title: Climate-driven environmental changes around 8,200 years ago favoured increases in cetacean strandings and Mediterranean hunter-gatherers exploited them.
abstract: Cetacean mass strandings occur regularly worldwide, yet the compounded effects of natural and anthropogenic factors often complicate our understanding of these phenomena. Evidence of past stranding episodes may, thus, be essential to establish the potential influence of climate change. Investigations on bones from the site of Grotta dell'Uzzo in North West Sicily (Italy) show that the rapid climate change around 8,200 years ago coincided with increased strandings in the Mediterranean Sea. Stable isotope analyses on collagen from a large sample of remains recovered at this cave indicate that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers relied little on marine resources. A human and a red fox dating to the 8.2-kyr-BP climatic event, however, acquired at least one third of their protein from cetaceans. Numerous carcasses should have been available annually, for at least a decade, to obtain these proportions of meat. Our findings imply that climate-driven environmental changes, caused by global warming, may represent a serious threat to cetaceans in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Department of Archaeology, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Marcello A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mannino
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Sahra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talamo
authors.affiliation: Soprintendenza al Museo Nazionale Preistorico ed Etnografico 'Luigi Pigorini', 00144 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tagliacozzo
authors.affiliation: Soprintendenza al Museo Nazionale Preistorico ed Etnografico 'Luigi Pigorini', 00144 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nehlich
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Archeologiche ed Antropologiche dell'Antichità, Sezione di Paletnologia, Università di Roma 'La Sapienza', 00185 Roma, Italy.|Museo Civico Archeologico 'Biagio Greco', 81034 Mondragone (Caserta), Italy.
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piperno
authors.affiliation: Soprintendenza del Mare, Regione Siciliana, 90133 Palermo, Italy.|Università degli Studi 'Suor Orsola Benincasa', 80132 Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tusa
authors.affiliation: Museo Civico Archeologico 'Biagio Greco', 81034 Mondragone (Caserta), Italy.
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Collina
authors.affiliation: Museo Archeologico Regionale 'Antonino Salinas', 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Salvo
authors.affiliation: Museo Archeologico Regionale 'Antonino Salinas', 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Vittoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schimmenti
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Richards
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000737:chemistry; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000737:chemistry; D002591:Cetacea / Q000502:physiology*; D057231:Climate Change; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry; D005580:Fossils; D006801:Humans; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes / Q000737:chemistry; D055110:Radiometric Dating
chemical_list: D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes; D003094:Collagen