Abstract Scolecodonts are the fossilised jaw apparatus of polychaetes, with fossil records dating back to the Late Cambrian. However, they are commonly found in Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian strata. Here, we describe three species—Langeites aff. glaber, Langeites sp., and Oenonites spp. from the Miaogao Formation in Yiliang, Yunnan, South China. A comparative morphological study on the maxillary apparatus of the family Paulinidae and the extant members of Eunicidae and Onuphidae was conducted. This study aims to evaluate evolutionary changes in the maxillary apparatus, particularly the first maxilla, within the eulabidognatha-type apparatus. To infer their palaeoecology, Langeites aff. glaber and Langeites sp. were compared with modern species of Eunicidae and Onuphidae based on their complex maxillary apparatus. The similarity between these fossil and extant taxa suggests that Langeites retained similar feeding habits over time. These scolecodonts represent a new record for the Late Silurian of South China, and extend the geographical range of the genus Langeites. As a genus restricted to the Silurian, Langeites has potential applications in stratigraphic correlation for the Late Ludlow to Early Pridoli.
Введение. Публикация продолжает цикл статей, содержащих описание коллекции фотографий представителей народностей Кубанской области из в фонда Музея антропологии МГУ, и посвящена изучению фотоизображений абазин. Метод антропологической фотографии является не только визуальным способом сохранения информации во времени, но и играет значительную роль в формировании научного наследия.
Материалы и методы. Основой работы послужила коллекция фотографий, собранная Е.Д. Фелицыным (1848–1903), представленная им на Антропологической выставке 1879 г. в Москве и хранящаяся в фондах НИИ и Музея антропологии МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова.
Результаты. Описаны и проанализированы фотоизображения абазин, проживавших в Баталпашинском уезде Кубанской области в аулах Лоово-Кубанском и Дударуковском.
Обсуждение. Установлено авторство изученных снимков абазин: они выполнены А.К. Энгелем известным фотографом на Кавказе конца XIX – начала XX в. Представлены литературные сведения, посвященные проблемам изучения происхождения, этнической истории, культурных традиций данной народности, а также данные по изучению антропологических особенностей абазин.
Заключение. Впервые опубликованные фотоизображения абазин, являющиеся частью коллекции, предоставленной Е.Д. Фелицыным на Антропологической выставке 1879 г., уникальны и имеют научную, историческую и документальную ценность и значимость как визуальный материал. В современной науке фотографии, наряду с музейными экспонатами, рассматриваются как материальные документы, а в данном случае, как существенное дополнение в изучении истории коренных народов Северного Кавказа историками, антропологами, этнографами, генетиками и лингвистами.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Physical anthropology. Somatology
As homicide rates spike across the United States, researchers nominate diverse causes such as temperature, city greenness, structural racism, inequality, poverty and more. While variation in homicide rates clearly results from multiple causes, many correlation studies lack the systematic theory needed to identify the underlying factors that structure individual motivations. Building on pioneering work in evolutionary human sciences, we propose that when resources are unequally distributed, individuals may have incentives to undertake high-risk activities, including lethal violence, in order to secure material and social capital. Here we evaluate this theory by analysing federal data on homicide rates, poverty and income inequality across all 50 US states for the years 1990, 2000 and 2005–2020. Supporting predictions derived from evolutionary social sciences, we find that the interaction of poverty (scarcity) and inequality (unequal distribution) best explains variation in US homicide rates. Results suggest that the increase in homicide rates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are driven in part by these same underlying causes that structure homicide rates across the US over the last 30 years. We suggest that these results provide compelling evidence to expand strategies for reducing homicide rates by dismantling structures that generate and concentrate sustained poverty and economic inequality.
Введение. Работа посвящена незаурядному человеку скульптору и художнику Ивану Илларионовичу Севрюгину (1839-?), его вкладу в организацию, проведение и скульптурное воплощение Антропологической выставки 1879 года, ставшей отправной точкой в становлении антропологии как точной и естественно-исторической науки и основой для создания кафедры и Музея антропологии.
