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Keeling BA, Quam R, Martínez I, Arsuaga JL, Maroto J. Reassessment of the human mandible from Banyoles (Girona, Spain). J Hum Evol 2023; 174:103291. [PMID: 36493597 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Revised: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Since the discovery of a human mandible in 1887 near the present-day city of Banyoles, northeastern Spain, researchers have generally emphasized its archaic features, including the lack of chin structures, and suggested affinities with the Neandertals or European Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) specimens. Uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating suggest the mandible dates to the Late Pleistocene (Tarantian), approximately ca. 45-66 ka. In this study, we reassessed the taxonomic affinities of the Banyoles mandible by comparing it to samples of Middle Pleistocene fossils from Africa and Europe, Neandertals, Early and Upper Paleolithic modern humans, and recent modern humans. We evaluated the frequencies and expressions of morphological features and performed a three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis on a virtual reconstruction of Banyoles to capture overall mandibular shape. Our results revealed no derived Neandertal morphological features in Banyoles. While a principal component analysis based on Euclidean distances from the first two principal components clearly grouped Banyoles with both fossil and recent Homo sapiens individuals, an analysis of the Procrustes residuals demonstrated that Banyoles did not fit into any of the comparative groups. The lack of Neandertal features in Banyoles is surprising considering its Late Pleistocene age. A consideration of the Middle Pleistocene fossil record in Europe and southwest Asia suggests that Banyoles is unlikely to represent a late-surviving Middle Pleistocene population. The lack of chin structures also complicates an assignment to H. sapiens, although early fossil H. sapiens do show somewhat variable development of the chin structures. Thus, Banyoles represents a non-Neandertal Late Pleistocene European individual and highlights the continuing signal of diversity in the hominin fossil record. The present situation makes Banyoles a prime candidate for ancient DNA or proteomic analyses, which may shed additional light on its taxonomic affinities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian A Keeling
- Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, SUNY, New York, USA.
| | - Rolf Quam
- Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, SUNY, New York, USA; Centro UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain; Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA; Cátedra de Otoacústica Evolutiva y Paleoantropología (HM Hospitales-Universidad de Alcalá), Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ignacio Martínez
- Cátedra de Otoacústica Evolutiva y Paleoantropología (HM Hospitales-Universidad de Alcalá), Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Investigación Francisco Javier Muñiz, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Calle Paraguay 2155, Primer piso, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, 1121, Argentina
| | - Juan Luis Arsuaga
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain; Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Julià Maroto
- Grup d'Arqueologia i Prehistòria, Universitat de Girona, pl. Ferrater Mora, 1, 17071 Girona, Spain
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Prey Size Decline as a Unifying Ecological Selecting Agent in Pleistocene Human Evolution. QUATERNARY 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/quat4010007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
We hypothesize that megafauna extinctions throughout the Pleistocene, that led to a progressive decline in large prey availability, were a primary selecting agent in key evolutionary and cultural changes in human prehistory. The Pleistocene human past is characterized by a series of transformations that include the evolution of new physiological traits and the adoption, assimilation, and replacement of cultural and behavioral patterns. Some changes, such as brain expansion, use of fire, developments in stone-tool technologies, or the scale of resource intensification, were uncharacteristically progressive. We previously hypothesized that humans specialized in acquiring large prey because of their higher foraging efficiency, high biomass density, higher fat content, and the use of less complex tools for their acquisition. Here, we argue that the need to mitigate the additional energetic cost of acquiring progressively smaller prey may have been an ecological selecting agent in fundamental adaptive modes demonstrated in the Paleolithic archaeological record. We describe several potential associations between prey size decline and specific evolutionary and cultural changes that might have been driven by the need to adapt to increased energetic demands while hunting and processing smaller and smaller game.
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Bräuer G, Pitsios T, Säring D, von Harling M, Jessen F, Kroll A, Groden C. Virtual Reconstruction and Comparative Analyses of the Middle Pleistocene Apidima 2 Cranium (Greece). Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2019; 303:1374-1392. [PMID: 31336034 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2019] [Revised: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 05/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The Apidima 2 fossil cranium from South Peloponnese is one of the most important hominin specimens from Southeast Europe. Nevertheless, there has been continuous controversy as to whether it represents a so-called Preneandertal/Homo heidelbergensis such as, for example, the Petralona cranium from Northern Greece or a more derived Neandertal. Recent absolute dating evidence alone cannot clarify the issue because both classifications would be possible during the respective Middle Pleistocene time span. Since only limited data were available on the cranium, there have been repeated claims for the need of a broader comparative study of the hominin. The present article presents a CT-based virtual reconstruction including corrections of postmortem fractures and deformation as well as detailed metrical and morphological analyses of the specimen. Endocranial capacity could be estimated for the first time based on virtual reconstruction. Our multivariate analyses of metric data from the face and vault revealed close affinities to early and later Neandertals, especially showing the derived facial morphometrics. In addition, comparative analyses of Apidima 2 were done for many derived Neandertal features. Here again, a significant number of Neandertal features could be found in the Apidima cranium but no conditions common in Preneandertals. In agreement with a later Middle Pleistocene age Apidima is currently the earliest evidence of a hominin in Europe with such a derived Neandertal facial morphology. The place of Apidima in the complex process of Neandertal evolution as well as its taxonomic classification are discussed as well. Anat Rec, 303:1374-1392, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Günter Bräuer
- Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Theodoros Pitsios
- Museum of Anthropology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Dennis Säring
- Department of Medical and Industrial Image Processing, University of Applied Sciences Wedel, Wedel, Germany
| | | | | | - Angelika Kroll
- Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christoph Groden
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg/University Hospital Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
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Relethford JH, Smith FH. Cranial measures and ancient DNA both show greater similarity of Neandertals to recent modern Eurasians than to recent modern sub-Saharan Africans. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2018; 166:170-178. [PMID: 29355893 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23413] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Revised: 12/15/2017] [Accepted: 01/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Ancient DNA analysis has shown that present-day humans of Eurasian ancestry are more similar to Neandertals than are present-day humans of sub-Saharan African ancestry, reflecting interbreeding after modern humans first left Africa. We use craniometric data to test the hypothesis that the crania of recent modern humans show the same pattern. MATERIALS AND METHODS We computed Mahalanobis squared distances between a published Neandertal centroid based on 37 craniometric traits and each of 2,413 recent modern humans from the Howells global data set (N = 373 sub-Saharan Africans, N = 2,040 individuals of Eurasian descent). RESULTS The average distance to the Neandertal centroid is significantly lower for Eurasian crania than for sub-Saharan African crania as expected from the findings of ancient DNA (p < 0.001). This result holds when examining distances for separate geographic regions of humans of Eurasian descent (Europeans, Asians, Australasians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders). Most of these results are also seen when examining distances partitioning size and shape variation. DISCUSSION Our results show that the genetic difference in Neandertal ancestry seen in the DNA of present-day sub-Saharan Africans and Eurasians is also found in patterns of recent modern human craniometric variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- John H Relethford
- Department of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Oneonta, Oneonta, New York, 13820
| | - Fred H Smith
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, 61790
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Ben-Dor M, Gopher A, Barkai R. Neandertals' large lower thorax may represent adaptation to high protein diet. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2016; 160:367-78. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2015] [Revised: 11/10/2015] [Accepted: 02/24/2016] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Miki Ben-Dor
- Department of Archaeology and Ancient near East Cultures; Tel Aviv University; Tel Aviv 69978 Israel
| | - Avi Gopher
- Department of Archaeology and Ancient near East Cultures; Tel Aviv University; Tel Aviv 69978 Israel
| | - Ran Barkai
- Department of Archaeology and Ancient near East Cultures; Tel Aviv University; Tel Aviv 69978 Israel
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Villa P, Roebroeks W. Neandertal demise: an archaeological analysis of the modern human superiority complex. PLoS One 2014; 9:e96424. [PMID: 24789039 PMCID: PMC4005592 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 151] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2014] [Accepted: 04/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Neandertals are the best-studied of all extinct hominins, with a rich fossil record sampling hundreds of individuals, roughly dating from between 350,000 and 40,000 years ago. Their distinct fossil remains have been retrieved from Portugal in the west to the Altai area in central Asia in the east and from below the waters of the North Sea in the north to a series of caves in Israel in the south. Having thrived in Eurasia for more than 300,000 years, Neandertals vanished from the record around 40,000 years ago, when modern humans entered Europe. Modern humans are usually seen as superior in a wide range of domains, including weaponry and subsistence strategies, which would have led to the demise of Neandertals. This systematic review of the archaeological records of Neandertals and their modern human contemporaries finds no support for such interpretations, as the Neandertal archaeological record is not different enough to explain the demise in terms of inferiority in archaeologically visible domains. Instead, current genetic data suggest that complex processes of interbreeding and assimilation may have been responsible for the disappearance of the specific Neandertal morphology from the fossil record.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Villa
- University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
- Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199, De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel, Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France
- School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- * E-mail:
| | - Wil Roebroeks
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Human Identity and the Evolution of Societies. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2013; 24:219-67. [DOI: 10.1007/s12110-013-9170-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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