Reassessing the age of Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain): new paleomagnetic results

Parés, Josep M.; Arnold, Lee J.; Duval, Mathieu; Demuro, Martina; Pérez‐González, Alfredo; Castro, José Marı́a Bermúdez de; Carbonell, Eudald; Arsuaga, Juan Luís

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.06.013

Cited by 101 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 73 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…950 ka; ref. 19). African Homo ergaster and Asian H. erectus do not share this European affinity, but they have nearly equal dental affinities with Neanderthals and with modern humans (Table 2 and Table S4).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans

Gómez‐Robles

Castro

Arsuaga

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A central problem in paleoanthropology is the identity of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans ([N-MH] LCA). Recently developed analytical techniques now allow this problem to be addressed using a probabilistic morphological framework. This study provides a quantitative reconstruction of the expected dental morphology of the [N-MH]LCA and an assessment of whether known fossil species are compatible with this ancestral position. We show that no known fossil species is a suitable candidate for being the [N-MH]LCA and that all late Early and Middle Pleistocene taxa from Europe have Neanderthal dental affinities, pointing to the existence of a European clade originated around 1 Ma. These results are incongruent with younger molecular divergence estimates and suggest at least one of the following must be true: (i) European fossils and the [N-MH]LCA selectively retained primitive dental traits; (ii) molecular estimates of the divergence between Neanderthals and modern humans are underestimated; or (iii) phenotypic divergence and speciation between both species were decoupled such that phenotypic differentiation, at least in dental morphology, predated speciation.phylogeny | node reconstruction | geometric morphometrics | morphospace | European Pleistocene U ncertainty about ancestry is typical for many nodes of the hominin phylogeny. Species are usually suggested as common ancestors based on their geography, chronology, and morphological affinities (1-3), but these criteria can be unsatisfactory for two fundamental reasons: first, the inherent incompleteness of the hominin fossil record precludes a clear understanding of the spatial and temporal range of variation of hominin species; and second, comparative morphological analyses are frequently descriptive in nature, making them difficult to evaluate objectively.Fossil dental remains are central to our understanding of hominin evolution due to their commonness in archaeological and paleontological sites, their normally good state of preservation, and the minor influence that environmental factors-apart from wear-have on their morphology during an individual's life. Teeth provide the most consistently complete representation of the hominin fossil record and are thus fundamentally important for assessing the plausibility of competing evolutionary scenarios and avoiding inadvertently biased interpretations (Tables S1 and S2). The combination of quantitative evolutionary theory, geometric morphometrics, and dental anthropology provides a powerful framework for reconstructing statistical expectations of the morphology of unknown ancestors (ref. 4 but see also ref. 5) and for making posterior comparisons with actual fossil remains.The main aim of our study is to evaluate whether several known candidate species have morphologies that are statistically consistent with them being the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans ([N-MH]LCA). To be a credible ancestor, a fossil must have lived at the appropriate time and be statistically close to...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans

Gómez‐Robles

Castro

Arsuaga

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Gran Dolina has a stratigraphical sequence ranging from more than 1 Ma until 200 ka. It has an archaeological (not palaeontological) gap between the last Early Pleistocene level (TD6) -with Mode 1 technology, according to our consideration ) and dated at c. 900 ka (Par es et al, 1995(Par es et al, , 2013Falgu eres et al, 1999;Berger et al, 2008;Arnold et al, 2014)-, and the first Middle Pleistocene levels with lithic assemblages (TD9-TD10) ascribed to the Acheulean , and dated to > 400 ka (Falgu eres et al, 1999(Falgu eres et al, , 2013Berger et al 2008). The lower levels of the nearby site of Galería (50 m south of Gran Dolina) have a similar chronology with an Acheulean assemblage (Mosquera, 1998;Carbonell et al 2001;García-Medrano et al 2014) of around 400 ka (Berger et al 2008;Falgu eres et al 2013;Demuro et al 2014).…”

Section: What Europe Tells Usmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Early Acheulean technology of Barranc de la Boella (Catalonia, Spain)

