Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes the earliest hominin footprints in the world (3.66 million years old), discovered in 1978 at ...Site G and attributed to
. Here, we report hominin tracks unearthed in the new Site S at Laetoli and referred to two bipedal individuals (S1 and S2) moving on the same palaeosurface and in the same direction as the three hominins documented at Site G. The stature estimates for S1 greatly exceed those previously reconstructed for
from both skeletal material and footprint data. In combination with a comparative reappraisal of the Site G footprints, the evidence collected here embodies very important additions to the Pliocene record of hominin behaviour and morphology. Our results are consistent with considerable body size variation and, probably, degree of sexual dimorphism within a single species of bipedal hominins as early as 3.66 million years ago.
Many fossil specimens exhibit deformations caused by taphonomic processes. Due to these deformations, even important specimens have to be excluded from morphometric analyses, impoverishing an already ...poor paleontological record. Techniques to retrodeform and virtually restore damaged (i.e. deformed) specimens are available, but these methods genenerally imply the use of a sparse set of bilateral landmarks, ignoring the fact that the distribution and amount of control points directly affects the result of the retrodeformation. We propose a method developed in the R environment and available in the R-package "Morpho" that, in addition to the landmark configurations, also allows using a set of semi-landmarks homogeneously distributed along curves and on surfaces. We evaluated the outcome of the retrodeformation, regarding the number of semi-landmarks used and its robustness against asymmetric noise, based on simulations using a virtually deformed gorilla cranium. Finally, we applied the method to a well-known Neanderthal cranium that exhibits signs of taphonomically induced asymmetry.
The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The trajectory of the spread ...of Longobards in Italy across the Alps and into the South is known from many literary sources. However, their mobility and residence patterns at a population level remain to be fully understood. Here we present a multi-isotopic analysis (
Sr/
Sr and
O/
O) of 39 humans and 14 animals buried at the Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese (VR, Italy; 6th-8th century CE), to address mode and tempo of the spread of this population in the Peninsula. The geographical location of Povegliano Veronese plays a key role: the site lies along the Via Postumia, which was one of the main ancient Roman roads of Northern Italy, representing an important route in post-classical Italy. The integration of isotopic data with the archaeological evidence allowed us to determine the presence of individuals from at least three different regions of origin, building a diachronic map of the dynamics of mobility of this group in northern Italy.
Abstract
The study of sexual dimorphism in human crania has important applications in the fields of human evolution and human osteology. Current, the identification of sex from cranial morphology ...relies on manual visual inspection of identifiable anatomical features, which can lead to bias due to user’s expertise. We developed a landmark-based approach to automatically map the sexual dimorphism signal on the human cranium. We used a sex-known sample of 228 individuals from different geographical locations to identify which cranial regions are most sexually dimorphic taking into account shape, form and size. Our results, which align with standard protocols, show that glabellar and supraciliary regions, the mastoid process and the nasal region are the most sexually dimorphic traits (with an accuracy of 73%). The accuracy increased to 77% if they were considered together. Surprisingly the occipital external protuberance resulted to be not sexually dimorphic but mainly related to variations in size. Our approach here applied could be expanded to map other variable signals on skeletal morphology.
The Fuegians, ancient inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, are an exemplary case of a cold-adapted population, since they were capable of living in extreme climatic conditions without any adequate ...clothing. However, the mechanisms of their extraordinary resistance to cold remain enigmatic. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a crucial role in this kind of adaptation, besides having a protective role on the detrimental effect of low temperatures on bone structure. Skeletal remains of 12 adult Fuegians, collected in the second half of XIX century, were analyzed for bone mineral density and structure. We show that, despite the unfavorable climate, bone mineral density of Fuegians was close to that seen in modern humans living in temperate zones. Furthermore, we report significant differences between Fuegians and other cold-adapted populations in the frequency of the Homeobox protein Hox-C4 (HOXC4) rs190771160 variant, a gene involved in BAT differentiation, whose identified variant is predicted to upregulate HOXC4 expression. Greater BAT accumulation might therefore explain the Fuegians extreme cold-resistance and the protection against major cold-related damage. These results increase our understanding of how ecological challenges have been important drivers of human-environment interactions during Humankind history.
The Ceprano calvarium was found 20 years ago (March 1994) in southern Latium, Italy. At that time, a compiled regional stratigraphy suggested an age for the layer were the cranium was found close to ...800–900 ka. Thus, for more than a decade, the Italian specimen concurred to the denial of the so-called “short-chronology” for the earliest Europeans. In addition, the archaic features of the calvarium were put in relationship with Mode 1 techno-complexes discovered in sites scattered across the Ceprano basin, albeit Acheulean assemblages are also well known in the same area. In 2001 we approached the field with a multidisciplinary project, aimed to validate the previous geo-chronological model and improve the available paleontological and archaeological records. However, the results we obtained consistently showed that the human calvarium is more recent than previously believed, pointing to a time range close to the beginning of MIS 11, between 430 and 385 ka. Therefore, Ceprano has to be considered among the European fossil record of the Middle Pleistocene, although its peculiar morphology – a unique combination of archaic and derived features –suggests a somewhat puzzling scenario of human evolution in Europe, which could involve the occurrence of a considerable phenetic diversity during part of the Middle Pleistocene. This argument points to the time window between 1.0 and 0.5 Ma, when it is probable that a new kind of humanity emerged and diffused across Africa and Eurasia. Although controversial when viewed as a single species, this humanity may be referred to the polymorphic and widespread taxon Homo heidelbergensis. Nevertheless, in the course of the Middle Pleistocene, different lineages of archaic humans possibly belonging to Homo heidelbergensis are recognised, suggesting the identification of geographic varieties or subspecies (i.e., potential incipient species). Given such a scenario, Ceprano represents the best candidate available at present (but also the cranial remains from Gombore II, in the Melka Kunture area, Ethiopia, ca. 850 ka, should be taken into account) to describe the cranial morphology of the still largely unknown ancestral variety of the species: i.e., Homo heidelbergensis heidelbergensis.
