Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia)

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 7, pages 279–289 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

During the Early to Middle Pleistocene, Java was inhabited by hominid taxa of great diversity. However, their seasonal dietary strategies have never been explored. We undertook geochemical analyses of orangutan (Pongo sp.), Homo erectus and other mammalian Pleistocene teeth from Sangiran. We reconstructed past dietary strategies at subweekly resolution and inferred seasonal ecological patterns. Histologically controlled spatially resolved elemental analyses by laser-based plasma mass spectrometry confirmed the preservation of authentic biogenic signals despite the effect of spatially restricted diagenetic overprint. The Sr/Ca record of faunal remains is in line with expected trophic positions, contextualizing fossil hominid diet. Pongo sp. displays marked seasonal cycles with ~3 month-long strongly elevated Sr/Ca peaks, reflecting contrasting plant food consumption presumably during the monsoon season, while lower Sr/Ca ratios suggest different food availability during the dry season. In contrast, omnivorous H. erectus shows low and less accentuated intra-annual Sr/Ca variability compared to Pongo sp., with δ13C data of one individual indicating a dietary shift from C4 to a mix of C3 and C4 plants. Our data suggest that H. erectus on Java was maximizing the resources available in more open mosaic habitats and was less dependent on variations in seasonal resource availability. While still influenced by seasonal food availability, we infer that H. erectus was affected to a lesser degree than Pongo sp., which inhabited monsoonal rain forests on Java. We suggest that H. erectus maintained a greater degree of nutritional independence by exploiting the regional diversity of food resources across the seasons.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Scatter plots of [Sr] or [Ba] versus [Mn], respectively, for representative examples of each faunal group.
Fig. 2: Sr/Ca ratios boxplots of faunal and hominid specimens.
Fig. 3: Time-resolved compositional profiles for Pongo sp. SMF-8864 molar.
Fig. 4: Time-resolved compositional EDJ profiles for all investigated H. erectus specimens.
Fig. 5: Carbon and oxygen isotope data of enamel from H. erectus S7-37 P4 plotted against life time in relative days and years.

Data availability

Data of elemental analyses and corresponding contextual information obtained in this study are available as Supplementary Data.

References

  1. von Koenigswald, G. H. R. Fossil hominids from the Lower Pleistocene of Java. In Report of the Eighteenth Session of the International Geological Congress (ed. Butler, A. J.) 59–61 (International Geological Congress, 1948).

  2. Grine, F. E. & Franzen, J. L. Fossil hominid teeth from the Sangiran Dome (Java, Indonesia). Cour. Forsch. Inst. Senckenberg 171, 75–103 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bettis, E. A. et al. Way out of Africa: Early Pleistocene paleoenvironments inhabited by Homo erectus in Sangiran, Java. J. Hum. Evol. 56, 11–24 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Matsu’ura, S. et al. Age control of the first appearance datum for Javanese Homo erectus in the Sangiran area. Science 367, 210–214 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Weidenreich, F. Giant early man from Java and South China. Anthropol. Pap. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 40, 1–134 (1945).

    Google Scholar 

  6. von Koenigswald, G. H. R. Pithecanthropus, Meganthropus and the Australopithecinae. Nature 173, 795–797 (1954).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Franzen, J. L. in Ancestors: The Hard Evidence (ed. Delson, E.) 221–226 (Alan R. Liss, 1985).