Mosquera

Ollé

Saladié

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tSince 2007, excavations at Barranc de la Boella (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain) have revealed three localities with rich archaeo-paleontological assemblages: La Mina, El Forn and Pit 1. Palaeontology, palaeomagnetism and cosmogenic analyses have dated these localities to close to 1 Ma. The presence of Mammuthus meridionalis, Hippopotamus antiquus, Stephanorhinus cf. hundsheimensis, Mimomys savini and Victoriamys chalinei stand out in the sample of macro and micro-mammals.The lithic assemblages from the three sites are made up of percussion cobbles, choppers, choppercores, cores, simple flakes, and some retouched flakes: mainly denticulates and notches. In the case of the El Forn and Pit 1 localities, two large cutting tools have been recovered: a cleaver-like tool and a pick made of hard-wearing schist. The lithic assemblage of Pit 1, which includes several refitting lithic sets, is closely associated with the remains of a young-adult Mammuthus meridionalis, in a clear butchering site context. This evidence suggests that Barranc de la Boella is the oldest European Early Acheulean site, and one of the oldest butchering site on the subcontinent during the late Early Pleistocene. The study of the variability among these three localities in similar environmental conditions, together with information from other sites, are discussed in order to gain further knowledge about the appearance of the Acheulean in Europe, and its continuity or discontinuity in relation to pre-existing technologies.

show abstract

“…First analyses by Falguères et al (1999) using the ESR and U-series methods, the biochronological study of the Atapuerca sites (Cuenca-Bescós et al, 1999;Cuenca-Bescós and García, 2007), and the stratigraphic position of these hominins below the Matuyama/Bruhnes geomagnetic boundary suggested a chronology of about 850 ka for the Aurora Archaeostratigraphic Set , probably corresponding to the MIS 21. Further studies from Berger et al (2008) using the TL and IRSL multialiquot dating methods and the latest paleomagnetic analysis of the Gran Dolina-TD7 LU (Parés et al, 2013) pointed to an interval of 900-950 ka for the TD6 hominins. Thus, the hominin-bearing sediments from TD6 could have been deposited during the MIS 25.…”

Section: The Td6 Lithostratigraphic Unitmentioning

confidence: 97%

Evolutionary interpretation of the modern human-like facial morphology of the Atapuerca Gran Dolina-TD6 hominins

Castro

Martinón‐Torres

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Early Pleistocene human fossil remains recovered from the TD6 lithostratigraphic unit of the Gran Dolina cave site in the Sierra de Atapuerca, northern Spain, show a mosaic of primitive and derived features. Among the latter, the modern human-like midfacial topography, as well as several synapomorphies shared with some European Middle Pleistocene hominin and Neanderthals, represents a challenge for the phylogenetic interpretation of Homo antecessor. Using an ontogenetic approach of the maxilla ATD6-69, Freidline et al. (Journal of Human Evolution, 65: 404-423 (2013)) have confirmed previous observations that H. antecessor adults had a set of facial features characterizing H. sapiens. However, Freidline and collaborators proposed that the evolution of modern-looking facial morphology occurred independently in Africa, Asia, and Europe and at several times during the Early and the Middle Pleistocene. Following their line of reasoning, the presence in H. antecessor of some features shared with the European Middle Pleistocene hominins and the Neanderthal lineage could also be interpreted as convergences. However, instead of supposing multiple, parallel evolution, we suggest that a more parsimonious interpretation envisages the hypothetical existence of an Early Pleistocene hominin population, from which several hominin lineages originate and inherit particular combinations of derived features. The TD6 hominins probably represent a side branch of this cladogenetic event, which evolved in Western Europe.

show abstract

Reassessing the age of Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain): new paleomagnetic results

Cited by 101 publications

References 73 publications

No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans

No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans

The Early Acheulean technology of Barranc de la Boella (Catalonia, Spain)

Evolutionary interpretation of the modern human-like facial morphology of the Atapuerca Gran Dolina-TD6 hominins

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About