Saturday, July 13, 2019

Paleolithic Papers #30

Genus Homo:

Just how many ghost lineages are hiding in the human genome?

Demographics modeling and the genetic introgression of hominins.

Modern Humans (H sapiens):

The Apidima 1 fossil from Greece is of H. sapiens, but dates from 210 kya.  This is far, far older than previously thought for modern humans to be outside of Africa.  Apidima 2 is a Neandertal and younger.

While exploring part of the genome associated with the sense of smell, scientists found genes from Neandertals and an unknown human relative.

The routes of modern humans into Australia get revisited.

What was being eaten at the Manot Cave, Israel roughly 40 kya.

What made humans the 'fat primate?'

Has evidence of murder from the Paleolithic been found?

The genetic components of height in prehistoric Europe are explored.

The genetic and archaeological evidence for the peopling of the Americas.

Using genetic introgression evidence to infer when modern humans dispersed into the rest of the world.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

Evidence from Italy shows Neandertals circa 170k years ago during the Pleistocene butchering already dead carcasses of elephants.

The migration history of Neandertals get revealed via DNA studies.  Neandertals in Europe were pretty stable as a genetic population for at least 80k years.  They migrated east into Siberia and seem to have been very distantly related to the Neandertals that lived there previously.

Neandertals used resin to glue stone tools to shafts and whatnot.

Neandertals repeatedly used the 'Ein Qashish site as a rarely found open air settlement between 54,000 years ago to as far back as 71,000 years ago.

The Geißenklösterle Cave layers are radiometrically dated.

H. erectus:

There are reports of a find in Indonesia of 1.8 mya Homo erectus fossils.

Rising Star Hominin (H. naledi):

The femoral neck and shaft structure gets examined.

H. naledi's teeth are more like australopithecines and early Homo species rather than later members of the genus Homo.

Genus Australopithecus:

A stratigraphic investigation of the site where Little Foot was discovered was undertaken.

Little Foot has longer than average australopithecine arm bones.

META:

The season changes to savannahs and how it might have impacted hominin diets.

The promise of how protein analysis could change paleoanthropology.

The Sahara Desert dates back, intermittently, to the Pliocene.

The Olduvai Basin gets seismically imaged.

How stone tool techniques could have been acquired.

The hominin ilium is pretty unique.

How many different hominins did our ancestors actually meet?

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