  8. Tyler, D. E. Sangiran 5, (‘Pithecanthropus dubius’), Homo erectus, ‘Meganthropus,’ or Pongo? Hum. Evol. 18, 229–241 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tyler, D. E. An examination of the taxonomic status of the fragmentary mandible Sangiran 5, (Pithecanthropus dubius), Homo erectus, ‘Meganthropus’, or Pongo? Quat. Int. 117, 125–130 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zanolli, C. et al. Evidence for increased hominid diversity in the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Indonesia. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 755–764 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Balter, V., Braga, J., Télouk, P. & Thackeray, J. F. Evidence for dietary change but not landscape use in South African early hominins. Nature 489, 558–560 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Joannes-Boyau, R. et al. Elemental signatures of Australopithecus africanus teeth reveal seasonal dietary stress. Nature 572, 112–115 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cerling, T. E. et al. Stable isotope-based diet reconstructions of Turkana Basin hominins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 10501–10506 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Lüdecke, T. et al. Dietary versatility of Early Pleistocene hominins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 13330–13335 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Wynn, J. G. et al. Isotopic evidence for the timing of the dietary shift toward C4 foods in eastern African Paranthropus. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 21978–21984 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Smith, T. M. et al. Wintertime stress, nursing, and lead exposure in Neanderthal children. Sci. Adv. 4, 9483–9514 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Nava, A. et al. Early life of Neanderthals. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 28719–28726 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Hoppe, K. A., Koch, P. L. & Furutani, T. T. Assessing the preservation of biogenic strontium in fossil bones and tooth enamel. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 13, 20–28 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hinz, E. A. & Kohn, M. J. The effect of tissue structure and soil chemistry on trace element uptake in fossils. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 74, 3213–3231 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Bromage, T. G., Hogg, R. T., Lacruz, R. S. & Hou, C. Primate enamel evinces long period biological timing and regulation of life history. J. Theor. Biol. 305, 131–144 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Lacruz, R. S., Dean, M. C., Ramirez-Rozzi, F. & Bromage, T. G. Megadontia, striae periodicity and patterns of enamel secretion in Plio-Pleistocene fossil hominins. J. Anat. 213, 148–158 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Lacruz, R. S., Habelitz, S., Wright, J. T. & Paine, M. L. Dental enamel formation and implications for oral health and disease. Physiol. Rev. 97, 939–993 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Dean, M. C. Tooth microstructure tracks the pace of human life-history evolution. Proc. R. Soc. B 273, 2799–2808 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, T. M. et al. Disentangling isolated dental remains of Asian Pleistocene hominins and pongines. PLoS ONE 13, e0204737 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Müller, W. & Anczkiewicz, R. Accuracy of laser-ablation (LA)-MC-ICPMS Sr isotope analysis of (bio)apatite—a problem reassessed. J. Anal. Spectrom. 31, 259–269 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Müller, W. et al. Enamel mineralization and compositional time-resolution in human teeth evaluated via histologically-defined LA-ICPMS profiles. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 255, 105–126 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Li, Q. et al. Spatially-resolved Ca isotopic and trace element variations in human deciduous teeth record diet and physiological change. Environ. Archaeol. 27, 474–483 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2020.1758988

  28. Elias, R. W., Hirao, Y. & Patterson, C. C. The circumvention of the natural biopurification of calcium along nutrient pathways by atmospheric inputs of industrial lead. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 46, 2561–2580 (1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Burton, J. H., Price, T. D. & Middleton, W. D. Correlation of bone Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca due to biological purification of calcium. J. Archaeol. Sci. 26, 609–616 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Balter, V. et al. Ecological and physiological variability of Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca in mammals of West European mid-Würmian food webs. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 186, 127–143 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Pate, F. D. Bone chemistry and paleodiet. J. Archaeol. Method Theory 1, 161–209 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Kohn, M. J., Morris, J. & Olin, P. Trace element concentrations in teeth—a modern Idaho baseline with implications for archeometry, forensics, and palaeontology. J. Archaeol. Sci. 40, 1689–1699 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. de Vos, J. in Ancestors: The Hard Evidence (ed. Delson, E.) 215–220 (Alan R. Liss, 1985).

  34. de Vos, J. et al. The Homo bearing deposits of Java and its ecological context. Cour. Forsch. Inst. Senckenberg 171, 129–140 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Leinders, J. J. M. et al. The age of the hominid-bearing deposits of Java: state of the art. Geol. Mijnb. 64, 167–173 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Sondaar, P. Faunal evolution and the mammalian biostratigraphy of Java. Cour. Forsch. Inst. Senckenberg 69, 219–235 (1984).

