Search results for "Fossil"
showing 10 items of 412 documents
Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Ökosystem-Rekonstruktion am Beispiel des spätpaläozoischen lakustrinen Paläo-Ökosystems. 1. Theoretische und methodis…
1998
In analogy to ecosystems, palaeoecosystems are defined here as the palaeocommunities of a given area and their relationships to the abiotic variables of their respective environments. They are characterized by (a) their species diversity, (b) the trophic structure of their palaeocommunities, based on their food webs, and (c), based on their detailed historical development, ecosystem functions such as stability, resilience, and succession. Due to numerous taphonomic biases, palaeocommunities can only be reconstructed from very few fossil horizons (taphocoenoses). Important conditions for such reconstructions are an uninterrupted vertical sequence of taphocoenoses with little time-averaging, …
The utility of 3D medical imaging techniques for obtaining a reliable differential diagnosis of metastatic cancer in an Iron Age skull.
2018
Abstract In this report we present a case of neoplastic disease affecting an Iron Age skull that provides some of the earliest evidence of metastatic cancer (MC) in Western Europe. The cranium comes from the indigenous site of Baucina (Palermo, Sicily) and was recovered in a multiple burial context dated to the 6th–5th centuries BCE. The skull was attributed to an adult female and was characterized by numerous perforating lytic lesions. CT and 3D imaging analyses were crucial for obtaining a diagnosis of MC. Based on the morphology of the lytic lesions and the biological profile of our specimen, we can tentatively suggest breast carcinoma as the primary origin of the clinical manifestations…
Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age.
2008
In 2005 four outstanding multiple burials were discovered near Eulau, Germany. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other. Skeletal and artifactual evidence and the simultaneous interment of the individuals suggest the supposed families fell victim to a violent event. In a multidisciplinary approach, archaeological, anthropological, geochemical (radiogenic isotopes), and molecular genetic (ancient DNA) methods were applied to these unique burials. Using autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosomal markers, we identified genetic kinship among the individuals. A direct child-parent relationship was detected in one burial, providing the oldest mol…
The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe
2015
Conflict and warfare are central but also disputed themes in discussions about the European Neolithic. Although a few recent population studies provide broad overviews, only a very limited number of currently known key sites provide precise insights into moments of extreme and mass violence and their impact on Neolithic societies. The massacre sites of Talheim, Germany, and Asparn/Schletz, Austria, have long been the focal points around which hypotheses concerning a final lethal crisis of the first Central European farmers of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik Culture (LBK) have concentrated. With the recently examined LBK mass grave site of Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Germany, we present ne…
Morphological variability of Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic skulls from Sicily
2020
Scenarios for the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin have been uncertain, given the scarceness of osteological samples and the simplicity of the proposed archaeologically-based settlement hypotheses. According to available data, the first anatomically modern humans entered Sicily during the Late Pleistocene, coming from the Italian peninsula. A presumably small Late Epigravettian population colonised coastal sites. Later, North-Western archaeological horizons gave hospitality to a significant Mesolithic expansion. In order to verify a hypothesis of continuity in the peopling of the island, we analyzed Sicilian skulls from the Late Epigravettian site …
Degenerative alterations of the spine in an Early Mediaeval population from Mannheim-Seckenheim, Germany
2012
Abstract Palaeopathological and palaeoepidemiological analyses of human skeletal remains are some of the most important bases for the reconstruction of life of past populations. The assessment of frequency and degree of pathological alterations contributes to conclusions of a population's health status, labour conditions, and environmental influences. Degenerative diseases of the spine are among the most common lesions observed in archaeological human remains. The large number of excavated Early Mediaeval cemeteries in Germany enables the comparison of contemporary populations increasing the reliability of conclusions regarding their living conditions. In this study, 112 adult individuals w…
New Neandertal remains from Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain).
2005
New Neandertal fossils from the Mousterian site of Cova Negra in the Valencia region of Spain are described, and a comprehensive study of the entire human fossil sample is provided. The new specimens significantly augment the sample of human remains from this site and make Cova Negra one of the richest human paleontological sites on the Iberian Peninsula. The new specimens include cranial and postcranial elements from immature individuals and provide an opportunity to study the ontogenetic appearance of adult Neandertal characteristics in this Pleistocene population. Children younger than 10 years of age constitute four of the seven minimum number of individuals in the sample, and this rela…
First record of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus from Sakhalin (Far East Russia): a contribution to our understanding of Cretaceous coleoid hab…
2021
AbstractA newly collected specimen of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus is recorded from lower Turonian strata along the River Shadrinka in Sakhalin (Russian Far East). To date, this is the first record of Late Cretaceous coleoid cephalopods from the island and, in fact, from the entire Pacific coast of the Russian Federation. Lithological characteristics, coupled with published geochemical analyses (δ13C and Corg content), suggest the habitat of this coleoid taxon to have been the middle to outer (i.e. distal) shelf. Its provenance from the stratigraphical level that is known as the Scaphites Event, characterised by a mass occurrence of Scaphites and Yesoites, may be indicative of occ…
Emissions of Greenhouse Gases and Climate Politics in the Latvian Waste Sector
2015
According IPCC guidelines for determination of greenhouse gases in waste management (IPCC 2006) the quantity of greenhouse gases must be determined for the emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O for such treatment activities: disposal of solid waste, biological treatment of solid waste and incineration and open burning of waste. Presented report reviles the current situation of this field in Latvia and conclusions on its minimization actions. The data received from Latvian environmental data bases shows that the quantity of disposed unsorted municipal waste is rising and created sanitary landfill system with anaerobic digestion of bio mas (the content of it in the disposed waste reaches 40–50 %) is pro…
Allometries of maximum growth rate versus body mass at maximum growth indicate that non-avian dinosaurs had growth rates typical of fast growing ecto…
2014
We tested if growth rates of recent taxa are unequivocally separated between endotherms and ectotherms, and compared these to dinosaurian growth rates. We therefore performed linear regression analyses on the log-transformed maximum growth rate against log-transformed body mass at maximum growth for extant altricial birds, precocial birds, eutherians, marsupials, reptiles, fishes and dinosaurs. Regression models of precocial birds (and fishes) strongly differed from Case's study (1978), which is often used to compare dinosaurian growth rates to those of extant vertebrates. For all taxonomic groups, the slope of 0.75 expected from the Metabolic Theory of Ecology was statistically supported. …