00:01.00 Alex And we are back with archaeo animals. We're talking about paleo environmentalmental reconstruction and we are at the case studies. Although this kind of episode really kind of meant that we were just doing loads of mini case studies in a way. 00:14.79 Cpt Granarius I or also maybe like the whole episode is like 1 big case study because I mean we covered all the the various speech so the various orders in the previous episodes and that's how it all comes together on how you reconstruct the environment. So it's kind of a. 00:27.69 Alex Oh my gosh case studies in case studies I was going to say if it was like 2011 I'd make that joke but then you made the joke. Sorry. 00:32.12 Cpt Granarius Case case study section. 00:43.99 Cpt Granarius Um, and then I'm so I live under a rock last week I discovered a meme from ten years ago ah it it. 00:53.92 Alex Senna Do you know what year it is. 00:56.27 archpodnet So the motor is just discovered. She could get like one megabyte per times like one megabit download speed as this new thing called broadband it's very fast is faster than the 56 k modem I have. 01:12.20 Cpt Granarius I am your same age I will have you know. 01:13.78 archpodnet Yes I know and I keep it up with the memes so just saying. 01:24.53 Cpt Granarius Um, well it just means I got to enjoy it ten years later? yeah. 01:30.50 Alex We'll go with that. But yeah I mean you know we can't not have at least a segment that's case studies and we've got 2 pretty hefty ones. So our first case study is it's not. Really a paleo environmental reconstruction case study. It's kind of more about you know what? we've been talking about which is how certain species are susceptible to climate and climate change and how that could be a really useful trait for examining. Population migrations extinctions deductions, loads of things. So enter the european now here's the thing the european pond terrapin. 02:26.54 Cpt Granarius Like I I believe it's a terrapin. 02:31.51 Alex I've heard I as you know doing the research this I have seen all 3 of those use I have never been more confused in my life. 02:40.48 Cpt Granarius Ah, for it this way because turtle I think is a purely um Marine turtle with Tortoys being a terrestrial one I Believe our fun here is kind of more of an um. 02:44.98 Alex Then. Then. 02:58.70 Cpt Granarius Be but not an Amphibian but you know an of pphibious type as in it it it can it can be on land for a little bit. It doesn't mind being in water for a little bit so I would go with a a terrapin like what it's it's. 03:00.60 Alex It's a frog. 03:13.11 Alex Ah, it's so confusing. 03:17.96 Cpt Granarius It's a turtle that likes to be in the water but can also climb out of the water. Ah let and um, unlike a turtle turtle which can't go out the water at a taughtise a culturally girls swim in the water. Ah. 03:25.98 Alex But but what's it for what's its Latin name. 03:36.81 Cpt Granarius Like Latin Roulette here um it's emis orbiculais. 03:43.24 Alex Thank you? But yeah I mean just ah, a sneak peek behind the curtain when Simona mentioned this as a potential case study I had a full down of a full blown meltdown trying to figure out. What this was because I looked up european ponter tortoise I was like there's nothing here. Really there's a turtle and then I found a terra pi I was losing my mind. It was really difficult. 04:10.81 Cpt Granarius And I mean I had a bit of a moment myself in which I wasn unable to break out on my british shell or carapus I guess um because I was focusing with ah I mean spoilers with this species sort of extinction with regards to Britain. 04:16.45 Alex Oh question. 04:27.59 Cpt Granarius And trying to find like materials that would just cover sort of its ah presence and extinction in Britain not realizing that the extinction event also went a little bit wider than that. So maybe that was it. 04:38.25 Alex Yeah, so yeah, we were were not that special. It turns out, it's ah I mean on 1 hand, it's a very interesting case study to talk about what you know migrations and how we can use these this climate system. Ah, susceptible kind of features to look at how a species may migrate from one region to another eventually on the other hand. Yeah I was very confused trying to find more information about the british pawn turtle. Which was not british it was european and it's not a turtle It's a tarain exciting exciting in confusing times. 05:15.10 Cpt Granarius So European pond turtle the European pond turtle but not turtle turtle. 05:22.48 Alex Ah, animals are hard folks I don't know if you've gotten thatt vibe from this podcast yet. But it's really hard sometimes Anyway, this terrapin is unique. In that environmental factors particularly temperature strongly impact its development with research on more modern populations which against boil Alert It's extinct in some places now all places which makes it even more confusing sometimes. But yeah, so research on modern populations of the European Ponterrapin indicate that variances in temperature can impact the body size even the clutch size of turtles or Terrapin and their offspring climate also impacts the survivability rate. Oh Ju but denial terror pins when they you know hatch and things like that. 06:19.90 Cpt Granarius Yes I guess in combining zo archeological remains of the pond terrapin via adna and radiocarbon dating with other environmental data such as you know temperature um comes to mind researchers such as Robert S Summer I've been able to track the movement of the species throughout the holocene. So as temperatures rose around the world during the early holocene the time was ripe for the expansion of the pond terrapin moving. Moving from glacier regions of the balkans towards regions just Britain Central Europe and Scandinavia however, like fast forward um midway through the holocene. So about six thousand years ago everything was still fine because that was called the holocene climatic. Optimum so all the mid holocene warm period in which temperatures reached its highest. Unfortunately, that was very long lift and it started to decline again and this was also where the ranger upon turtle populations was at its historic maximum. Ah for the decided terrapin. 