Science 1999 Jan 8;283(5399):190-4

Paleolithic population growth pulses evidenced by small animal
exploitation.

Stiner MC, Munro ND, Surovell TA, Tchernov E, Bar-Yosef O

M. C. Stiner, N. D. Munro, T. A. Surovell, Department of
Anthropology, Building 30, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
85721, USA. E. Tchernov, Department of Evolution, Systematics and
Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Variations in small game hunting along the northern and eastern
rims of the Mediterranean Sea and results from predator-prey
simulation modeling indicate that human population densities
increased abruptly during the late Middle Paleolithic and again
during the Upper and Epi-Paleolithic periods. The demographic
pulses are evidenced by increasing reliance on agile,
fast-reproducing partridges, hares, and rabbits at the expense of
slow-reproducing but easily caught tortoises and marine shellfish
and, concurrently, climate-independent size diminution in
tortoises and shellfish.  The results indicate that human
populations of the early Middle Paleolithic were exceptionally
small and highly dispersed.

PMID: 9880245