All posts by Archaeology World Team

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Prehistoric “Poop” Found At Stonehenge Gives Insight Into Ancient Humans

Prehistoric “Poop” Found At Stonehenge Gives Insight Into Ancient Humans

A study of ancient faeces uncovered at a settlement thought to have housed builders of the famous stone monument suggests that parasites got consumed via badly-cooked cow offal during epic winter feasts.

Human coprolite (preserved human faeces) from Durrington Walls.

A new analysis of ancient faeces found at the site of a prehistoric village near Stonehenge has uncovered evidence of the eggs of parasitic worms, suggesting the inhabitants feasted on the internal organs of cattle and fed leftovers to their dogs.

Durrington Walls was a Neolithic settlement situated just 2.8km from Stonehenge, dating from around 2500 BC when much of the famous stone monument was constructed. It is believed that the site housed the people who built Stonehenge.   

A reconstruction of one of the Neolithic houses discovered at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge.

A team of archaeologists led by the University of Cambridge investigated nineteen pieces of ancient faeces, or ‘coprolite’, found at Durrington Walls and preserved for over 4,500 years. Five of the coprolites (26%) – one human and four dogs – were found to contain the eggs of parasitic worms.

Researchers say it is the earliest evidence for intestinal parasites in the UK where the host species that produced the faeces has also been identified. The findings are published today in the journal Parasitology.  

“This is the first time intestinal parasites have been recovered from Neolithic Britain, and to find them in the environment of Stonehenge is really something,” said study lead author Dr Piers Mitchell from Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology.

“The type of parasites we find are compatible with previous evidence for winter feasting on animals during the building of Stonehenge,” he said.

Four of the coprolites, including the human one, contained the eggs of capillariid worms, identified in part by their lemon shape. While the many types of capillariid around the world infect a wide range of animals, on the rare occasion that a European species infects humans the eggs get lodged in the liver and don’t appear in the stool.

The evidence of capillariid eggs in human faeces indicates that the person had eaten the raw or undercooked lungs or liver from an already infected animal, resulting in the parasite’s eggs passing straight through the body.

Microscopic egg of capillariid worm from Durrington Walls. Black scale bar represents 20 micrometres.

During excavations of the main ‘midden’ – or dung and refuse heap – at Durrington Walls, archaeologists uncovered pottery and stone tools along with over 38,000 animal bones. Some 90% of the bones were from pigs, with less than 10% from cows. This is also where the partially mineralised faeces used in the study were found.   

“As capillariid worms can infect cattle and other ruminants, it seems that cows may have been the most likely source of the parasite eggs,” said Mitchell.

Previous isotopic analyses of cow teeth from Durrington Walls suggest that some cattle were herded almost 100km from Devon or Wales to the site for large-scale feasting. Patterns of butchery previously identified on cattle bones from the site suggest beef was primarily chopped for stewing, and bone marrow was extracted.

“Finding the eggs of capillariid worms in both human and dog coprolites indicates that the people had been eating the internal organs of infected animals, and also fed the leftovers to their dogs,” said co-author Dr Evilena Anastasiou, who assisted with the research while at Cambridge.

To determine whether the coprolites excavated from the midden were from human or animal faeces, they were analysed for sterols and bile acids at the National Environment Isotope Facility at the University of Bristol.

One of the coprolites belonging to a dog contained the eggs of fish tapeworm, indicating it had previously eaten raw freshwater fish to become infected. However, no other evidence of fish consumption, such as bones, has been found at the site.

Microscopic egg of fish tapeworm found in dog coprolite.

“Durrington Walls was occupied on a largely seasonal basis, mainly in winter periods. The dog probably arrived already infected with the parasite,” said Mitchell.

“Isotopic studies of cow bones at the site suggests they came from regions across southern Britain, which was likely also true of the people who lived and worked there”

 Dr Piers Mitchell

The dates for Durrington Walls match those for stage two of the construction of Stonehenge, when the world-famous ‘trilithons’ – two massive vertical stones supporting a third horizontal stone – were erected, most likely by the seasonal residents of this nearby settlement.

While Durrington Walls was a place of feasting and habitation, as evidenced by the pottery and a vast number of animal bones, Stonehenge itself was not, with little found to suggest people lived or ate there en masse.

Prof Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, who excavated Durrington Walls between 2005 and 2007, added: “This new evidence tells us something new about the people who came here for winter feasts during the construction of Stonehenge.”

