Who Were the Denisovans?

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-32
Author(s):  
O. P. Derevianko ◽  
M. V. Shunkov ◽  
M. B. Kozlikin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Human Gene ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Northwestern Part ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Genomic Studies

We provide a comprehensive summary of data relating to the origin, chronology, and culture of the Denisovans— a separate hominin population, fi rst described in 2010 on the basis of aDNA extracted from fossils found in Denisova Cave, in the northwestern part of the Russian Altai. We cite the results of morphological and genomic studies of the teeth and postcranial bones of those hominins. On the basis of a large series of optical and radiocarbon dates of the Pleistocene strata of Denisova Cave, the timeline for the hominin evolution in that region is reconstructed. The chronology of the evolutionary events based on aDNA is discussed. We provide a detailed description of stone and bone tools, and ornaments made of various materials, from Denisova habitation horizons. It is demonstrated that the Paleolithic cultural sequence in that cave is the most complete in North and Central Asia, spanning the principal stages of human evolutionary history over the last 300 thousand years. Denisovan origins and their role in the emergence of anatomically modern humans are reconstructed on the basis of a large body of archaeological, skeletal, and genetic data relating to Africa and Eurasia. It is concluded that the Neanderthal and Denisovan genetic legacy in the modern human gene pool indicates the existence of several zones in Africa and Eurasia where H. erectus evolution proceeded independently. The same applies to the evolution of lithic technologies.

Review Feature: A review of The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art by David Lewis-Williams. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002. ISBN 0-500-05117-8 hardback £18.95 & US$29.95; 320 pp., 66 figs., 29 colour plates

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lewis-Williams ◽  
E. Thomas Lawson ◽  
Knut Helskog ◽  
David S. Whitley ◽  
Paul Mellars
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Hominid Evolution ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Cave Art ◽  
West European

David Lewis-Williams is well-known in rock-art circles as the author of a series of articles drawing on ethnographic material and shamanism (notably connected with the San rock art of southern Africa) to gain new insights into the Palaeolithic cave art of western Europe. Some 15 years ago, with Thomas Dowson, he proposed that Palaeolithic art owed its inspiration at least in part to trance experiences (altered states of consciousness) associated with shamanistic practices. Since that article appeared, the shamanistic hypothesis has both been widely adopted and developed in the study of different rock-art traditions, and has become the subject of lively and sometimes heated controversy. In the present volume, Lewis-Williams takes the argument further, and combines the shamanistic hypothesis with an interpretation of the development of human consciousness. He thus enters another contentious area of archaeological debate, seeking to understand west European cave art in the context of (and as a marker of) the new intellectual capacities of anatomically modern humans. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest west European cave art now place it contemporary with the demise of the Neanderthals around 30,000 years ago, and cave art, along with carved or decorated portable items, appears to announce the arrival and denote the success of modern humans in this region. Lewis-Williams argues that such cave art would have been beyond the capabilities of Neanderthals, and that this kind of artistic ability is unique to anatomically modern humans. Furthermore, he concludes that the development of the new ability cannot have been the product of hundreds of thousands of years of gradual hominid evolution, but must have arisen much more abruptly, within the novel neurological structure of anatomically modern humans. The Mind in the Cave is thus the product of two hypotheses, both of them contentious — the shamanistic interpretation of west European Upper Palaeolithic cave art, and the cognitive separation of modern humans and Neanderthals. But is it as simple as that? Was cave art the hallmark of a new cognitive ability and social consciousness that were beyond the reach of previous hominids? And is shamanism an outgrowth of the hard-wired structure of the modern human brain? We begin this Review Feature with a brief summary by David Lewis-Williams of the book's principal arguments. There follows a series of comments addressing both the meaning of the west European cave art, and its wider relevance for the understanding of the Neanderthal/modern human transition.

scholarly journals SRGAP2 and the gradual evolution of the modern human language faculty

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Tiago Martins ◽  
Maties Marí ◽  
Cedric Boeckx
Keyword(s):  
Axon Guidance ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Molecular Pathway ◽  
Human Genomes ◽  
Gradual Evolution ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
History Of

