Copyright (c) 2010 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb Recent documents in Steve Webb en-us Sun, 03 Oct 2010 19:57:52 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/8 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/8 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:23:11 PDT Understanding the population demography, species distribution and biogeography of Australia’s megafauna is essential for understanding their extinction. This process is only just beginning, and this article discusses these aspects while concentrating on a particular region; the southern Lake Eyre Basin (SLEB). It is also the first detailed description of the distribution of megafauna across that region of central Australia. The data are based on an extensive longitudinal study of 41 palaeontological sites spread across 250 000km2. Megafauna adaptation and response to extensive environmental change during the late Quaternary is reflected in the composition and distribution of 21 megafauna species found across the region. A flexible migration strategy in response to wet/arid cycles saw occupation focusing on riverine and lacustrine environments formed by episodes of southerly monsoon incursion into the northern Lake Eyre basin. The supply of animals to the area was largely derived from endemic populations inhabiting western parts of southeastern Australia, where the majority of SLEB species are also found. Diprotodon reflects the adaptive flexibility of some species owing to its particular continental distribution, with a number of semi-arid regions across the continent. A picture of how and when the last of the region’s megafauna disappeared is closer to being understood, with likely terminal dates for Genyornis and Diprotodon now available. Steve Webb http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/7 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/7 Sun, 10 May 2009 23:47:30 PDT This report describes skeletal remains from the early Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan. At least seven individuals are represented, and although small, the collection is notable for the eclecticism of its mortuary practice. Modes of mortuary disposal and ritual include a single-primary burial, a collective-secondary burial, burnt human cranial fragments disposed in residential contexts, and the ochre staining of bones. The two burials come from the lowest phase of the site, with fragmentary burials and smaller amounts of material issuing from the upper phases. The primary inhumation is marked by a neighbouring pit, which seems to be augmented by other features through three subsequent stratigraphic phases. Artefact types accompanying the burials were limited to a single Dentalium shell necklace. Overall, the bone series represent gracile individuals with good nutritional and health status. The most extensive data was gained from Homo 1, whose skeleton revealed indications of high functional demands, including several healed injuries, arthritis, a preference for using the right arm, and severe wear of the first molars. Steve Webb Archaeology http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/5 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/5 Sun, 10 May 2009 21:56:38 PDT Arguments about the extinction of Australia's megafauna have largely rested on anthropogenic factors consequent upon the arrival of humans there, and have lacked any appreciation of the possibilities of climate/environmental changes taking place during the late Quaternary. Moreover, the status of the megafauna at the extinction and in the period leading up to it has largely been ignored. This article assesses the species that existed during the late Quaternary, their continental dispersal, the likely impact of negative climate change during that time and the effect this had on their demography and variety. These factors are discussed together with a synthesis of present data regarding Australia's mega 2004: fauna demography and which species may have reached the extinction threshold. One interpretation of the data suggests a mid–late Quaternary process of demographic fragmentation, disjunction and fluctuation, a restricted continental distribution among a diminishing group and a limited and reducing species variety due to climate and environmental change. It is argued that increasing continental aridity during the mid–late Quaternary was a forcing mechanism behind species distribution, changes to that distribution and population reduction through episodic but widespread drought and vegetation change. This resulted in alteration of the biogeographic status of the megafauna, with increasing stress on and reduction of the population as a whole. In particular, it changed population composition and reduced species variety and overall population size by the beginning of the last glaciation, such that at the time of human entry the population had reached a precarious stage vulnerable to any level of subsequent anthropogenic activity with the arrival of humans in Australia. Steve Webb http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/3 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/3 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:01:05 PST Human and other hominid fossil footprints provide rare but important insights into anatomy and behaviour. Here we report recently discovered fossil trackways of human footprints from the Willandra Lakes region of western New South Wales, Australia. Optically dated to between 19-23 ka and consisting of at least 124 prints, the trackways form the largest collection of Pleistocene human footprints in the world. The prints were made by adults, adolescents, and children traversing the moist surface of an ephemeral soak. This site offers a unique glimpse of humans living in the arid inland of Australia at the height of the last glacial period. Steve Webb http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/4 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/4 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:01:05 PST Extract:Cribra orbitalia is a bone condition characterized by one or several clusters of small openings in the anterior and/or antero-lateral portions of the orbital plate of the frontal bone. Reference to it in the anatomical literature is rare, often inaccurate and cursory at best. Works on bone pathology ignore it altogether, perhaps because cribra orbitalia reflects no recognizable morphological or behavioural symptoms or is not seen to be associated with pathologies diagnosed by other criteria. It has been suggested that it does not occur in modem populations and therefore does not arise in pathology in the modern context. It is physical or biological anthropologists, dealing with ancient skeletal populations, who have been most responsible for drawing attention to the phenomenon. Steve Webb http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/1 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/1 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:01:04 PST The First Boat People concerns how people travelled across the world to Australia in the Pleistocene. It traces movement from Africa to Australia, offering a new view of population growth at that time, challenging current ideas, and underscoring problems with the 'Out of Africa' theory of how modern humans emerged. The variety of routes, strategies and opportunities that could have been used by those first migrants is proposed against the very different regional geography that existed at that time. Steve Webb shows the impact of human entry into Australia on the megafauna using fresh evidence from his work in Central Australia, including a description of palaeoenvironmental conditions existing there during the last two glaciations. He argues for an early human arrival and describes in detail the skeletal evidence for the first Australians. This is a stimulating account for students and researchers in biological anthropology, human evolution and archaeology. © Cambridge University Press 2006. Steve Webb http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/2 http://works.bepress.com/steve_webb/2 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:01:04 PST Extract:Previously, insights into past societies have nearly always been achieved through archaeological investigation, but by studying skeletal rather than cultural remains it is possible to make substantial additions to this knowledge. This is especially so in regard to the evaluation of environmental pressures exerted on individuals living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Such biological studies also add further dimensions to the investigation of prehistory. It is, after all, people, not their tools and chattels, that suffer the vagaries of the environment in which they live, and these vagaries are often reflected in the form of diagnosable traits within the skeleton. Steve Webb