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 #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 #25

Genus Homo:

Stone tools found in China from the Pleistocene of the Levallois tradition hint at a potential local development of the technology.

A cave painting in Borneo in Indonesia dates from 40,000 years ago.

Inbreeding was common in hominins.

Crossing out of Africa was not difficult because the Arabian peninsula was green.

Hominins were not the cause the megafaunal extinctions in Africa, rather climate and the expansion of the grasslands were.  Unless, of course, the evidence for H. erectus purposefully expanding the grasslands with fire are accurate.

How did human language arise?  We don't really know.

How did members of the genus Homo survive in east Africa from paleolithic to mesolithic?

Analyzing Aurignacian tools using morphometrics.

A Russian site and its dating from the Upper Paleolithic is discussed and explored more.

H. sapiens:

The Lago Santa people had African-like features and were possibly Clovis culture descendants.  The peopling of South and Central America turned out to be fairly complicated.

The peopling of the Americas is getting a lot of interest once more with genetic studies.

Multiple types of projectiles found in Texas hint at potentially multiple migrations into the Americas.  Note: this could also be an example of a transition from one projectile point technology to another.

It seems the dispersals into the AMericas were more complex and hint at an Australasian component.

How did people cross the Wallace Line?

How the environment of northwestern Argentina changed across the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary.

People appear to have inhabited Tibet at least as early as 30,000 years ago.  This is much earlier than previously thought.

Star watching to understand the seasons may have very early origins.  Cave paintings from 40,000 years ago definitely suggest this.

Why do modern humans have round heads?

H. neanderthalensis:

Neandertals were just as violent as modern humans.

Neandertal children suffered from extreme stress during the winter.  Lead exposure was noted.

Neanderthals in the Caucasus transported obsidian over 250 km to make tools with.

Neandertal genes associated with neurogenesis in modern humans have been found.

H. erectus:

Are stone tools of the Acheulean style from 190k to 240k years ago a sign Homo erectus survived in Saudi Arabia until a late date?

H. erectus social behavior is discussed wrt an animal carcass. 

H. habilis:

Oldowon stone tools, the style associated with Homo habilis, have been found in Algeria dating from 2.4 million years ago.

Genus Australopithecus:

Little Foot, a likely A. africanus, is emerging from the stone matrix it was preserved in.

Little Foot's brain endocast suggests a more basal, chimpanzee like brain.

The original studies of A. africanus when it was known as A. prometheus are discussed.

Genus Paranthropus:

The scapular anatomy of P. bosei gets studied.

KNM-ER 47000 appears to be from P. bosei.

META:

U-Pb dating of flowstones from South Africa constrains the dates hominins were evolving there and shows they were living in dry climate conditions.

Trabecular Bone Fraction gets compared between modern humans, hominins and other primates.

The stone tool gripping abilities of modern humans, hominins and apes are compared.

3d analysis of bone tools sheds some light on how they were made and used.

Three plus different hominins coexisted in the early Pleistocene ~2 million years ago in the Omo-Turkana Basin (P. bosei, H.habilis and H. erectus. possibly H. rudolfensis as well).

What was the dietary diversity of early Pleistocene hominins?

The trabecular structure of the distal femur is compared between humans, apes and baboons is compared.

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 #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 #12

Genus Homo:

Modern Humans (H. sapiens):

Domesticated dogs from 50,000 years ago are described from Yakutia.

Modern humans have started NOT developing wisdom teeth. John Hawks also discusses this recent evolution.

How modern humans may have moved down the Western Coast of North America during the Pleistocene colonization of this continent.

In the twilight of the Pleistocene, one community in Syria domesticated the first cereals and changed humanity's lifestyle. 

The twilight of the Pleistocene mummy from North America has been given to a tribe after DNA sequencing. 

Similar era burials in South America had mutilation rituals.

What is the ancestral position of the zygoma in modern humans?

During the Pleistocene/Mesolithic, people traded obsidian sometimes over 100 miles.

Neandertals (H. neanderthalensis):

The plant diet of the Neandertals from Mid Pleistocene Israel is profiled, including tubers, seasonal plants, etc.

Were Neandertals religious?

In the Altai Mounts of Russia, Neandertals inhabited an arid, dry steppe environment.

Denisovans:

There is evidence Native American and Inuit populations picked up cold adaptations from interbreeding with ancient hominin populations, probably the Denisovans.

Sierra Atapuerca Hominin:

The diet of the Sierra Atapuerca hominin (genus Homo) has been identified.

Homo erectus:

Did H. erectus lose its penis bone due to becoming monogamous?

Genus Australopithecus:

The facial buttresses of A. africanus and A. sediba are compared via finite element analysis.

The zygomatic bone of A. bosei is compared to Neandertals.


A. afarenesis:

Lucy was extremely arboreal.

New foot prints at Laetoli hint A. afarensis was very sexually dimorphic.

META:

Why humans, and hominins in general, walk on their heels instead of their toes. 

