The Pleistocene high-elevation environments between 2.02 and 0.6 Ma at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash Valley, Ethiopia) based upon stable isotope analysis.

Pleistocene environments are among the most studied issues in paleoecology and human evolution research in eastern Africa. Many data have been recorded from archaeological sites located at low and medium elevations (≤ 1500 m), whereas few contexts are known at 2000 m and above. Here, we present a substantial isotopic study from Melka Kunture, a complex of prehistoric sites located at 2000-2200 m above sea level in the central Ethiopian highlands. We analyzed the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of 308 faunal tooth enamel samples from sites dated between 2.02 and 0.6 Ma to investigate the animal diets and habitats. The carbon isotopic results indicate that the analyzed taxa had C4-dominated and mixed C3-C4 diets with no significant diachronic changes in feeding behavior with time. This is consistent with faunal and phytolith analyses, which suggested environments characterized by open grasslands (with both C3 and C4 grasses), patches of bushes and thickets, and aquatic vegetation. However, palynological data previously documented mountain forests, woodlands, and high-elevation grasslands. Additionally, the carbon isotopic comparison with other eastern African localities shows that differences in elevation did not influence animal feeding strategies and habitat partitioning, even though plant species vary according to altitudinal gradients. In contrast, the oxygen isotopic comparison suggests significant differences consistent with the altitude effect. Our approach allows us to detect diverse aspects of animal behavior, habitat, and vegetation that should be considered when reconstructing past environments.

Early Homo erectus lived at high altitudes and produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools.

In Africa, the scarcity of hominin remains found in direct association with stone tools has hindered attempts to link Homo habilis and Homo erectus with particular lithic industries. The infant mandible discovered in level E at Garba IV (Melka Kunture) on the highlands of Ethiopia is critical to this issue due to its direct association with an Oldowan lithic industry. Here, we use synchrotron imaging to examine the internal morphology of the unerupted permanent dentition and confirm its identification as Homo erectus. Additionally, we utilize new palaeomagnetic ages to show that (i) the mandible in level E is ca. 2 million-years-old, and represents one of the earliest Homo erectus fossils, and (ii) that overlying level D, ca. 1.95 million-years-old, contains the earliest known Acheulean assemblage.

A surge in obsidian exploitation more than 1.2 million years ago at Simbiro III (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia).

Pleistocene archaeology records the changing behaviour and capacities of early hominins. These behavioural changes, for example, to stone tools, are commonly linked to environmental constraints. It has been argued that, in earlier times, multiple activities of everyday life were all uniformly conducted at the same spot. The separation of focused activities across different localities, which indicates a degree of planning, according to this mindset characterizes later hominins since only 500,000 years ago. Simbiro III level C, in the upper Awash valley of Ethiopia, allows us to test this assumption in its assemblage of stone tools made only with obsidian, dated to more than 1.2 million years (Myr) old. Here we first reconstruct the palaeoenvironment, showing that the landscape was seasonally flooded. Following the deposition of an accumulation of obsidian cobbles by a meandering river, hominins began to exploit these in new ways, producing large tools with sharp cutting edges. We show through statistical analysis that this was a focused activity, that very standardized handaxes were produced and that this was a stone-tool workshop. We argue that at Simbiro III, hominins were doing much more than simply reacting to environmental changes; they were taking advantage of new opportunities, and developing new techniques and new skills according to them.

Technological insights on the Early-Middle Bronze Age pottery of Monte Meana cave (Sardinia, Italy).

An important Bronze Age settlement was discovered during an archaeological excavation in the Monte Meana karst cave in south-western Sardinia (Italy) between 2007 and 2012. In this region, the caves were used since the Neolithic for different purposes, such as burials or other rituals. The dig highlighted a rare example of domestic use of a cave and showed a case study of household space of the Early -Middle Bronze Age, at the beginning of the Nuragic civilization. This provided the opportunity to investigate through a multidisciplinary approach, the empirical knowledge of ancient potters and technological characters of local pottery production especially in relation to domestic use, in a context at that time devoid of external cultural interferences. For this purpose, a selection of 24 pottery sherds related to vessel forms for cooking, storage, and eating were studied through macroscopic surveys and archaeometric analysis by petrography, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results revealed some discriminant variables (shape, wall thickness, features of the paste, surface smoothing, presence of diagnostic mineralogical phases, and tempers), within the ceramic products of this Sardinian Bronze Age site, showing skillful management of firing temperatures.

