animal resources is still largely unstudied, mainly due to poor collagen preservation in fossils from tropical environments precluding stable nitrogen isotope analysis, the classical trophic level proxy. However, isotopic ratios of zinc (Zn) in bioapatite constitute a promising proxy to infer trophic and dietary information from fossil vertebrates, even under adverse tropical taphonomic conditions. Here, we analyzed the zinc isotope composition (66Zn/64Zn expressed as δ66Zn value) in the enamel of two teeth of the Late Pleistocene (63–46 ka) H. sapiens individual (TPL1) from Tam Pà Ling, as well as 76 mammal teeth from the same site and the nearby Nam Lot cave. The human individual exhibits relatively low enamel δ66Zn values (+0.24‰) consistent with an omnivorous diet, suggesting a dietary reliance on both plant and animal matter. These findings offer direct evidence of the broad utilization of resources from tropical rainforests by one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans in Southeast Asia.
AB - Tam Pà Ling, a cave site in northeastern Laos, has yielded the earliest skeletal evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The reliance of Pleistocene humans in rainforest settings on plant or animal resources is still largely unstudied, mainly due to poor collagen preservation in fossils from tropical environments precluding stable nitrogen isotope analysis, the classical trophic level proxy. However, isotopic ratios of zinc (Zn) in bioapatite constitute a promising proxy to infer trophic and dietary information from fossil vertebrates, even under adverse tropical taphonomic conditions. Here, we analyzed the zinc isotope composition (66Zn/64Zn expressed as δ66Zn value) in the enamel of two teeth of the Late Pleistocene (63–46 ka) H. sapiens individual (TPL1) from Tam Pà Ling, as well as 76 mammal teeth from the same site and the nearby Nam Lot cave. The human individual exhibits relatively low enamel δ66Zn values (+0.24‰) consistent with an omnivorous diet, suggesting a dietary reliance on both plant and animal matter. These findings offer direct evidence of the broad utilization of resources from tropical rainforests by one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans in Southeast Asia.
KW - Enamel
KW - Diet
KW - Homo sapiens
KW - Hunter-gatherer
KW - Tam Pà Ling
KW - Stable carbon isotopes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117069511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103075
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103075
M3 - Article
C2 - 34655947
AN - SCOPUS:85117069511
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 161
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
M1 - 103075
ER -