Материалы и методы. Источником работы послужили печатные труды второй половины
XIX века, издаваемые Обществом любителей естествознания, антропологии и этнографии (ОЛЕАЭ), при изучении которых были использованы историко-типологический и историко-описательный методы. Основное внимание было уделено анализу материалов и документов, связанных с подготовкой и проведением в Москве в 1879 г. Первой Антропологической выставки. Изучались также архивные документы НИИ И Музея антропологии и литературные источники.
Результаты и обсуждение. В работе рассматривается творческий путь скульптора и художника И.И. Севрюгина. Будучи выходцем из небогатой семьи цеховых ремесленников Иван Илларионович получил великолепное образование в Московском училище живописи и ваяния. Учился у профессора Н.А. Рамазанова. Во время учебы неоднократно удостаивался наград за свои работы и по окончании получил звание художника третьей степени. Наряду с известными скульпторами и художниками принял участие в изготовлении коллекций манекенов для Этнографической выставки 1867 г. Наиболее значимой вершиной его деятельности стала Первая антропологическая выставка 1879 г. Разработка модели выставки, ее скульптурное воплощение, сбор и подготовка экспонатов (курганы, могильники, маски, бюсты др.), поездка в Париж и многое другое все это демонстрирует его нам как невероятно талантливого человека, владеющего разнообразными техниками художественных и скульптурных работ, обладающего огромным трудолюбием и заслужившего самую высокую оценку специалистов.
Заключение. Анализ архивных и литературных источников показал, что И.И. Севрюгин, будучи талантливым художником и великолепным скульптором, обладающим колоссальной работоспособностью, приняв активное участие в подготовке Антропологической выставки 1879 г., способствовал решению одной из ее главных задач популяризации антропологии в России. Благодаря своей одаренности он сумел выразить научные представление в художественной форме. Его произведения, выставленные в экспозиционных залах Выставки, наглядно показывали широкой публике единство биологического и социального в природе человека. Коллекции, созданные И.И. Севрюгиным, легли в основу скульптурного фонда фотоиллюстративного отдела Музея антропологии МГУ.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Physical anthropology. Somatology
Introduction. The present study is of a complex nature and is devoted to the assessment of the main directions of the development of auxology in Russian anthropology. To a large extent, this work is a continuation of the review of the activities of the laboratory of auxology of the Anuchin Research Institute and the Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University [Godina, 2010]. At the same time, the main directions of work are considered and described in more detail not only directly by the auxology laboratory, but also by other working groups of the same Institute, the Department of Anthropology of the Faculty of Biology of Lomonosov Moscow State University, as well as other academic institutions. Materials and methods. Specifically, in this part of the work, articles devoted to the comprehensive assessment of the processes of growth and development of children from birth to 3 years old, which were published in the «Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin» from 2009 to 2022, were used as a source of information. Results and discussion. The studies conducted in this area affect a large number of aspects of physical development in infancy and early childhood – for example, factors influencing these processes (evolutionary, climatic, geographical, ethnic and genetic factors, constitutional features of mothers, circumstances of intrauterine growth) are analyzed on representative samples. Special attention should be paid to the work on the evaluation in comparative and secular aspects of growth processes and indicators of sexual dimorphism of children under 3 years of age in the countries of the former USSR. Conclusion. Despite the difficulties in working with a rather specific contingent, the fact that these works, together with the results obtained, lead us to conclude that this stage of ontogenesis is represented to a large extent in the works of domestic anthropologists, which allows us to use these data both in the field of interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research.
The article attempts to present current results of landscape archaeology concerning a military conflict between Prussia and Austria in the summer of 1866 near Hradec Králové (Sadowa/Königgrätz). The aim is to introduce the possibilities of analysing individual available sources using the methods of battlefield archaeology, which is a sub-discipline of post-medieval archaeology. The historical period in question is not only a regional issue. This topic is mainly important with regard to protection of constantly endangered war relics, whose number in East Bohemia has been increasing in the past decade. The knowledge acquired from systematic and rescue excavations conducted in various parts of battlefields in the territory of Hradec Králové region demands new analysis to be appropriately evaluated and interpreted. The primary processing and treatment of finds are equally important as their spatial information and a successful setting into the chronological frame of well-known historical events. Archaeological knowledge thus sheds a new light on these events. The paper presents basic research topics and methods, to which increased attention is currently being paid within the context of archaeological sites. All of them use a wider view of the 1866 historical landscape, which was not distinctly modified for the purpose of military operations, but on the contrary significantly influenced their course and sequence. In order to properly interpret the acquired spatial data, it is necessary to reconstruct this historical landscape and to define the form of various activities which took place there during the war.
