Paleolithic Papers #34

Genus Homo:

Modern human and Neandertal relics are washing up on shore in the North Sea.

Neandertal DNA might be more common in modern humans than previously thought.

What cave art reveals about human nature.

Scientists have uncovered a ghost lineage of ancient hominins in West African genomes.

Was there evidence of a technological break or gap or evolution at a cave in Israel?

Modern Humans (H. sapiens):

Mesolithic site  remains show cooking tubers took place.

Pottery from the Amur River region from the late Pleistocene has been found.

Settling of the Americas remains complex with outliers in cranial morphology being found.

How old is the oldest H. sapiens skull?  The one from Florisbad.

A skeleton of a 30 year old woman from Mexico dating from the end Pleistocene/dawn Holocene has interesting insights to the early native American populations.

What was the climate variability like during the early expansions of modern humans out of Africa?

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

The last Neandertals might have lived at Byzovaya, above the Arctic Circle in Russia.

Neandertals made an epic trek 60k years ago to the Altai Mountains.

There is evidence of two separate migrations into Asia by Neandertals.

Inbreeding might have been the doom of Neandertals.

Denisovans:

Mitochondrial DNA from Densovans has been found in modern human nuclear DNA.

Denisovans were more complex than we originally thought.

Meet the Denisovans.

H. antecessor:

Two juvenile scapula from Spain are examined.

H. erectus:

H. erectus arrived in Java 200,000 years later than originally thought.

H. erectus might have engaged in long range trade for obsidian.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. anamensis:

What ecology did A. anamensis live in?

META:

Nasty recessives aren't an obstacle to introgression between hominins.

What we have learned about human evolution and what remains to be understood?

African climate forcing simulation for the last 140,000 years and its implication for human evolution.

There's a new method for figuring out where ancient humans came from.

Human language probably evolved gradually.

When did hominins begin to understand death.

How to estimate the contamination of ancient DNA by modern.

Paleolithic Papers #31

Genus Homo:

Apparently, there has been selection against the archaic components of the genome when interbreeding hast taken place between modern humans and other hominin species.   

Could cooking have shaped our evolution for the last 2 million years?

More articles about the two previously undetected hominin relatives people seem to have interbred with.

Rock art requires a relatively high density demographic.

Modern Humanity (H. sapiens):

Tetrapod Zoology goes into five "mysterious" cave paintings.

Two Patagonian volcanic caves have evidence of people for the last 19,000 years.

Late Pleistocene fossils of modern humans have been found across the Wallace Line.

Mesolithic fire pits from the Netherlands get studied.

Modern humans occupied the Ethiopian highlands sometime between 31 kya to 47 kya.

An infant burial was found from Late Pleistocene Morocco. 

Human presence evidence from the Upper Paleolithic of Joran.

Ancient tools suggest modern humans spread across Eurasia earlier than previously thought.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

Studying Neandertal brains may give insights to modern human brain evolution.

The virtual reconstruction of the Apidima-2 skull.

The paleogenetic analysis of the Gibraltar Neandertals shows two different populations separated by time.

Half of Neandertals suffered from surfers ear, strongly implying they spent a lot of time in the water gathering food.

A Neandertal tooth was found in the Zagros Mountains.

Denisovans:

Could the 3 rooted second molar in the first Denisovan mandible be morphological evidence of introgression into modern populations?

Did Denisovans intentionally carve and paint this rock?

Denisovans are starting to come into the paleoanthropological light.

Hobbits (H. floresiensis):

Meet the hobbits of Indonesia.

H. erectus:

The Koobi Fora site in Kenya gets more support for being evidence of early use of fire.

H. naledi:

Meet Homo naledi.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. africanus mothers appear to have nursed their children for at least a year.

Authors of a new paper are arguing StW 573's skull shows it to be a different species than A. africanus.

META:

Hominin fossils seem to indicate early human species had teeth development similar to modern humans.

A single gene mutation 2 million years ago might explain why humans are prone to heart attacks.

There were significant environmental changes in the Middle Pleistocene in Europe.

Paleolithic Papers #30

Genus Homo:

Using archaeomegnetism to investigate Late Paleolithic cave occupation in Israel.

Residents of the Qesem Cave in Israel from 400,000 years ago recycled stone tools.

The characteristics of the Manot Cave in Israel gets examined.