Monkeys are perfectly capable of making human language sounds, but do not due to neurological reasons.

Human, ape and monkey hands are studied with an eye towards understanding the origin of the human hand.

The heritability of asymmetry in human and chimp brains is studied.

What is the root position of the zygomatic bone in hominins?

Paleolithic Papers #9

Genus Homo:

A last humid refugium in Jordan during the Pleistocene provided for hominins.

Stone tools found from Middle Pleistocene Jordan have the blood of ducks, rhinos and others on them.

Upper Pleistocene Altamira cave has evidence of pigment processing in sea shells.

Does genus Homo need to be split?

Has the increased flow of blood to the brain been more important for the evolution of intelligence rather than brain size?

 H. neanderthalensis:

Is it NeanderTHAL or NeanderTAL? 

H. sapiens:

Evidence of people from the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary in Brazil from a cave.

Modern humans have a gene allowing better tolerance of smoke than Neandertals. 

Modern human brains do not have a larger prefrontal cortex in relative terms than other primates, but do have an absolute larger number of neurons present.

The dispersal of modern humans into south east asia is tracked.

The first colonization of the Americas probably did NOT use the ice free corridor.

How DID humans occupy the Tibetan plateau?

Did the earliest modern humans acutally arise in China?

Genus Australopithecus:

The Laetoli hominin (A. afarensis?) had a gait distinctive from modern humans.

The earliest stone tools were used for more than just butchering.

A. afarensis:

Did Lucy die from falling from a tree? John Hawks is skeptical.

How flexible was A. afarensis' diet?

You can now 3d print Lucy's bones.

A. africanus:

The heel of A. africanus appears to have been more like a gorilla's than a chimp's.

 A sediba:

Cancer was found in one of the bones associated with A. sediba.

META:

A new analysis suggests the Piltdown Hoax was conducted by one person.

Paleolithic Papers #8

Genus Homo:

How China's hominin fossils are rewriting what we know about human evolution.

Robustness in limb bones can effect when we think Pleistocene and Holocene hominins died.

Modern humans are the ultimate super predator.

Modern Humanity (Homo sapiens):

Cultural and technological change was not driven by climate change for humanity.

Human cultural paleodiversity gets examined.

The impact of humans on the environment since the Pleistocene.


Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis):

The first evidence of cannibalism in Neandertals has been found.

Paranasal sinuses are a bad sign of climate adaptation.

Neandertal brain development was similar to modern humans.

Hobbits (Homo floresiensis):

Evidence of fire in Indonesia's home of the Hobbits dates from 41,000 years ago. Is this a sign of modern humans on the island? or...?  (paper link)

Homo erectus:

H. eretus walked like modern humans.

Genus Australopithecus:

A. africanus:

A. africanus feet were not like modern human or ape feet.

An A. africanus pelvis was reconstructed with an eye to both locomotion and obstetrics. 

META:

Variation in bones for populations needs to be taken into account for fossil hominins.

Viruses have greatly influenced human evolution.

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?

I Smell a Coming Academic Bun Fight: Sima de los Huesos Hominins Really Were Early Neandertals

Previous analyses of the hominins from Sima de los Huesos in 2013 showed that their maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA was distantly related to Denisovans, extinct relatives of Neandertals in Asia. This was unexpected since their skeletal remains carry Neandertal-derived features. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have since worked on sequencing nuclear DNA from fossils from the cave, a challenging task as the extremely old DNA is degraded to very short fragments. The results now show that the Sima de los Huesos hominins were indeed early Neandertals. Neandertals may have acquired different mitochondrial genomes later, perhaps as the result of gene flow from Africa.

Until now it has been unclear how the 28 400,000-year-old individuals found at the Sima de los Huesos ("pit of bones") site in Northern Spain were related to Neandertals and Denisovans who lived until about 40,000 years ago. A previous report based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA from one of the specimens suggested a distant relationship to Denisovans, which is in contrast to other archaeological evidence, including morphological features that the Sima de los Huesos hominins shared with Neandertals.

link.

Yes, Neandertals Were Omnivores

Ecological niche of Neanderthals from Spy Cave revealed by nitrogen isotopes of individual amino acids in collagen

Authors:

Naito et al

Abstract:

This study provides a refined view on the diet and ecological niche of Neanderthals. The traditional view is that Neanderthals obtained most of their dietary protein from terrestrial animals, especially from large herbivores that roamed the open landscapes. Evidence based on the conventional carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk collagen has supported this view, although recent findings based on plant remains in the tooth calculus, microwear analyses, and small game and marine animal remains from archaeological sites have raised some questions regarding this assumption. However, the lack of a protein source other than meat in the Neanderthal diet may be due to methodological difficulties in defining the isotopic composition of plants. Based on the nitrogen isotopic composition of glutamic acid and phenylalanine in collagen for Neanderthals from Spy Cave (Belgium), we show that i) there was an inter-individual dietary heterogeneity even within one archaeological site that has not been evident in bulk collagen isotopic compositions, ii) they occupied an ecological niche different from those of hyenas, and iii) they could rely on plants for up to ∼20% of their protein source. These results are consistent with the evidence found of plant consumption by the Spy Neanderthals, suggesting a broader subsistence strategy than previously considered.

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.

New Evidence Suggestions Modern Human, Neandertals Interbred Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

Using several different methods of DNA analysis, an international research team has identified an interbreeding event between Neanderthals and modern humans that occurred an estimated 100,000 years ago, which is tens of thousands of years earlier than other such events previously documented. They suggest that some modern humans left Africa early and mixed with Neanderthals. These modern humans later became extinct and are therefore not among the ancestors of present-day people outside Africa who left Africa about 65,000 years ago.

"We knew from Neanderthal DNA found in the genomes of humans outside Africa that Neanderthals and humans have interbred. This interbreeding is estimated to have happened less than 65,000 years ago, around the time that modern human populations spread across Eurasia from Africa. We now find evidence for a modern human contribution to the Neanderthal genome. This is likely the result of much earlier interbreeding", says Sergi Castellano from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, who co-led the study.

link.

2nd link.

3rd 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.

Neandertal Genes IDed as Important to Modern Human's Immunity Systems

When modern humans met Neanderthals in Europe and the two species began interbreeding many thousands of years ago, the exchange left humans with gene variations that have increased the ability of those who carry them to ward off infection. This inheritance from Neanderthals may have also left some people more prone to allergies.

The discoveries reported in two independent studies in the American Journal of Human Genetics on January 7 add to evidence for an important role for interspecies relations in human evolution and specifically in the evolution of the innate immune system, which serves as the body's first line of defense against infection.

"We found that interbreeding with archaic humans--the Neanderthals and Denisovans--has influenced the genetic diversity in present-day genomes at three innate immunity genes belonging to the human Toll-like-receptor family," says Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

"These, and other, innate immunity genes present higher levels of Neanderthal ancestry than the remainder of the coding genome," adds Lluis Quintana-Murci of the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS in Paris. "This highlights how important introgression events [the movement of genes across species] may have been in the evolution of the innate immunity system in humans."

link.

Krapina Neandertals Could Hear as Well as Modern Humans

Cochlear labyrinth volume in Krapina Neandertals

Authors:

Beals et al

Abstract:

Research with extant primate taxa suggests that cochlear labyrinth volume is functionally related to the range of audible frequencies. Specifically, cochlear volume is negatively correlated with both the high and low frequency limits of hearing so that the smaller the cochlea, the higher the normal range of audible frequencies. The close anatomical relationship between the membranous cochlea and the bony cochlear labyrinth allows for the determination of cochlear size from fossil specimens. This study compares Krapina Neandertal cochlear volumes to extant taxa cochlear volumes. Cochlear volumes were acquired from high-resolution computed tomography scans of temporal bones of Krapina Neandertals, chimpanzees, gorillas, and modern humans. We find that Krapina Neandertals' cochlear volumes are similar to modern Homo sapiens and are significantly larger than chimpanzee and gorilla cochlear volumes. The measured cochlear volume in Krapina Neandertals suggests they had a range of audible frequencies similar to the modern human range.

Comparing the Radii From 89 Specimens of the Sierra de Atapuerca Hominins

Fossil hominin radii from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain)

Authors:

Rodriguez et al

Abstract:

Complete radii in the fossil record preceding recent humans and Neandertals are very scarce. Here we introduce the radial remains recovered from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) site in the Sierra de Atapuerca between 1976 and 2011 and which have been dated in excess of 430 ky (thousands of years) ago. The sample comprises 89 specimens, 49 of which are attributed to adults representing a minimum of seven individuals. All elements are described anatomically and metrically, and compared with other fossil hominins and recent humans in order to examine the phylogenetic polarity of certain radial features. Radial remains from SH have some traits that differentiate them from those of recent humans and make them more similar to Neandertals, including strongly curved shafts, anteroposterior expanded radial heads and both absolutely and relatively long necks. In contrast, the SH sample differs from Neandertals in showing a high overall gracility as well as a high frequency (80%) of an anteriorly oriented radial tuberosity. Thus, like the cranial and dental remains from the SH site, characteristic Neandertal radial morphology is not present fully in the SH radii. We also analyzed the cross-sectional properties of the SH radial sample at two different levels: mid-shaft and at the midpoint of the neck length. When standardized by shaft length, no difference in the mid-shaft cross-sectional properties were found between the SH hominins, Neandertals and recent humans. Nevertheless, due to their long neck length, the SH hominins show a higher lever efficiency than either Neandertals or recent humans. Functionally, the SH radial morphology is consistent with more efficient pronation-supination and flexion-extension movements. The particular trait composition in the SH sample and Neandertals resembles more closely morphology evident in recent human males.