The human remains from Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain) and their place in European Pleistocene human evolution

Arsuaga, Juan Luís; Gràcia, Ana; Martı́nez, Ignacio; Castro, José Marı́a Bermúdez de; Rosas, Antonio; Bonilla, Valentín Villaverde; Fumanal, M.P.

doi:10.1016/0047-2484(89)90023-7

Cited by 36 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…S5). This condition is observed in modern humans and some Neandertal specimens, but the transverse sulcus generally does not cross the parietal bone in earlier hominins, including the Atapuerca (SH) sample (16,28).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)

Daura

Sanz

Arsuaga

et al. 2017

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

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The Middle Pleistocene is a crucial time period for studying human evolution in Europe, because it marks the appearance of both fossil hominins ancestral to the later Neandertals and the Acheulean technology. Nevertheless, European sites containing well-dated human remains associated with an Acheulean toolkit remain scarce. The earliest European hominin crania associated with Acheulean handaxes are at the sites of Arago, Atapuerca Sima de los Huesos (SH), and Swanscombe, dating to 400–500 ka (Marine Isotope Stage 11–12). The Atapuerca (SH) fossils and the Swanscombe cranium belong to the Neandertal clade, whereas the Arago hominins have been attributed to an incipient stage of Neandertal evolution, to Homo heidelbergensis, or to a subspecies of Homo erectus. A recently discovered cranium (Aroeira 3) from the Gruta da Aroeira (Almonda karst system, Portugal) dating to 390–436 ka provides important evidence on the earliest European Acheulean-bearing hominins. This cranium is represented by most of the right half of a calvarium (with the exception of the missing occipital bone) and a fragmentary right maxilla preserving part of the nasal floor and two fragmentary molars. The combination of traits in the Aroeira 3 cranium augments the previously documented diversity in the European Middle Pleistocene fossil record

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Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)

Daura

Sanz

Arsuaga

et al. 2017

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

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“…Human fossils have been recovered from Cova de Dalt del Tossal de la Font (Arsuaga and Bermúdez de Castro, 1984;Saladié et al, 2010), Cova Negra (Arsuaga et al, 1989(Arsuaga et al, , 2006, Abric del Salt (Galván et al, 2001), Cova Foradada (Campillo et al, 2002) and Sima de las Palomas (Walker et al, 2012).…”

Section: Archaeological Context and Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

116

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a b s t r a c tDuring recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Neanderthal dietary ecologyThe dietary behaviours of Neanderthals and the relationship between their diet and their social organization, technological abilities, and even their eventual disappearance, have been hotly debated in the anthropological literature. Examining the diets of Neanderthals requires the synthesis of data that have been collected by numerous researchers over the last 150 years. In many cases, the differences between Neanderthal and early modern human diets have been emphasized, at the expense of cogent discussion of the variation within each group. Early modern humans lived in a wide variety of environmental contexts and likely pursued a variety of behaviours throughout this range of environments. The exclusively Eurasian distribution of Neanderthals did not include as many environments, but neither was it the exclusively cold Arctic climate that many have supposed it to be. A more detailed examination of the Neanderthal range and the effects of shifting global climates reveals that this group would have been exposed to a diverse range of environments (Hoffecker, 2009;MacDonald et al., 2009). Just as modern human dietary behaviour likely varied with environments, so, too, can we predict that Neanderthals had different diets in different environments.Our understanding of the diets of Neanderthals comes from three main lines of evidence. The first is the study of the human remains themselves, including the isotope signal recorded in their bones, the microwear on their teeth, and how factors of their lifehistory are related to diet. The second line of evidence includes the study of the remains of their food, in the form of animal and plant remains preserved ...

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“…Iberian Peninsula is rich in Neanderthal occupations dated to Middle-Upper Paleolithic through the entire Mediterranean coast margin, ranging from the French border to the Straits of Gibraltar (Arsuaga et al, 1989;Arsuaga et al, 2005;Daura et al, 2005;Finlayson et al, 2006;Walker et al, 2011). However the Cueva de Camino fossil assemblage, located in a mountain habitat (in the limit of Mediterranean conditions), is of special interest because it constitutes the most complete and ancient inland Iberian record, where the Neanderthals lived.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the ancient habitats of the last-interglacial (late MIS 5) Neanderthals of central Iberia: Paleoenvironmental and taphonomic evidence from the Cueva del Camino (Spain) site

Arsuaga

Baquedano

Pérez‐González

et al. 2012

Quaternary International

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The Cueva del Camino site (Pinilla del Valle, Madrid) represents the most complete MIS 5 record from the Iberian Peninsula (away from the Mediterranean margin), including a large accumulation of fossilized remains of small and large vertebrates and two human teeth. The presence of carnivores (mainly hyenas) and humans suggests that the site should be interpreted as a spotted hyena den, a human occupation, or both.During an earlier phase of excavation undertaken during the 1980s, an anthropic origin was suggested for the accumulation at the site.

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The human remains from Cova Negra (Valencia, Spain) and their place in European Pleistocene human evolution

Cited by 36 publications

References 32 publications

New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)

New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Understanding the ancient habitats of the last-interglacial (late MIS 5) Neanderthals of central Iberia: Paleoenvironmental and taphonomic evidence from the Cueva del Camino (Spain) site

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