H. sapiens:

Ancient alcohol was found in Israel from before the end of the Pleistocene.

How diverse were the cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in the Zagros Mountains of Iran?

There appears to have been an unknown population in modern day Oman during the Pleistocene.

What was the environment like in southern Levant during the last glacial cycle?

Modern humans may have dispersed through Asia in the Late Pleistocene through multiple routes.

A new population of ancient siberians from 31kya has been found.

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals seem to have split from modern humans further back in time than the genes suggest.

The ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans interbred with yet another ancient hominin population before they mixed it up with modern humans.

A jaw from a Neandertal from Regourdou, France shows the individual ate what appears to be typical foods for human hunter gatherers in a temperate forest based on the microwear analysis.

An odd preprint paper questions whether or not the introgression of Neandertals into modern humans was as much as previously thought.

H. erectus:

A new site at Madigou in China dates from 1.2 million years ago and contains stone tools.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. anamensis:

The verbatral morphology of A. anamensis appears to be more derived than A. afarensis.

A. afarensis:

The comparison of diets of pigs from Africa and australopithecines is examined and conclusions hominin diet diversification had not happened by the end of A. afarensis.

META:

The first metacarpal gets compared between different hominins and Great Apes.

Did our ancestor's ability to ingest alcohol lead to the evolution of people?  So wonders the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis.

A gene has been found that helps humans deal with high sugar diets.

Modern humans might be unique in our hearing capabilities.

Western Galilee's environment from the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene gets examined.

Paleolithic Papers #29

Genus Homo:

Rock art from Croatia from circa 34,000 years ago is figurative in nature.

Stone tools were recycled to new uses at a cave in Israel during the late Lower Paleolithic.

Hunter gatherers don't live in 'small' societies.

H. sapiens (Modern Humans):

Brain sizes have shrunk 10% in the last 40,000 years.

There is evidence of starchy food cooked in South Africa during the Mesolithic.

Is this the earliest known footprint from a human in the Americas?

H. neanderthalensis (Neandertals):

The Sima de los Huesas hominins get their age bracketed.

The first Neandertal fossil from Serbia has been found.

Could have aridification helped wipe out the neandertals?

Denisovans:

The Denisovans were two populations, at least, and may have actually been two different species.

A Denisovan jaw bone found in Tibet shows Denisovans colonized the 'roof of the world' long before modern humans did.  The jaw bone also starts to show what the Denisovans looked like.

H. antecessor:

H. antecessor was, at least once, a cannibal.

H. heidelbergensis:

Evidence from reexamining bovid remains from South Africa suggest active hunting was import for H. heidelbergensis.

H. luzonensis:

H. luzonensis, a new hominin from Luzon island of the Philippines, has been discovered. This hominin was another miniature standing at about an estimated 1.2m (5 ft). It may have suffered from island dwarfing like H. floresiensis, the so-called Hobbit.  John Hawks comments.

Hualongdong Hominin:

A hominin from China has a mosaic of primitive and modern features.  Some are claiming this is proof of the multiregional hypothesis.

H. erectus:

Evidence of what mammals H. erectus ate in Italy prior to 1.3 million years ago.

The dispersal routes out of Africa for hominins are explored in Sudan looking for stone tools.  John Hawks comments.

H. naledi:

Cranial remains from the Lesedi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave show some variation from the other fossils, but by and large appear to be more of H. naledi.

H. habilis:

The KNM-ER 64060 fossil mandible appears to be from H. habilis rather than H. erectus.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. sediba:

A sediba does not appear to be ancestral to modern humans.

META:

Man the Runner hypothesis is back again.

A troop of chimps deprived a leopard of its kill: how does that help model early hominins?

The history of human evolution can be seen in your face.

How important was the east african coastal forest for human evolution?

Basal ancestors of Humanity were upright apes.

Plovers Lake paleogenetics data might have been contaminated by modern people.

Paleolithic Papers #28

Genus Homo:

How did ancient Homo choose places to do its cave paintings?

H. sapiens (modern humans):

Apparently, Late Pleistocene hunter gatherers survived in Iberian ancestry.

Modern humans originated in South Africa and spread through Africa just before migrating out of the continent.

Researchers have found a narrative piece of art from Paleolithic Europe.