  37. Peek, S. & Clementz, M. T. Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca variations in environmental and biological sources: a survey of marine and terrestrial systems. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 95, 36–52 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Reynard, B. & Balter, V. Trace elements and their isotopes in bones and teeth: diet, environments, diagenesis, and dating of archeological and paleontological samples. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 416, 4–16 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Jacques, L. et al. Implications of diagenesis for the isotopic analysis of Upper Miocene large mammalian herbivore tooth enamel from Chad. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 266, 200–210 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Brumfitt, I. M., Chinsamy, A. & Compton, J. S. Depositional environment and bone diagenesis of the Mio/Pliocene Langebaanweg bonebed, South Africa. S. Afr. J. Geol. 116, 241–258 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Decrée, S. et al. The post-mortem history of a bone revealed by its trace element signature: the case of a fossil whale rostrum. Chem. Geol. 477, 137–150 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Janssen, R. et al. Tooth enamel stable isotopes of Holocene and Pleistocene fossil fauna reveal glacial and interglacial paleoenvironments of hominins in Indonesia. Quat. Sci. Rev. 144, 145–154 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Blumenthal, S. A. et al. Stable isotope time-series in mammalian teeth: in situ δ18O from the innermost enamel layer. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 124, 223–236 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Zazzo, A., Balasse, M. & Patterson, W. P. High-resolution δ13C intratooth profiles in bovine enamel: implications for mineralization pattern and isotopic attenuation. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 69, 3631–3642 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Deutsch, D. & Pe’er, E. Development of enamel in human fetal teeth. J. Dent. Res. 61, 1543–1551 (1982).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Dean, C. et al. Growth processes in teeth distinguish modern humans from Homo erectus and earlier hominins. Nature 414, 628–631 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Ferrell, R. J. & Spence, J. Linear enamel hypoplasia as an indicator of physiological stress in great apes: reviewing the evidence in light of enamel growth variation. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 148, 191–204 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Cerling, T. E. et al. Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years. Nature 476, 51–56 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Reid, D. J. & Dean, M. C. Variation in modern human enamel formation times. J. Hum. Evol. 50, 329–346 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Smith, T. M. Dental development in living and fossil orangutans. J. Hum. Evol. 94, 92–105 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Schwartz, G. T., Reid, D. J. & Dean, C. Developmental aspects of sexual dimorphism in hominoid canines. Int. J. Primatol. 22, 837–860 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Bonhommeau, S. et al. Eating up the world’s food web and the human trophic level. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 20617–20620 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Sponheimer, M. & Lee-Thorp, J. A. Enamel diagenesis at South African Australopith sites: implications for paleoecological reconstruction with trace elements. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 1644–1654 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Eltringham, S. K. in Pigs, Peccaries and Hippos (ed. Oliver, W.) 55–60 (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 1993).

  55. Jablonski, N. G. The hippo’s tale: how the anatomy and physiology of Late Neogene Hexaprotodon shed light on Late Neogene environmental change. Quat. Int. 117, 119–123 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Hendier, A. Diet Determination of Wild Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis). MSc thesis, Univ. Neuchâtel (2019).

  57. Klein, I. Ernährung und ökologisches Profil von Axis lydekkeri. MSc thesis, Goethe Univ. (2020).

  58. Russon, A. E. et al. in Orangutans: Geographic Variation in Behavioral Ecology and Conservation (eds Wich, S. A. et al.) 135–156 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009).

  59. Kanamori, T. et al. Feeding ecology of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) in Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia: a 3‐year record including two mast fruitings. Am. J. Primatol. 72, 820–840 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Kanamori, T., Kuze, N., Bernard, H., Malim, T. P. & Kohshima, S. Fluctuations of population density in Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) related to fruit availability in the Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia: a 10-year record including two mast fruitings and three other peak fruitings. Primates 58, 225–235 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Sémah, A.-M., Sémah B, F., Djubiantono, T. & Brasseur, B. Landscapes and hominids’ environments: changes between the Lower and the early Middle Pleistocene in Java (Indonesia). Quat. Int. 4, 451 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  62. Sémah, A. M. & Sémah, F. The rain forest in Java through the Quaternary and its relationships with humans (adaptation, exploitation and impact on the forest). Quat. Int. 249, 120–128 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Brasseur, B., Sémah, F., Sémah, A.-M. & Djubiantono, T. Approche paléopédologique de l’environnement des hominidés fossiles du dôme de Sangiran (Java central, Indonésie). Quaternaire 22, 13–34 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Smith, T. M., Austin, C., Hinde, K., Vogel, E. R. & Arora, M. Cyclical nursing patterns in wild orangutans. Sci. Adv. 3, e1601517 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Humphrey, L. T. Isotopic and trace element evidence of dietary transitions in early life. Ann. Hum. Biol. 41, 348–357 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Widdowson, E. M. Absorption, excretion and storage of trace elements: studies over 50 years. Food Chem. 43, 203–207 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  67. Dean, C., Le Cabec, A., Spiers, K., Zhang, Y. & Garrevoet, J. Incremental distribution of strontium and zinc in great ape and fossil hominin cementum using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence mapping. J. R. Soc. Interface 15, 20170626 (2018).