“Pork and beef were spit-roasted or boiled in clay pots but it looks as if the offal wasn’t always so well cooked. The population weren’t eating freshwater fish at Durrington Walls, so they must have picked up the tapeworms at their home settlements.”

ARGENTINA, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

“Dragon Of Death” Flying Reptile Found. It Lived 86 Million Years Ago

“Dragon Of Death” Flying Reptile Found. It Lived 86 Million Years Ago

The fossilised remains of a huge flying reptile dubbed the ‘Dragon of Death’ – which lived alongside the dinosaurs 86 million years ago – have been unearthed in Argentina. Measuring about 30ft (9m) long, it is the largest pterosaur discovered in South America and one of the biggest flying vertebrates to have ever lived.

Researchers said the ‘beast’ would likely have been a frightening sight as it hunted its prey from prehistoric skies. 

It is estimated the fearsome species lived at least 20 million years before an asteroid impact on what is now Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula wiped out about three-quarters of life on the planet 66 million years ago.

Giant beast: The remains of a huge flying reptile dubbed the ‘Dragon of Death’ – which lived alongside the dinosaurs 86 million of years ago – have been unearthed in Argentina
Researchers said the ‘beast’ would likely have been a frightening sight as it hunted its prey from prehistoric skies
Measuring about 30ft (9m) long, it is the largest pterosaur discovered in South America and one of the biggest flying vertebrates to have ever lived

A team of palaeontologists discovered the fossils of the newly-coined Thanatosdrakon amaru in the Andes mountains in Argentina’s western Mendoza province. 

Project leader Leonardo Ortiz said the fossil’s never-before-seen characteristics required a new genus and species name, with the latter combining ancient Greek words for death (Thanatos) and dragon (drakon).

‘It seemed appropriate to name it that way,’ said Ortiz, of the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza. 

‘It’s the dragon of death.’

The reptile was as long as a yellow school bus with an estimated wingspan of around 30ft (9m).

Some 40 bones and fragments were unearthed by the team of palaeontologists. 

Some 40 bones and fragments were unearthed by the team of palaeontologists (pictured)
Researchers said the fossil’s huge bones classify the new species as the largest pterosaur yet discovered in South America and one of the largest found anywhere in the world
"Dragon Of Death" Flying Reptile Found. It Lived 86 Million Years Ago
Project leader Leonardo Ortiz said the fossil’s never-before-seen characteristics required a new genus and species name

They said the fossil’s huge bones classify the new species as the largest pterosaur yet discovered in South America and one of the largest found anywhere in the world.

The researchers found that the rocks preserving the reptile’s remains dated back 86 million years to the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago.

‘We don’t have a current record of any close relative that even has a body modification similar to these beasts,’ said Ortiz.

The researchers wrote in their paper that Thanatosdrakon ‘is the largest pterosaur that crossed the Cretaceous skies of South America discovered so far.

They said the discovery would allow scientists ‘to expand the knowledge about the anatomy of this diverse group of pterosaurs’. 

The study has been published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Yellow Brick Path Found At Bottom Of Pacific Ocean, Scientists Wonder If It’s “Road To Atlantis”

Yellow Brick Path Found At Bottom Of Pacific Ocean, Scientists Wonder If It’s “Road To Atlantis”

An expedition to a deep-sea ridge, just north of the Hawaiian Islands, has revealed an ancient dried-out lake bed paved with what looks like a yellow brick road.

The eerie scene was chanced upon by the exploration vessel Nautilus, which is currently surveying the Liliʻuokalani ridge within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).

PMNM is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, larger than all the national parks in the United States combined, and we’ve only explored about 3 per cent of its seafloor.

Researchers at the Ocean Exploration Trust are pushing the frontiers of this wilderness, which lies more than 3,000 meters below the waves, and the best part is, that anyone can watch the exploration.

All-day every day, researchers provide live footage, and a recently published highlight reel on YouTube captures the moment researchers operating the deep-sea vehicle stumbled upon the road to Oz.

“It’s the road to Atlantis,” a researcher on the radio can be heard exclaiming.

“The yellow brick road?” another voice countered.

“This is bizarre,” added another member of the team.

“Are you kidding me? This is crazy.”

Despite being located under about a thousand meters of the ocean, the lake bed discovered by researchers on the summit of the Nootka seamount looks surprisingly dry. On the radio, the team notes that the ground looks almost like “baked crust” that could be peeled off.