A very bold paper claims Australian Aboriginals arrived in Australia 120,000 years ago.

Neandertals:

A commentary is made on the dating of La Quina Amont.

Neandertals might have had adaptations to the cold like wooly mammoths.

Denisovans:

The first pieces of Denisovan skulls have been verified.

Tongzi Hominin:

The Tongzi hominin's teeth are not like H. erectus teeth like had been previously thought.

H. floresiensis (Hobbits):

The environment of Flores at the time of the Hobbit was explored: it was a grassland!  Or so sayeth the rats.

H. erectus:

How big were the groups in Paleolithic India?

H. erectus purposefully started fires on grasslands.  Time to rethink the anthropocene start, folks.

H. naledi:

The root and pulp morphology of a molar for H. naledi gets examined.

Genus Australopithecus:

The brain sizes of A. afarensis and A. africanus are examined.  Did they grow large from eating bone marrow?

Genus Paranthropus:

Dental caries were found in a molar from a P. robustus.

Comparing the metatarsal of Paranthropus to extent hominoids.

META:

The ability to miniaturize stone tools sets hominins apart from other primates.

Did the slowing of the Antarctic current regulate the glaciation cycle?

Green corridors in the Sahara might have facilitated hominin dispersal.

The grandmother hypothesis might explain why women live longer than men.

Why do humans have wisdom teeth that need to be removed?

Unravelling ancient signals of DNA introgression in modern humans.

Paleolithic Papers #27

Genus Homo:

Scientists are still stumped by the evolution of human breasts.

Hominins in Levant hunted different prey than did the resident hyenas.

H. sapiens:

Pleistocene hunters in Sri Lanka had a taste for monkey meat that lasted a long, long time.

East African hunter gatherers appear to have had a common ancestry.

There are more missing ancestors in our genome other than Neandertals and Denisovans.

Did modern humans self domesticate?

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals primary food source was, in fact, meat, at least, at Les Cottés and Grotte du Renne, in France.

What was the impact of the interglacial climate changes on Neandertal diets at Baume Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France?

The replacement of Neandertals by modern humans was a little more complicated than what used to be thought: there was some, erm, intermingling.

Footprints of Neandertals from Gibraltar have been found.

Some are going hmmm over the stone artifacts at Châtelperronian.

Did inbreeding help do in the Neandertals?

Neandertals walked just like modern people did.

Sima de los Huesos Hominins:

The Middle Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos had very Neandertal-ish brains.

Denisovans:

Who were they? John Hawks comments.

H. erectus:

Britain may return the iconic Kabwe skull to Zambia.

Genus Paranthropus:

P. robustus:

What was the genetic origin of the pitted enamel hypoplasia in P. robustus?

Genus Aridopithecus:

A. ramidus postcranial remains from Ethiopia get a description.

A. ramidus had adaptations for waling bipedal.

META:

Is the African Eve hypothesis wrong?

Why did menopause evolve?

One paleoanthropologist's hopes for a human evolution museum in Israel.

Human and nonhuman primate brains are compared for clues to human brain evolution.

What were the origins of human language?

The tale of the multiregional hypothesis and the out of africa hypothesis are told.

Can we determine which hominin teeth came from when found?

The current 'gap' in the middle Pleistocene is very important to human evolution.

Root growth for teeth is compared between humans and apes.

Paleolithic Papers #23

Genus Homo:

The modern human hand was almost certainly around by 500,000 years ago, predating modern humans by 300,000 years.

The deactivation of the Cmah gene two to three million years ago appears to have given hominins a leg up by increasing endurance and improving running speeds.

H. sapiens:

When DID modern humans reach southeast asia and sahul?

The revised timeline of data from the Liang Bua cave may suggest modern humans made it to Flores by 46 kya.

The Levant had a humid period between 44kya and 55 kya.  That may be what helped modern humans disperse out of Africa.

An abstract piece of art appears to have been found in a cave in South Africa dating from 73,000 years ago.

Using ZooMS to understand the bone tools of the twilight of the Pleistocene in North Africa.

Humans actually share better than other primates.

Beer before agriculture.  Maybe.  However, beer dates from the twilight of the Pleistocene in Israel.  If not older.

Neandertals:

The early dates for the Neandertal Art might be wrong.  Some are disputing them.