Pierre Sabatier, Jasper Moernaut, Sebastien Bertrand
et al.
Event deposits in lake sediments provide invaluable chronicles of geodynamic and climatic natural hazards on multi-millennial timescales. Sediment archives are particularly useful for reconstructing high-impact, low-frequency events, which are rarely observed in instrumental or historical data. However, attributing a trigger mechanism to event deposits observed in lake sediments can be particularly challenging as different types of events can produce deposits with very similar lithological characteristics, such as turbidites. In this review paper, we summarize the state of the art on event deposits in paleolimnology. We start by describing the sedimentary facies typical of floods, glacial lake outburst floods, avalanches, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and spontaneous delta collapses. We then describe the most indicative methods that can be applied at the scale of lake basins (geophysical survey, multiple coring) and on sediment cores (sedimentology, inorganic and organic geochemistry, biotic approach). Finally, we provide recommendations on how to obtain accurate chronologies on sediment cores containing event deposits, and ultimately date the events. Accurately identifying and dating event deposits has the potential to improve hazard assessments, particularly in terms of the return periods, recurrence patterns, and maximum magnitudes, which is one of the main geological challenges for sustainable worldwide development.
The coronavirus pandemic has made ethnographic fieldwork, as traditionally conceived in anthropology, temporarily impossible to conduct. Facing long-term limitations to mobility and physical contact, which will challenge our research practices for the foreseeable future, social anthropology has to adjust to these new circumstances. This article discusses and reflects on what digital ethnography can off er to researchers across the world, providing critical insight into the method and offering advice to beginners in the field. Last, but not least, the article introduces the phrase ‘anthropology from home’ to talk about research in the pandemic times – that is, geographically restricted but digitally enabled.
Loneliness, which is increasingly recognized as a public health concern, is not just a matter of individual psychology or cognition, but inherently social, cultural, and relational. It is an affective, subjective, and intersubjective reality, distinct from the physical reality of social isolation. This introduction to the thematic issues of Transcultural Psychiatry argues that the social and cultural nature of loneliness is an important area of study that requires interdisciplinary approaches and can particularly benefit from ethnography. Contributors explore concepts and expressions of loneliness in Japan, Kenya, Mexico, North Africa, Palestine, Russia, and the US. Cross-cutting themes include the importance of cultural expectations, practice, place, and recognition in the experience of loneliness. Loneliness is a culturally shaped experience that is problematized and medicalized across cultures, but it may also be fundamental to the human condition.
Due to their medicolegal repercussions, forensic anthropology conclusions must be reliable, consistent, and minimally compromised by bias. Yet, a synthetic analysis of the reliability and biasability of the discipline's methods has not yet been conducted. To do so, this study utilized Dror's (2016) hierarchy of expert performance (HEP), an eight‐level model aimed at examining intra‐ and inter‐expert reliability and biasability (the potential for cognitive bias) within the literature of forensic science disciplines. A systematic review of the forensic anthropology literature was conducted (1972‐present), including papers published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, Forensic Science International, and the Journal of Forensic Sciences and Anthropology Section abstracts published in the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the AAFS which matched keywords such as “forensic anthropology,” “bias,” “reliability,” “cognition,” “cognitive,” or “error.” The resulting forensic anthropology HEP showcases areas that have ample research and areas where more research can be conducted. Specifically, statistically significant increases in reliability (p < 0.001) and biasability (p < 0.001) publications were found since 2009 (publication of the NAS report). Extensive research examined the reliability of forensic anthropological observations and conclusions (n = 744 publications). However, minimal research investigated the biasability of forensic anthropological observations and conclusions (n = 20 publications). Notably, while several studies demonstrated the biasing effect of extraneous information on anthropological morphological assessments, there was no research into these effects on anthropological metric assessments. The findings revealed by the forensic anthropology HEP can help to guide future research, ultimately informing the development and refinement of best‐practice standards for the discipline.
