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Michelle LeFebvre
  • Michelle J. LeFebvre (Ph.D., University of Florida) is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Biodiversity Informatics and Envi... moreedit
William F. Keegan, David W. Steadman, Michelle LeFebvre, Neill Wallis, Lindsay Bloch, Nancy Albury, Janet Franklin & Emily Kracht (2023): Island Colonization and Human-Environment Interactions on the Edges of the Tropics: Archaeology of... more
William F. Keegan, David W. Steadman, Michelle LeFebvre, Neill Wallis, Lindsay Bloch, Nancy Albury, Janet Franklin & Emily Kracht (2023): Island Colonization and Human-Environment Interactions on the Edges of the Tropics: Archaeology of the Taíno Frontier (Northern Bahamas), Journal of Field Archaeology, DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2023.2179188
Variability across frontiers and boundaries challenges the resilience of expanding populations. Here, we contribute to a broader understanding of global patterns of island colonization and expose the diversity of lifeways experienced across the Taíno culture area by exploring Lucayan settlement of the small subtropical islands of the northern Bahama archipelago. The results of this first comprehensive investigation document the rapid expansion and early arrival of humans in the northern zone (ca. A.D. 900); deviations from traditional settlement patterns and dietary practices, which reflect responses to the unique local environment, including the association of humans with extirpated/extinct animals; sources for pottery imported from the Greater Antillean Taínos; and, a previously unrecognized local pottery variety attributable to the quality of local clay sources. The frontier provides a new perspective on the Taíno core area and raises additional questions concerning life along a historically progressing frontier.
Guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) have a long association with humans. From as early as 10,000 years ago they were a wild food source. Later, domesticated Cavia porcellus were dispersed well beyond their native range through pre-Columbian exchange... more
Guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) have a long association with humans. From as early as 10,000 years ago they were a wild food source. Later, domesticated Cavia porcellus were dispersed well beyond their native range through pre-Columbian exchange networks and, more recently, widely across the globe. Here we present 46 complete mitogenomes of archaeological guinea pigs from sites in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, the Caribbean, Belgium and the United States to elucidate their evolutionary history, origins and paths of dispersal. our results indicate an independent centre of domestication of Cavia in the eastern colombian Highlands. We identify a peruvian origin for the initial introduction of domesticated guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) beyond South America into the caribbean. We also demonstrate that peru was the probable source of the earliest known guinea pigs transported, as part of the exotic pet trade, to both Europe and the southeastern United States. Finally, we identify a modern reintroduction of guinea pigs to Puerto Rico, where local inhabitants use them for food. This research demonstrates that the natural and cultural history of guinea pigs is more complex than previously known and has implications for other studies regarding regional to global-scale studies of mammal domestication, translocation, and distribution. The use of ancient DNA (aDNA) in studies of animal domestication and subsequent translocation has radically improved our ability to identify spatially, temporally, and culturally variable processes of domestication and the diversity of social networks behind domestic species distribution (e.g. 1,2). Increasingly, aDNA studies are revising previous assumptions of geographically conscripted animal domestication and dispersal events to reveal multiple centers, timings, and processes of domestication of the world's most prominent domestic animals (e.g. pigs, chickens, cattle, dogs 3-6). Because domestic animals are exemplar proxies for investigating past human migration and interaction, understanding long-term, diachronic patterns of when and where species domestication and
Quaternary paleontological and archaeological evidence often is crucial for uncovering the historical mechanisms shaping modern diversity and distributions. We take an interdisciplinary approach using multiple lines of evidence to... more
Quaternary paleontological and archaeological evidence often is crucial for uncovering the historical mechanisms shaping modern diversity and distributions. We take an interdisciplinary approach using multiple lines of evidence to understand how past human activity has shaped long-term animal diversity in an island system. Islands afford unique opportunities for such studies given their robust fossil and archaeological records. Herein, we examine the only non-volant terrestrial mammal endemic to the Bahamian Archipelago, the hutia Geocapromys ingrahami. this capromyine rodent once inhabited many islands but is now restricted to several small cays. Radiocarbon dated fossils indicate that hutias were present on the Great Bahama Bank islands before humans arrived at AD ~800-1000; all dates from other islands postdate human arrival. Using ancient DNA from a subset of these fossils, along with modern representatives of Bahamian hutia and related taxa, we develop a fossil-calibrated phylogeny. We found little genetic divergence among individuals from within either the northern or southern Bahamas but discovered a relatively deep North-South divergence (~750 ka). This result, combined with radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, reveals a pre-human biogeographic divergence, and an unexpected human role in shaping Bahamian hutia diversity and biogeography across islands. The modern diversity and distribution of species are due to both natural factors across geological time, and human activities during the Quaternary. Humans have caused extinctions and contraction/fragmentation of ranges in countless species, while at the same time benefiting other species through introductions, habitat modification, and domestication. Long appreciated as places to study evolution, extinction, biogeography, and archaeology 1-3 , many islands also provide excellent settings to evaluate the relative roles of climate and associated habitat change versus human activities in shaping modern plant and animal communities e.g. 4,5. In the West Indies, for example, the record of vertebrates from archaeological (cultural) and paleontological (non-cultural) sites reveals substantial extinction (species-level loss) and extirpation (population-level loss) of species since the late Quaternary. Some of these losses are thought to be related to the major changes in sea level, land area, and climate during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (the PHT; ~15,000 to 9,000 BP 6-9
No native species of tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) live today in the Bahamian (Lucayan) Archipelago (= The Bahamas + The Turks and Caicos Islands), although a number of species inhabited these islands at the first human contact in the... more
No native species of tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) live today in the Bahamian (Lucayan) Archipelago (= The Bahamas + The Turks and Caicos Islands), although a number of species inhabited these islands at the first human contact in the late-Holocene. Until their extinction, tortoises were the largest terrestrial herbivores in the island group. We report 16 accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) dates determined directly on individual bones of indigenous, extinct tortoises from the six Bahamian islands (Abaco, Eleuthera, Flamingo Cay, Crooked, Middle Caicos, Grand Turk) on five different carbonate banks. These 16 specimens probably represent six or seven species of tortoises, although only one (Chelonoidis alburyorum on Abaco) has been described thus far. Tortoises seem to have survived on most Bahamian islands for only one or two centuries after initial human settlement, which took place no earlier than AD ~700–1000. The exception is Grand Turk, where we have evidence from the Coralie archeological site that tortoises survived for approximately three centuries after human arrival, based on stratigraphically associated 14C dates from both tortoise bones and wood charcoal. The stable isotope values of carbon (σ13C) and nitrogen (σ15N) of dated tortoise fossils show a NW-to-SE trend in the archipelago that may reflect increasing aridity and more consumption of cactus.
Advancements in molecular science are continually improving our knowledge of marine turtle biology and evolution. However, there are still considerable gaps in our understanding, such as past marine turtle distributions, which can benefit... more
Advancements in molecular science are continually improving our knowledge of marine turtle biology and evolution. However, there are still considerable gaps in our understanding, such as past marine turtle distributions, which can benefit from advanced zooarchaeological analyses. Here, we apply collagen fingerprinting to 130 archaeological marine turtle bone samples up to approximately 2500 years old from the Caribbean and Florida's Gulf Coast for faunal identification, finding the vast majority of samples (88%) to contain preserved collagen despite deposition in the tropics. All samples can be identified to species-level with the exception of the Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and olive ridley (L. olivacea) turtles, which can be separated to genus level, having diverged from one another only approximately 5 Ma. Additionally, we identify a single homologous peptide that allows the separation of archaeological green turtle samples, Chelonia spp., into two distinct groups, which potentially signifies a difference in genetic stock. The majority of the archaeological samples are identified as green turtle (Chelonia spp.; 63%), with hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata; 17%) and ridley turtles (Lepidochelys spp.; 3%) making up smaller proportions of the assemblage. There were no molecular identifications of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) in the assemblage despite 9% of the samples being morphologically identified as such, highlighting the difficulties in relying on morphological identifications alone in archaeological remains. Finally, we present the first marine turtle molecular phylogeny using collagen (I) amino acid sequences and find our analyses match recent phylogenies based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Our results highlight the advantage of using collagen fingerprinting to supplement morphological analyses of turtle bones and support the usefulness of this technique for assessing their past distributions across the Caribbean and Florida's Gulf Coast, especially in these tropical environments where DNA preservation may be poor.
Bahamian hutias (Geocapromys ingrahami) are the only endemic terrestrial mammal in The Bahamas and are currently classified as a vulnerable species. Drawing on zooarchaeologi-cal and new geochemical datasets, this study investigates human... more
Bahamian hutias (Geocapromys ingrahami) are the only endemic terrestrial mammal in The Bahamas and are currently classified as a vulnerable species. Drawing on zooarchaeologi-cal and new geochemical datasets, this study investigates human management of Baha-mian hutias as cultural practice at indigenous Lucayan settlements in The Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos Islands. In order to determine how hutia diet and distribution together were influenced by Lucayan groups we conducted isotopic analysis on native hutia bone and tooth enamel recovered at the Major's Landing site on Crooked Island in The Bahamas and introduced hutias from the Palmetto Junction site on Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Results indicate that some hutias consumed 13 C-enriched foods that were either provisioned or available for opportunistic consumption. Strontium isotope ratios for hutia tooth enamel show a narrow range consistent with local origin for all of the archaeological specimens. In contrast, analysis of strontium isotopes in modern Bahamian hutia teeth from animals relocated to Florida from The Bahamas demonstrates that these animals rapidly lost their Bahamian signature and adopted a Florida signature. Therefore, strontium should be used cautiously for determining hutia provenance, particularly for individuals that were translocated between islands. Overall, our findings suggest that ancient human presence did not always result in hutia vulnerability and that the impact to hutia populations was variable across pre-Columbian indigenous settlements.
Interdisciplinary collaborations and data sharing are essential to addressing the long history of human-environmental interactions underlying the modern biodiversity crisis. Such collaborations are increasingly facilitated by, and... more
Interdisciplinary collaborations and data sharing are essential to addressing the long history of human-environmental interactions underlying the modern biodiversity crisis. Such collaborations are increasingly facilitated by, and dependent upon, sharing open access data from a variety of disciplinary communities and data sources, including those within biology, pale-ontology, and archaeology. Significant advances in biodiversity open data sharing have focused on neontological and paleontological specimen records, making available over a billion records through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. But to date, less effort has been placed on the integration of important archaeological sources of biodiversity, such as zooarchaeological specimens. Zooarchaeological specimens are rich with both biological and cultural heritage data documenting nearly all phases of human interaction with animals and the surrounding environment through time, filling a critical gap between paleontological and neontological sources of data within biodiversity networks. Here we describe technical advances for mobilizing zooarchaeological specimen-specific biological and cultural data. In particular, we demonstrate adaptations in the workflow used by biodiversity publisher Vert-Net to mobilize Darwin Core formatted zooarchaeological data to the GBIF network. We also show how a linked open data approach can be used to connect existing biodiversity publishing mechanisms with archaeoinformatics publishing mechanisms through collaboration with the Open Context platform. Examples of ZooArchNet published datasets are used to show the efficacy of creating this critically needed bridge between biological and archaeological sources of open access data. These technical advances and efforts to support data publication are placed in the larger context of ZooarchNet, a new project meant to build community around new approaches to interconnect zoorchaeological data and knowledge across disciplines.
The domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) was translocated from South America to several Caribbean islands sometime after 500 CE. Identifying the timing and routes of guinea pig translocation can provide a proxy for human interaction in... more
The domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) was translocated from South America to several Caribbean islands sometime after 500 CE. Identifying the timing and routes of guinea pig translocation can provide a proxy for human interaction in the region. A recent investigation of aDNA of Caribbean guinea pig remains, based on sequences from short regions of the mitochondrial D-loop and cytochrome B regions, suggested a Colombian origin and single introduction of guinea pigs to the Caribbean. Here, we present the first complete mitogenome sequences for three ancient guinea pigs from Puerto Rico, Antigua and Carriacou, as well as for a modern Puerto Rican specimen, which allow us to clarify and expand upon the results of the earlier study. Complete mito-genome sequences indicate that there are at least two different mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in the ancient Caribbean guinea pigs, suggesting two distinct ancient introductions and a modern reintroduction of guinea pigs to Puerto Rico. Our results demonstrate the value of Next Generation Sequencing and the analysis of complete mitogenome sequences to investigate genetic variation and translocation of guinea pigs into the Caribbean.
Sometime after A.D. 500, Ceramic Age populations traveling by canoe introduced domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) from the mainland of South America to the Greater and Lesser Antilles as well as to the southern ABC (Aruba, Bonaire,... more
Sometime after A.D. 500, Ceramic Age populations traveling by canoe introduced domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) from the mainland of South America to the Greater and Lesser Antilles as well as to the southern ABC (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao) islands. Pre-Columbian archeological specimens of guinea pig have been found on 18 sites on nine islands where disarticulated remains occur as food refuse. To identify the geographic origin of these animals, we extracted and analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA of individual archeological guinea pigs (C. porcellus) from three sites. Two individuals each are from the sites of Finca Valencia and Tibes on Puerto Rico and one individual is from the Grand Bay site on Carriacou in the Lesser Antilles. The archeological contexts of the guinea pigs and the chronometric dates of these sites along with the genetic analysis lead us to hypothesize that guinea pigs were introduced initially to Puerto Rico from the modern-day region of Colombia. The genetic data, the first published on a pre-Columbian domestic animal from the Caribbean, allow us to infer direct human movement between the Caribbean Antilles and northwestern South America. These preliminary genetic data are parsimonious with archeological information regarding migration, exchange, and inter-island interaction that took place in the West Indies beginning approximately A.D. 600. These interactions contributed to the post-A.D. 500 cultural heterogeneity found in the Caribbean.
Research Interests:
The first systematic archaeological investigation of Precolumbian sites on the island of Carriacou in the West Indies provides a rich source of information regarding Amerindian settlement in the southern Caribbean. Herein) we report... more
The first systematic archaeological investigation of Precolumbian sites on the island of Carriacou in the West Indies provides a rich source of information regarding Amerindian settlement in the southern Caribbean. Herein) we report results from an island-wide survey and subsequent excavation at two large village sites-Grand Bay and Sabazan-that provide evidence for an intensive late Ceramic Age occupation dating between CAL. A.D. 400-1200. Results from four seasons of excavation at Grand Bay and two at Sabazan indicate that inhabitants colonized the island later than larger nearby islands (although an earlier settlement is possible)·were engaged in inter-island and South American interactions as evidenced through analysis of pottery) stylistic artifacts) and faunal remains)· exploited a variety of marine and terrestrial foods) including several animals rarely found in the Antilles that were translocated to the island from elsewhere;and buried their dead in and around shell middens and) at least once) under a habitable structure.
Aim This paper investigates the prehistoric introduction of five mammalian taxa to Carriacou (Lesser Antilles) and refines the known anthropogenic ranges for these fauna in the pre-Columbian West Indies. The importance of such records for... more
Aim This paper investigates the prehistoric introduction of five mammalian taxa to Carriacou (Lesser Antilles) and refines the known anthropogenic ranges for these fauna in the pre-Columbian West Indies. The importance of such records for understanding the region’s historical biogeography and ecology is considered.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: