Miki Ben-Dor

Bio: Miki Ben-Dor is an academic researcher from Tel Aviv University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Human evolution & Geography. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 8 publications receiving 177 citations.

Man the fat hunter: the demise of Homo erectus and the emergence of a new hominin lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant.

Abstract: The worldwide association of H. erectus with elephants is well documented and so is the preference of humans for fat as a source of energy. We show that rather than a matter of preference, H. erectus in the Levant was dependent on both elephants and fat for his survival. The disappearance of elephants from the Levant some 400 kyr ago coincides with the appearance of a new and innovative local cultural complex – the Levantine Acheulo-Yabrudian and, as is evident from teeth recently found in the Acheulo-Yabrudian 400-200 kyr site of Qesem Cave, the replacement of H. erectus by a new hominin. We employ a bio-energetic model to present a hypothesis that the disappearance of the elephants, which created a need to hunt an increased number of smaller and faster animals while maintaining an adequate fat content in the diet, was the evolutionary drive behind the emergence of the lighter, more agile, and cognitively capable hominins. Qesem Cave thus provides a rare opportunity to study the mechanisms that underlie the emergence of our post-erectus ancestors, the fat hunters.

Neandertals' large lower thorax may represent adaptation to high protein diet.

Abstract: Humans are limited in their capacity to convert protein into energy. We present a hypothesis that a "bell" shaped thorax and a wide pelvis evolved in Neandertals, at least in part, as an adaptation to a high protein diet. A high protein diet created a need to house an enlarged liver and urinary system in a wider lower trunk. To test the hypothesis, we applied a model developed to identify points of nutritional stress. A ratio of obligatory dietary fat to total animal fat and protein sourced calories is calculated based on various known and estimated parameters. Stress is identified when the obligatory dietary fat ratio is higher than fat content ratios in available prey. The model predicts that during glacial winters, when carbohydrates weren't available, 74%-85% of Neandertals' caloric intake would have had to come from animal fat. Large animals contain around 50% fat calories, and their fat content is diminished during winter, so a significant stressful dietary fat deficit was identified by the model. This deficit could potentially be ameliorated by an increased capability to convert protein into energy. Given that high protein consumption is associated with larger liver and kidneys in animal models, it appears likely that the enlarged inferior section of the Neandertals thorax and possibly, in part, also his wide pelvis, represented an adaptation to provide encasement for those enlarged organs. Behavioral and evolutionary implications of the hypothesis are also discussed. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:367-378, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The evolution of the human trophic level during the Pleistocene.

Abstract: The human trophic level (HTL) during the Pleistocene and its degree of variability serve, explicitly or tacitly, as the basis of many explanations for human evolution, behavior, and culture. Previous attempts to reconstruct the HTL have relied heavily on an analogy with recent hunter-gatherer groups' diets. In addition to technological differences, recent findings of substantial ecological differences between the Pleistocene and the Anthropocene cast doubt regarding that analogy's validity. Surprisingly little systematic evolution-guided evidence served to reconstruct HTL. Here, we reconstruct the HTL during the Pleistocene by reviewing evidence for the impact of the HTL on the biological, ecological, and behavioral systems derived from various existing studies. We adapt a paleobiological and paleoecological approach, including evidence from human physiology and genetics, archaeology, paleontology, and zoology, and identified 25 sources of evidence in total. The evidence shows that the trophic level of the Homo lineage that most probably led to modern humans evolved from a low base to a high, carnivorous position during the Pleistocene, beginning with Homo habilis and peaking in Homo erectus. A reversal of that trend appears in the Upper Paleolithic, strengthening in the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, and culminating with the advent of agriculture. We conclude that it is possible to reach a credible reconstruction of the HTL without relying on a simple analogy with recent hunter-gatherers' diets. The memory of an adaptation to a trophic level that is embedded in modern humans' biology in the form of genetics, metabolism, and morphology is a fruitful line of investigation of past HTLs, whose potential we have only started to explore.

Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change.

Abstract: The late Quaternary megafauna extinction was a severe global-scale event. Two factors, climate change and modern humans, have received broad support as the primary drivers, but their absolute and relative importance remains controversial. To date, focus has been on the extinction chronology of individual or small groups of species, specific geographical regions or macroscale studies at very coarse geographical and taxonomic resolution, limiting the possibility of adequately testing the proposed hypotheses. We present, to our knowledge, the first global analysis of this extinction based on comprehensive country-level data on the geographical distribution of all large mammal species (more than or equal to 10 kg) that have gone globally or continentally extinct between the beginning of the Last Interglacial at 132 000 years BP and the late Holocene 1000 years BP, testing the relative roles played by glacial–interglacial climate change and humans. We show that the severity of extinction is strongly tied to hominin palaeobiogeography, with at most a weak, Eurasia-specific link to climate change. This first species-level macroscale analysis at relatively high geographical resolution provides strong support for modern humans as the primary driver of the worldwide megafauna losses during the late Quaternary.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers (review)

Abstract:

University of Alabama at Birmingham

A Theory of Semiotics

Abstract: Foreword Note on graphic conventions 0. Introduction-Toward a Logic of Culture 0.1. Design for a semiotic theory 0.2. 'Semiotics': field or discipline? 0.3. Communication and/or signification 0.4. Political boundaries: the field 0.5. Natural boundaries: two definitions of semiotics 0.6. Natural boundaries: inference and signification 0.7. Natural boundaries the lower threshold 0.8. Natural boundaries: the upper threshold 0.9. Epistemological boundaries 1. Signification and Communication 1.1. An elementary communicational model 1.2. Systems and codes 1.3. The s-code as structure 1.4. Information, communication, signification 2. Theory of Codes 2.1. The sign-function 2.2. Expression and content 2.3. Denotation and connotation 2.4. Message and text 2.5 Content and referent 2.6. Meaning as cultural unit 2.7. The interpretant 2.8. The semantic system 2.9. The semantic markers and the sememe 2.10. The KF model 2.11. A revised semantic model 2.12. The model \"Q\" 2.13. The format of the semantic space 2.14. Overcoding and undercoding 2.15. The interplay of codes and the message as an open form 3. Theory of Sign Production 3.1. A general survey 3.2. Semiotic and factual statements 3.3. Mentioning 3.4 The prolem of a typology of signs 3.5. Critique of iconism 3.6. A typology of modes of production 3.7. The aesthetic text as invention 3.8. The rhetorical labor 3.9. Ideological code switching 4. The Subject of Semiotics References Index of authors Index of subjects

Limitations in anti-obesity drug development: the critical role of hunger-promoting neurons

Abstract: Current anti-obesity drugs aim to reduce food intake by either curbing appetite or suppressing the craving for food. However, many of these agents have been associated with severe psychiatric and/or cardiovascular side effects, highlighting the need for alternative therapeutic strategies. Emerging knowledge on the role of the hypothalamus in enabling the central nervous system to adapt to the changing environment — by managing peripheral tissue output and by regulating higher brain functions — may facilitate the discovery of new agents that are more effective and have an acceptable benefit-risk profile. Targeting the molecular pathways that mediate the beneficial effects of calorie restriction and exercise may represent an alternative therapeutic approach for the treatment of chronic metabolic disorders such as obesity.