  68. Dean, M. C., Le Cabec, A., Van Malderen, S. J. M. & Garrevoet, J. Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence imaging of strontium incorporated into the enamel and dentine of wild-shot orangutan canine teeth. Arch. Oral. Biol. 119, 104879 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Pontzer, H., Raichlen, D. A., Shumaker, R. W., Ocobock, C. & Wich, S. A. Metabolic adaptation for low energy throughput in orangutans. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 14048–14052 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  70. Mahaney, W. C., Hancock, R. G. V., Aufreiter, S., Milner, M. W. & Voros, J. Bornean orangutan geophagy: analysis of ingested and control soils. Environ. Geochem. Health 38, 51–64 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  71. Austin, C. et al. Uncovering system-specific stress signatures in primate teeth with multimodal imaging. Sci. Rep. 6, 18802 (2016).

  72. Humphrey, L. T. Weaning behaviour in human evolution. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 21, 453–461 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. van Noordwijk, M. A., Willems, E. P., Utami Atmoko, S. S., Kuzawa, C. W. & van Schaik, C. P. Multi-year lactation and its consequences in Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 67, 805–814 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Galdikas, B. M. F. & Wood, J. W. Birth spacing patterns in humans and apes. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 83, 185–191 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  75. van Noordwijk, M. A. & van Schaik, C. P. Development of ecological competence in Sumatran orangutans. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 127, 79–94 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Sugardjito, J., te Boekhorst, J. A. & van Hooff, J. A. R. A. M. Ecological constraints on the grouping of wild orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia. Int. J. Primatol. 8, 17–41 (1987).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Wich, S. A. et al. Life history of wild Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii). J. Hum. Evol. 47, 385–398 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  78. Dubois, E. Palaeontologische Onderzoekingen op Java (Verslag van het Mijnwezen, 1891).

  79. Dubois, E. Pithecanthropus erectus, Einen Menschenaehnliche Uebergangsform aus Java (G.E. Stechert (Alfred Hafner),1894).

  80. Joordens, J. C. A. et al. Homo erectus at Trinil on Java used shells for tool production and engraving. Nature 518, 228–231 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  81. Ungar, P. S., Grine, F. E. & Teaford, M. F. Diet in early Homo: a review of the evidence and a new model of adaptive versatility. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 35, 209–228 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  82. Tausch, J. A New Method for Examining Hominin Dietary Strategy: Occlusal Microwear Vector Analysis of the Sangiran 7 Homo erectus Molars (Goethe Univ., 2011).

  83. Tausch, J., Kullmer, O. & Bromage, T. G. A new method for determining the 3D spatial orientation of molar microwear. Scanning 37, 446–457 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  84. Caropreso, S. et al. Thin sections for hard tissue histology: a new procedure. J. Microsc. 199, 244–247 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  85. Bondioli, L., Nava, A., Rossi, P. F. & Sperduti, A. Diet and health in central-southern Italy during the Roman Imperial time. Acta IMEKO 5, 19–25 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  86. Müller, W., Shelley, M., Miller, P. & Broude, S. Initial performance metrics of a new custom-designed ArF excimer LA-ICPMS system coupled to a two-volume laser-ablation cell. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 24, 209–214 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  87. Evans, D. & Müller, W. LA-ICPMS elemental imaging of complex discontinuous carbonates: an example using large benthic foraminifera. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 28, 1039–1044 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  88. Longerich, H. P., Jackson, S. E. & Günther, D. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric transient signal data acquisition and analyte concentration calculation. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 11, 899–904 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  89. Retief, D. H., Cleaton-Jones, P. E., Turkstra, J. & De Wet, W. J. The quantitative analysis of sixteen elements in normal human enamel and dentine by neutron activation analysis and high-resolution gamma-spectrometry. Arch. Oral. Biol. 16, 1257–1267 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  90. Lacruz, R. S. Enamel: molecular identity of its transepithelial ion transport system. Cell Calcium 65, 1–7 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  91. Klemme, S. et al. Synthesis and preliminary characterisation of new silicate, phosphate and titanite reference glasses. Geostand. Geoanal. Res. 32, 39–54 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  92. Jochum, K. P. et al. Accurate trace element analysis of speleothems and biogenic calcium carbonates by LA-ICP-MS. Chem. Geol. 318–319, 31–44 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  93. Garbe-Schönberg, D. & Müller, S. Nano-particulate pressed powder tablets for LA-ICP-MS. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 29, 990–1000 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  94. Jochum, K. P. et al. Nano-powdered calcium carbonate reference materials: significant progress for microanalysis? Geostand. Geoanal. Res. 43, 595–609 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  95. Cleveland, W. S., Grosse, E. & Shyu, W. M. in Statistical Models in S (eds Chambers, J. M. & Hastie, T.) 309–376 (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 1992).

