1
|
Vidal CM, Lane CS, Asrat A, Barfod DN, Mark DF, Tomlinson EL, Tadesse AZ, Yirgu G, Deino A, Hutchison W, Mounier A, Oppenheimer C. Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa. Nature 2022; 601:579-583. [PMID: 35022610 PMCID: PMC8791829 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
Efforts to date the oldest modern human fossils in eastern Africa, from Omo-Kibish1–3 and Herto4,5 in Ethiopia, have drawn on a variety of chronometric evidence, including 40Ar/39Ar ages of stratigraphically associated tuffs. The ages that are generally reported for these fossils are around 197 thousand years (kyr) for the Kibish Omo I3,6,7, and around 160–155 kyr for the Herto hominins5,8. However, the stratigraphic relationships and tephra correlations that underpin these estimates have been challenged6,8. Here we report geochemical analyses that link the Kamoya’s Hominid Site (KHS) Tuff9, which conclusively overlies the member of the Omo-Kibish Formation that contains Omo I, with a major explosive eruption of Shala volcano in the Main Ethiopian Rift. By dating the proximal deposits of this eruption, we obtain a new minimum age for the Omo fossils of 233 ± 22 kyr. Contrary to previous arguments6,8, we also show that the KHS Tuff does not correlate with another widespread tephra layer, the Waidedo Vitric Tuff, and therefore cannot anchor a minimum age for the Herto fossils. Shifting the age of the oldest known Homo sapiens fossils in eastern Africa to before around 200 thousand years ago is consistent with independent evidence for greater antiquity of the modern human lineage10. Geochemical analyses correlating the stratum that overlies the sediments containing the Omo fossils with material from a volcanic eruption suggest that these fossils (the oldest known modern human fossils in eastern Africa) are over 200,000 years old.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Céline M Vidal
- Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. .,Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | | | - Asfawossen Asrat
- School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.,Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana
| | - Dan N Barfod
- NEIF Argon Isotopes, University of Glasgow, SUERC, Glasgow, UK
| | - Darren F Mark
- NEIF Argon Isotopes, University of Glasgow, SUERC, Glasgow, UK
| | | | - Amdemichael Zafu Tadesse
- Department of Geosciences, Environment and Society, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Gezahegn Yirgu
- School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Alan Deino
- Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - William Hutchison
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Aurélien Mounier
- Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme Préhistorique (HNHP, UMR 7194), MNHN/CNRS/UPVD, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France.,Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Clive Oppenheimer
- Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Late Middle Pleistocene Elephants from Natodomeri, Kenya and the Disappearance of Elephas (Proboscidea, Mammalia) in Africa. J MAMM EVOL 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10914-019-09474-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
|
3
|
Who were the Nataruk people? Mandibular morphology among late Pleistocene and early Holocene fisher-forager populations of West Turkana (Kenya). J Hum Evol 2018; 121:235-253. [PMID: 29857967 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.04.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Revised: 04/24/2018] [Accepted: 04/25/2018] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Africa is the birthplace of the species Homo sapiens, and Africans today are genetically more diverse than other populations of the world. However, the processes that underpinned the evolution of African populations remain largely obscure. Only a handful of late Pleistocene African fossils (∼50-12 Ka) are known, while the more numerous sites with human fossils of early Holocene age are patchily distributed. In particular, late Pleistocene and early Holocene human diversity in Eastern Africa remains little studied, precluding any analysis of the potential factors that shaped human diversity in the region, and more broadly throughout the continent. These periods include the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a moment of extreme aridity in Africa that caused the fragmentation of population ranges and localised extinctions, as well as the 'African Humid Period', a moment of abrupt climate change and enhanced connectivity throughout Africa. East Africa, with its range of environments, may have acted as a refugium during the LGM, and may have played a critical biogeographic role during the heterogene`ous environmental recovery that followed. This environmental context raises a number of questions about the relationships among early Holocene African populations, and about the role played by East Africa in shaping late hunter-gatherer biological diversity. Here, we describe eight mandibles from Nataruk, an early Holocene site (∼10 Ka) in West Turkana, offering the opportunity of exploring population diversity in Africa at the height of the 'African Humid Period'. We use 3D geometric morphometric techniques to analyze the phenotypic variation of a large mandibular sample. Our results show that (i) the Nataruk mandibles are most similar to other African hunter-fisher-gatherer populations, especially to the fossils from Lothagam, another West Turkana locality, and to other early Holocene fossils from the Central Rift Valley (Kenya); and (ii) a phylogenetic connection may have existed between these Eastern African populations and some Nile Valley and Maghrebian groups, who lived at a time when a Green Sahara may have allowed substantial contact, and potential gene flow, across a vast expanse of Northern and Eastern Africa.
