2025-2029
Project
ALIHOM
Diet of Ancient Hominins:
Experimental Models and
Dental Archives
Supervisor
Funding
ALIHOM is a research project funded by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council for the period 2019–2023.
Aims
The ALIHOM project has two main objectives: (1) to assess the physical and chemical effects of preferred and fallback foods on dental tissues through controlled feeding experiments using domestic pigs as a model; and (2) to reinterpret dental evidence from hominins of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) in light of these experimental results.
Some results
This project is closely linked to the PhD research of Margot Louail. Dental wear (at both micro- and macroscopic scales) and the isotopic composition of the enamel of the experimental pigs (approximately 170 individuals in total) are currently being investigated.
The first results reveal differences in dental microwear patterns depending on seed size and hardness (even when seeds are consumed in small quantities), as well as according to the various plants present in the herbaceous layer. These results improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying dental wear formation, providing a stronger basis for interpreting fossil datasets (in both suids and primates).
Consortium
The ALIHOM project is led by PALEVOPRIM in close collaboration with the GenESI unit of INRAE Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and is co-funded by the ANR project DIET-Scratches. It also relies on a regional partnership with CIIRPO (Mourier Farm, Haute-Vienne). The project brings together expertise in materials science from the Institut Pprime and in paleobiodiversity from the PACEA research unit (Bordeaux). The Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are also collaborating on this project.
