The effects of latitude on hominin social network maintenance by Pearce, E

“…I show that Neanderthals, who solely inhabited high latitudes, have significantly larger orbits than contemporary anatomically modern humans (AMH), who evolved in lower latitude Africa and had only relatively recently dispersed into higher latitudes. …”

The contribution of Neanderthal introgression and natural selection to neurodegenerative diseases by Zhongbo Chen, Regina H. Reynolds, Antonio F. Pardiñas, Sarah A. Gagliano Taliun, Wouter van Rheenen, Kuang Lin, Aleksey Shatunov, Emil K. Gustavsson, Isabella Fogh, Ashley R. Jones, Wim Robberecht, Philippe Corcia, Adriano Chiò, Pamela J. Shaw, Karen E. Morrison, Jan H. Veldink, Leonard H. van den Berg, Christopher E. Shaw, John F. Powell, Vincenzo Silani, John A. Hardy, Henry Houlden, Michael J. Owen, Martin R. Turner, Mina Ryten, Ammar Al-Chalabi

“…It is not known whether this vulnerability is specific to anatomically-modern humans or shared with other hominids. The contribution of introgressed Neanderthal DNA to neurodegenerative disorders remains uncertain. …”
Get full text

Ancient DNA from European early neolithic farmers reveals their near eastern affinities. by Wolfgang Haak, Oleg Balanovsky, Juan J Sanchez, Sergey Koshel, Valery Zaporozhchenko, Christina J Adler, Clio S I Der Sarkissian, Guido Brandt, Carolin Schwarz, Nicole Nicklisch, Veit Dresely, Barbara Fritsch, Elena Balanovska, Richard Villems, Harald Meller, Kurt W Alt, Alan Cooper, Members of the Genographic Consortium

“…In Europe, the Neolithic transition (8,000-4,000 B.C.) from hunting and gathering to agricultural communities was one of the most important demographic events since the initial peopling of Europe by anatomically modern humans in the Upper Paleolithic (40,000 B.C.). …”
Get full text

The anatomical bases of the 3D digital facial approximation of the Zlatý kůň 1 woman (ca. 43,000 BP) by Cicero Moraes, Francesco Maria Galassi, Luca Sineo, Jiří Šindelář, Elena Varotto, Joanna Mietlińska-Sauter, Nathalie Antunes-Ferreira, Michael E. Habicht, Thiago Beaini

“…During many years of research in this area, human and animal osteological remains have been excavated, among which the most interesting ones were nine fragments of a female skull, now dated to ca. 43,000 yrs BP which are one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans in Eurasia. The aim of this research was to use purely digital techniques to: (1) to reconstruct the skull based on the 3D data of preserved fragments, (2) to approximate the probable appearance of the female it belonged to, and (3) to analyze the calculated shape of the reconstructed mandible and volume of the neurocranium in the context of similarities and differences with other representatives of the genus Homo. …”
Get full text

How Pendular Is Human Brachiation? When Form Does Not Follow Function by Melody W. Young, James Q. Virga, Stratos J. Kantounis, Samantha K. Lynch, Noah D. Chernik, Jon A. Gustafson, Matthew J. Cannata, Nicholas D. Flaim, Michael C. Granatosky

“…The non-human hominoids (e.g., gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas) are considered specialized brachiators, yet peculiar among the living apes are anatomically modern humans (<i>Homo sapiens</i>), who have forgone this locomotor mode in favor of bipedal striding. …”
Get full text

The Early Upper Palaeolithic in Cueva del Arco (Murcia, Spain) and Its Contextualisation in the Iberian Mediterranean by Roman Dídac, Angelucci Diego, Armellini Jacopo, Carrión-Marco Yolanda, Carrión José S., López Antonio, Sánchez-Martínez Noelia, Martínez-Varea Carmen, Nadal Jordi, Ochando Juan, Real Cristina, Sánchez-Hernández Alfredo, Martín-Lerma Ignacio

“…The study of the material culture, the fauna, the landscape, and the dating has allowed us to approach the occupations of the site from many perspectives and has permitted us to conclude that Cueva del Arco was occupied sporadically at the beginning of the Gravettian period by a small human group in what would be the beginning of the consolidation of the anatomically modern humans (AMH) in this territory. Furthermore, these occupations were preceded by others belonging to the Aurignacian, which left hardly any remains in the cave. …”
Get full text

The contribution of new radiocarbon dating pre-treatment techniques to understanding the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Iberia by Wood, RE

“…Preservation did not allow the arrival of anatomically modern humans to be dated in the south. However, using typological arguments and the chronology constructed for the north of the Peninsula, it is unlikely that they were present in this region before 38,080 – 36,680 cal BP (95% probability). …”

