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The island of Sicily is considered to be among the first occupied by humans in the European Upper Paleolithic. Studies to understand early occupation of the island are mostly concentrated on the northern shores. Our project, Early Occupation of Sicily (EOS), focuses on southeastern Sicily so to address questions regarding dispersal to Mediterranean islands and Late Pleistocene landscapes and environments. Here, we present the initial results of our terrestrial and underwater surveys in combination with archival work and analyses of museum collections. In SE Sicily very few Upper Paleolithic sites have been excavated and analyzed using scientific methods. We have relocated and assessed ~20 caves and rock shelters identified between the 1870s and 1990s, studied museum collections, and collected raw material to reconstruct procurement patterns. To identify new sites, we conducted land and underwater surveys to reconstruct paleo-shorelines and past environments. We have identified three sites, two on land and one partially submerged, that still contain unexplored archaeological sediments, demonstrated in one instance through seismic tomography. This work shows the potential of re-examining minimally studied sites and materials to reconstruct mobility patterns and environmental impact of the first inhabitants of the island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used to project how species distributions may vary over time, particularly in response climate change. Although the fit of such models to current distributions is regularly enumerated, SDMs are rarely tested across longer time spans to gauge their actual performance under environmental change. Here, we utilise paleozoological presence/absence records to independently assess the predictive accuracy of SDMs through time. To illustrate the approach, we focused on modelling the Holocene distribution of the hartebeest, Alcelaphus buselaphus, a widespread savannah‐adapted African antelope. We applied various modelling algorithms to three occurrence datasets, including a point dataset from online repositories and two range maps representing current and 'natural' (i.e. hypothetical assuming no human impact) distributions. We compared conventional model evaluation metrics which assess fit to current distributions (i.e. True Skill Statistic, TSSc, and Area Under the Curve, AUCc) to analogous 'paleometrics' for past distributions (i.e. TSSp, AUCp, and in addition Boycep, F2‐scorep and Sorensenp). Our findings reveal only a weak correlation between the ranking of conventional metrics and paleometrics, suggesting that the models most effectively capturing present‐day distributions may not be the most reliable to hindcast historical distributions, and that the choice of input data and modelling algorithm both significantly influences environmental suitability predictions and SDM performance. We thus advocate assessment of model performance using paleometrics, particularly those capturing the correct prediction of presences, such as F2‐scorep or Sorensenp, due to the potential unreliability of absence data in paleozoological records. By integrating archaeological and paleontological records into the assessment of alternative models' ability to project shifts in species distributions over time, we are likely to enhance our understanding of environmental constraints on species distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most biogeographers considered the Maghreb to be part of the Palearctic biogeographic region, though it is relatively recently that the proportion of Palearctic species increased there. How and when exactly these biogeographic changes occurred is not well understood, but they are probably the result of the increasing aridification of the Sahara and decreasing global temperatures. Fossils of Bos primigenius and Ceratotherium simum from a new fossil locality in a terrace of the Oued el Haï (NE Morocco) contribute to our understanding of some of these biogeographic processes and their timing. They also suggest an age between ~57 and ~100 ka for the terrace. The same evolutionary change in Bos in Europe and the Maghreb suggests geneflow as the most parsimonious explanation, though parallel evolution is an alternative possibility. Oued el Haï has the oldest well-documented record of C. simum in the Maghreb. The dispersal of this species to North Africa, where it replaced C. mauritanicum, may have occurred during a 'Green Sahara Period' between 80–85 or 100–105 ka, when the Maghreb had acquired already a Palearctic character. The study of the biogeography and requirements of the large mammals of the Maghreb may provide information to calibrate the region's climate modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long temporal records of Holocene wild mammal communities are essential to examine the role of human impacts and climatic fluctuations in the configuration of modern ecosystems. We show that such records can be assembled through extensive radiocarbon dating of faunal remains obtained from biogenic cave deposits. We dated 110 mammalian remains from 19 different cave sites in the Judean Desert. We use the dates in combination with archaeological survey data and bone collagen/apatite δ13C values to study faunal succession in the context of Holocene climate change and human settlement history in the region. Our results suggest a change in the late Holocene, expressed in fewer observations of Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) and gazelle (Gazella spp.), and an increase of Syrian striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena syriaca), fox (Vulpes spp.), Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis); suids (Sus scrofa) appear for the first time. According to the data distribution, however, the probability of finding a bone diminishes exponentially with time, which implies that the Judean Desert cave paleozoological record is temporally biased. The weight of evidence ultimately favors an explanation of the observed patterns as the consequence of a combined anthropogenic and climatic impact on local food webs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African forest hogs (genus Hylochoerus) are extant Afro-tropical suids that inhabit a variety of forest environments and thick bushlands and are predominantly herbivores. Hylochoerus likely evolved from a Pleistocene Kolpochoerus majus-like ancestor, but its recent evolutionary history is virtually unknown. Here, we describe a partial right lower third molar from the Late Pleistocene Wasiriya Beds of Rusinga Island (~50-36 ka). The crowns are mesiodistally compressed in a bunolophodont fashion and arranged in columnar pillars that resemble those of extant Hylochoerus. We provide accurate data derived from computed tomography on the hypsodonty index (HI) of extant Hylochoerus and show that the Rusinga third molar crown was as tall as those of its modern counterpart (HI = 1.8–2.0). Stable carbon isotope analyses suggest that the diet of the Rusinga specimen (δ13C = −17.0 ‰) was also like that of extant forest hogs (δ13C average = −17.6 ‰). This extremely negative value contrasts strikingly with those of other fossil large herbivores at Rusinga (δ13C average = −0.7 ‰.). Among the potential explanations for this anomaly, the most likely is that the Late Pleistocene paleoenvironments were more heterogeneous than previously considered and may have included closed-canopy woodland in the highlands of Rusinga. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dietary inferences are a key foundation for paleoecological, ecomorphological and macroevolutionary studies because they inform us about the direct relationships between the components of an ecosystem. However, we need to consider the range of dietary variation we want to investigate and characterize before choosing a proxy. The goal of the present work is to evaluate the differences in dietary discrimination power between our new method, the multidimensional multi-proxy dental morphology analysis (MPDMA) and unidimensional dental morphology proxies such as orientation patch count (OPCR), relief index (RI) or slope., In order to do that, we three-dimensionally scanned the dentitions of 134 extant mammals including 28 marsupials (order Diprotodontia) and 106 placentals (orders Carnivora, Primates and Rodentia) and classified their diets using a new classification scheme that emphasizes the primary resource in a given diet. Diet categories included herbivory, carnivory, frugivory, granivory, insectivory, fungivory, gumivory and generalist., Unidimensional proxies significantly discriminate ( P < 0·05) between one or two diet categories on the one hand and the rest on the other. For example, OPCR discriminates well between carnivorous and non-carnivorous species. However, none of the individual proxies discriminate all eight dietary categories. Multi-proxy dental morphology analysis demonstrates significant morphological differences across diets (MANOVA, d.f. = 7; F = 7·56; P < 0·05) and correctly discriminates diet for 67-82% of the specimens in the data set including and excluding rodents respectively., Combining different morphological variables makes it possible to draw better dietary inferences and fully represent the multidimensional nature of dental morphology and dietary specializations. Our results have important applications in ecological, paleoecological and evolutionary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]