Flies and beetles are the main components of the entomofauna colonizing a body after death. Following the recognition of constant and predictable colonization patterns and the knowledge about the dependence of the insect development to temperature, a new discipline, forensic entomology, has provided information useful to reconstruct criminal events. Funerary archaeoentomology has also applied the same rationale in archaeological contexts. Puparia represent a large fraction of the insect remains that can be found associated with a cadaver, especially when the body is mummified or in the advanced stages of decomposition. Puparium identification is still a problematic topic due to the lack of identification keys and, in several cases, a lack of diagnostic feature descriptions. Here, we focus the attention on some Hydrotaea Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera, Muscidae) puparia from forensic and archaeological contexts. Puparia of Hydrotaea capensis (Wiedemann), Hydrotaea ignava (Harris), Hydrotaea aenescens (Wiedemann), Hydrotaea similis Meade, Hydrotaea pilipes Stein, and Hydrotaea dentipes (Fabricius) are here detailed and illustrated. Posterior spiracles, anal plate, and intersegmental spines have been considered as good diagnostic characters for the identification of these puparia.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjy142 | DOI Listing |
Am J Primatol
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.
The Cayo Santiago rhesus macaque colony is a renowned primate population that has experienced significant natural and anthropogenic ecological variation in their 85-year history. Demographic and familial information is also tracked and collated for the majority of monkeys. Thus, the health history of rhesus macaques at Cayo Santiago should reflect the impacts of both environmental and genetic factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiology (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Earth Sciences, NOVA School of Science and Technology, GEOBIOTEC, Campus de Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
On the African continent, Picrodendraceae are represented by four genera. Their intracontinental paleophytogeographic histories and paleoecological aspects are obscured by the lack of pre-Miocene fossils. For this study, late Eocene sediments from Kenya were investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Biol Anthropol
January 2025
Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
The collections of human remains within our university laboratories and classrooms are considered by many to be integral to teaching osteology. However, as an outgrowth of the Western scientific tradition of mind/body dualism, human remains within skeletal teaching collections are often regarded differently than those in museums or applied contexts. From processing to storage, the personhood of each individual becomes abstracted as we purchase, "inherit," handle, organize, and digitally scan their bones for teaching purposes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
December 2024
Anthropology Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Strontium isotope (Sr/Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving Sr/Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the Sr/Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Hum Behav
December 2024
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Over the past decade, multidisciplinary research has seen the Amazon Basin go from a context perceived as unfavourable for food production and large-scale human societies to one of 'garden cities', domestication, and anthropogenically influenced forests and soils. Nevertheless, direct insights into human interactions with particular crops and especially animals remain scarce across this vast area. Here we present new stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from 86 human and 68 animal remains dating between CE ~700 and 1400 from the Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia.
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