In one tiny section, the volcanic rock has fractured in a way that looks strikingly similar to bricks.

“The unique 90-degree fractures are likely related to heating and cooling stress from multiple eruptions at this baked margin,” reads a caption to the YouTube video.

At first glance, the effect is easily mistaken for a path to a wonderful new world. And in a way, that’s not altogether wrong.

E/V Nautilus is taking us on a journey to parts of our planet we’ve never seen before. Following the brick road is a sign we’re headed in the right direction and could soon learn a whole lot more about Earth’s hidden geology.

You can read more about the 2022 E/V Nautilus expedition here.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago

The remains of a young man and a dog who were killed by a tsunami triggered by the eruption of the Thera volcano 3,600 years ago have been unearthed in Turkey. Archaeologists found the pair of skeletons during excavations at Çeşme-Bağlararası, a Late Bronze Age site near Çeşme Bay, on Turkey’s western coastline.

Shattered Skeletons of Man and Dog From Eruption and Tsunami 3,600 Years Ago
The skeleton of a man killed in a tsunami after the eruption of the Thera volcano is the first found in its archaeological context.

Despite the eruption of Thera being one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history, this is the first time the remains of victims of the event have been unearthed. Moreover, the presence of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası show that large and destructive waves did arrive in the northern Aegean after Thera went up.

Previously, based on the evidence available, it had been assumed that this area of the Mediterranean only received ash fallout from the eruption of Thera.

Instead, it now appears that the Çeşme Bay area was struck by a sequence of tsunamis, devastating local settlements and leading to rescue efforts.

Thera — now a caldera at the centre of the Greek island of Santorini — is famous for how its tsunamis are thought to have ended the Minoan civilisation on nearby Crete.

Based on radiocarbon dating of the tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası, the team believe that the volcano’s eruption occurred no earlier than 1612 BC. The study was undertaken by archaeologist Vasıf Şahoğlu of the University of Ankara and his colleagues.

The remains of a young man unearthed in Turkey near the skeleton of a dog, both were victims of the mega-tsunami tidal waves caused by the Santorini Thera eruption or Minoan eruption.
Archaeologists spent 10 years excavating the site, but it was only relatively recently that its destruction was attributed to tsunamis from the Thera eruption.

‘The Late Bronze Age Thera eruption was one of the largest natural disasters witnessed in human history,’ the researchers wrote in their paper.

‘Its impact, consequences, and timing have dominated the discourse of ancient Mediterranean studies for nearly a century.

‘Despite the eruption’s high intensity and tsunami-generating capabilities, few tsunami deposits [have been] reported.

‘In contrast, descriptions of pumice, ash, and tephra deposits are widely published.’

Amid stratified sediments at the Çeşme-Bağlararası site, the researchers found the remains of damaged walls — once part of a fortification of some kind —  alongside layers of rubble and chaotic sediments characteristic of tsunami deposits.

Within these were two layers of volcanic ash, the second thicker than the first, and a bone-rich layer containing charcoal and other charred remains. 

According to the team, the deposits represent at least four consecutive tsunami inundations, each separate but nevertheless resulting from the eruption at Thera.

Tsunami deposits associated with the eruption are relatively rare — with three found near the northern coastline of Crete and another three along Turkey’s coast, albeit much further south than Çeşme-Bağlararası.

Traces of misshapen pits dug into the tsunami sediments at various places across the Çeşme-Bağlararası site represent, the researchers believe, an ‘effort to retrieve victims from the tsunami debris.’

‘The human skeleton was located about a meter below such a pit, suggesting that it was too deep to be found and retrieved and therefore (probably unknowingly) left behind,’ they added.

‘It is also in the lowest part of the deposit, characterized throughout the debris field by the largest and heaviest stones (some larger than 40 cm [16 inches] diameter), further complicating any retrieval effort.’

The young man’s skeleton — which shows the characteristic signatures of having been swept along by a debris flow — was found up against the most badly damaged portion of the fortification wall, which the team believe failed during the tsunami. 

The full findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Palaeontologists Unearth 139 Million-Year-Old Pregnant Dinosaur Fossil in Chile

Palaeontologists Unearth 139 Million-Year-Old Pregnant Dinosaur Fossil in Chile

Archaeologists in Chile have unearthed the fossilized remains of a 13ft-long pregnant ichthyosaur from a melting glacier -marking the first time a complete ichthyosaur has been found in the country.

The 139-million-year-old fossil was carefully collected by helicopter following an expedition in March and April this year by the University of Magallanes (UMAG) in the Tyndall Glacier area of Chilean Patagonia.

Named ‘Fiona’ by scientists at the University of Manchester, the 139-million-year-old fossil died when she was pregnant and still had several embryos in her belly.

Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that lived in the age of dinosaurs, and Fiona is the only pregnant female of Valanginian-Hauterivian age – between 129 and 139 million years old from the Early Cretaceous period – to be excavated on the entire planet.

Dr. Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist working on the study, said: ‘The fact that these incredible ichthyosaurs are so well preserved in an extreme environment, revealed by a retreating glacier, is unlike anywhere else in the world.

The remains of the creature, which researchers from the University of Manchester have named Fiona, were unearthed from a melting glacier deep in Patagonia.

‘The considerable number of ichthyosaurs found in the area, including complete skeletons of adults, juveniles, and newborns provides a unique window into the past.’

Now, researchers are keen to find out what information they can gather from the incredibly rare find.

Fiona was first found in 2009 by Dr. Judith Pardo-Pérez, a Magellanic palaeontologist and UMAG researcher.

The team hopes to compare the ichthyosaurs found in the Tyndall Glacier with those previously found in Chilean Patagonia.

Collecting this specimen was not easy, as the glacier is within a 10-hour hike or horseback ride. The expedition lasted 31 days and was described by the researchers as an ‘almost titanic challenge.’

‘At four meters long, complete, and with embryos in gestation, the excavation will help to provide information on its species, on the palaeobiology of embryonic development, and on a disease that affected it during its lifetime,’ said Dr. Judith Pardo-Perez, who led the study.

Alongside Fiona, 23 other new specimens were discovered during the expedition, making the Tyndall Glacier the most abundant ichthyosaur graveyard in the world, according to the team.

Ichthyosaurs.

Alongside Fiona, 23 other new specimens were discovered during the expedition, making the Tyndall Glacier the most abundant ichthyosaur graveyard in the world, according to the team.

Fiona will now be prepared in the palaeontology laboratory of the Río Seco Natural History Museum in Punta Arenas, where it will be temporarily stored for later exhibition.

EUROPE, UKRAINE, WORLD

Ukrainian Soldiers Discover Archaeological Treasures While Digging Defenses in Port City Odessa

Ukrainian Soldiers Discover Archaeological Treasures While Digging Defenses in Port City Odessa

Trench warfare is a way of life in Ukraine: In an unsettling echo of past wars, the hand-dug ditches provide defensive cover for troops as Russia’s invasion stretches on.

Ukrainian Soldiers Discover Archaeological Treasures While Digging Defenses in Port City Odessa
Soldiers transported the amphorae, which were in excellent condition, to a local museum for safekeeping.

Now, reports the Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian defence unit discovered something unexpected while digging a trench in Odessa: ancient amphorae.

Soldiers with the Ukrainian 126th Territorial Defense found the tall, bottle-necked jars along with some ceramic shards earlier this month, taking to Facebook to document the find.

According to the defense troops, the amphorae have been dated to the fourth or fifth centuries C.E., a time when Odessa was a Roman settlement called Odessus.

The third-most populous city in Ukraine and an important shipping hub on the southwestern coast, Odessa is currently under Russian siege. The Times’ Tom Ball reports Russia has been targeting the city with missile strikes and a naval blockade to choke the port’s exports of Ukrainian grain and wheat.

The amphorae, which are in excellent condition, have been transferred to the Odessa Archaeological Museum.

“We are not Russians, we preserve our history,” journalist Yana Suporovska tells Heritage Daily.

Amphorae were first used in the Bronze Age more than 3,000 years ago and became the dominant means of storing and transporting goods in civilizations across the Mediterranean.

The urns had different shapes depending on what was they were designed to hold. Tall and slim ones were used for wine; broader ones transported dried fish and cereals; miniature ones stored perfume; and a special souvenir amphora would be filled with olives and given to the winners of the Panathenaic Games—the ancient ancestor of the modern Olympics.

Similar vessels were used by numerous ancient civilizations.

Used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines, amphorae were storage solutions that could double as works of art. Decorative Greek vessels, for example, depicted moments from Greek mythology, the triumphs of great athletes, and even erotic scenes.

Given their ubiquity in the ancient world, amphorae still turn up today. Researchers found 6,000 of them in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Kefallinia in 2019. And Russian President Vladimir Putin thought he had discovered two of the ancient urns during a scuba-diving expedition in the Black Sea in 2011, according to the Guardian’s David Batty. Putin’s chief spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, later fessed up and admitted archaeologists had planted the jars for Putin to find.

Russian forces have not shown the same interest in preserving cultural heritage in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Artnet’s Taylor Dafoe reports, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of destroying nearly 200 cultural heritage sites in its ongoing invasion.

Unesco’s figures differ slightly; as of May 16, the agency had verified damage to 133 cultural sites, including museums, religious sites, libraries, monuments and more. Shortly after the invasion began, Unesco Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement that cultural heritage “must be safeguarded as a testimony of the past, but also as a catalyst for peace and cohesion for the future, which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve.”

Among the destroyed sites, the Jerusalem Post reports were ancient Scythian tombs that were over 1,000 years old. Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Russian forces of specifically targeting the cultural site.

Though war helped uncover the trench amphorae, it presents a very real threat to Ukraine’s cultural treasures—even the ones that have yet to be discovered. In a sign of the times, Heritage Daily reports, the ongoing conflict has made it impossible for archaeologists to document the site where the amphorae were found.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Debacle Over 8,000-year-old Human Skull Posted On Facebook

Debacle Over 8,000-year-old Human Skull Posted On Facebook

The two kayakers were enjoying the last glimmers of summer on the Minnesota River last September when they spotted an odd brown chunk along the bank. They paddled toward it and looked closer. It appeared to be a bone, so they called the Renville County Sheriff’s Office.

Two kayakers found part of a skull in the Minnesota River in September. The bone is believed to be about 8,000 years old.

When Sheriff Scott Hable was told of the kayakers’ discovery near the city of Sacred Heart, about 110 miles west of Minneapolis, his mind raced to the first possible explanation: Maybe it was the remains of a missing person from a nearby county?

“I don’t think anybody was anticipating the news to come,” Sheriff Hable said.

The sheriff’s office sent the bone to a medical examiner and then to a forensic anthropologist with the F.B.I., who was not able to pinpoint an identity but did make a startling discovery on Tuesday through carbon dating. The bone was part of a skull and most likely was from a young man who lived as many as 8,000 years ago, between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Sheriff Hable said, citing the anthropologist’s findings.

“We have this sort of bizarre report that it’s ancient,” Sheriff Hable said by phone on Wednesday. The young man had likely traversed through parts of what is now Minnesota during the Archaic period in North America, Sheriff Hable said, when people ate primarily nuts and seeds before the time of subsistence farming, according to a report by the Archaeology Laboratory at Augustana University, in South Dakota.

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, said on Wednesday that the young man would have likely eaten a diet of plants, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area, rather than following mammals and bison as they migrate for miles.

“There’s probably not that many people at that time wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years ago, because, as I said, the glaciers have only retreated a few thousands of years before that,” Dr. Blue said. “That period, we don’t know much about it.”

Minnesota has three other remains from that time period that have been studied, she said, adding that it is rare for Native American tribes in the state to allow the bones of their ancestors to be examined for archaeological purposes. The F.B.I. anthropologist had examined a depression on the skull and determined that the man had sustained a severe head wound, which Sheriff Hable said was evidence of “blunt force trauma.” It’s unclear if that is how the young man died.

Dr. Blue noted that the edges of the wound appear smooth and rounded on the skull in pictures, indications that it had healed and not been his cause of death.

Debacle Over 8,000-year-old Human Skull Posted On Facebook
The bone’s age was determined by carbon dating.
The human skull has been tested and appears to have suffered blunt force trauma.

“It would have been something he actually survived,” Dr. Blue said. “Bone has an amazing ability to try to sort of fix itself after there’s been a traumatic injury.”

She said the skull might have drifted in the river for thousands of years, or been placed in a burial site close to the water and carried away over time.

On Wednesday, when the Renville County Sheriff’s Office posted a news release about the skull and pictures of it on Facebook, Sheriff Hable said, his office was contacted by various Native American groups in the state, including the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. They informed the sheriff’s office that publishing photos of the skull was “very offensive to the Native American culture,” he said.

“Because there’s a chance that the bones belong to somebody with Native American heritage, we’re just going to honor their request,” Sheriff Hable said, adding that the post was taken down on Wednesday afternoon.

Dylan Goetsch, a cultural resources specialist with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, said in a statement on Thursday that the sheriff’s office “showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity by their failure to reference the individual as being Native American, their treatment of the individual as a piece of history and their lack of tribal consultation.”

He added that the council had not been made aware of the discovery until seeing the Facebook post.

“Seeing Native American ancestors being displayed and treated as a piece of history is traumatic for many Native Americans as, for centuries, Native American burials were looted, vandalized and destroyed,” Mr. Goetsch said.

Dr. Blue said the skull was definitely from an ancestor of one of the tribes in the area today.

“The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and other ones are very protective of any remains,” she said. “Usually there would not be any sort of invasive analysis and photos are not allowed.”

The Private Cemeteries Act in Minnesota states that it is a felony “to willfully disturb a burial ground.” If the sheriff had not sent the skull to the medical examiner’s office — believing that it may have been from a recent murder victim — the skull most likely would never have been analyzed by an anthropologist, Dr. Blue said.

The skull is expected to be returned to Native American tribes in the state, Sheriff Hable said. Environmental circumstances played a role in the skull’s discovery. A severe drought overtook the state last year, with above-normal temperatures depleting rivers and exposing banks that are typically awash, according to a report from Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources.

“In some parts of the state, the drought was as serious as anything experienced in over 40 years,” the report said, “though for most of the state it was the worst drought in 10 to 30 years.”

Global warming increases the likelihood of drought. Climate change can also affect precipitation patterns around the world, making dry areas drier. Sheriff Hable said that parts of the Minnesota River “were exposed that hadn’t been before” because of the drought.

“Of course, in a kayak, they’re right there, and they happened to spot it,” he said of the people who found the skull. The sheriff’s office did not release their names.


Similarly, a drought made worse by climate change in the Southwest had dropped the water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead, exposing a metal barrel this month that contained the remains of a person killed about four decades ago, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Officials there had said that the water level drop could result in other bodies being found at the lake.

But Sheriff Hable said he didn’t expect more skulls, let alone one from a different millennium, to be unearthed in his area anytime soon.

“This,” he said, “is extremely rare.”

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

A new study shows how diet has transformed the ancient dog into a family pet

A new study shows how diet has transformed the ancient dog into a family pet

The shape of the mandible (the lower jaw) is influenced by the mechanical action of the jaw muscles that connect it to the skull, and the mandible shape, therefore, reflects the diet of the animal.

The lower jaw is also sufficiently robust to survive burial and fossilization, providing valuable insight into the diets of animals that are long dead.

A new international study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences has described the shape of 525 ancient dog mandibles from European archaeological sites.

The study compared these 5,000–10,000-year-old remains to a reference sample of modern dogs, wolves, as well as our Australian dingoes.

“Ancient dogs are physically distinctive from those of modern dogs, with the main differences in the curvature of the body under the carnassial (cutting) tooth, suggesting they fed on more tough and hard foods than most modern dogs,” said Dr. Colline Brassard, lead author of the study.

Modern dogs have an omnivorous diet. They have multiple copies of the amylase gene that increases their ability to digest starch—the carbohydrate found in plants such as grains—a trait that has been interpreted as reflecting their living alongside humans and consuming anthropogenic-sourced foods.

Dr. Brassard said it is likely that a shift from a carnivorous diet to the starch-containing omnivorous diet of modern domesticated dogs could explain the changes evident in their jaw shape.

“Somewhat surprisingly, the shape of dingo mandibles did not group with ancient dogs but was instead intermediate between wolves and modern dogs.

The ancient dogs also showed traits indicating they had a greater bite force than modern dogs, which would also have been useful for defence or hunting,” said Professor Trish Fleming, from Murdoch University, who collaborated on the work, comparing European ancient dogs with dingoes.

The dingo was brought to Australia somewhere about 3,600 to 5,000 years ago and it has lived in isolation until about 200 years ago when Europeans brought modern dogs onto the continent.

Dingoes have a carnivorous diet, with their principal diet being kangaroos and wallabies, and they have recently been shown to have a single copy of the amylase gene, supporting their separation from modern dog lineage prior to this adaptation to an omnivorous diet.