Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Arlon/Autelbas : Etude des restes organiques des latrines de l’abbaye cistercienne de Clairefontaine (18e siècle)
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Burying Dogs in Ancient Cis-Baikal, Siberia: Temporal Trends and Relationships with Human Diet and Subsistence Practices
- The first objective of this study is to examine temporal patterns in ancient dog burials in the Lake Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The second objective is to determine if the practice of dog burial here can be correlated with patterns in human subsistence practices, in particular a reliance on terrestrial mammals. Direct radiocarbon dating of a suite of the region’s dog remains indicates that these animals were given burial only during periods in which human burials were common. Dog burials of any kind were most common during the Early Neolithic (,7–8000 B.P.), and rare during all other time periods. Further, only foraging groups seem to have buried canids in this region, as pastoralist habitation sites and cemeteries generally lack dog interments, with the exception of sacrificed animals. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data indicate that dogs were only buried where and when human diets were relatively rich in aquatic foods, which here most likely included river and lake fish and Baikal seal (Phoca sibirica). Generally, human and dog diets appear to have been similar across the study subregions, and this is important for interpreting their radiocarbon dates, and comparing them to those obtained on the region’s human remains, both of which likely carry a freshwater old carbon bias. Slight offsets were observed in the isotope values of dogs and humans in our samples, particularly where both have diets rich in aquatic fauna. This may result from dietary differences between people and their dogs, perhaps due to consuming fish of different sizes, or even different tissues from the same aquatic fauna. This paper also provides a first glimpse of the DNA of ancient canids in Northeast Asia.
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Holarctic genetic structure and range dynamics in the woolly mammoth
- Ancient DNA analyses have provided enhanced resolution of population histories in many Pleistocene taxa. However, most studies are spatially restricted, making inference of species-level biogeographic histories difficult. Here, we analyse mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in the woolly mammoth from across its Holarctic range to reconstruct its history over the last 200 thousand years (kyr).We identify a previously undocumented major mtDNA lineage in Europe, which was replaced by another major mtDNA lineage 32–34 kyr before present (BP). Coalescent simulations provide support for demographic expansions at approximately 121 kyr BP, suggesting that the previous interglacial was an important driver for demography and intraspecific genetic divergence. Furthermore, our results suggest an expansion into Eurasia fromAmerica around 66 kyr BP, coinciding with the first exposure of the Bering Land Bridge during the Late Pleistocene. Bayesian inference indicates Late Pleistocene demographic stability until 20–15 kyr BP, when a severe population size decline occurred.
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Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Ancient Canids Suggest a European Origin of Domestic Dogs
- The geographic and temporal origins of the domestic dog remain controversial, as genetic data suggest a domestication process in East Asia beginning 15,000 years ago, whereas the oldest doglike fossils are found in Europe and Siberia and date to >30,000 years ago. We analyzed the mitochondrial genomes of 18 prehistoric canids from Eurasia and the New World, along with a comprehensive panel of modern dogs and wolves. Themitochondrial genomes of all modern dogs are phylogeneticallymost closely related to either ancient or modern canids of Europe. Molecular dating suggests an onset of domestication there 18,800 to 32,100 years ago. These findings imply that domestic dogs are the culmination of a process that initiated with European hunter-gatherers and the canids with whom they interacted.
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Mitochondrial DNA diversity and evolution of the Pleistocene cave bear complex
- Cave bears are among the most well known extinct Pleistocene mammals. Their biogeography and taxonomy, along with the factors that led to their extinction, have been subject to long-standing controversy. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeography as well as the temporal and spatial population dynamics of cave bears across their range using mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from 77 published as well as 65 new cave bear samples, Our analyses reveal a dramatic loss of genetic diversity in cave bear populations after 30,000 years before present and provide evidence for a range decline from east to west towards the onset of the last glacial maximum. Our results also suggest that the three major haplogroups within cave bears, which may correspond to distinct species, were previously more widespread, with relict populations in remote and alpine areas still harbouring haplotypes that have disappeared from most of their previous range. Applying a phylogenetic dating approach, we estimated the age of the oldest of our samples, originating from the Yana River region in north-eastern Siberia, to be around 178,000 years, which confirms a previous estimate of a Middle Pleistocene age based on its stratigraphic position. Our results extend our knowledge about the evolutionary history of cave bears, but they also show that to unravel the complexities of cave bear evolution future ancient DNA studies on this Pleistocene species will need to go beyond short mitochondrial DNA fragments, including full mitochondrial genomes as well as nuclear DNA sequences.