One of the difficulties with cultural group selection theory highlighted in the review by Smith (2020, Evol. Hum. Sci., 2, e7) is its inability to separate the evolutionary effects of selection of cultural traits based on biological fitness (Cultural Selection 1) from the effects of selection based on cultural fitness (Cultural Selection 2). Confusing these two processes can hinder the integration of adaptive explanations for human behaviour, which focus on biological fitness, and cultural evolution explanations, which often focus on social transmission. Recent empirical work is starting to bridge this gap, but progress in mathematical modelling has been considerably slower. Here, I suggest that modellers can contribute to achieving this integration by further developing models of Cultural Selection 1, where behaviours are influenced by culturally inherited traits selected on the basis of their effects on biological fitness. These models should build on existing social evolution theory methods and replace genetic relatedness with cultural relatedness, that is the probability that two individuals share a cultural variant.
Mouloud Benammi, Elina Aidona, Gildas Merceron
et al.
This paper aims to contribute to the stratigraphic and geochronological evaluation of the primate bearing Dafnero fossil site of Northern Greece by means of lithostratigraphic, paleomagnetic and paleontological analyses. The 60 m thick fossiliferous deposits of fluviatile origin are recognized as representing a typical braided-river sequence unconformably overlying molassic sediments. Rock magnetic investigations indicate the presence of both medium and low coercivity minerals. Paleomagnetic sampling of the Dafnero sediments yielded a stable magnetic remanence, and the characteristic remanent magnetization directions pass reversal test with dual polarity. Based on calibration from mammal fossils, the normal polarity magnetozone N1 located in the upper third of the studied section could correlate with chron C2n (the Olduvai subchron), suggesting that the fossil horizon is within C2r with an extrapolated age of 2.4–2.3 Ma and rather closer to the upper age limit. The results allow the re-calibration of several middle Villafranchian assemblages of S. Balkans and the correlation of the corresponding mammal fauna with the environmental shifts of Praetiglian, as it is recorded in climatostratigraphic data from the Black Sea.
Where autonomy for partner choice is high, partner preferences may be shaped by both social and ecological conditions. In particular, women's access to resources can influence both the type and number of partnerships she engages in. However, most existing data linking resources and partner choice rely on either priming effects or large demographic databases, rather than preferences for specific individuals. Here we leverage a combination of demographic data, food insecurity scores and trait and partner preference ratings to determine whether resource security modulates partner preferences among Himba pastoralists. We find that while food insecurity alone has a weak effect on women's openness to new partners, the interaction of food insecurity and number of dependent children strongly predicts women's openness to potential partners. Further, we show that women who have more dependants have stronger preferences for wealthy and influential men. An alternative hypothesis derived from mating-market dynamics, that female desirability affects female preferences, had no effect. Our data show that women who face greater resource constraints are less discriminating in the number of partners they are open to, and have stronger preferences for resource-related traits. These findings highlight the importance of ecological signals in explaining the plasticity of mate preferences.
Przemysław Bobrowski, Maria Lityńska-Zając, Marta Osypińska
et al.
Bargat El-Shab, situated in the southern part of the Western Desert in Egypt, is one of those places which have been drawing people’s attention from the beginning of the Holocene. Numerous traces of human settlement have been registered on the eastern shore of a small palaeolake-playa, including a site dated to the climatic optimum of the Holocene. Features discovered during research initiated by the CPE at the beginning of the century, which include storage pits and hearths, held not only an abundance of stone artefacts and to a lesser extent ceramic artefacts in its fills, but also had exceptionally rich archaeological and archaeobotanical material. All this provided new and valuable information about the lives of hunter-gatherer communities/ or Neolithic pastoral communities, representing the so-called El Nabta / Al Jerar variant of settlement in the Western Desert.
