The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence [Hardcover]

Michael P. Richards and Jean-Jacques Hublin The study of hominin diets, and especially how they have (primates, modern humans), (2) faunal and plant studies, (3) evolved throughout time, has long been a core research archaeology and paleoanthropology, and (4) isotopic studies. area in archaeology and paleoanthropology, but it is also This volume therefore presents research articles by most of becoming an important research area in other fields such as these participants that are mainly based on their presentations primatology, nutrition science, and evolutionary medicine. at the symposium. As can hopefully be seen in the volume, Although this is a fundamental research topic, much of the these papers provide important reviews of the current research research continues to be undertaken by specialists and there in these areas, as well as often present new research on dietary is, with some notable exceptions (e. g. , Stanford and Bunn, evolution. 2001; Ungar and Teaford, 2002; Ungar, 2007) relatively lit- In the section on modern studies Hohmann provides a tle interaction with other researchers in other fields. This is review of the diets of non-human primates, including an unfortunate, as recently it has appeared that different lines interesting discussion of the role of food-sharing amongst of evidence are causing similar conclusions about the major these primates. Snodgrass, Leonard, and Roberston provide issues of hominid dietary evolution (i. e.The Diets of Non-human Primates: Frugivory, Food Processing, and Food Sharing.- The Energetics of Encephalization in Early Hominids.- Meals Versus Snacks and the Human Dentition and Diet During the Paleolithic.- Modern Human Physiology with Respect to Evolutionary Adaptations that Relate to Diet in the Past.- Hunting and Hunting Weapons of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe.- Neanderthal and Modern Human Diet in Eastern Europe.- Hominin Subsistence Patterns During the Middle and Late Paleolithic in Northwestern EuroplÃo