S18-9

Bone Histology in a Fossil Elephant (Elephas maximus) From Pulau Bangka, Indonesia

Paulina Basilia1, Justyna J. Miszkiewicz2, Korakot Nganvongpanit3, Jahdi Zaim4, Yan Rizal4, ASWAN4, Mika R. Puspangingrum4, Agus Trihascaryo4, Gilbert J. PRICE5, Alexandra A.E. van der Geer6, Julien Louys1

1Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Australia

2School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Australia

3Animal Bone and Joint Research Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Biosciences and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

4Geology Study Program, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

5School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia

6Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands

 

Palaeohistology, the application of histological methods to fossil specimens, provides essential information on an animal’s bone growth that can be linked to biomechanics, life history strategies, and lifestyle. The application of this method to archaeological remains can be beneficial for expanding our understanding of extinct fauna such as species identification and adaptations to early domestication. Palaeohistology could also contribute to our interpretation of human adaptations to restricted island environments. Insular dwarfed megafauna have been used as a proxy to examine possible hominin insular body size adaptations. Here we discuss palaeohistology as a viable method for analyses of faunal remains. We start with an overview of the applications of this method, and then present our own case study on the first comparative histological analysis of the humerus, ribs and vertebrae of Late Pleistocene fossil remains of Elephas maximus from Pulau Bangka, east of Sumatra and modern conspecifics from northern Thailand. Intra-skeletally, we found that the histology of the largely weight-bearing humerus indicated slower remodelling than that of the ribs and vertebrae, which are less biomechanically constrained. Inter-skeletally, the fossil rib histology showed relatively smaller osteons and Haversian canals in the Late Pleistocene E. maximus when compared to modern samples. Differences in lifestyles, including range-expansion, may have influenced micro-morphometric differences in elephant rib histology. Our results contribute indirect evidence to the effects of climactic variability in the Sunda paleoenvironment on Pleistocene fauna.