Could cooking and fire be how modern humans outcompeted Neandertals?

How much did the climate cycles impact the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans in Europe?

Neandertal brains were bigger than modern humans, but not necessarily better.

Denisovans:

Meet Denny.  She is a 13 year old girl who had a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father.

The cave where Denny came from has given up 4 more bones (not hers).  Dr. John Hawks comments.

Aroeria Hominin:

The bony labyrinth of this hominin appears to be more primitive than in Neandertals.  This could be a new hominin or an example of Homo heidelbergensis.

META:

Evolution of the hominin foot and how it relates to bipedalism.

How DID humans evolve their 'smarts?'

Two to three million years ago, human ancestors had genetic change that improved their running capability.

Paleolithic Papers #21

Genus Homo:

Why are human brains so large?  What genes make our brains grow so much larger than most other animals in relative terms?  Does the size come at a cost?

H. sapiens:

Who were the Nataruk people?

The Zhoukoudian Cave's human habitation is 35 thousand years old.

Mesolithic Mediterranean people's diet has been discovered via analysis of their teeth.

More evidence suggests modern humans colonized the Americas via the coastal route.

Paleogenetic evidence also suggests two different lineages did the colonization.

Mesolithic intestinal parasites have been found in Sweden.

Diets of the Niah Cave residents might be detectable from their mandibles.

The Clovis tech and skeletal remains from the Anzick site are, in fact, from the same time frame at the Holocene/Pleistocene boundary.

The interaction between modern humans and the archaic populations it replaced in Africa as it evolved needs to be examined.

Late Pleistocene tools in Sri Lanka show what plants the locals were eating at the time.

H. neanderthalensis:

How DID Neandertals hunt?  By not throwing, it appears, but by close-quarters thrusts and stabs.

New insights into the Neandertal thorax.

Denisovans:

Stone tools from the Denisovan cave were used to butcher animals.

H. erectus:

How H. erectus may have interacted with a lake margin ecology.

H. naledi:

Based on studying the teeth of H. naledi, it definitely appears to be a member of the genus Homo.

H. habilis:

The biomechanics of the OH 8 foot get examined.

Genus Australopithecus:

The cranial thickness of the StW 578 hominin (A. africanus, iirc) gets examined and similarities to modern humans are found, while differences from Paranthropus are uncovered as well.

The DIK-1-1f A. afarensis child has finally been described.  Among the interesting features is the child had ankles and feet that would help it climb trees, unlike the adults of the same species.  The big toe, as a child, was far, far more mobile than as an adult.  This would allow for grasping while climbing.  However, the child would lose this as it grew up.  Even as a child though, the Dikka hominin was definitely bipedal.

META:

The environment of 2 million years ago where hominins lived was wetter than previously thought.

Muscles thought to be uniquely human have been found in great apes.

How hominins leading to humans carved out their unique niche and how it differed from apes.

Studying breakage patterns on bones could have been produced by hominins.

Caution with studying collagen from prehistoric hominin fossils is warranted.

Large size might have evolved already by the time of the last common ancestor of humans and chimps.

Paleolithic Papers #19

Genus Homo:

A British Columbian family found a hominin trackway dating from 90,000 years ago in South Africa.  This was certainly from the genus Homo and probably even H. sapiens.

Bone retouchers from circa 115,000 years ago were found in China.  John Hawks comments on them.

Paleolithic bone tools from northern China are examined.

A lower density of carnivores in Europe might have allowed hominins to thrive.

Almost immediately after the glaciers retreated in Germany, hominins moved in.

H. sapiens:

A Pleistocene Moroccan had its genetic ancestry traced to the Near East and Subsaharan Africa.

The Toba super eruption did not cause a volcanic winter in eastern Africa.

Modern humans seem to have been just fine in South Africa, too.

John Hawks takes a look at the Toba bottleneck.

Cheddar Man, the prehistoric individual found in Britain with modern descendants in the area had dark skin.  By modern standards, he was black.

Can micro amounts of flint in archaeological sites help indicate if there was flint knapping taking place?

Evidence of modern humans has been found that pushes back our species origin by tens of thousands of years.

Major climate and technological change abounded at the dawn of modern humans.

Footprints of human beings have been found off the coast of Canada dating to the Late Pleistocene.

H. neanderthalensis:

The oldest fire forged multi purpose tool dates from 170,000 years ago in Europe.

Brown Bears, Cave Bears and Neandertals were competitors in Pleistocene Europe.  It seems in some cases, Neandertals actually hunted the bears.

The complexity of Neandertal technology gets discussed.

The classic Neandertal La Ferrassie 1 gets a redescription and that includes new pathologies found.

Neandertals seem to have a rather different thorax than modern humans.

Could Neandertal's lack of drawing be related to how they hunted?  Probably mistaken.  See the next line.

The first cave art is probably Neandertal and predates known modern humans arriving in Europe by 20,000 years.  This suggests Neandertals thought like modern people do. (original paper)

The El Sidrón juvenile Neandertal reconstruction has led to some controversy.

Sima de los Huesos Hominin:

The SdlH hominin had legs more like Neandertals than early modern humans based on their cross section.  This would lend support to the idea the SdlH hominins are basal Neandertals or ancestral to Denisovans and Neandertals.

Denisovans:

It appears that Denisovans interbred with modern humans twice.

H. heidelbergensis:

The bite strength of H. heidelbergensis and H. sapiens is compared.

H. naledi:

New excavations are underway at the site where H. naledi was discovered.

The teeth of H. naledi are considered with their potential diet in mind.

META:

The paper "The revised stratigraphy of the hominin-bearing site of Kromdraai (Gauteng, South Africa) and associated perspectives " has been retracted by the editors of the journal.

The evolution of eccrine sweat glands in human lineage gets examined.

Hominid brain size grew over time.  John Hawks takes issue with the paper.  (and he also calls homo floresiensis by its name)

Were grass leaves a source of food for hominins?

Did hominins use stone tools to make nightly defensive shelters from Acacia trees?

Hominins risked ischemia when going bipedal.

Hip extensor mechanics and the evolution of walking upright.

Did Pleistocene hominins really bury their dead?

Paleolithic Papers #17

Genus Homo:

The brains of modern humans are different than other primates in particular ways.

Modern Humans (H. sapiens):

Ancient DNA from South Africa pushes back the origins of modern humans.

How did ancient humans organize themselves?  Check their genomes.

Did the first Americans come via the Kelp Highway?  More evidence.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA studies have shown three different groups swept into Labrador and Newfoundland at different times.

Hobbits (H. floresiensis):

How the Hobbit, LB1, was found.

Did Hobbits eat rats?

Denisovans:

John Hawks disagrees when the Denisovans and Neandertals split.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

New wrist bones from the Neandertals of El Sidron, Spain have been found and studied.

The Mousterian Neandertals of China are discussed.

A high coverage DNA Neandertal genome has been recovered from Vindijia, Croatia.

The interbreeding between modern humans and Neandertals reintroduced older, lost DNA from ancient, older hominins to the modern human genome.

The interaction between Neandertals and modern humans has been modeled.

A paper suggested modern humans replaced Neandertals through immigration.  A response has been posted.

H. heidelbergensis:

Did the sinuses of H. heidelbergensis have a special role or placement? 

H. naledi:

Reviewing the September excavations at the Rising Star Caves.

An H. naledi pelvis is examined and found to have characteristics of Homo and Australopithecus pelvises.

Genus Paranthropus:

P. robustus:

Isotopic analysis of P robustus teeth show the environments and even movements of individuals lived in.

META:

Crocodiles may make similar marks on bones when feeding like those interpreted to be done by stone tools and flakes used for butchery by hominins.

The jaws of hominins and their variation give important clues as to whether or not they belong to a specific species.

There are deep concerns some of the fossils from Europe of hominins were stolen and used in a study.  Even the journal has grown concerned.

Stone tools from late Oldowon from the Olduvai are investigated with new digs.

Pounding tools from the Oldowon to Acheulen transition are examined as well.

Paleolithic Papers #14

Genus Homo:

During the Middle Pleistocene, the Luonan Basin in central China appears to be a refugium for hominids.

How the human pelvis evolved.

Humanity originated in the grasslands.

Mathematical models are attempting to explain the evolutionary growth of the human brain.

Was the reason human remained platigrade when their ancestors came out of the trees was to due to a better fighting stance?