One of the present challenges in the study of human evolution is to recognize the hominin taxon that was ancestral to Homo sapiens. Some researchers regard H. heidelbergensis as the stem species ...involved in the evolutionary divergence leading to the emergence of H. sapiens in Africa, and to the evolution of the Neandertals in Europe. Nevertheless, the diagnosis and hypodigm of H. heidelbergensis still remain to be clarified. Here we evaluate the morphology of the incomplete cranium (calvarium) known as Ceprano whose age has been recently revised to the mid of the Middle Pleistocene, so as to test whether this specimen may be included in H. heidelbergensis. The analyses were performed according to a phenetic routine including geometric morphometrics and the evaluation of diagnostic discrete traits. The results strongly support the uniqueness of H. heidelbergensis on a wide geographical horizon, including both Eurasia and Africa. In this framework, the Ceprano calvarium--with its peculiar combination of archaic and derived traits--may represent, better than other penecontemporaneous specimens, an appropriate ancestral stock of this species, preceding the appearance of regional autapomorphic features.
Ces 30 dernières années, plusieurs protocoles permettant d’utiliser des données 3D de morphométrie géométrique en cladistique ont été proposés. Fortement critiqués, ces protocoles ne sont ...qu’occasionnellement utilisés en paléoanthropologie, malgré le potentiel évident d’une telle approche. Dans cette étude, nous avons testé deux protocoles différents afin d’évaluer l’information phylogénétique dérivée des données de morphométrie géométrique, que nous avons appliqué à 23 unités taxonomiques opérationnelles (UTOs) représentant les genres Pongo, Gorilla, Pan, Australopithecus et Homo. Ces 23 UTOs sont issues de la moyenne des coordonnées procrustes alignées (analyse procruste généralisée) de trois configurations de points-repères (148, 347 et 636 points-repères) décrivant la morphologie du calvarium de 78 spécimens. Le premier protocole utilise les coordonnées des composantes principales, obtenues après une analyse en composantes principales, comme variables décrivant les UTOs. La seconde approche utilise directement les coordonnées 3D alignées des points-repères. Ces deux ensembles de données ont ensuite été analysés à l’aide des algorithmes "heuristic" et "branch-and-bound" implémentés dans le logiciel TNT. Ces analyses ont produit un arbre cladistique unique pour chaque jeu de données. Indépendamment de la matrice utilisée pour obtenir les arbres, ces résultats préliminaires sont phylogénétiquement cohérents et soutiennent des hypothèses paléoanthropologiques intéressantes.
Over the last 30 years, several protocols to adapt 3D geometric morphometric data to cladistics have been developed. Strongly criticised, these protocols are only occasionally used in palaeoanthropology, despite the obvious heuristic potential of such an approach. This study tests two different protocols to analyse 23 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing the genera Pongo, Gorilla, Pan, Australopithecus and Homo, in order to evaluate the phylogenetic information derived from geometric morphometric data. The 23 OTUs were based on averaged Procrustes-aligned coordinates (generalised Procrustes analysis) of three landmark configurations (148, 347 and 636 landmarks) describing the calvarium morphology of 78 specimens. The first protocol used the coordinates of the principal components, obtained after a principal component analysis, as variables describing the OTUs. The second approach directly used the aligned 3D coordinates of the landmarks. These two datasets were then analysed with both the heuristic and branch-and-bound algorithms implemented in the TNT software. These analyses produced a unique cladistic tree for each dataset. Independent of the matrix used to obtain the trees, these preliminary results were phylogenetically consistent and support debated paleoanthropological hypotheses.
The increase of brain size relative to body size-encephalization-is intimately linked with human evolution. However, two genetically different evolutionary lineages, Neanderthals and modern humans, ...have produced similarly large-brained human species. Thus, understanding human brain evolution should include research into specific cerebral reorganization, possibly reflected by brain shape changes. Here we exploit developmental integration between the brain and its underlying skeletal base to test hypotheses about brain evolution in Homo. Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analyses of endobasicranial shape reveal previously undocumented details of evolutionary changes in Homo sapiens. Larger olfactory bulbs, relatively wider orbitofrontal cortex, relatively increased and forward projecting temporal lobe poles appear unique to modern humans. Such brain reorganization, beside physical consequences for overall skull shape, might have contributed to the evolution of H. sapiens' learning and social capacities, in which higher olfactory functions and its cognitive, neurological behavioral implications could have been hitherto underestimated factors.
The Ceprano calvarium was discovered in fragments on March 1994 near the town of Ceprano in southern Latium (Italy), embedded in Middle Pleistocene layers. After reconstruction, its morphological ...features suggests that the specimen belongs to an archaic variant of H. heidelbergensis, representing a proxy for the last common ancestor of the diverging clades that respectively led to H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Unfortunately, the calvarium was taphonomically damaged. The postero-lateral vault, in particular, appears deformed and this postmortem damage may have influenced previous interpretations. Specifically, there is a depression on the fragmented left parietal, while the right cranial wall is warped and angulated. This deformation affected the shape of the occipital squama, producing an inclination of the transverse occipital torus. In this paper, after X-ray microtomography (μCT) of both the calvarium and several additional fragments, we analyze consistency and pattern of the taphonomic deformation that affected the specimen, before the computer-assisted retrodeformation has been performed; this has also provided the opportunity to reappraise early attempts at restoration. As a result, we offer a revised interpretation for the Ceprano calvarium's original shape, now free from the previous uncertainties, along with insight for its complex depositional and taphonomic history.
PDF
