ALBERT

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 Protoaurignacian culture is pivotal to the debate about the timing of the arrival of modern humans in western Europe and the demise of Neandertals. However, which group is responsible for this culture remains uncertain. We investigated dental remains associated with the Protoaurignacian. The lower deciduous incisor from Riparo Bombrini is modern human, based on its morphology. The upper deciduous incisor from Grotta di Fumane contains ancient mitochondrial DNA of a modern human type. These teeth are the oldest human remains in an Aurignacian-related archaeological context, confirming that by 41,000 calendar years before the present, modern humans bearing Protoaurignacian culture spread into southern Europe. Because the last Neandertals date to 41,030 to 39,260 calendar years before the present, we suggest that the Protoaurignacian triggered the demise of Neandertals in this area.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Benazzi, S -- Slon, V -- Talamo, S -- Negrino, F -- Peresani, M -- Bailey, S E -- Sawyer, S -- Panetta, D -- Vicino, G -- Starnini, E -- Mannino, M A -- Salvadori, P A -- Meyer, M -- Paabo, S -- Hublin, J-J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 15;348(6236):793-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa2773. Epub 2015 Apr 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Via degli Ariani 1, 48121 Ravenna, Italy. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. stefano.benazzi@unibo.it. ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia, Storia e Geografia, Universita di Genova, Via Balbi 2, 16126 Genova, Italy. ; Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Corso Ercole I d'Este 32, Universita di Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. ; CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy. ; Museo Archeologico del Finale, Chiostri di Santa Caterina, 17024 Finale Ligure Borgo, Italy. ; Scuola di Scienze Umanistiche, Dipartimento di Studi Storici, Universita di Torino, via S. Ottavio 20, 10124 Torino, Italy. Museo Preistorico Nazionale dei Balzi Rossi, Via Balzi Rossi 9, 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25908660" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fu, Qiaomei -- Posth, Cosimo -- Hajdinjak, Mateja -- Petr, Martin -- Mallick, Swapan -- Fernandes, Daniel -- Furtwangler, Anja -- Haak, Wolfgang -- Meyer, Matthias -- Mittnik, Alissa -- Nickel, Birgit -- Peltzer, Alexander -- Rohland, Nadin -- Slon, Viviane -- Talamo, Sahra -- Lazaridis, Iosif -- Lipson, Mark -- Mathieson, Iain -- Schiffels, Stephan -- Skoglund, Pontus -- Derevianko, Anatoly P -- Drozdov, Nikolai -- Slavinsky, Vyacheslav -- Tsybankov, Alexander -- Cremonesi, Renata Grifoni -- Mallegni, Francesco -- Gely, Bernard -- Vacca, Eligio -- Morales, Manuel R Gonzalez -- Straus, Lawrence G -- Neugebauer-Maresch, Christine -- Teschler-Nicola, Maria -- Constantin, Silviu -- Moldovan, Oana Teodora -- Benazzi, Stefano -- Peresani, Marco -- Coppola, Donato -- Lari, Martina -- Ricci, Stefano -- Ronchitelli, Annamaria -- Valentin, Frederique -- Thevenet, Corinne -- Wehrberger, Kurt -- Grigorescu, Dan -- Rougier, Helene -- Crevecoeur, Isabelle -- Flas, Damien -- Semal, Patrick -- Mannino, Marcello A -- Cupillard, Christophe -- Bocherens, Herve -- Conard, Nicholas J -- Harvati, Katerina -- Moiseyev, Vyacheslav -- Drucker, Dorothee G -- Svoboda, Jiri -- Richards, Michael P -- Caramelli, David -- Pinhasi, Ron -- Kelso, Janet -- Patterson, Nick -- Krause, Johannes -- Paabo, Svante -- Reich, David -- Nature. 2016 May 2. doi: 10.1038/nature17993.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, IVPP, CAS, Beijing 100044, China. ; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; School of Archaeology and Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. ; CIAS, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal. ; Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, SA-5005 Adelaide, Australia. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, 17 Novosibirsk, RU-630090, Russia. ; Altai State University, Barnaul, RU-656049, Russia. ; Dipartimento di Civilta e Forme del Sapere, Universita di Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ; Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ; Direction regionale des affaires culturelles Rhone-Alpes, 69283 Lyon, Cedex 01, France. ; Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita degli Studi di Bari 'Aldo Moro', 70125 Bari, Italy. ; Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistoricas, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain. ; Department of Anthropology, MSC01 1040, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001, USA. ; Quaternary Archaeology, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1010 Vienna, Austria. ; Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria. ; "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology, 010986 Bucharest 12, Romania. ; "Emil Racovita" Institute of Speleology, Cluj Branch, 400006 Cluj, Romania. ; Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, 48121 Ravenna, Italy. ; Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Universita di Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Universita degli Studi di Bari 'Aldo Moro', 70125 Bari, Italy. ; Museo di "Civilta preclassiche della Murgia meridionale", 72017 Ostuni, Italy. ; Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita di Firenze, 50122 Florence, Italy. ; Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente, U.R. Preistoria e Antropologia, Universita degli Studi di Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. ; CNRS/UMR 7041 ArScAn MAE, 92023 Nanterre, France. ; INRAP/UMR 8215 Trajectoires 21, 92023 Nanterre, France. ; Ulmer Museum, 89073 Ulm, Germany. ; University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Department of Geology, 01041 Bucharest, Romania. ; Department of Anthropology, California State University Northridge, Northridge, California 91330-8244, USA. ; Universite de Bordeaux, CNRS, UMR 5199-PACEA, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. ; TRACES - UMR 5608, Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, Maison de la Recherche, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. ; Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. ; Department of Archaeology, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, 8270 Hojbjerg, Denmark. ; Service Regional d'Archeologie de Franche-Comte, 25043 Besancon Cedex, France. ; Laboratoire Chronoenvironnement, UMR 6249 du CNRS, UFR des Sciences et Techniques, 25030 Besancon Cedex, France. ; Department of Geosciences, Biogeology, University of Tubingen, 72074 Tubingen, Germany. ; Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tubingen, 72072 Tubingen, Germany. ; Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Paleoanthropology, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Saint Petersburg 34, Russia. ; Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic. ; Institute of Archaeology at Brno, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, 69129 Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic. ; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27135931" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈p〉Little is known about the population history of Neandertals over the hundreds of thousands of years of their existence. We retrieved nuclear genomic sequences from two Neandertals, one from Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave in Germany and the other from Scladina Cave in Belgium, who lived around 120,000 years ago. Despite the deeply divergent mitochondrial lineage present in the former individual, both Neandertals are genetically closer to later Neandertals from Europe than to a roughly contemporaneous individual from Siberia. That the Hohlenstein-Stadel and Scladina individuals lived around the time of their most recent common ancestor with later Neandertals suggests that all later Neandertals trace at least part of their ancestry back to these early European Neandertals.〈/p〉

Description: The presence of Neandertals in Europe and Western Eurasia before the arrival of anatomically modern humans is well supported by archaeological and paleontological data. In contrast, fossil evidence for Denisovans, a sister group of Neandertals recently identified on the basis of DNA sequences, is limited to three specimens, all of which originate from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains (Siberia, Russia). We report the retrieval of DNA from a deciduous lower second molar ( Denisova 2 ), discovered in a deep stratigraphic layer in Denisova Cave, and show that this tooth comes from a female Denisovan individual. On the basis of the number of "missing substitutions" in the mitochondrial DNA determined from the specimen, we find that Denisova 2 is substantially older than two of the other Denisovans, reinforcing the view that Denisovans were likely to have been present in the vicinity of Denisova Cave over an extended time period. We show that the level of nuclear DNA sequence diversity found among Denisovans is within the lower range of that of present-day human populations.

Description: Although a rich record of Pleistocene human-associated archaeological assemblages exists, the scarcity of hominin fossils often impedes the understanding of which hominins occupied a site. Using targeted enrichment of mitochondrial DNA, we show that cave sediments represent a rich source of ancient mammalian DNA that often includes traces of hominin DNA, even at sites and in layers where no hominin remains have been discovered. By automation-assisted screening of numerous sediment samples, we detected Neandertal DNA in eight archaeological layers from four caves in Eurasia. In Denisova Cave, we retrieved Denisovan DNA in a Middle Pleistocene layer near the bottom of the stratigraphy. Our work opens the possibility of detecting the presence of hominin groups at sites and in areas where no skeletal remains are found.

Description: To date, the earliest modern human fossils found outside of Africa are dated to around 90,000 to 120,000 years ago at the Levantine sites of Skhul and Qafzeh. A maxilla and associated dentition recently discovered at Misliya Cave, Israel, was dated to 177,000 to 194,000 years ago, suggesting that members of the Homo sapiens clade left Africa earlier than previously thought. This finding changes our view on modern human dispersal and is consistent with recent genetic studies, which have posited the possibility of an earlier dispersal of Homo sapiens around 220,000 years ago. The Misliya maxilla is associated with full-fledged Levallois technology in the Levant, suggesting that the emergence of this technology is linked to the appearance of Homo sapiens in the region, as has been documented in Africa.