Modern Humans (H. sapiens):

It appears modern humans may have arrived in North America far, far earlier than previously thought, back 130,000 years ago.  This is an extraordinary claim, so approach with caution.  Also, there is no evidence whether this is really modern humans or some other member of the genus Homo.  The reason I list it here is because there is no credible evidence of any other hominin ever in North America.

Australian Aboriginals have been genetically isolated for 50,000 years according to a study of their mitochondrial DNA.

Native American of the northwest have been genetically continuous for at least 10,000 years.

The symbols of Wallacea in Indonesia from the Late Pleistocene.

Life sucked for a teen mom found from Late Pleistocene North America.

Were there multiple waves of migration into the Americas?

Hobbits (H. floresiensis):

Hobbits are more closely related to Homo habilis than Homo erectus.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

How Neandertal vertebrae were different from modern humans.

Trying to figure out the functional use of the Neandertal arm.

Neandertal diet and subsistence strategies studies have been very, very biased.

How Neandertals gathered wood for their fires.

John Hawks reviews and then calls for caution over the evidence Neandertals might have used 'aspirin' and had a form of penicillin.

A decorated raven bone from Crimea may be a Neandertal artifact.

Could Neandertals have been wiped out by diseases carried by modern humans?

Neandertal trade is documented in a Pleistocene Czech cave.

Has Neandertal cave art been found?

Xuchang Hominins:

Were the Xuchang hominins Neandertals or something else?

Denisovans:

There is a claim of the discovery of a very impressive piece of jewelry associated with the Denisovans during the Pleistocene 40,000 years ago.  I have not seen a peer reviewed journal article.

Denisovan (and Neandertal) DNA has been recovered from cave sediments.  We can now know whether or not a caveman excretes in a cave (cue bear in woods ref).

The Xujiayao hominid from the middle Pleistocene may be a Denisovan.

H. naledi:

New remains of H. naledi appear to date the age of the hominin cousin to between 250 to 335 thousand years ago, making the human family tree look even MORE bushy.

H. heidelbergensis:

Remains from Portugal appear to be ancestral to Neandertals.

H. erectus:

The pelvis shape of H. erectus is described.

Members of the genus Homo have been hunting as groups prior to the rise of Neandertals.

Genus Australopithecus:

Analysis of the Laetoli footprints strongly suggests a human-like gait.

Using children to try to figure out the body sizes of small hominids.

The environment of Turkana, east Africa is described from 2 million years ago to 1.4 million years ago.

A. afarensis:

How A. afarensis gave birth.

The human-like spine existed in A. afarensis.

A. sebida:

Was A. seiba actually very closely related to A. africanus?

Genus Sahelanthropus:

The environment for Sahelanthropus appears to have been a largely forested.  Australopithecus  bahrelghazali as well.

Genus Graecopithecus:

Was Graecopithecus the oldest known post LCA hominin? If so some of the earliest hominins lived outside of Africa proper.

Last Common Ancestor:

bonobos are a better analog for the last common ancestor of apes than chimpanzees.

Paleolithic Papers #3

Modern Humans (Homo sapiens):

A modified bear bone from 12,500 years ago near the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary pushes back the time of the earliest occupants of Ireland.

There is some contention over the Pleistocene reports of the earliest domestic dogs. A flag raised has been there has been no study of wolf variation at the time and those early dogs might just be wolves rather than domesticated dogs.

DNA sequencing of a modern human from Ust'-Ishim gives some interesting insights.

The Water Canyon site from Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary New Mexico provides some interesting insights to the PaleoIndians of North America.

The latest in a series of transformative studies of DNA from prehistoric Europeans focuses on mitochondrial DNA, bringing fresh surprises and filling in important details of the early stages of a European ancestry stretching back more than 40,000 years.

John Hawks grumps over the comments about the exact number of times archaic human populations and modern humans interbred.

Lezetxiki Hominin (Homo neanderthalensis?):

The humerus of the Lezetxiki Hominin shows affinities with the Pit of Bones hominins (that appears to be early Neandertals and/or Denisovans). If so, this may represent an early Neandertal, too.  It dates from 164 thousand years ago (+/- 9k years).

Denisovans (no species name assigned yet):

Denisovans, Neandertals and modern humans shared an ancestor about a million years ago.  Not counting the introgressions since then.

Hominins (general): 

When and how did hominins become bipedal and lose their hair?

More Evidence of Inerbreeding Between Hominins (Modern Humans, Neadertals, Denisovans, etc)

The discovery of yet another period of interbreeding between early humans and Neanderthals is adding to the growing sense that sexual encounters among different ancient human species were commonplace throughout their history.

“As more early modern humans and archaic humans are found and sequenced, we’re going to see many more instances of interbreeding,” says Sergi Castellano, a population geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His team discovered the latest example, which they believe occurred around 100,000 years ago, by analysing traces of Homo sapiens DNA in a Neanderthal genome extracted from a toe bone found in a cave in Siberia.

“There is this joke in the population genetics community—there’s always one more interbreeding event," Castellano says. So before researchers discover the next one, here’s a rundown of the interbreeding episodes that they have already deduced from studies of ancient DNA.

link.

DNA Analysis Suggests Denisovans, Neandertals and Modern Humans Split Deeper in Time Than Previously Thought

In a remarkable technical feat, researchers have sequenced DNA from fossils in Spain that are about 300,000 to 400,000 years old and have found an ancestor—or close relative—of Neandertals. The nuclear DNA, which is the oldest ever sequenced from a member of the human family, may push back the date for the origins of the distinct ancestors of Neandertals and modern humans, according to a presentation here yesterday at the fifth annual meeting of the European Society for the study of human evolution.

Ever since researchers first discovered thousands of bones and teeth from 28 individuals in the mid-1990s from Sima de los Huesos (“pit of bones”), a cave in the Atapuerca Mountains of Spain, they had noted that the fossils looked a lot like primitive Neandertals. The Sima people, who lived before Neandertals, were thought to have emerged in Europe. Yet their teeth, jaws, and large nasal cavities were among the traits that closely resembled those of Neandertals, according to a team led by paleontologist Juan-Luis Arsuaga of the Complutense University of Madrid. As a result, his team classified the fossils as members of Homo heidelbergensis, a species that lived about 600,000 to 250,000 years ago in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Many researchers have thought H. heidelbergensis gave rise to Neandertals and perhaps also to our species, H. sapiens, in the past 400,000 years or so.

But in 2013, the Sima fossils’ identity suddenly became complicated when a study of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the bones revealed that it did not resemble that of a Neandertal. Instead, it more closely matched the mtDNA of a Denisovan, an elusive type of extinct human discovered when its DNA was sequenced from a finger bone from Denisova Cave in Siberia. That finding was puzzling, prompting researchers to speculate that perhaps the Sima fossils had interbred with very early Denisovans or that the “Denisovan” mtDNA was the signature of an even more ancient hominin lineage, such as H. erectus. At the time, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who had obtained the mtDNA announced that they would try to sequence the nuclear DNA of the fossils to solve the mystery.

After 2 years of intense effort, paleogeneticist Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has finally sequenced enough nuclear DNA from fossils of a tooth and a leg bone from the pit to solve the mystery. The task was especially challenging because the ancient DNA was degraded to short fragments, made up of as few as 25 to 40 single nucleotides. (Nucleotides—also known as base pairs—are the building blocks of DNA.) Although he and his colleagues did not sequence the entire genomes of the fossils, Meyer reported at the meeting that they did get 1 million to 2 million base pairs of ancient nuclear DNA.

They scanned this DNA for unique markers found only in Neandertals or Denisovans or modern humans, and found that the two Sima fossils shared far more alleles—different nucleotides at the same address in the genome—with Neandertals than Denisovans or modern humans. “Indeed, the Sima de los Huesos specimens are early Neandertals or related to early Neandertals,” suggesting that the split of Denisovans and Neandertals should be moved back in time, Meyer reported at the meeting.

Researchers at the meeting were impressed by this new breakthrough in ancient DNA research. “This has been the next frontier with ancient DNA,” says evolutionary biologist Greger Larson of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The close affinity with Neandertals, but not with Denisovans or modern humans, suggests that the lineage leading to Neandertals was separate from other archaic humans earlier than most researchers have thought. That means that the ancestors of modern humans also had to split earlier than expected from the population that gave rise to Neandertals and Denisovans, who were more closely related to each other than they were to modern humans. (Although all three groups interbred at low levels after their evolutionary paths diverged—and such interbreeding may have been the source of the Denisovan mtDNA in the first Sima fossil whose DNA was sequenced.) Indeed, Meyer suggested in his talk that the ancestors of H. sapiens may have diverged from the branch leading to Neandertals and Denisovans as early as 550,000 to 765,000 years ago, although those results depend on different mutation rates in humans and are still unpublished.

link.

