title: Paleolithic population growth pulses evidenced by small animal exploitation
abstract: Variations in small game hunting along the northern and eastern rims of the Mediterranean Sea and results from predator-prey simulation modeling indicate that human population densities increased abruptly during the late Middle Paleolithic and again during the Upper and Epi-Paleolithic periods. The demographic pulses are evidenced by increasing reliance on agile, fast-reproducing partridges, hares, and rabbits at the expense of slow-reproducing but easily caught tortoises and marine shellfish and, concurrently, climate-independent size diminution in tortoises and shellfish. The results indicate that human populations of the early Middle Paleolithic were exceptionally small and highly dispersed.
authors.affiliation: M. C. Stiner, N. D. Munro, T. A. Surovell, Department of Anthropology, Building 30, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. E. Tchernov, Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Stiner
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Munro
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Surovell
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tchernov
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bar-Yosef