07:27.16 Alex Terraffin terra good. 07:30.17 Cpt Granarius Before they decided actually no, we're out of here. It's a bit too chilly for my liking. Ah so during the schooling period we see the extinction of pond turtles in northern regions such as Scandinavia and Britain and they all moved ah 1 or more like the ones are still extant. Are in Southern Europe North Africa and western parts of Asia where it's a little bit warmer. 07:53.70 Alex Folks Could you tell that in our notes for this episode someone who will remain anonymous for turtle. Ah, if if some folks if some research is out there. We'd love to get to like the bottom of if it's a terrapin a turtle or tortoise like for sure please do so and then go back to us so we can ah rerecord this episode. Perhaps. 08:08.16 Cpt Granarius Um, terrible I suppose. 08:23.75 Cpt Granarius Okay, definition of a terrapin but okay, that was like terrapins are one of several small species of turtle. Well. 08:31.52 Alex Well, that's our good noise. 08:41.35 Alex Oh no, it's not our fault. It's the biologist. That's their fault. 08:44.97 Cpt Granarius Um, um, um. I Guess is while they don't form a taxonomic unit per se I mean in terms of Habitat they do live in largely fresh water. So in the case of a European pond terrapin. 09:09.50 Cpt Granarius But the best way I can describe it is is an amphibious turtle not Amphibian and of the order of Amphibians but um, amphibious as an adjective as in it does stay plantly in the water but it climbs on the surface as well particularly to some bathe. Which they do love I mean yes, um. 09:27.74 Alex Big mood Anyway, we will. We will move away from the taxonomic debate which is far beyond our actual kind of Expertise I feel like I just look at the bones. 09:42.90 Cpt Granarius Um, um, a but to end the episode. Um, we'll take a look like very swift difference from a nice and warm climate to cold and dry climate spoiler again. Um, look at how paulavila others. Archaeologists were able to use not just your archaeology but also other archaeological methods to reconstruct the paleo environment of an upper pleistocene hyena den located in Behosh France hey um 10:13.24 Alex Ooh Oo fancy pronunciation. 10:19.64 Cpt Granarius Quick sight background. Ah so the the site ah was mixed in terms of Evidence. You'd have ah both human and Hyena remains and sort of other species are sort of associated with the former and latter. Um, but let's break down the various methods towards Pale Environmentalal reconstruction that were used here so you have of course the zoo archeology um to the and an identification of the microphoneuna of so of the macro Fauna. Ah. 10:49.27 Alex Macro one is ah. 10:52.43 Cpt Granarius Of course ah ah helped shaped the broader sort of interpretation of the site as a Hyena then of course should have well Hyena remains I know need both and their prey So such as bobbiservits um bison and Horse remains also helped suggest some environmental characteristics associated with their contexts. 10:58.23 Alex Height is there. 11:11.73 Cpt Granarius That being sort of an open a colder climate with an open landscape and the type of death. However, it's the microphonea predominantly the amphibians and the reptiles but also some role in sending setivores that helped with sort of shaping the paovirimental reconstruction for this site. The rodents and insectivibles which were mainly deposits from local birds of prey ah are ah, potentially collected by hyenas as well and give an idea of the surrounding climate based on species representation. So several species such as the narrow skull bowl've never heard of that bowl before mirous thenoranus. Galleys since they look at our new narrow skull makes sense um are all mainly sort of adapted to cold environments. However, just just to spice it up. There are also species from more temperate climates such as the common bent wing bat minupter minopterus she bei. So at such. It's possible. The surrounding environment was cold but not too cold. 12:15.94 Alex Which is actually like a really cool thing to be able to figure out to be honest, like you could probably I don't think the paper really went this far because I think it kind of gets a bit fanciful if you try to go this far but I feel like you could probably almost get it down to like actual. Degrees you know. 12:36.90 Cpt Granarius You probably are with certain species I mean I don't know much about bat biology. Um, but um, because 1 thing that they've looked at as well is the taphonnomy so surprisingly teonomic analysis was all. 12:39.61 Alex Yeah Sam. 12:51.46 Cpt Granarius So handy in determining so of the broader identity of the site due to the amount of nor Marks found on the Prey Remains. So Interestingly um, using modern day comparative materials potential differentiation co mean could ah could be made between adult and Juvenile Hyena gnoring giving then. Further evidence to the notion that it was a den for both young and old individuals that you know and alongside analysis of assiduous hide the teeth that were also found sort of in stratified contexts. 