Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Aquatic Resources in Human Development

This doctoral dissertation project investigates relationships between early human diet and the population dynamics of extinct human ancestors (hominins). Could different dietary strategies explain why some hominin species lived for hundreds of thousands of years while others lived for briefer periods? Contemporary research does not provide evidence for an "optimal human diet," but there is still much to learn about how diet influences human behavior, biology, and evolution.

Archaeology is well-positioned to uncover complex interactions between diet and human evolution. Specifically, studying animal bones in areas of past hominin activities allows archaeologists to track hominin resource use through time and space. Previous research on ancient human diets reveals close linkages between broad dietary strategies and species’ resilience, suggesting that diet played a key role in the survival of some early human ancestors and, ultimately, the evolutionary success of modern humans.

However, few of these studies focus on aquatic animals, like fish and turtles, despite important nutrients in aquatic fauna and evidence that ancient hominins lived close to water sources. Further, aquatic resources often leave behind small traces when compared to the bones of megafauna, resulting in fossil collections that are dominated by large mammals.

Considering the wide range of modern human diets, and the importance of diet to human health, examining the dietary strategies of ancient hominins is a worthwhile endeavor. This project provides research opportunities for underrepresented populations in science to study human evolution, including female undergraduates at US-based institutions.

The research is conducted in a region with extensive hominin fossils, stone tools, and butchered animal bones. The researchers plan to collect and examine aquatic fossils at sites that span over ~1.25 million years, a timeframe which associated with hominin activity and sites that are natural death assemblages. By combining targeted aquatic fauna fossil collections with thorough sampling methods designed to recover small remains, this project generates a comprehensive fossil dataset that enables nuanced interpretations of the faunal fossil record and human diet.

With the newly collected aquatic fossils, the researchers identify skeletal elements, bone completeness, taxonomic group, and bone surface modifications, a potential marker of hominin activity. Comparisons are made between hominin-activity sites and natural sites. This information helps answer the questions: (1) which aquatic taxa, and how many of each, were available at each site, (2) did taxonomic groups or abundances change through time, and (3) did hominin exploitation of aquatic fauna change in tandem with aquatic taxa and associated abundances?

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.