The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins
The acquisition of large prey by hominins living during the Marine Isotope Stage 3, including Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans, had nutritional and bioenergetic implications: these contain high fat amounts, provide a high energy return, and the strategies and skills required to acquire sm...
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| Format: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI
2023
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/14445 |
| _version_ | 1789406680055808000 |
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| author | Guil Guerrero, José Luis |
| author_facet | Guil Guerrero, José Luis |
| author_sort | Guil Guerrero, José Luis |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | The acquisition of large prey by hominins living during the Marine Isotope Stage 3, including Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans, had nutritional and bioenergetic implications: these contain high fat amounts, provide a high energy return, and the strategies and skills required to acquire small prey were different from those required to acquire the former. Vitamin C availability at several MIS 3 periods could have had a strong seasonal variability and would have been decisive for hominin groups’ survival. During the cold periods of the MIS 3, Paleolithic hominins had variable available amounts of vitamin C-containing plants only in the short summers, and for the remainder of the year, viscera would have been their best source of vitamin C. Meanwhile, the dependence on small mammals could have caused an erratic distribution of viscera to be consumed by such hominins, thus leading to chronic scurvy, and compromising their survival. Then, the hunting of large mammals would have helped to meet the daily vitamin C needs, besides an efficient energy supply. Therefore, the decline of large prey during the MIS 3 could have been critical for hominins survival, and thus the efficient exploitation of alternative vitamin C-rich food resources such as birds and aquatic animals could have favored the evolutionary success of hominin populations. |
| format | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| id | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-14445 |
| institution | Universidad de Cuenca |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-144452023-04-12T18:55:54Z The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins Guil Guerrero, José Luis Neanderthals anatomically modern humans vitamin C large fauna Paleolithic diet marine isotope stage 3 viscera scurvy The acquisition of large prey by hominins living during the Marine Isotope Stage 3, including Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans, had nutritional and bioenergetic implications: these contain high fat amounts, provide a high energy return, and the strategies and skills required to acquire small prey were different from those required to acquire the former. Vitamin C availability at several MIS 3 periods could have had a strong seasonal variability and would have been decisive for hominin groups’ survival. During the cold periods of the MIS 3, Paleolithic hominins had variable available amounts of vitamin C-containing plants only in the short summers, and for the remainder of the year, viscera would have been their best source of vitamin C. Meanwhile, the dependence on small mammals could have caused an erratic distribution of viscera to be consumed by such hominins, thus leading to chronic scurvy, and compromising their survival. Then, the hunting of large mammals would have helped to meet the daily vitamin C needs, besides an efficient energy supply. Therefore, the decline of large prey during the MIS 3 could have been critical for hominins survival, and thus the efficient exploitation of alternative vitamin C-rich food resources such as birds and aquatic animals could have favored the evolutionary success of hominin populations. 2023-03-23T16:23:49Z 2023-03-23T16:23:49Z 2023-03-10 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2571-550X http://hdl.handle.net/10835/14445 10.3390/quat6010020 en https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/6/1/20 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess MDPI |
| spellingShingle | Neanderthals anatomically modern humans vitamin C large fauna Paleolithic diet marine isotope stage 3 viscera scurvy Guil Guerrero, José Luis The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title | The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title_full | The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title_fullStr | The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title_short | The Role of Large Mammals as Vitamin C Sources for MIS 3 Hominins |
| title_sort | role of large mammals as vitamin c sources for mis 3 hominins |
| topic | Neanderthals anatomically modern humans vitamin C large fauna Paleolithic diet marine isotope stage 3 viscera scurvy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/14445 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT guilguerrerojoseluis theroleoflargemammalsasvitamincsourcesformis3hominins AT guilguerrerojoseluis roleoflargemammalsasvitamincsourcesformis3hominins |