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Pathoecology and the Future of Coprolite Studies in Bioarchaeology

TL;DR: Bryant et al. as discussed by the authors found that the majority of coprolites are usually fragmented, flattened by age, or in many cases are preserved as amorphous masses of various sizes similar in shape to " paddies " left behind by cattle.
Abstract: COPROLITE STUDIES IN BIOARCHAEOLOGY Human coprolites currently provide an expanding array of information about the diet, health, and ecology of prehistoric people in the Southwest, but for many years coprolites were not recognized or preserved, or they were not considered important and thus were not saved (Bryant and Dean 2006). With the expansion of archaeological field work during the last half of the twentieth century archaeologists have increasingly explored the " complete " potentials of sites, including the collection and analysis of geomorphologic, botanical, and faunal data. In some ideal habitats (e.g., very dry or frozen) this includes exploring the scientific potential of human coprolite studies. This is not easy to do: very few coprolites have what might be considered a " characteristic shape and size. " In our experience, the majority of coprolites are usually fragmented, flattened by age, or in many cases are preserved as amorphous masses of various sizes similar in shape to " paddies " left behind by cattle. These flat, amorphous human coprolites are especially common in sites used by foragers with diets very high in plant fiber. Coprolites and coprolite fragments are sometimes collected in situ during archaeological excavations, but most often they are found during screening, when dirt is being separated from artifacts. If unrecognized, coprolites may be crushed into dust, along with clods of dirt, and their contents lost. In the American Southwest the arid climate, protected sites, and dry rock shelters provide some of our best areas in North America for the preservation of human coprolites and the long record of biological history they help to reveal. Starting in the early 1960s with the pioneering efforts of Eric Callen (1963) and Martin and Sharrock (1964), but especially in the seventies and eighties, coprolites were the focus of many interdisciplinary research A large number of articles, chapters, and monographs were published as a result of this early As summarized by Reinhard and Bryant (1992) these works explored the application of many fields to coprolite analysis including archaeopalynology, archaeobotany, archaeoparasitology, zooarchaeology, biochemistry, starch analysis, and phytolith analysis. (Phytoliths are microscopic mineral deposits produced by plants within their cells. Phytoliths are extremely durable and their morphologies are frequently specific to family, genus, and even species.) Each research project offered new methodological innovations and several salient works came from this period. Williams-Dean's dissertation (1978) was a milestone in combining studies of modern feces with the …

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279 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: How emerging research on ancient human microbiomes is changing the way the authors think about ancient disease and how archaeological studies can contribute to a medical understanding of health and nutrition today is explored.

107 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Taphonomy, prehistoric behavior patterns and medicinal plant use seem to be most relevant to the explanation of the paradox of the near absence of A. lumbricoides eggs in the prehistoric New World.

62 citations


Cites background from "Pathoecology and the Future of Copr..."

  • ...Archaeoparasitology (Reinhard, 1990) and pathoecology (Martinson et al., 2003; Reinhard, 2008; Reinhard and Bryant, 2008) address behavior and cultural influences of prehistoric people on parasite ecology....

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  • ...In contrast, infection is controlled in communities that lack these characteristics as detailed by pathoecologists (Martinson et al., 2003; Reinhard, 2008; Reinhard and Bryant, 2008; Santoro et al., 2003)....

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  • ...As detailed by pathoecological study (Reinhard, 1988, 2007, 2008; Reinhard and Bryant, 2008), in the prehistoric communities of the Americas, relatively small alterations in behavior could virtually eliminate infection by fecal-borne parasites....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An overview of recent developments is provided, placing paleoparasitology at the interface of a wide array of studies, including parasitology, climate change, human evolution, and evolutionary processes.
Abstract: Paleoparasitological research has made important contributions to our understanding of parasite evolution and ecology since the 1960s. Since then, most studies have focused on paleoparasitological evidence from single sites or samples. With the development of high throughput sequencing techniques, new avenues of investigation for paleoparasitological material are opening up. Here, I provide an overview of recent developments and highlight how these results will broaden the scope of the field, placing paleoparasitology at the interface of a wide array of studies, including parasitology, climate change, human evolution, and evolutionary processes.

47 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
26 Nov 2009-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: Evaluating the dietary adaptations of indigenous farmers in northern Chile's Atacama Desert during the time that the Inka Empire incorporated these communities into their economic system suggests that there may have been a dual health impact from disruption of nutrition and introduction of crowd disease.
Abstract: The impact of expanding civilization on the health of American indigenous societies has long been studied. Most studies have focused on infections and malnutrition that occurred when less complex societies were incorporated into more complex civilizations. The details of dietary change, however, have rarely been explored. Using the analysis of starch residues recovered from coprolites, here we evaluate the dietary adaptations of indigenous farmers in northern Chile's Atacama Desert during the time that the Inka Empire incorporated these communities into their economic system. This system has been described as “complementarity” because it involves interaction and trade in goods produced at different Andean elevations. We find that as local farming societies adapted to this new asymmetric system, a portion of their labor had to be given up to the Inka elite through a corvee tax system for maize production. In return, the Inka system of complementarity introduced previously rare foods from the Andean highlands into local economies. These changes caused a disruption of traditional communities as they instituted a state-level economic system on local farmers. Combined with previously published infection information for the same populations under Inka rule, the data suggest that there may have been a dual health impact from disruption of nutrition and introduction of crowd disease.