Dynamics underlying Plasmodium vivax mitochondrial genome diversity across the Eastern Hemisphere by Raijmakers, L

“…Results indicate that not only the current Melanesian Pv but also the Pv strains found across the Asian continent to the east of India were likely introduced by the first wave of anatomically modern humans (<em>Homo sapiens</em>) to leave Africa. …”

A sedimentary ancient DNA perspective on human and carnivore persistence through the Late Pleistocene in El Mirón Cave, Spain by Pere Gelabert, Victoria Oberreiter, Lawrence Guy Straus, Manuel Ramón González Morales, Susanna Sawyer, Ana B. Marín-Arroyo, Jeanne Marie Geiling, Florian Exler, Florian Brueck, Stefan Franz, Fernanda Tenorio Cano, Sophie Szedlacsek, Evelyn Zelger, Michelle Hämmerle, Brina Zagorc, Alejandro Llanos-Lizcano, Olivia Cheronet, José-Miguel Tejero, Thomas Rattei, Stephan M. Kraemer, Ron Pinhasi

“…We recover and analyse sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) data from the lower archaeological stratigraphic sequence of El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain), encompassing the (1) Late Mousterian period, associated with Neanderthals, and (2) the Gravettian (c. 31.5 cal kya), Solutrean (c. 24.5–22 cal kya), and Initial Magdalenian (d. 21–20.5 cal kya) periods, associated with anatomically modern humans. We identify 28 animal taxa including humans. …”
Get full text

Considérations ontogénétiques et phylogénétiques concernant l’origine de la parole by Louis-Jean Boë, Jean Granat, Jean-Louis Heim, Jean-Luc Schwartz, Pierre Badin, Guillaume Barbier, Guillaume Captier, Antoine Serrurier, Nicolas Kielwasser

“…We analyzed 31 skulls from now to 1.5 Ma (millions years) BP (Before Present) for fossil hominids available at the Muséedel’Homme in Paris or in the literature: (1) 10-30 ka BP: modern humans: Paleolithic; (2) 90-200 ka BP: anatomically modern humans; (3) 45-90 ka BP: Neanderthals; (4) 1.5 Ma BP: Homoergaster; These skulls are all well kept and possess a jaw in the majority of cases but the vertebral column has been reconstituted. …”
Get full text

A matter of time – towards an absolute chronology for the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic biocultural shift along the Danube fluvial corridor by Hopkins, RJA

“…Recent research has shown the need for a reliable, high-resolution chronology to understand the complexity of the spatio-temporal distribution of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMH) during the transitional period between the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic. …”

L'eta' dell'ossidiana di Pantelleria by Rapisarda, Massimo

“…In principle the hypothesis is not absurd, if we remember that the first documented use of obsidian by Anatomically Modern Humans belongs to 125 thousand years ago on the shores of the Red Sea and that 65 thousand years ago, men showed their seafaring ability colonizing Australia, which was not connected to Asia by land. …”
Get full text

Tephrochronology as a tool for assessing the synchronicity of Middle Palaeolithic and Upper Palaeolithic techno-complexes in the Caucasus by Cullen, V

“…<p>The Caucasus is a land corridor between the Black and Caspian seas, linking Africa to Northern Eurasia, and is considered a migratory route for Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Numerous cave sites in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and southwestern Russia indicate that Neanderthals and AMH occupied the region, but poor chronological control meant that the precise timing of the occupations was unknown. …”

Exploring the Neandertal legacy of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma risk in Eurasians by Margherita Piccardi, Manuel Gentiluomo, Stefania Bertoncini, Raffaele Pezzilli, Bálint Erőss, Stefania Bunduc, Faik G. Uzunoglu, Renata Talar-Wojnarowska, Tomas Vanagas, Cosimo Sperti, Martin Oliverius, Mateus Nóbrega Aoki, Stefano Ermini, Tamás Hussein, Ugo Boggi, Krzysztof Jamroziak, Evaristo Maiello, Luca Morelli, Ludmila Vodickova, Gregorio Di Franco, Stefano Landi, Andrea Szentesi, Martin Lovecek, Marta Puzzono, Francesca Tavano, Hanneke W. M. van Laarhoven, Alessandro Zerbi, Beatrice Mohelnikova-Duchonova, Hannah Stocker, Eithne Costello, Gabriele Capurso, Laura Ginocchi, Rita T. Lawlor, Giuseppe Vanella, Francesca Bazzocchi, Jakob R. Izbicki, Anna Latiano, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Ruggero Ponz de Leon Pisani, Ben Schöttker, Pavel Soucek, Péter Hegyi, Maria Gazouli, Thilo Hackert, Juozas Kupcinskas, Lina Poskiene, Matteo Tacelli, Susanne Roth, Silvia Carrara, Francesco Perri, Viktor Hlavac, George E. Theodoropoulos, Olivier R. Busch, Andrea Mambrini, Casper H. J. van Eijck, Paolo Arcidiacono, Aldo Scarpa, Claudio Pasquali, Daniela Basso, Maurizio Lucchesi, Anna Caterina Milanetto, John P. Neoptolemos, Giulia Martina Cavestro, Dainius Janciauskas, Xuechen Chen, Roger Chammas, Mara Goetz, Hermann Brenner, Livia Archibugi, Michael Dannemann, Federico Canzian, Sergio Tofanelli, Daniele Campa