Collapse
|
4
|
Reiner WB, Masao F, Sholts SB, Songita AV, Stanistreet I, Stollhofen H, Taylor RE, Hlusko LJ. OH 83: A new early modern human fossil cranium from the Ndutu beds of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2017; 164:533-545. [PMID: 28786473 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2016] [Revised: 05/02/2017] [Accepted: 07/23/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Herein we introduce a newly recovered partial calvaria, OH 83, from the upper Ndutu Beds of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. We present the geological context of its discovery and a comparative analysis of its morphology, placing OH 83 within the context of our current understanding of the origins and evolution of Homo sapiens. MATERIALS AND METHODS We comparatively assessed the morphology of OH 83 using quantitative and qualitative data from penecontemporaneous fossils and the W.W. Howells modern human craniometric dataset. RESULTS OH 83 is geologically dated to ca. 60-32 ka. Its morphology is indicative of an early modern human, falling at the low end of the range of variation for post-orbital cranial breadth, the high end of the range for bifrontal breadth, and near average in frontal length. DISCUSSION There have been numerous attempts to use cranial anatomy to define the species Homo sapiens and identify it in the fossil record. These efforts have not met wide agreement by the scientific community due, in part, to the mosaic patterns of cranial variation represented by the fossils. The variable, mosaic pattern of trait expression in the crania of Middle and Late Pleistocene fossils implies that morphological modernity did not occur at once. However, OH 83 demonstrates that by ca. 60-32 ka modern humans in Africa included individuals that are at the fairly small and gracile range of modern human cranial variation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Whitney B Reiner
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, MC 3140, Berkeley, California, 94720
| | - Fidelis Masao
- University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, TZ, 35091.,Conservation Olduvai Project, Dar es Salaam, TZ, 35091
| | - Sabrina B Sholts
- Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20560
| | | | - Ian Stanistreet
- University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK.,The Stone Age Institute, Bloomington, Indiana, 47407
| | - Harald Stollhofen
- GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 91054, Germany
| | - R E Taylor
- University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, 92521
| | - Leslea J Hlusko
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, MC 3140, Berkeley, California, 94720
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Abstract
Human language is unique among all forms of animal communication. It is unlikely that any other species, including our close genetic cousins the Neanderthals, ever had language, and so-called sign ‘language’ in Great Apes is nothing like human language. Language evolution shares many features with biological evolution, and this has made it useful for tracing recent human history and for studying how culture evolves among groups of people with related languages. A case can be made that language has played a more important role in our species’ recent (circa last 200,000 years) evolution than have our genes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mark Pagel
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6UR, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Hammond AS, Royer DF, Fleagle JG. The Omo-Kibish I pelvis. J Hum Evol 2017; 108:199-219. [PMID: 28552208 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2017] [Revised: 04/13/2017] [Accepted: 04/15/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) from southern Ethiopia is the oldest anatomically modern Homo sapiens skeleton currently known (196 ± 5 ka). A partial hipbone (os coxae) of Omo I was recovered more than 30 years after the first portion of the skeleton was recovered, a find which is significant because human pelves can be informative about an individual's sex, age-at-death, body size, obstetrics and parturition, and trunk morphology. Recent human pelves are distinct from earlier Pleistocene Homo spp. pelves because they are mediolaterally narrower in bispinous breadth, have more vertically oriented ilia, lack a well-developed iliac pillar, and have distinct pubic morphology. The pelvis of Omo I provides an opportunity to test whether the earliest modern humans had the pelvic morphology characteristic of modern humans today and to shed light onto the paleobiology of the earliest humans. Here, we formally describe the preservation and morphology of the Omo I hipbone, and quantitatively and qualitatively compare the hipbone to recent humans and relevant fossil Homo. The Omo I hipbone is modern human in appearance, displaying a moderate iliac tubercle (suggesting a reduced iliac pillar) and an ilium that is not as laterally flaring as earlier Homo. Among those examined in this study, the Omo I ischium is most similar in shape to (but substantially larger than) that of recent Sudanese people. Omo I has features that suggest this skeleton belonged to a female. The stature estimates in this study were derived from multiple bones from the upper and lower part of the body, and suggest that there may be differences in the upper and lower limb proportions of the earliest modern humans compared to recent humans. The large size and robusticity of the Omo I pelvis is in agreement with other studies that have found that modern human reduction in postcranial robusticity occurred later in our evolutionary history.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ashley S Hammond
- Center for Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 20052, USA.