AbstractIn this paper we examine a new source of evidence that draws on data from archaic human genomes to support the hypothesis that vocal learning in Homo preceded the emergence of Anatomically Modern Humans. We build our claim on the evolutionary history of the SLITROBO GTPase 2 gene (SRGAP2). The SLIT-ROBO molecular pathway has been shown to have an important role in the context of vocal learning. Though the relevance of the SRGAP2 gene duplication in the emergence of some aspect of language has not gone completely unnoticed, recent results now allow us to articulate a mechanistic hypothesis of its role in the context of axon guidance. Specifically, SRGAP2C, a duplication of SRGAP2 crucially also found in Neanderthals and Denisovans, but not in extant mammals, inhibits the ancestral SRGAP2A, which in turn modulates the axon guidance function of the SLIT-ROBO molecular pathway. This, we claim, could have contributed to the establishment of the critical cortico-laryngeal connection of the vocal learning circuit. Our conclusions support the idea that complex vocal learning could already have been part of the arsenal of some of our extinct ancestors.

Pleistocene geochronology and palaeothermometry from protein diagenesis in ostrich eggshells: implications for the evolution of modern humans

1992 ◽  
Vol 337 (1280) ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Peptide Fragments ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
First Order ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Instantaneous Temperature ◽  
Sample Age

Proteinaceous residues incorporated within the crystal structure of ostrich eggshells (OES) are retained without loss over geological time exceeding 10 million years. Degradation of the polypeptides, including hydrolysis to smaller peptide fragments and eventual release of free amino acids, decomposition, and racemization and epimerization occur at regular, predictable rates dependent on ambient temperature. The extent of isoleucine epimerization (alle/Ile ratio) in OES follows linear first-order reversible kinetics in controlled-temperature laboratory simulations of time up to an alle/Ile ratio in excess of 1.0. The hydrolysis of leucine also follows a predictable pattern, but deviates from first-order kinetics. A nonlinear mathematical model has been developed that adequately describes the pattern of leucine hydrolysis through a wide temperature range. Arrhenius parameters were derived from laboratory experiments combined with rate constant values found for 14 C-dated OES from stratified caves in southern Africa. These parameters for isoleucine epimerization and leucine hydrolysis differ by ca . 10%, allowing the simultaneous solution of the two equations for temperature, independent of sample age. Although the uncertainty of the simultaneous temperature is relatively high (± 10°C), it provides an effective means of identifying burned samples. If sample age is known, palaeotemperatures (the integrated thermal history experienced by an eggshell as opposed to an ‘instantaneous’ temperature) can be calculated with a precision of better than ± 1°C. The ages of levels at Border Cave, South Africa, from which anatomically modern human skeletal remains have been recovered, are dated by the extent of isoleucine epimerization in associated OES. The reaction is calibrated in the upper levels by a series of concordant radiocarbon dates on charcoal at 38 ka before present (BP). The amino acid dates on deeper levels indicate that the Howiesons Poort stratum at Border Cave is more than 70 ka old, and that anatomically modern humans occupied the site as early as 100 ka ago.

scholarly journals Eastern Europe’s “Transitional Industry”?: Deconstructing the Early Streletskian

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Dinnis ◽  
A. Bessudnov ◽  
N. Reynolds ◽  
T. Devièse ◽  
A. Dudin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Human ◽  
East European Plain ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
East European ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Layer V ◽  
Precise Relationship ◽  
Early Upper

AbstractThe Streletskian is central to understanding the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic on the East European Plain. Early Streletskian assemblages are frequently seen as marking the Neanderthal-anatomically modern human (AMH) anthropological transition, as well as the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic archaeological transition. The age of key Streletskian assemblages, however, remains unclear, and there are outstanding questions over how they relate to Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic facies. The three oldest Streletskian layers—Kostenki 1 Layer V, Kostenki 6 and Kostenki 12 Layer III—were excavated by A. N. Rogachev in the mid-20th century. Here, we re-examine these layers in light of problems noted during Rogachev’s campaigns and later excavations. Layer V in the northern part of Kostenki 1 is the most likely assemblage to be unmixed. A new radiocarbon date of 35,100 ± 500 BP (OxA- X-2717-21) for this assemblage agrees with Rogachev’s stratigraphic interpretation and contradicts later claims of a younger age. More ancient radiocarbon dates for Kostenki 1 Layer V are from areas lacking diagnostic Streletskian points. The Kostenki 6 assemblage’s stratigraphic context is extremely poor, but new radiocarbon dates are consistent with Rogachev’s view that the archaeological material was deposited prior to the CI tephra (i.e. >34.3 ka BP). Multiple lines of evidence indicate that Kostenki 12 Layer III contains material of different ages. Despite some uncertainty over the precise relationship between the dated sample and diagnostic lithic material, Kostenki 1 Layer V (North) therefore currently provides the best age estimate for an early Streletskian context. This age is younger than fully Upper Palaeolithic assemblages elsewhere at Kostenki. Other “Streletskian” assemblages and Streletskian points from younger contexts at Kostenki are briefly reviewed, with possible explanations for their chronostratigraphic distribution considered. We caution that the cultural taxon Streletskian should not be applied to assemblages based simply on the presence of bifacially worked artefacts.