  96. Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Floyd, B. A., Dean, M. C. & Reid, D. J. Enamel extension rate patterns in modern human teeth: two approaches designed to establish an integrated comparative context for fossil primates. J. Hum. Evol. 63, 475–486 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  97. Birch, W. & Dean, M. C. A method of calculating human deciduous crown formation times and of estimating the chronological ages of stressful events occurring during deciduous enamel formation. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 22, 127–144 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  98. Koch, P. L., Tuross, N. & Fogel, M. L. The effects of sample treatment and diagenesis on the isotopic integrity of carbonate in biogenic hydroxylapatite. J. Archaeol. Sci. 24, 417–429 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  99. Spötl, C. & Vennemann, T. W. Continuous‐flow isotope ratio mass spectrometric analysis of carbonate minerals. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 17, 1004–1006 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to the Werner Reimers Foundation in Bad Homburg (Germany), which provides the Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald collection as a permanent loan for scientific research to the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt. FIERCE, where all LA-ICPMS analyses were performed, is financially supported by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, INST 161/921-1 FUGG and INST 161/923-1 FUGG), which are gratefully acknowledged. We thank L. Marko and A. Gerdes for help with analytical work. This is FIERCE contribution no. 113. We thank R. Brocke and G. Riedel for assistance with microscopic imaging. C.Z. acknowledges the support of the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). J.K. received funding from the Erasmus+ Traineeship programme (2019). A.N. received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement (no. 842812). T.L. received funding from the DFG (Emmy Noether Fellowship LU 2199/2-1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Jülide Kubat, Richard Albert & Wolfgang Müller

  2. Department of Palaeoanthropology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Jülide Kubat, Christine Hertler, Ottmar Kullmer & Friedemann Schrenk

  3. Université Paris Cité, CNRS, BABEL, Paris, France

    Jülide Kubat & Anne-Marie Bacon

  4. Skeletal Biology Research Centre, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Alessia Nava & Patrick Mahoney

  5. Bioarchaeology Service, Museum of Civilizations, Rome, Italy

    Luca Bondioli

  6. Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Luca Bondioli & Beatrice Peripoli

  7. Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK

    M. Christopher Dean

  8. University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MCC, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France

    Clément Zanolli

  9. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    Nicolas Bourgon

  10. Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Fabrice Demeter

  11. Eco-anthropologie (EA), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France

    Fabrice Demeter

  12. Institute of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Richard Albert & Wolfgang Müller

  13. Emmy Noether Group for Hominin Meat Consumption, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

    Tina Lüdecke

  14. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany

    Tina Lüdecke

  15. ROCEEH Research Centre, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Heidelberg, Germany

    Christine Hertler

  16. Department of Paleobiology and Environment, Institute of Ecology, Evolution, and Diversity, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Ottmar Kullmer & Friedemann Schrenk

  17. Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Wolfgang Müller

Authors
  1. Jülide Kubat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alessia Nava
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luca Bondioli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Christopher Dean
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Clément Zanolli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Nicolas Bourgon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Anne-Marie Bacon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Fabrice Demeter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Beatrice Peripoli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Richard Albert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Tina Lüdecke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Christine Hertler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Patrick Mahoney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Ottmar Kullmer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Friedemann Schrenk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Wolfgang Müller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

The study was initiated by W.M., F.S. and J.K. and forms part of J.K.’s MSc research project completed under the supervision of W.M., L.B. and A.N. J.K., W.M., A.N., L.B., F.S. and O.K. designed research. J.K., W.M., A.N., L.B., B.P., T.L. and R.A. performed research. J.K., W.M., A.N., T.L., P.M. and L.B. analysed data. J.K., W.M., A.N., L.B., F.S., O.K., C.Z., T.L. and C.H. wrote the manuscript, with discussions on data interpretation and contributions to the manuscript text from M.C.D., N.B., A.-M.B. and F.D.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jülide Kubat, Alessia Nava or Wolfgang Müller.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Scatter plots of [Sr] or [Ba] vs. [U], respectively, for representative examples of each faunal group.

Scatter plots of [Sr] or [Ba] vs. [U], respectively, for representative examples of each faunal group, to illustrate the diagenesis assessment of the fossil assemblage. While both [Sr] and [Ba] broadly positively correlate with [U], [Ba] increases proportionally much more than [Sr], namely 1.4 to 1.7-fold for Sr and 3 to 7-fold for Ba. For simplicity, data are shown here as concentrations, whereas elsewhere they are displayed as Element/Ca to facilitate comparison throughout. See Fig. 1 for equivalent plots relative to [Mn].