Nirina O. Ratsimbaholison, Ryan N. Felice, Patrick M. O’Connor
Abelisaurid theropods were one of the most diverse groups of predatory dinosaurs in Gondwana during the Cretaceous. The group is characterized by a tall, wide skull and robust cervical region. This morphology is thought to have facilitated specialized feeding behaviors such as prolonged contact with prey. The Late Cretaceous abelisaurid Majungasaurus crenatissimus typifies this abelisaurid cranial morphotype. Recent fossil discoveries of this species include a partial growth series that allows for the first time an investigation of ontogenetic variation in cranial morphology in a representative abelisaurid. Herein we examine growth trajectories in the shape of individual cranial bones and articulated skulls of Majungasaurus using geometric morphometrics. Several major changes in skull shape were observed through ontogeny, including an increase in the height of the jugal, postorbital, and quadratojugal, an increase in the extent of the contacts between bones, and a decrease in the circumference of the orbit. The skull transitions from relatively short in the smallest individual to tall and robust in large adults, as is seen in other theropods. Such morphological change during ontogeny would likely have resulted in different biomechanical properties and feeding behaviors between small and large individuals. These findings provide a post-hatching developmental framework for understanding the evolution of the distinctive tall skull morphology seen in abelisaurids and other large-sized theropod dinosaurs.
Para evaluar el comportamiento de la estatura en una población residente a altitud media (Humahuaca, 2939 msnm), seleccionamos fichas físico-médicas pertenecientes a adolescentes (14 a 17 años), quienes asistieron a la Escuela Normal República de Bolivia entre 1959 y 1985.
Los datos fueron agrupados por sexo (mujeres: 1404; varones: 1552), intervalo etario (amplitud de un año) y año de medición. A partir de los promedios anuales, y con el propósito de analizarlos como series cronológicas, calculamos el movimiento medio de orden siete para la variable estatura, a través del método de los mínimos cuadrados determinamos la ecuación de mejor ajuste (r a través del test t de Student p<0,05); y para establecerles las respectivas bandas de confianza del 95% transformamos la variable año de relevamiento.
Los valores observados muestran presencia de dimorfismo sexual: mayor rango de las estaturas masculinas para el período considerado; en tanto las mujeres si bien el rango es menor, exhiben mayor número de ciclos.
En el análisis de las curvas, los varones evidencian incremento de estatura entre los 14 y 15 años; en tanto la serie femenina no lo manifiesta al menos para las edades investigadas, lo cual podría explicarse, porque ya ocurrió u ocurre en forma imperceptible.
La determinación del sexo en restos óseos humanos constituye en bioarqueología un tema de especial interés cuando se efectúan interpretaciones de índole conductual y cultural en poblaciones del pasado. En el presente trabajo se propone discutir la aplicación de metodologías cualitativas y cuantitativas a una muestra de 110 cráneos de individuos adultos de ambos sexos provenientes de sitios arqueológicos del Humedal del Paraná inferior (Argentina) con el fin de obtener una discriminación sexual adecuada para la muestra estudiada y evaluar la eficacia de dichas metodologías. Las variables cualitativas relevadas incluyen grados de dimorfismo sexual registradas en la glabela, en el margen supraorbital, en el proceso mastoideo, en la cresta occipital y en la eminencia mentoniana según un sistema ordinal de expresión (scoring). Los análisis métricos se llevaron a cabo en el proceso mastoideo a partir de las siguientes mediciones: ancho máximo, ancho mínimo, ancho transversal, ancho horizontal, longitud porion-mastoidal, longitud asterion-mastoidal, longitud porion-mastoidal vertical y cálculo de la superficie del área. Todas las variables presentaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas y altos porcentajes de discriminación. Posteriormente se elaboró una función discriminante a partir de las variables métricas que mejor discriminaban entre sexos. Si bien se logró una buena diferenciación sexual tanto a través de los análisis cualitativos como de los cuantitativos se recomienda su uso en forma conjunta para mejorar la precisión en los resultados.