“…Abstract Background The genomes of present-day non-Africans are composed of 1–3% of Neandertal-derived DNA as a consequence of admixture events between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans about 50–60 thousand years ago. Neandertal-introgressed single nucleotide polymorphisms (aSNPs) have been associated with modern human disease-related traits, which are risk factors for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and inflammation. …”
Get full text

Ancient genomes show social and reproductive behavior of early Upper Paleolithic foragers by Sikora, M, Seguin-Orlando, A, Sousa, V, Albrechtsen, A, Korneliussen, T, Ko, A, Rasmussen, S, Dupanloup, I, Nigst, P, Bosch, M, Renaud, G, Allentoft, M, Margaryan, A, Vasilyev, S, Veselovskaya, E, Borutskaya, S, Deviese, T, Comeskey, D, Higham, T, Manica, A, Foley, R, Meltzer, D, Nielsen, R, Excoffier, L, Mirazon Lahr, M, Orlando, L, Willerslev, E

“…Here, we investigate whether the contemporary HG strategy was already present in the Upper Paleolithic (UP), using complete genome sequences from Sunghir, a site dated to ~34 thousand years BP (kya) containing multiple anatomically modern human (AMH) individuals. We demonstrate that individuals at Sunghir derive from a population of small effective size, with limited kinship and levels of inbreeding similar to HG populations. …”

Volcanic ash layers illuminate the resilience of Neanderthals and early modern humans to natural hazards by Lowe, J, Barton, N, Blockley, S, Ramsey, C, Cullen, V, Davies, W, Gamble, C, Grant, K, Hardiman, M, Housley, R, Lane, C, Lee, S, Lewis, M, MacLeod, A, Menzies, M, Müller, W, Pollard, M, Price, C, Roberts, A, Rohling, E, Satow, C, Smith, V, Stringer, C, Tomlinson, E, White, D

“…They enable us to synchronize archaeological and paleoclimatic records through the period of transition from Neanderthal to the earliest anatomically modern human populations in Europe. Our results confirm that the combined effects of a major volcanic eruption and severe climatic cooling failed to have lasting impacts on Neanderthals or early modern humans in Europe. …”

A Hominin Femur with Archaic Affinities from the Late Pleistocene of Southwest China. by Darren Curnoe, Xueping Ji, Wu Liu, Zhende Bao, Paul S C Taçon, Liang Ren

“…Here we describe and compare a highly unusual femur from Late Pleistocene sediments at Maludong (Yunnan), Southwest China, recovered along with cranial remains that exhibit a mixture of anatomically modern human and archaic traits. Our studies show that the Maludong femur has affinities to archaic hominins, especially Lower Pleistocene femora. …”
Get full text

New data for the Early Upper Paleolithic of Kostenki (Russia) by Dinnis, R, Bessudnov, A, Reynolds, N, Devièse, T, Pate, A, Sablin, M, Sinitsyn, A, Higham, T

“…Several questions remain regarding the timing and nature of the Neanderthal-anatomically modern human (AMH) transition in Europe. The situation in Eastern Europe is generally less clear due to the relatively few sites and a dearth of reliable radiocarbon dates. …”

Peopling history of the Tibetan plateau and multiple waves of admixture of Tibetans inferred from both ancient and modern genome-wide data by He, Guanglin, Wang, Mengge, Zou, Xing, Chen, Pengyu, Wang, Zheng, Liu, Yan, Yao, Hongbin, Wei, Lan-Hai, Tang, Renkuan, Wang, Chuan-Chao, Yeh, Hui-Yuan

“…Archeologically attested human occupation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can be traced back to 160 thousand years ago (kya) via the archaic Xiahe people and 30∼40 kya via the Nwya Devu anatomically modern human. However, the history of the Tibetan populations and their migration inferred from the ancient and modern DNA remains unclear. …”
Get full text