Modeling food resource availability in the Early Paleolithic Insights from Sierra de Atapuerca

Abstract

Trophic resource availability is one of the main constraints for the survival and dispersal of any species and it is generally accepted that animal resources were also essential to Pleistocene hominins. Resource availability and competition with carnivores have been repeatedly proposed to be a main limiting factor for the migration and settlement of Early Pleistocene European populations. The ability of hominins to obtain animal resources from their environment is conditioned by the abundance of prey, their ecological characteristics and the intensity of the competition with other secondary consumers. We present a model which includes the prey-predator interactions in a community and quantifies the available biomass for secondary consumers and the intensity of intraguild competition.