scholarly journals Integrative approach using Yersinia pestis genomes to revisit the historical landscape of plague during the Medieval Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (50) ◽  
pp. E11790-E11797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amine Namouchi ◽  
Meriam Guellil ◽  
Oliver Kersten ◽  
Stephanie Hänsch ◽  
Claudio Ottoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Historical Landscape ◽  
Genomic Studies ◽  
History Of

Over the last few years, genomic studies on Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of all known plague epidemics, have considerably increased in numbers, spanning a period of about 5,000 y. Nonetheless, questions concerning historical reservoirs and routes of transmission remain open. Here, we present and describe five genomes from the second half of the 14th century and reconstruct the evolutionary history of Y. pestis by reanalyzing previously published genomes and by building a comprehensive phylogeny focused on strains attributed to the Second Plague Pandemic (14th to 18th century). Corroborated by historical and ecological evidence, the presented phylogeny, which includes our Y. pestis genomes, could support the hypothesis of an entry of plague into Western European ports through distinct waves of introduction during the Medieval Period, possibly by means of fur trade routes, as well as the recirculation of plague within the human population via trade routes and human movement.

scholarly journals Homoplasy in the evolution of modern human-like joint proportions in Australopithecus afarensis

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali M Prabhat ◽  
Catherine K Miller ◽  
Thomas Cody Prang ◽  
Jeffrey Spear ◽  
Scott A Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Limb ◽  
Lower Limb ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Australopithecus Afarensis ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Homo Habilis ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
Parsimonious Explanation ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses

The evolution of bipedalism and reduced reliance on arboreality in hominins resulted in larger lower limb joints relative to the joints of the upper limb. The pattern and timing of this transition, however, remains unresolved. Here, we find the limb joint proportions of Australopithecus afarensis, Homo erectus, and Homo naledi to resemble those of modern humans, whereas those of A. africanus, Australopithecus sediba, Paranthropus robustus, Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis, and Homo floresiensis are more ape-like. The homology of limb joint proportions in A. afarensis and modern humans can only be explained by a series of evolutionary reversals irrespective of differing phylogenetic hypotheses. Thus, the independent evolution of modern human-like limb joint proportions in A. afarensis is a more parsimonious explanation. Overall, these results support an emerging perspective in hominin paleobiology that A. afarensis was the most terrestrially adapted australopith despite the importance of arboreality throughout much of early hominin evolution.

scholarly journals Significance of the Diversification of Wheat Species for the Assembly and Functioning of the Root-Associated Microbiome

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Gruet ◽  
Daniel Muller ◽  
Yvan Moënne-Loccoz
Keyword(s):  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Wheat Root ◽  
Wheat Species ◽  
Sequencing Technologies ◽  
The World ◽  
Baseline Information ◽  
Microbe Interactions

Wheat, one of the major crops in the world, has had a complex history that includes genomic hybridizations between Triticum and Aegilops species and several domestication events, which resulted in various wild and domesticated species (especially Triticum aestivum and Triticum durum), many of them still existing today. The large body of information available on wheat-microbe interactions, however, was mostly obtained without considering the importance of wheat evolutionary history and its consequences for wheat microbial ecology. This review addresses our current understanding of the microbiome of wheat root and rhizosphere in light of the information available on pre- and post-domestication wheat history, including differences between wild and domesticated wheats, ancient and modern types of cultivars as well as individual cultivars within a given wheat species. This analysis highlighted two major trends. First, most data deal with the taxonomic diversity rather than the microbial functioning of root-associated wheat microbiota, with so far a bias toward bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi that will progressively attenuate thanks to the inclusion of markers encompassing other micro-eukaryotes and archaea. Second, the comparison of wheat genotypes has mostly focused on the comparison of T. aestivum cultivars, sometimes with little consideration for their particular genetic and physiological traits. It is expected that the development of current sequencing technologies will enable to revisit the diversity of the wheat microbiome. This will provide a renewed opportunity to better understand the significance of wheat evolutionary history, and also to obtain the baseline information needed to develop microbiome-based breeding strategies for sustainable wheat farming.

scholarly journals The origin, current diversity and future conservation of the modern lion ( Panthera leo )

2006 ◽  
Vol 273 (1598) ◽  
pp. 2119-2125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Barnett ◽  
Nobuyuki Yamaguchi ◽  
Ian Barnes ◽  
Alan Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Mitochondrial Control Region ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
African Origin ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
Physical Barriers ◽  
Geographic Populations ◽  
Sub Saharan

Understanding the phylogeographic processes affecting endangered species is crucial both to interpreting their evolutionary history and to the establishment of conservation strategies. Lions provide a key opportunity to explore such processes; however, a lack of genetic diversity and shortage of suitable samples has until now hindered such investigation. We used mitochondrial control region DNA (mtDNA) sequences to investigate the phylogeographic history of modern lions, using samples from across their entire range. We find the sub-Saharan African lions are basal among modern lions, supporting a single African origin model of modern lion evolution, equivalent to the ‘recent African origin’ model of modern human evolution. We also find the greatest variety of mtDNA haplotypes in the centre of Africa, which may be due to the distribution of physical barriers and continental-scale habitat changes caused by Pleistocene glacial oscillations. Our results suggest that the modern lion may currently consist of three geographic populations on the basis of their recent evolutionary history: North African–Asian, southern African and middle African. Future conservation strategies should take these evolutionary subdivisions into consideration.

scholarly journals The evolution of the human pelvis: changing adaptations to bipedalism, obstetrics and thermoregulation

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1663) ◽  
pp. 20140063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Tobias Gruss ◽  
Daniel Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Heat Dissipation ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Habitat Diversity ◽  
Bipedal Walking ◽  
Birth Canal ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Hominin Evolution

The fossil record of the human pelvis reveals the selective priorities acting on hominin anatomy at different points in our evolutionary history, during which mechanical requirements for locomotion, childbirth and thermoregulation often conflicted. In our earliest upright ancestors, fundamental alterations of the pelvis compared with non-human primates facilitated bipedal walking. Further changes early in hominin evolution produced a platypelloid birth canal in a pelvis that was wide overall, with flaring ilia. This pelvic form was maintained over 3–4 Myr with only moderate changes in response to greater habitat diversity, changes in locomotor behaviour and increases in brain size. It was not until Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and the Middle East 200 000 years ago that the narrow anatomically modern pelvis with a more circular birth canal emerged. This major change appears to reflect selective pressures for further increases in neonatal brain size and for a narrow body shape associated with heat dissipation in warm environments. The advent of the modern birth canal, the shape and alignment of which require fetal rotation during birth, allowed the earliest members of our species to deal obstetrically with increases in encephalization while maintaining a narrow body to meet thermoregulatory demands and enhance locomotor performance.

scholarly journals Between two worlds: Cova Eirós and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in NW Iberia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo de LOMBERA-HERMIDA ◽  
Xose-Pedro RODRÍGUEZ-ÁLVAREZ ◽  
Alicia AMEIJENDA IGLESIAS ◽  
Mikel DÍAZ RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
undefined Iván REY-RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Nw Iberia ◽  
Early Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Late Survival ◽  
Early Upper

Iberia, a natural cul-de-sac peninsula, plays a major role in the study of the Neanderthals demise and its eventual relationship with the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Europe. The site of Cova Eirós (Galicia, Spain), located in NW Iberia, contains Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels, based on the cultural remains recovered at the site. No human remains directly associated with those levels were discovered yet. The available radiocarbon dates from the levels 2 (c. 35 ka cal BP, Early Upper Paleolithic) and 3 (c. 41 ka cal BP, Late Middle Paleolithic), point to a late survival of Neanderthal groups in North Iberia and to a relative quick arrival of the AMH, c. 35-36 ka cal BP, with respect to other territories of the Iberian Peninsula. The archaeological record shows clear differences between the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic occupations, regarding raw-material acquisition, lithic technology and subsistence strategies. The location of Cova Eirós in the westernmost margin of the Cantabrian Rim and in the Atlantic Façade, makes this site a key place to understand the spread of the first AMH and the progressive demise of Neanderthal populations.

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