13:22.96 Alex I'm also very interested in that and being able to identify between adult and juvenilenawing like I can imagine how that works in like a theoretical kind of thing but I don't like all the knowing I I ever find is pretty. You know. Not the the best preserved and you're basically lucky enough to be like well that's X Species. You know. 13:49.33 Cpt Granarius Do because I guess he'll depend on the gnawing because if you just get sort of the piing. But then again like I'm not very well versed in Hyena Gnawing patterns because I mean I wish um. 13:56.18 Alex Yeah, so um. 14:01.58 Cpt Granarius But I guess aside from the normal pitting you know with Hyenas actually sort of chewing and crushing bones because they do have quite the jaw power. Um I guess depending on sort of the the shape of the breakages and like if any sort of tooth impressions are left. You may be able to reconstruct to whether they were. 14:06.11 Alex Yeah. 14:18.26 Alex Yeah, yeah. 14:18.30 Cpt Granarius You know, based on truth position whether it would have been like ah this decious teeth doing that um were normally you know like in a lot of ah animals so they're sort of decious Fourth premolar tends to be sort of very similar to a molar because they're kind of. Using it as one while their molars actually erupt so that's my uneducated opinion. 14:35.56 Alex And. 14:44.99 Alex It's a nitty gritty though not to you know pun and intended but it is like the the nitty gritty of kind of how we do Paleo Environmental reconstruction. It's the little tiny things that add up to you know? Maybe. Doesn't mean that seem like an important detail but knowing say that you had adult and Juvenile Hyena living in this den kind of gives you a better idea of the identity a site which then puts it into a broader context which is where the environment is and we find out a bit more about that when we bring Archaeo. Or I Guess in this case, paleobotany into the Mix So Pollen was taken from sediment samples from Moss and from Copperite samples. Um from very similar strategic stratographic layers so they're all. Roughly from a similar kind of time period and it identify Flora samples including pine trees now and you have to do it ah plants from the Artemisia genus. 15:47.68 Cpt Granarius Penal species. So when you could have done that one. 15:57.73 Alex And plants from the plantago genius. Um, so all this pollen from these various plants. So just again, a very cold but also a very dry climate and to kind of you know wrap it all up. There was also some geoareology done and I don't think we've ever talked about. Geo archeology on this podcast I had very dear friends who did my master's with me who mostly did geoareology and again I don't know if it's real. It seems like magic to do anything with rocks and soil and stuff. Anyway, so deep sea core data was taken from the Bay Bisque to provide further context of the surrounding region. So even we're broadening our kind of you know analysis even further using marine isotope and pollen analyses. Although a more diverse assemblage of flora species was determined from this core data. Ultimately it again showcased a similar surrounding environment that was mainly cold and mainly dry so but not too cold. Obviously basically. 17:05.30 Cpt Granarius But not too cold. 17:11.56 Alex Evidence from across these various different approaches suggested that we have a hyena den located in a cold and dry environment with open landscape. Although it was a cold environment. It was warmer than what's been observed in sites further up North. So both the fauna and flora species. Compatible to those found in central european step environments. Overall that suggests that we are looking at the development of a step environment in this region at this time. So yeah, bit of a a long way to get to this but I figured. This case study was a good way to show how zoareology you can take so much information from that. But it's also just one part but a valuable part part and a very useful part of a much larger complex method of archaeological application within paleoenvironmental reconstruction. It's basically. All these different elements kind of agreeing with each other and that helps the interpretation and you know that you could say that about wall of archeology to be honest, the archeology helps with the humor remains which helps with the artifacts and so on and so forth and even those people who for some reason want to do landscape and you know. Building archeology I don't get that but you do you but we will help each other at the end of the day. That's a positive note. 18:30.12 Cpt Granarius Just almost like but all like little pieces of the puzzle together form the big big puzzle that is archeology. 18:40.61 Alex Yay! We did it. That's the most positive you'll hear from me on this podcast I think anyway as always you can find us online at the arche ah archeologyy. Ah, podcast network websites where you can listen to our podcasts or wherever we get your podcasts where I assume most of you listening to. But while you're listening to us make sure you subscribe or follow our show as well as give us a review tell your friends about us. You know all the other. Stuff that you do if you're social and have friends I wouldn't know and we're also on Twitter at archae animalss. Let us know how you feel about these episodes. Do you want us to do more. Do you like secret miniseries were you just so surprised about this minieries that you just kind of toppled over and didn't hear the whole episode I don't know. Of this is not that funny, but that's it from us folks as always I'm Alexwitzpatrick. We'll see you next time. Bye. 19:38.80 Cpt Granarius Um, see what a forangga they. 19:44.31 archpodnet And it stuff right? Okay, let's just wrap that up.