| | - Danielle F Royer
- Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, 80204, USA
| | - John G Fleagle
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Mirazón Lahr M. The shaping of human diversity: filters, boundaries and transitions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 371:20150241. [PMID: 27298471 PMCID: PMC4920297 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0241] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/25/2016] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolution of modern humans was a complex process, involving major changes in levels of diversity through time. The fossils and stone tools that record the spatial distribution of our species in the past form the backbone of our evolutionary history, and one that allows us to explore the different processes-cultural and biological-that acted to shape the evolution of different populations in the face of major climate change. Those processes created a complex palimpsest of similarities and differences, with outcomes that were at times accelerated by sharp demographic and geographical fluctuations. The result is that the population ancestral to all modern humans did not look or behave like people alive today. This has generated questions regarding the evolution of human universal characters, as well as the nature and timing of major evolutionary events in the history of Homo sapiens The paucity of African fossils remains a serious stumbling block for exploring some of these issues. However, fossil and archaeological discoveries increasingly clarify important aspects of our past, while breakthroughs from genomics and palaeogenomics have revealed aspects of the demography of Late Quaternary Eurasian hominin groups and their interactions, as well as those between foragers and farmers. This paper explores the nature and timing of key moments in the evolution of human diversity, moments in which population collapse followed by differential expansion of groups set the conditions for transitional periods. Five transitions are identified (i) at the origins of the species, 240-200 ka; (ii) at the time of the first major expansions, 130-100 ka; (iii) during a period of dispersals, 70-50 ka; (iv) across a phase of local/regional structuring of diversity, 45-25 ka; and (v) during a phase of significant extinction of hunter-gatherer diversity and expansion of particular groups, such as farmers and later societies (the Holocene Filter), 15-0 ka.This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marta Mirazón Lahr
- Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
O'Leary MA, Bloch JI, Flynn JJ, Gaudin TJ, Giallombardo A, Giannini NP, Goldberg SL, Kraatz BP, Luo ZX, Meng J, Ni X, Novacek MJ, Perini FA, Randall ZS, Rougier GW, Sargis EJ, Silcox MT, Simmons NB, Spaulding M, Velazco PM, Weksler M, Wible JR, Cirranello AL. The placental mammal ancestor and the post-K-Pg radiation of placentals. Science 2013; 339:662-7. [PMID: 23393258 DOI: 10.1126/science.1229237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 622] [Impact Index Per Article: 56.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecular sequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodes discovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria; extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maureen A O'Leary
- Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, HSC T-8 (040), Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8081, USA.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Brown FH, McDougall I, Fleagle JG. Correlation of the KHS Tuff of the Kibish Formation to volcanic ash layers at other sites, and the age of early Homo sapiens (Omo I and Omo II). J Hum Evol 2012; 63:577-85. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.05.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2011] [Revised: 03/31/2012] [Accepted: 05/16/2012] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
|
10
|
Aubert M, Pike AWG, Stringer C, Bartsiokas A, Kinsley L, Eggins S, Day M, Grün R. Confirmation of a late middle Pleistocene age for the Omo Kibish 1 cranium by direct uranium-series dating. J Hum Evol 2012; 63:704-10. [PMID: 22959819 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2012] [Revised: 07/12/2012] [Accepted: 07/14/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