Insights into the palaeobiology of an early Homo infant: multidisciplinary investigation of the GAR IVE hemi-mandible, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.

Childhood is an ontogenetic stage unique to the modern human life history pattern. It enables the still dependent infants to achieve an extended rapid brain growth, slow somatic maturation, while benefitting from provisioning, transitional feeding, and protection from other group members. This tipping point in the evolution of human ontogeny likely emerged from early Homo. The GAR IVE hemi-mandible (1.8 Ma, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia) represents one of the rarely preserved early Homo infants (~ 3 years at death), recovered in a richly documented Oldowan archaeological context. Yet, based on the sole external inspection of its teeth, GAR IVE was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease-amelogenesis imperfecta (AI)-altering enamel. Since it may have impacted the child's survival, this diagnosis deserves deeper examination. Here, we reassess and refute this diagnosis and all associated interpretations, using an unprecedented multidisciplinary approach combining an in-depth analysis of GAR IVE (synchrotron imaging) and associated fauna. Some of the traits previously considered as diagnostic of AI can be better explained by normal growth or taphonomy, which calls for caution when diagnosing pathologies on fossils. We compare GAR IVE's dental development to other fossil hominins, and discuss the implications for the emergence of childhood in early Homo.

Volatolomics of Sardinian and Spanish Bituminaria: Characterization of Different Accessions Using Chemometrics.

The present study aims to determine the volatile compositions of 15 different accessions of native Sardinian populations of Bituminaria morisiana (Pignatti & Metlesics) Greuter, Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C. H. Stirt. (B. b.), and Spanish native accessions of B. bituminosa. Furthermore, we particularly focused on the essential oil characterization of these accessions and discriminated within populations with low furocoumarin content useful for fodder production in Mediterranean environments or furocoumarin extraction for pharmaceutical utilization. The plant extracts were analyzed by GC/MS, showing great variability in the content and composition. No differences were found in Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C.H. Stirt. var. bituminosa essential oils, while the varieties Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C.H. Stirt. var. crassiuscula P. Méndez, Fern. Galván & A. Santos and Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C.H. Stirt. var. albomarginata P. Méndez, Fern. Galván & A. Santos are characterized by the presence of a high concentration of long-chain alcohols and of salicylic acid benzylic ester. In B. bituminosa var. albomarginata, we observed a different profile with predominance of a large concentration of alcohols as dodecanol and tetradecanol. The endemic B. morisiana can be identified for the predominant presence of farnesene. In methanolic fractions, we detected the presence of maltol, methyl citrate, methyl cumarate, santonin, and methyl linoleate. B. morisiana showed a low content of psoralens, and the accession of B. morisiana, from Siliqua indicated the presence of apocynin.

Archaeology and ichnology at Gombore II-2, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia: everyday life of a mixed-age hominin group 700,000 years ago.

We report the occurrence at 0.7 million years (Ma) of an ichnological assemblage at Gombore II-2, which is one of several archaeological sites at Melka Kunture in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia, 2000 m asl. Adults and children potentially as young as 12 months old left tracks in a silty substrate on the shore of a body of water where ungulates, as well as other mammals and birds, congregated. Furthermore, the same layers contain a rich archaeological and palaeontological record, confirming that knapping was taking place in situ and that stone tools were used for butchering hippo carcasses at the site. The site gives direct information on hominin landscape use at 0.7 Ma and may provide fresh perspective on the childhood of our ancestors.

Sister chromatid exchange test in river buffalo lymphocytes treated in vitro with furocoumarin extracts.