Extended Data Fig. 2 Time-resolved compositional profiles for H. erectus SMF-8865 molar.

a) Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, [U] and [Mn] along the buccal EDJ plotted against relative days. b) Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, [U] and [Mn] along the lingual EDJ plotted against relative days. c) Comparative Sr/Ca ratio profiles for the mesiolingual and mesiobuccal cusps plotted against relative days. Based on the overall lower [U]-signal, the lingual Sr/Ca data are considered slightly more reliable.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Time-resolved compositional profiles for H. erectus S7-13 molar.

a) Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, [U] and [Mn] along the buccal EDJ plotted against relative days. b) Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, [U] and [Mn] along the lingual EDJ plotted against relative days. c) Comparative Sr/Ca ratio profiles for the mesiolingual and mesiobuccal cusps plotted against relative days. Based on the overall lower [U] and [Mn] signals, the lingual Sr/Ca data are considered more reliable, which is corroborated by the more pronounced diagenetic overprint for buccal Ba/Ca.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Time-resolved compositional profiles for Pongo sp. SMF-8864 molar.

a) Sr/Ca, U and Mn signals along the EDJ and corresponding prism orientations plotted against relative days. b) Ba/Ca, U and Mn signals along the EDJ and corresponding prism orientations plotted against relative days. c) Micrograph of the molar section with laser ablation paths along the EDJ and prism orientations highlighted.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Time-resolved compositional profiles for H. erectus SMF-8865 with emphasis on comparative EDJ vs. prism orientations.

a) Sr/Ca and U as well as b) Ba/Ca and U signals, all along the EDJ vs. corresponding prism orientations (that is across enamel) plotted against relative days. c) Micrograph of the molar section with laser ablation paths along the EDJ and prism orientations highlighted. Relatively low [U] betray limited diagenetic overprint; all prism profiles show substantially lower Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca values towards outer enamel due to maturation overprint26, which confirms that EDJ profiles preserve initial dietary information more faithfully.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Time-resolved compositional profiles for H. erectus S7-13 with emphasis on comparative EDJ vs. prism orientations.

a) Sr/Ca and U as well as b) Ba/Ca and U signals, all along the EDJ vs. corresponding prism orientations (that is across enamel) plotted against relative days. c) Micrograph of the molar section with laser ablation paths along the EDJ and prism orientations highlighted. Relatively low [U] along EDJ indicate limited diagenetic overprint of inner enamel, which contrasts all prism profiles with their increasing U-profiles, with [U] up to 10 ppm. Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca along the prisms increase accordingly by ~60% and ~300%, respectively, parallel to U, which confirms the greater susceptibility of Ba/Ca to diagenetic overprint.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios boxplots comparing H. erectus and Pongo sp. specimens to the other taxa with known trophic levels.

a) Sr/Ca ratios of all data along the EDJ profiles. b) Sr/Ca ratios of the same dataset after diagenesis filtering, including points with [U] < 1 ppm and [Mn]<400 ppm (µg/g). c) Ba/Ca ratios of all data along the EDJ profiles. d) Ba/Ca ratios of the same dataset after diagenesis filtering as in b). Colour dots outside the whiskers represent outliers, lower whisker is equal to minimum value (excluding outliers), lower hinge equals to first quartile, thick line represents the median value, upper hinge equals to third quartile and upper whisker to maximum value (excluding outliers). H. erectus S7 − 13 N points=1032; H. erectus S7 − 37 N points=1012; H. erectus SMF − 8865 N points=606; Pongo SMF − 8864 N points=708; Felidae N points=3232, N sample=2; Rhinoceratidae N points=631, N sample=2; Suidae N points=189, N sample=2; Cervidae N points=920, N sample=2; Hippopotamidae N points=1263, N sample=2.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Representative micrographs of Pongo sp. SMF-8664.

a) The whole crown before laser ablation (5x objective). b) Lingual aspect after laser ablation (10x objective). Purple lines highlight the laser ablation paths and green lines highlight accentuated lines. The zig-zag path used for the chronology of the crown development follows Retzius lines (red lines) and enamel prisms (yellow lines).

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information, Fig. 1 and Tables 1 and 2.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Data

Data of elemental analyses.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kubat, J., Nava, A., Bondioli, L. et al. Dietary strategies of Pleistocene Pongo sp. and Homo erectus on Java (Indonesia). Nat Ecol Evol 7, 279–289 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01947-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01947-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing