ALBERT

Description: Two- and three-dimensional computer imaging shows that endocranial capacity in an approximately 2.8- to 2.6-million-year-old early hominid cranium (Stw 505) from Sterkfontein, South Africa, tentatively assigned to Australopithecus africanus, is approximately 515 cubic centimeters. Although this is the largest endocranial capacity recorded for this species, it is still markedly less than anecdotal reports of endocranial capacity exceeding 600 cubic centimeters. No australopithecine has an endocranial capacity approaching, let alone exceeding, 600 cubic centimeters. Some currently accepted estimates of early hominid endocranial capacity may be inflated, suggesting that the tempo and mode of early hominid brain evolution may need reevaluation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Conroy, G C -- Weber, G W -- Seidler, H -- Tobias, P V -- Kane, A -- Brunsden, B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1998 Jun 12;280(5370):1730-1.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Department of Anthropology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. conroyg@thalamus.wustl.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9624045" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The appearance of anatomically modern humans in Europe and the nature of the transition from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic are matters of intense debate. Most researchers accept that before the arrival of anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals had adopted several 'transitional' technocomplexes. Two of these, the Uluzzian of southern Europe and the Chatelperronian of western Europe, are key to current interpretations regarding the timing of arrival of anatomically modern humans in the region and their potential interaction with Neanderthal populations. They are also central to current debates regarding the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals and the reasons behind their extinction. However, the actual fossil evidence associated with these assemblages is scant and fragmentary, and recent work has questioned the attribution of the Chatelperronian to Neanderthals on the basis of taphonomic mixing and lithic analysis. Here we reanalyse the deciduous molars from the Grotta del Cavallo (southern Italy), associated with the Uluzzian and originally classified as Neanderthal. Using two independent morphometric methods based on microtomographic data, we show that the Cavallo specimens can be attributed to anatomically modern humans. The secure context of the teeth provides crucial evidence that the makers of the Uluzzian technocomplex were therefore not Neanderthals. In addition, new chronometric data for the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo obtained from associated shell beads and included within a Bayesian age model show that the teeth must date to ~45,000-43,000 calendar years before present. The Cavallo human remains are therefore the oldest known European anatomically modern humans, confirming a rapid dispersal of modern humans across the continent before the Aurignacian and the disappearance of Neanderthals.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Benazzi, Stefano -- Douka, Katerina -- Fornai, Cinzia -- Bauer, Catherine C -- Kullmer, Ottmar -- Svoboda, Jiri -- Pap, Ildiko -- Mallegni, Francesco -- Bayle, Priscilla -- Coquerelle, Michael -- Condemi, Silvana -- Ronchitelli, Annamaria -- Harvati, Katerina -- Weber, Gerhard W -- England -- Nature. 2011 Nov 2;479(7374):525-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10617.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria. stefano.benazzi@univie.ac.at〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22048311" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A key event in human evolution is the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia between 60 and 40 thousand years (kyr) before present (bp), replacing all other forms of hominins. Owing to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations remain largely enigmatic. Here we describe a partial calvaria, recently discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) and dated to 54.7 +/- 5.5 kyr bp (arithmetic mean +/- 2 standard deviations) by uranium-thorium dating, that sheds light on this crucial event. The overall shape and discrete morphological features of the Manot 1 calvaria demonstrate that this partial skull is unequivocally modern. It is similar in shape to recent African skulls as well as to European skulls from the Upper Palaeolithic period, but different from most other early anatomically modern humans in the Levant. This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans who later successfully colonized Europe. Thus, the anatomical features used to support the 'assimilation model' in Europe might not have been inherited from European Neanderthals, but rather from earlier Levantine populations. Moreover, at present, Manot 1 is the only modern human specimen to provide evidence that during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic interface, both modern humans and Neanderthals contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hershkovitz, Israel -- Marder, Ofer -- Ayalon, Avner -- Bar-Matthews, Miryam -- Yasur, Gal -- Boaretto, Elisabetta -- Caracuta, Valentina -- Alex, Bridget -- Frumkin, Amos -- Goder-Goldberger, Mae -- Gunz, Philipp -- Holloway, Ralph L -- Latimer, Bruce -- Lavi, Ron -- Matthews, Alan -- Slon, Viviane -- Mayer, Daniella Bar-Yosef -- Berna, Francesco -- Bar-Oz, Guy -- Yeshurun, Reuven -- May, Hila -- Hans, Mark G -- Weber, Gerhard W -- Barzilai, Omry -- England -- Nature. 2015 Apr 9;520(7546):216-9. doi: 10.1038/nature14134. Epub 2015 Jan 28.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] The Dan David Laboratory for the Search and Study of Modern Humans, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel [2] The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Archaeology Division, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel. ; Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel. ; Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. ; 1] Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel [2] Department of Anthropology and Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. ; Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA. ; 1] Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA [2] Department of Orthodontics, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA. ; 8 Dan Street, Modi'in 7173161, Israel. ; Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. ; The Dan David Laboratory for the Search and Study of Modern Humans, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada. ; Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel. ; 1] The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel [2] Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Department of Orthodontics, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA. ; 1] Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12-14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria [2] The Core Facility for Micro-Computed Tomography, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12-14, A-1090, Vienna, Austria. ; Israel Antiquities Authority, PO Box 586, Jerusalem 91004, Israel.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25629628" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The velocity distribution between two boreholes is reconstructed by cross-well tomography, which is commonly used in geology. In this paper, iterative methods, Kaczmarz’s algorithm, algebraic reconstruction technique (ART), and simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique (SIRT), are implemented to a specific cross-well tomography problem. Convergence to the solution of these methods and their CPU time for the cross-well tomography problem are compared. Furthermore, these three methods for this problem are compared for different tolerance values.