A new analysis of the broken mandible reveals that it
has nothing in common with other Neanderthal remains.
Rather, it could
might be
the oldest known piece of our species' anatomy on
the European continent.
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-may-be-the-oldest-fragment-of-modern-humans-in-europe-or-something-even-rarer
An ancient jawbone previously thought to have belonged
to a Neanderthal may force a rethink on the history of
modern humans in Europe.
A new analysis of the broken mandible reveals that it
has nothing in common with other Neanderthal remains.
Rather, it could belong to a Homo sapiens – and, since
it's dated to between 45,000 to 66,000 years ago, might
be the oldest known piece of our species' anatomy on
the European continent. ... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248422001518 Since the discovery of a human mandible in 1887 near
the present-day city of Banyoles, northeastern Spain,
researchers have generally emphasized its archaic
features, including the lack of chin structures, and
suggested affinities with the Neandertals or European
Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian) specimens. Uranium-series
and electron spin resonance dating suggest the mandible
dates to the Late Pleistocene (Tarantian), approximately
ca. 45–66 ka. In this study, we reassessed the taxonomic
affinities of the Banyoles mandible by comparing it to
samples of Middle Pleistocene fossils from Africa and
Europe, Neandertals, Early and Upper Paleolithic modern
humans, and recent modern humans. We evaluated the
frequencies and expressions of morphological features and
performed a three-dimensional geometric morphometric
analysis on a virtual reconstruction of Banyoles to
capture overall mandibular shape. Our results revealed no
derived Neandertal morphological features in Banyoles.
While a principal component analysis based on Euclidean
distances from the first two principal components clearly
grouped Banyoles with both fossil and recent Homo sapiens
individuals, an analysis of the Procrustes residuals
demonstrated that Banyoles did not fit into any of the
comparative groups. The lack of Neandertal features in
Banyoles is surprising considering its Late Pleistocene
age. A consideration of the Middle Pleistocene fossil
record in Europe and southwest Asia suggests that Banyoles
is unlikely to represent a late-surviving Middle Pleistocene
population. The lack of chin structures also complicates an
assignment to H. sapiens, although early fossil H. sapiens
do show somewhat variable development of the chin structures.
Thus, Banyoles represents a non-Neandertal Late Pleistocene
European individual and highlights the continuing signal of
diversity in the hominin fossil record. The present situation
makes Banyoles a prime candidate for ancient DNA or proteomic
analyses, which may shed additional light on its taxonomic
affinities.
Thanks, yes, Banyoles was not Hn, probably not even Hs, yet his enamal damage shows he ate (smoked) fish: another Homo who didn't run after antelopes or mammoths... :-DDD
An ancient jawbone
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