Reconstructing diets of individuals and groups

Project: Dietary Variation in Upper Pleistocene Hominins

The diets of Neanderthals and contemporaneous modern human groups is of considerable interest. Some have argued that Neanderthals were highly carnivorous, while modern humans had a more variable diet, but the use of plant foods by both groups is all but unknown. Using a combined isotope and microfossil approach, we are examining the diets of several Upper Pleistocene groups from across the Old World, seeking to identify species-level, geographic, and temporal variation.

Main investigators: Amanda Henry, Robert Power, Domingo Carlos Salazar Garcia
Main collaborators: Dolores Piperno, Alison Brooks, Michael Walker, Miriam Belmaker

Project: Plant use by Australopiths

The consumption of certain plant foods has been suggested as one of the main features that distinguish the diets of robust and gracile australopiths, yet there are few ways for documenting the consumption of these foods. We are working to recover microfossils from the calculus of some Australopith individuals in order to possibly identify the consumption of these foods.

Main investigators: Amanda Henry
Main collaborators: Lee Berger, Lloyd Rossouw, Peter Ungar, Matt Sponheimer, Marion Bamford

Establishing costs and benefits of consuming plant foods

Project: Micronutrients in cooked food and models of human digestion:

Cooking is thought to be one of the major shifts in human evolution. We seek to better explore availability of macro and micronutrients in wild plant foods during human consumption and digestion. We intend to test for changes in the availability of these nutrients from before and after cooking trials that will mimic the cooking techniques used by the Hadza from Tanzania, Africa.

Main investigators: Amanda Henry, Stephanie Schnorr
Main collaborators: Alyssa Crittenden, Frank Marlowe, Koen Venema

Improving methods for discovering ancient use of plants

Project: Database of modern plant microfossils

Researchers wishing to use plant microfossils to explore ancient plant use currently must create their own database of modern plant microfossil forms. We seek to create, manage, and share a publicly-available database of microfossil shapes, and further to codify the terminology of plant starch grain forms.

Main investigators: Amanda Henry and Jörg Watzke