45 citations


Cites background from "Pathoecology and the Future of Copr..."

  • ...The analysis of series of coprolites can be used to evaluate hypotheses regarding changes of diet and parasitism between time periods and cultures using longstanding theories and methods [3,4]....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The indeterminate clinical form of Chagas disease, despite its good prognosis on at least a medium-term basis (5-10 years), has acquired increasing importance due to the controversial meaning of the abnormality of some tests and the myocardial focal lesions found in many patients.
Abstract: Chagas disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. During the past decades, after urban migrations, Chagas disease became frequent in cities and a health problem in non-endemic countries, where it can be transmitted vertically and by blood transfusion or organ transplantation. Microepidemics of acute Chagas disease have been reported, probably due to oral transmission. Heart involvement is the major feature of the disease because of its characteristics, frequency, and consequences, and is also the source of most controversies. The indeterminate clinical form, despite its good prognosis on at least a medium-term basis (5-10 years), has acquired increasing importance due to the controversial meaning of the abnormality of some tests and the myocardial focal lesions found in many patients. Simultaneous evaluation of the parasympathetic and of the sympathetic system in the heart has been done by spectral analysis of heart rate. The physiopathological and clinical significance of denervation in Chagas disease is still incompletely understood. There are major divergences of opinion on specific treatment during the chronic phase because of the doubts about cure rates. Changes of Chagas disease prevalence in many countries have been certified by the Pan American Health Organization, and are ascribed to large-scale vector-control programmes with modern pyrethroid insecticides and to improvement in lifestyle.

821 citations


"Pathoecology and the Future of Copr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Recently, oral transmission of Chagas disease has been discovered (Prata, 2001; Shikanai-Yasuda et al. 1991)....

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  • ...Female wireworms lay only hundreds of larvae per day....

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Book
01 Jan 1977
TL;DR: The foundations of parasitology are studied in detail in order to establish a clear picture of the immune system and its role in disease.
Abstract: Foundations of parasitology , Foundations of parasitology , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

650 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that the sylvatic (animal-infected) cycle of Chagas' disease was probably well established at the time that the earliest humans (members of the Chinchorro culture) first peopled this segment of the Andean coast and inadvertently joined the many other mammal species acting as hosts for this parasite.
Abstract: Tissue specimens from 283 principally spontaneously (naturally) desiccated human mummies from coastal and low valley sites in northern Chile and southern Peru were tested with a DNA probe directed at a kinetoplast DNA segment of Trypanosoma cruzi. The time interval spanned by the eleven major cultural groups represented in the sample ranged from ≈9,000 years B.P. (7050 B.C.) to approximately the time of the Spanish conquest, ≈450 B.P. (≈1500 A.D.). Forty-one percent of the tissue extracts, amplified by the PCR reacted positively (i.e., hybridized) with the probe. Prevalence patterns demonstrated no statistically significant differences among the individual cultural groups, nor among subgroups compared on the basis of age, sex, or weight of specimen tested. These results suggest that the sylvatic (animal-infected) cycle of Chagas' disease was probably well established at the time that the earliest humans (members of the Chinchorro culture) first peopled this segment of the Andean coast and inadvertently joined the many other mammal species acting as hosts for this parasite.

366 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: According to the findings, it is probable that A. lumbricoides was originally a human parasite and alternative routes for human parasite introduction into the Americas are discussed.
Abstract: Almost all known human specific parasites have been found in ancient feces. A review of the paleoparasitological helminth and intestinal protozoa findings available in the literature is presented. We also report the new paleoparasitologic findings from the examination performed in samples collected in New and Old World archaeological sites. New finds of ancylostomid, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Enterobius vermicularis, Trichostrongylus spp., Diphyllobothrium latum, Hymenolepis nana and Acantocephalan eggs are reported. According to the findings, it is probable that A. lumbricoides was originally a human parasite. Human ancylostomids, A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura, found in the New World in pre-Columbian times, have not been introduced into the Americas by land via Beringia. These parasites could not supported the cold climate of the region. Nomadic prehistoric humans that have crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Asia to the Americas in the last glaciation, probably during generations, would have lost these parasites, which life cycles need warm temperatures in the soil to be transmitted from host to host. Alternative routes are discussed for human parasite introduction into the Americas.

292 citations


"Pathoecology and the Future of Copr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…archaeoparasitology, shifted from the American Southwest to South America (Bouchet et al. 2003; Chaves and Reinhard 2006; Dittmar et al. 2003; Gonçalves et al. 2003; Iñiguez et al. 2003; Reinhard and Buikstra 2003; Reinhard and Urban 2003; Sianto et al. 2005), as research groups developed in…...

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  • ...Paper 43. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natrespapers/43 205 12...

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Journal ArticleDOI

279 citations


"Pathoecology and the Future of Copr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Humans most often become infected with T. cruzi when infected triatomines (assassin bugs) emerge nocturnally to feed on sleeping people (Reinhard et al. 2003; Schmidt et al. 2005)....

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