Hat tip to Randy.

Denisovans Sister Group to Neandertals, More Genetically Diverse & Inhabited Siberia for Long Time

Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences from two Denisovan individuals

Authors:

Sawyer et al

Abstract:

Denisovans, a sister group of Neandertals, have been described on the basis of a nuclear genome sequence from a finger phalanx (Denisova 3) found in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains. The only other Denisovan specimen described to date is a molar (Denisova 4) found at the same site. This tooth carries a mtDNA sequence similar to that of Denisova 3. Here we present nuclear DNA sequences from Denisova 4 and a morphological description, as well as mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data, from another molar (Denisova 8) found in Denisova Cave in 2010. This new molar is similar to Denisova 4 in being very large and lacking traits typical of Neandertals and modern humans. Nuclear DNA sequences from the two molars form a clade with Denisova 3. The mtDNA of Denisova 8 is more diverged and has accumulated fewer substitutions than the mtDNAs of the other two specimens, suggesting Denisovans were present in the region over an extended period. The nuclear DNA sequence diversity among the three Denisovans is comparable to that among six Neandertals, but lower than that among present-day humans.

pop sci write up at Nat Geo.

Denisovans Occupied Russian Cave for at Least 120k Years During Pleistocene Quaternary

Ever since scientists discovered a new kind of human by sequencing DNA from a girl's pinky finger bone found in Denisova Cave in Siberia, they have wondered when the girl lived, and if her people, called Denisovans, lingered in the cave or just passed through. But the elusive Denisovans left almost no fossil record—only that bit of bone and a handful of teeth—and they came from a site that was notoriously difficult to date. Now, state-of-the-art DNA analysis on the Denisovan molars and a series of new dates on cave material show that Denisovans occupied the cave surprisingly early and came back repeatedly. The girl lived at least 50,000 years ago and two other Denisovan individuals died in the cave at least 110,000 and perhaps as early as 170,000 years ago, according to two talks in London last week at the meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution. Although the new dates have wide margins of error, they help solidify our murky view of Denisovans.

link.

Did Tibetans Get Hemoglobin Gene From Denisovan Hominins?

Tibetans were able to adapt to high altitudes thanks to a gene picked up when their ancestors mated with a species of human they helped push to extinction, according to a new report by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.

An unusual variant of a gene involved in regulating the body's production of hemoglobin – the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood – became widespread in Tibetans after they moved onto the high-altitude plateau several thousand years ago. This variant allowed them to survive despite low oxygen levels at elevations of 15,000 feet or more, whereas most people develop thick blood at high altitudes, leading to cardiovascular problems.

"We have very clear evidence that this version of the gene came from Denisovans," a mysterious human relative that went extinct 40,000-50,000 years ago, around the same time as the more well-known Neanderthals, under pressure from modern humans, said principal author Rasmus Nielsen, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. "This shows very clearly and directly that humans evolved and adapted to new environments by getting their genes from another species."

This is the first time a gene from another species of human has been shown unequivocally to have helped modern humans adapt to their environment, he said.

Nielsen and his colleagues at BGI-Shenzhen in China will report their findings online July 2 in advance of publication in the journal Nature.

The gene, called EPAS1, is activated when oxygen levels in the blood drop, triggering production of more hemoglobin. The gene has been referred to as the superathlete gene because at low elevations, some variants of it help athletes quickly boost hemoglobin and thus the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood, upping endurance. At high altitude, however, the common variants of the gene boost hemoglobin and its carrier, red blood cells, too much, increasing the thickness of the blood and leading to hypertension and heart attacks as well as low-birth-weight babies and increased infant mortality. The variant or allele found in Tibetans raises hemoglobin and red blood cell levels only slightly at high elevation, avoiding the side-effects seen in most people who relocate to elevations above 13,000 feet.

"We found part of the EPAS1 gene in Tibetans is almost identical to the gene in Denisovans and very different from all other humans," Nielsen said. "We can do a statistical analysis to show that this must have come from Denisovans. There is no other way of explaining the data."

link.