CENIEH is a Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) open for use by the scientific and technological community that conducts research in the field of human evolution during the Upper Neogene and Quaternary. It also promotes awareness-raising and the transfer of knowledge to society and encourages and supports the completion of, and collaboration with, excavations of archaeological sites from these periods, both in Spain and further afield.
In addition, CENIEH is responsible for the conservation, restoration, management and registration of the paleontological and archaeological collections from the Atapuerca excavations and other similar national and international sites that hold agreements with the Centre.
CENIEH and the HUMAN EGINES Project
This project is focused on human physiology, food and gastronomy. It relates to creating an awareness of the dietary needs that enable every one of us to function.
Food, which is our main source of energy, must be adjusted to the operation of our machinery, depending on our age, sex, level of fitness, physiological status, etc.
At CENIEH, the scientists of the Paleophysiology and Ecology group, led by Dr. Ana Mateos, know that food is one of the keys to understanding our past, present and future as a human species. Many of our adaptive successes can be attributed to the metabolic and physiological cogs that evolution has been modelling for many millions of years. That is why the energy balance of our human engine is the guarantee to keeping our species in harmony with our environment.
Energy marks the relationships between living organisms and the environment in which they live. If we look at the human being, experimental energy is a tool that allows a new approach to raise hypotheses about the functioning and complex behaviour of our species.
Bioenergy models are proving their validity and usefulness in helping to understand the adaptations of the different human species that have inhabited our planet for millions of years.
Dr. Ana Mateos, a scientist at the National Research Centre for Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos, has been carrying out human bioenergy studies at the Laboratorio de BioEnergía y Análisis del Movimiento (LabBioEM) for almost a decade, with the valuable collaboration of all volunteers participating in these experimental studies. This research helps scientists model the paleobioenergy of our ancestors who lived millions of years ago.
Current experimental energy studies enable, firstly, the corporal characterisation and functional evaluations of all the participants of the scientific studies by means of anthropometry and corporal tissue composition procedures. In addition, they make it possible to quantify each individual’s energy expenditure at rest and during activity. This aspect is very important if we want to understand our human “machine“. For this project we are therefore going to create models of “human engines”, which represent profiles of people according to their age and/or physical condition: the child and adolescent engine, the adult engine, the athlete engine, the engine of our elders, etc.