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Atlas des gisements plombo-zincifères du Synclinorium de Verviers (Est de la Belgique)
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The First Upper Paleolithic Human Remains from Belgium: Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian Fossils at the “Troisième caverne” of Goyet
- There is ample evidence of human occupation across Northern Europe throughout various periods of the Upper Paleolithic. However, the biological characteristics of the Northern European Upper Paleolithic humans and their mortuary practices remain largely unknown because of a dearth of human fossils. In Belgium, although the presence of humans has been verified at multiple archeological sites, no Upper Paleolithic fossil has yet been identified. In this context, the recent discovery of Upper Paleolithic human remains at Goyet (Belgium) fills in an important chronological gap. The “Troisième caverne” of Goyet, excavated at the end of the 19th and early 20th century, yielded a rich archeological sequence ranging from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic to historical times. In 2008, we began documenting the Paleolithic occupations of the “Troisième caverne” by reassessing the collections from the site which heretofore had only been partially studied. The updated inventory of human remains was accomplished by conducting a detailed sorting of the paleontological collections in order to identify human remains that may have been overlooked thus far. As a result, the collections from the “Troisième caverne” now include nearly 200 human bones/bone fragments and isolated teeth that correspond to various materials from different periods. The morphometric study of the human specimens from Goyet, completed by direct radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis, shows that they represent two main samples—a series of Late Neandertal remains (Rougier et al. 2012) and a set of modern human specimens from three periods of the Upper Paleolithic, namely the Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian. The latter include fragmentary elements from the cranial and infracranial skeleton. Interestingly, those from the Gravettian and Magdalenian present anthropogenic traces and ochre traces. We will discuss the importance of these new fossils in the context of the human population of Northern Europe during the Upper Paleolithic.
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Onder de Euregio - de verbinding tussen landschap en geologie in de Euregio Maas-Rijn
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Mandibles from Palaeolithic dogs and Pleistocene wolves at Předmostí, the Czech Republic
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Reconstruction of Gravettian food-web in Předmostí I using isotopic tracking of bone collagen
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Quaternary geological mapping on basis of sedimentary properties in the eastern branch of the Flemish Valley (sheets Boom-Mechelen & Vilvoorde-Zemst)
- Ce résumé n'est disponible qu'en anglais. Deze samenvatting is alleen beschikbaar in het Engels. Abstract This work is largely based on the author's doctoral thesis in which new graphic representations, with the accent on mapping systems, were developed in the field of fundamental and applied geology and this particular for continental deposits. Useful mapping systems for Quatemary continental deposits were indeed for the greatest part absent or still in a primary stage of development. Among certain geologists exists still the idea that the construction of a geological map is the initial step in making the survey of an area and that the understanding of the geological constitution and evolution comes only in a later stage. This specific study is than mainly based on the already surveyed map of that particular area. This idea is only tenable to a certain level when it concerns rather homogeneous deposits extended over long distances and at a particular level, for example in a superficial or outcropping position. But once the geologist is dealing with widely differing deposits, like for instance the Quatemary deposits in Belgium, the above described method is out of question. Besides, during the study it became clear that although the general Quatemary evolution is rather well known, essential elements necessary in both the fundamental and applied geology are still missing. Consequently the necessity forced itself to follow the next procedure in order to get a detailed overview of the geological build-up of the survey area. Detailed information is gathered by studying primary sedimentary structures in correlation with texture and palaeontological data obtained from palaeozoölogy and palaeobotany. The basic and largest part of information is got from undisturbed cored borings, provided by the Belgian Geological Survey, and outcrop observations, both completed by hand drillings as weIl as borehole descriptions. The latter ones are derived from the archives of the Belgian Geological Survey. This kind of information made the reconstruction of the sedimentary paleao-environments and paleao-subenvironments possible which for their part form the building blocs of the fundamental geological map called profile type map. The construction of the profile type map however is explained in this work step by step since in the present literature such a "manual" is still missing. Derived from the basic data the construction of other thematic maps is possible. An engineering geological map is introduced as an example. Usefulness and applicability of these maps are discussed in previous articles written by the author.
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Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia
- Interpretations of dog burials made by ancient foraging groups have tended to be based upon our own relationships with such animals and modern western cosmological and ontological concepts. Osteological studies of early dogs often focus only on issues of taxonomy, and as a result very little is known about these animals’ life histories. Eastern Siberia has produced many Holocene dog burials, but these are typically not well described and the explanatory frameworks provided for them are very underdeveloped. Here we examine in detail two Cis-Baikal canid burials, one of a wolf and the other a dog, both in large Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemeteries. We link the mortuary treatment of these animals to other cultural practices, particularly the treatment of the human dead, and broader patterns in Northern human-animal relationships. This interpretive model is combined with detailed osteobiographies for the canids and contextual information for these and other dogs and wolves from Middle Holocene Cis- Baikal. It is argued that canids here were understood and treated in a variety of ways. We suggest that some animals with unique histories were known as distinct persons with ‘souls’ and because of this at death required mortuary rites similar to those of their human counterparts.
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Isotopic evidence for dietary ecology of cave lion (Panthera (leo) spelaea) in North-Western Europe: prey choice, competition and implications for extinction
- The prey choice of extinct cave lions Panthera spelaea was determined using bone collagen isotopic signatures in the Belgian Ardennes and the Swabian Jura between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago as well as in the Late-glacial of the northwestern Alp foreland and of the Paris Basin. More than 370 specimens of large carnivorous and herbivorous mammals from 25 sites coeval with cave lion were analyzed. The isotopic results point to an individualistic prey choice for cave lions, with some individuals more oriented on reindeer and others on young cave bears. The isotopic signatures and therefore dietary choice of cave lions did not overlap with those of cave hyenas, indicating competitive exclusion between the large predators. The most recent western European cave lions seem to have been consuming mainly reindeer until the local extirpation of this prey species, which coincides chronologically with their own extinction. This restricted prey choice may be involved in the extinction of this large predator in Western Europe.
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Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) from Chamber B of the Goyet Cave in Belgium
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Le chien, un ami de 32000 ans
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Palaeolithic dogs at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic
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Virtual biomechanical analysis of the lower limbs of a Neandertal
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A vision and strategy for the virtual physiological human in 2012 and beyond
- European funding under Framework 7 (FP7) for the virtual physiological human (VPH) project has been in place now for 5 years. The VPH Network of Excellence (NoE) has been set up to help develop common standards, open source software, freely accessible data and model repositories, and various training and dissemination activities for the project. It is also working to coordinate the many clinically targeted projects that have been funded under the FP7 calls. An initial vision for the VPH was defined by the FP6 STEP project in 2006. In 2010, we wrote an assessment of the accomplishments of the first two years of the VPH in which we considered the biomedical science, healthcare and information and communications technology challenges facing the project (Hunter et al. 2010 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 368, 2595–2614 (doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0048)). We proposed that a not-for-profit professional umbrella organization, the VPH Institute, should be established as a means of sustaining the VPH vision beyond the time-frame of the NoE. Here, we update and extend this assessment and in particular address the following issues raised in response to Hunter et al.: (i) a vision for the VPH updated in the light of progress made so far, (ii) biomedical science and healthcare challenges that the VPH initiative can address while also providing innovation opportunities for the European industry, and (iii) external changes needed in regulatory policy and business models to realize the full potential that the VPH has to offer to industry, clinics and society generally.
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Contribution à la tephrostratigraphie du Quaternaire et son application a la géomorphologie
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Les dinokystes des craies du Campanien au Danien a Halembaye, Turnhout (Belgique) et a Beutenaken (Pays-Bas)
