Introduction In 1995, Berger and Clarke proposed that the c. 2.0-Myr-old Taung child (Fig. A in supplementary material online at www.sajs.co.za), holotype of the early hominin species Australopithecus africanus, and associated faunal assemblage from the Taung site in the North West province of South Africa, had been collected by a large bird of prey. Much debate concerning this hypothesis follo...

As the focus of intense debate concerning the possible effects of environmental variability on Native populations, the Middle-Late Transition (MLT) is an exceptionally important period in California prehistory. Recent salvage excavations at the CoonCreek Site (CA-SLO-9) on the SanLuisObispoCounty coast revealed a single,highly discrete component dating cal A.D. 900–1300 which is largely synchro...

OBJECTIVES The Rapa Nui "ecocide" narrative questions whether the prehistoric population caused an avoidable ecological disaster through rapid deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources. The objective of this study was to characterize prehistoric human diets to shed light on human adaptability and land use in an island environment with limited resources. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ma...

Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A for...

Six months after the explosion of TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, radioactive silver ((110m)Ag), was detected in concentrations of 3754 Bq/kg in Nephila clavata (the orb-web spider; Joro-gumo in Japanese) collected at Nimaibashi, Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture, whereas (110m)Ag in the soil was 43.1 Bq/kg. A survey of 35 faunal species in the terrestrial environment durin...

Foraminiferal assemblages have been collected from ten intertidal study areas situated on the east, south and west coasts of the UK. The assemblages display a vertical zonation which indicates that the distribution of foraminifera in these intertidal environments is usually the direct function of altitude with the duration and frequency of intertidal exposure the most important factors. Multiva...

The Mediterranean Sea constitutes a unique environment to study cold-seep ecosystems due to the presence of different geodynamic settings, from an active margin along the Mediterranean Ridge (MR) to a passive margin in the Nile Deep-Sea Fan (NDSF). We attempted to identify the structure of benthic communities associated with the Napoli and Amsterdam mud volcanoes (MVs) located on the MR and to ...

The Eocene-Pliocene deep sea ostracodes from the ODP site 744A (Kerguelen Plateau) are herein studied under the taxonomic and paleoecologic aspects. 28 species are identified, being the genera Krithe, Cytherella and Dutoitella the most diversified. A faunal threshold was recorded in the Early Oligocene, which is tentatively explained under the knowledge of the paleoceanographical studies carrie...

Over the last 50 years the studies on terrestrial mammals of the Italian peninsula have provided a large volume of data and a more detailed knowledge of faunal events during the Late Pliocene and Quaternary. Moreover geological, sedimentological, palynological and magnetostratigraphical investigations on the Pliocene–Pleistocene continental sedimentary basins have yielded the possibility of a d...

<!!!!!!!! THOMAS, E. and VAREKAMP, J.C, 1991. Paleo-environmental analyses of marsh sequences (Clinton, Connecticut): evidence for punctuated rise in relative sealevel during the latest Hol ocene. Journal of Coastal Research, SI #11, 125-158. Fort Lauderdale (Florida). ISSN 0749 0208. We developed an integrated chemical-faunal approach to paleo-environmental analysis of salt marsh sequences. Se...