While it is generally accepted that modern humans evolved in Africa, the specific physical evidence for that origin remains disputed. The modern-looking Omo 1 skeleton, discovered in the Kibish region of Ethiopia in 1967, was controversially dated at ~130 ka (thousands of years ago) by U-series dating on associated Mollusca, and it was not until 2005 that Ar-Ar dating on associated feldspar crystals in pumice clasts provided evidence for an even older age of ~195 ka. However, questions continue to be raised about the age and stratigraphic position of this crucial fossil specimen. Here we present direct U-series determinations on the Omo 1 cranium. In spite of significant methodological complications, which are discussed in detail, the results indicate that the human remains do not belong to a later intrusive burial and are the earliest representative of anatomically modern humans. Given the more archaic morphology shown by the apparently contemporaneous Omo 2 calvaria, we suggest that direct U-series dating is applied to this fossil as well, to confirm its age in relation to Omo 1.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Aubert
- Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
11
|
Abstract
The Turkana Basin preserves a long and detailed record of biotic evolution, cultural development, and rift valley geology in its sedimentary strata. Before the formation of the modern basin, Cretaceous fluvial systems, Paleogene lakes, and Oligo-Miocene volcano-sedimentary sequences left fossil-bearing strata in the region. These deposits were in part related to an early system of rift basins that stretched from Sudan to the Indian Ocean. The present-day basin has its origins in Pliocene tectonic developments of the modern rift, with subsidence making room for more than one kilometer of Plio-Pleistocene strata. Much of this sequence belongs to the Omo Group, richly fossiliferous sediments associated with the ancestral Omo River and its tributaries. Modern Lake Turkana has a record stretching back more than 200 thousand years, with earlier lake phases throughout the Plio-Pleistocene. The geologic history of the basin is one of dynamic landscapes responding to environmental influences, including tectonics, volcanic activity and climate.
Collapse
|
12
|
Beyin A. Upper Pleistocene Human Dispersals out of Africa: A Review of the Current State of the Debate. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2011; 2011:615094. [PMID: 21716744 PMCID: PMC3119552 DOI: 10.4061/2011/615094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2010] [Revised: 01/22/2011] [Accepted: 02/24/2011] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Although there is a general consensus on African origin of early modern humans, there is disagreement about how and when they dispersed to Eurasia. This paper reviews genetic and Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic archaeological literature from northeast Africa, Arabia, and the Levant to assess the timing and geographic backgrounds of Upper Pleistocene human colonization of Eurasia. At the center of the discussion lies the question of whether eastern Africa alone was the source of Upper Pleistocene human dispersals into Eurasia or were there other loci of human expansions outside of Africa? The reviewed literature hints at two modes of early modern human colonization of Eurasia in the Upper Pleistocene: (i) from multiple Homo sapiens source populations that had entered Arabia, South Asia, and the Levant prior to and soon after the onset of the Last Interglacial (MIS-5), (ii) from a rapid dispersal out of East Africa via the Southern Route (across the Red Sea basin), dating to ~74–60 kya.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amanuel Beyin
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, SBS Building 5th Floor, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Sisk ML, Shea JJ. The african origin of complex projectile technology: an analysis using tip cross-sectional area and perimeter. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 2011; 2011:968012. [PMID: 21755048 PMCID: PMC3132613 DOI: 10.4061/2011/968012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2010] [Accepted: 01/31/2011] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Despite a body of literature focusing on the functionality of modern and stylistically distinct projectile points, comparatively little attention has been paid to quantifying the functionality of the early stages of projectile use. Previous work identified a simple ballistics measure, the Tip Cross-Sectional Area, as a way of determining if a given class of stone points could have served as effective projectile armatures. Here we use this in combination with an alternate measure, the Tip Cross-Sectional Perimeter, a more accurate proxy of the force needed to penetrate a target to a lethal depth. The current study discusses this measure and uses it to analyze a collection of measurements from African Middle Stone Age pointed stone artifacts. Several point types that were rejected in previous studies are statistically indistinguishable from ethnographic projectile points using this new measure. The ramifications of this finding for a Middle Stone Age origin of complex projectile technology is discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew L Sisk
- Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
14
|
|