Francesco d'Errico

Bio: Francesco d'Errico is an academic researcher from University of Bergen. The author has contributed to research in topics: Middle Stone Age & Cave. The author has an hindex of 62, co-authored 231 publications receiving 15561 citations. Previous affiliations of Francesco d'Errico include University of Kansas & George Washington University.

Emergence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa.

Abstract: In the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic after about 35,000 years ago, abstract or depictional images provide evidence for cognitive abilities considered integral to modern human behavior. Here we report on two abstract representations engraved on pieces of red ochre recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave in South Africa. A mean date of 77,000 years was obtained for the layers containing the engraved ochres by thermoluminescence dating of burnt lithics, and the stratigraphic integrity was confirmed by an optically stimulated luminescence age of 70,000 years on an overlying dune. These engravings support the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa at least 35,000 years before the start of the Upper Paleolithic.

Neanderthal acculturation in western Europe? A critical review of the evidence and its interpretation

Abstract: The presence of bone tools, personal ornaments, and apparently “modern” stone tools in European late Middle Paleolithic or pre‐Aurignacian Paleolithic contexts is generally interpreted as the result of the acculturation of final Neanderthal populations by anatomically modern humans. Analysis of the stratigraphic, chronological, and archaeological data from the key site of Grotte du Renne (Arcy‐sur‐Cure, France) shows that the notion of acculturation, as commonly understood, is inconsistent with the evidence. It is argued here that this site is not an exceptional case and is best explained by models of independent development that are supported by a reevaluation of Chatelperronian technology and by the patterns of chronological and geographical distribution of Aurignacian, Chatelperronian, Uluzzian, and late Mousterian settlements.

Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals

Abstract: Two sites of the Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic of Iberia, dated to as early as approximately 50,000 years ago, yielded perforated and pigment-stained marine shells. At Cueva de los Aviones, three umbo-perforated valves of Acanthocardia and Glycymeris were found alongside lumps of yellow and red colorants, and residues preserved inside a Spondylus shell consist of a red lepidocrocite base mixed with ground, dark red-to-black fragments of hematite and pyrite. A perforated Pecten shell, painted on its external, white side with an orange mix of goethite and hematite, was abandoned after breakage at Cueva Anton, 60 km inland. Comparable early modern human-associated material from Africa and the Near East is widely accepted as evidence for body ornamentation, implying behavioral modernity. The Iberian finds show that European Neandertals were no different from coeval Africans in this regard, countering genetic/cognitive explanations for the emergence of symbolism and strengthening demographic/social ones.

Middle Stone Age Shell Beads from South Africa

Abstract: There are two competing models for the emergence of modern human behavior: first, a late emergence in Africa or Eurasia at ∼50 to 40 thousand years ago (ka), and second, a gradual transition in Africa between 250 to 50 ka ([ 1 ][1]). In both models, personal ornaments and art are unquestioned

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Abstract: 抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

Impacts of climate change on the future of biodiversity.

Abstract: Many studies in recent years have investigated the effects of climate change on the future of biodiversity. In this review, we first examine the different possible effects of climate change that can operate at individual, population, species, community, ecosystem and biome scales, notably showing that species can respond to climate change challenges by shifting their climatic niche along three non-exclusive axes: time (e.g. phenology), space (e.g. range) and self (e.g. physiology). Then, we present the principal specificities and caveats of the most common approaches used to estimate future biodiversity at global and sub-continental scales and we synthesise their results. Finally, we highlight several challenges for future research both in theoretical and applied realms. Overall, our review shows that current estimates are very variable, depending on the method, taxonomic group, biodiversity loss metrics, spatial scales and time periods considered. Yet, the majority of models indicate alarming consequences for biodiversity, with the worst-case scenarios leading to extinction rates that would qualify as the sixth mass extinction in the history of the earth.

Taphonomic and Ecologic Information Form Bone Weathering

Abstract: Bones of recent mammals in the Amboseli Basin, southern Kenya, exhibit distinctive weathering characteristics that can be related to the time since death and to the local conditions of temperature, humidity and soil chemistry. A categorization of weathering characteristics into six stages, recognizable on descriptive criteria, provides a basis for investigation of weathering rates and processes. The time necessary to achieve each successive weathering stage has been calibrated using known-age carcasses. Most bones decompose beyond recognition in 10 to 15 yr. Bones of animals under 100 kg and juveniles appear to weather more rapidly than bones of large animals or adults. Small-scale rather than widespread environmental factors seem to have greatest influence on weathering characteristics and rates. Bone weathering is potentially valuable as evidence for the period of time represented in recent or fossil bone assemblages, in- cluding those on archeological sites, and may also be an important tool in censusing populations of animals in modern ecosystems.

Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Abstract: Prologue PART 1: The Need for a Theory of Cognitive Evolution Mental Architecture as an Emergent Phenomenon Culture as Evidence for Cognitive Structure The Organization of This Book PART 2: