Rowe, Caroline2021-04-202021-04-202021-02https://hdl.handle.net/11299/219419University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. 2021. Major: Anthropology. Advisors: Martha Tappen, Gilllane Monnier. 1 computer file (PDF); 238 pages.Cortical bone surface modifications from Plio-Pleistocene sites, such as FLK Zinj in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, are often the primary source of information used to recreate the expanding dietary practices that may have instigated morphological and socio-economic adaptions in hominins. But debates regarding the accurate identification of some of the more inconspicuous marks at this site have endured over the past 50 years. It has recently been posited that some of the inconspicuous marks, which were previously identified as carnivorous in origin, are the result of microbial agents. While microbes do have a penchant for degrading bones, there is a paucity of information regarding the identification of microbial modifications on the cortical surfaces of bones and therefore no way to determine the veracity of these claims. Over the course of these chapters this work examines the mechanisms by which microbes access nutrients from the cortical surfaces of bone, and the resulting modifications. Chapter three examines microbial modifications using high magnification, high resolution microscopic methods to qualitatively assess their diagnostic morphology. Chapter five will present a novel protocol for quantitatively analyzing microbial bone surface modifications using advanced surface texture analysis. Chapter seven provides an anthropological application of the methods developed in chapter three and five by looking more closely at ontogenetic studies in the fossil record and reevaluating the FLK Zinj evidence using modern analogues.enBioerosionBone surface modificationsFLK ZinjInconspicuous modificationsMicrobial modificationsSurface texture analysisThesis or Dissertation