Furocoumarin extracts from Psoralea morisiana, the endemic Sardinian legume species, were tested for their mutagenic potential on river buffalo blood cells. The results obtained performing the sister chromatid exchange (SCE) test in blood cultures of five river buffalo calves (exposure to furocoumarins for 72h) and five cows (exposure to furocoumarins for 3h, in the absence and presence of S9 metabolic activator) are reported. Significant differences in mean values of SCEs were observed in cells of calves compared to control cells (unexposed), but no differences in SCE mean values were found between treated and untreated cells of cows in the presence or absence of S9. SCE mean values were much higher in cells of cows (exposed and control) than in cells of calves. Indeed, in calf cells, SCE mean values/cell (±SD) were 6.66±2.45 in the control and 7.63±3.01, 9.03±3.90, 9.53±3.60 and 9.99±3.41 in treated cells at 50, 100, 200 and 400 µg/ml of furocoumarin extracts, respectively. In cow cells, grown in presence of S9, SCE mean values/cell were 11.49±4.78 and 11.65±5.19 in treated cells at 100 and 200 µg/ml of furocoumarins and 11.66±5.45 in the control. In cow cells grown in absence of S9, SCE mean values were 11.81±6.14 in the control and 12.35±7.09 and 12.01±5.43, respectively, in the presence of 100 and 200 µg/ml of furocoumarins. Despite their higher SCE values in the absence of S9, no statistically significant differences were found when these values were compared with those shown in presence of S9, suggesting no mutagenic action of furocoumarins in cows, at the doses used in this study.

Efficacy of heat treatments with water and fludioxonil for postharvest control of blue and gray molds on inoculated pears and fludioxonil residues in fruit.

The residue levels of fludioxonil (FLU) were determined in pear cultivars Precoce di Fiorano, Coscia, and Spadona estiva after a 2-min dip in an aqueous mixture of FLU containing 300 or 100 mg/liter of active ingredient at 20 or 50 degrees C and after 12 days at 17 degrees C and 80% relative humidity (simulated shelf life conditions). The accumulation trend of FLU residues was determined in 'Precoce di Fiorano' pears after treatments with 25, 50, 100, or 200 mg/liter of active ingredient at 20 or 50 degrees C for 2 min or at 60 degrees C for 1 min. The efficacy of heat treatments with water and FLU was investigated on artificially inoculated 'Precoce di Fiorano', 'Coscia', and 'Spadona estiva' pears for the control of postharvest blue mold and gray mold caused by Penicillium expansum and Botrytis cinerea, respectively. Treatment with 300 mg/liter FLU at 20 degrees C resulted in residue levels similar to those from treatment with 100 mg/liter FLU at 50 degrees C in 'Coscia' fruit but in significantly lower residues in 'Precoce di Fiorano' and 'Spadona estiva' pears. Post-shelf life residues decreased in all cultivars, especially in 'Spadona estiva' pears treated with 300 mg/liter FLU at 20 degrees C. Residue levels of FLU in 'Precoce di Fiorano' pears treated at 20, 50, or 60 degrees C were correlated with fungicide dosage. When an equal rate was used, treatment at 50 degrees C resulted in a higher and a notably higher FLU deposition than that found under treatment at 60 and 20 degrees C, respectively. The in vitro tests showed that both pathogens were very sensitive to FLU, with MICs averaging 0.05 and 0.1 mg/liter for B. cinerea and P. expansum isolates, respectively. The 50% effective concentration ranged between 0.01 and 0.05 mg/liter for B. cinerea and between 0.05 and 0.1 mg/liter for P. expansum. In the in vivo trials, hot water treatment effectively reduced the incidence of both diseases during the first 4 to 8 days, depending on cultivar, dip temperature, and type of inoculum. However, as the incubation time proceeded, decay reduction was generally lower and the benefit of heat treatments was notably reduced or almost lost. In contrast, all treatments with FLU had a long-lasting effect. Treatments with heated FLU were more effective than those with unheated FLU; reduced concentrations of active ingredient were required to achieve a comparable control of blue and gray mold decay in these pears.