Neanderthals were skilled woodworkers, first-of-its-kind tool trove in Spain reveals

Amazing stuff!

"Home decorating isn’t unique to Homo sapiens. More than 40,000 years ago, bands of Neanderthals turned a spacious rock shelter in the mountains of Spain into a cozy home, fashioning wood into tools and windbreaks and burning it for heat and light. That picture comes from a first-of-its-kind trove of Neanderthal wooden artifacts from a domestic space, found at a cliffside site called Abric Romaní, 50 kilometers west of Barcelona. ...

Added to even older evidence from sites in Germany and Italy, the tools from Abric Romaní provide strong evidence that our ancient hominin cousins were craftspeople roughly on par with our own species ..."

From the abstract:

"Wood technology likely played a key role in human evolution, yet it remains poorly documented because organic materials rarely preserve in archaeological contexts.

The Middle Palaeolithic site of Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona) provides exceptional evidence of Neanderthal woodworking preserved through travertine incrustation.

We document 597 wooden imprints and charred wood remains recovered from 16 archaeological levels dated between ∼62,000 and 40,000 years ago.

The assemblage includes wood imprints, charred wood imprints, and charred macroremains, among which several anthropogenic objects can be identified.

These include tools and weapons, domestic artifacts, and structural elements, revealing a wide range of woodworking activities.

Key discoveries include wooden spears, pointed sticks, and domestic objects such as trays and tripods. A club-like artifact recovered from level P represents a unique object with no clear parallel in the prehistoric record. The Abric Romaní assemblage highlights the importance of wood within Neanderthal technological systems and provides previously unknown insights into the role of organic materials in Middle Palaeolithic societies."

Neanderthals were skilled woodworkers, first-of-its-kind tool trove reveals | Science | AAAS "Find in Spanish cave provides rare window into the domestic lives of our closest relatives"

Exploring the Wood Technology of the Neanderthals of the Abric Romaní (Capellades, Barcelona) (original news release)

Més enllà de la pedra: l’Abric Romaní mostra un univers neandertal fet també de fusta (original news release)

Neanderthal woodworking at Abric Romaní: Insights into the role of wood in a Middle Palaeolithic domestic context (open access)

Fig. 1. Trays crafted from bark that have been preserved in a carbonized state, recovered from levels H and O.

What Lies Hidden Beneath the Amazon Rainforest?

Very recommendable!

(236) What Lies Hidden Beneath the Amazon Rainforest? | NOVA | PBS - YouTube

There Was Never a First Human

Recommendable!

(477) There Was Never a First Human - YouTube

Ice age hunters targeted female mammoths. Really!

No wonder mammoths are extinct! Caution satire! 

Were our hunter ancestors that stupid? I have some doubts. Maybe these mammoth accumulations were something like holy sites (what age were the female mammoth when they died or were killed?)? If these females were of older age, then they were perhaps past prime gestation age.

The study below does not seem to address the age at death of the female mammoths!

What is wrong with the use of the term "anthropogenic" in the title of the research paper below? Anthropogenic is a fairly new term that has become fashionable in recent times (e.g. in the context of environmental pollution, global warming/climate change demagoguery). It is also very much a lefty predilection! It also implies modern knowledge and science, which our hunter ancestors did not have!

"The term anthropogenic became popular during the 1950s to 1980s, shifting from a niche academic word into widespread use as public concern over global environmental changes and pollution grew." (Google Search)

"... Why ice age hunters preferred to take down female mammoths remains unclear. “While it is tempting to assume that hunters would have targeted females because they were smaller than adult males, the reality may have been more complex,” ... For instance, herds of females may have moved across the landscape more predictably than the wandering males, making them more reliable meals. The ancient humans “ ..."

From the highlights and abstract:

"Highlights

• Genetic sex determination of 521 woolly mammoths based on genome-wide data

• Naturally deposited mammoth remains are consistently biased toward males

• In contrast, 70% of remains in Upper Paleolithic mammoth accumulations are female

• This female bias suggests mammoth bone accumulations resulted from human exploitation

Summary

Whether large accumulations of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) bones reflect natural mortality or deliberate human resource exploitation has long been debated, with major implications for understanding Late Pleistocene human-megafaunal interactions. 

Here, we use ancient DNA to investigate site-formation hypotheses by comparing genetic sex ratios from mammoth remains recovered in putative anthropogenic bone accumulations and from geographically dispersed, non-anthropogenic contexts.

We studied genome-wide data from 521 woolly mammoths—including 100 mammoths from bone accumulation sites and 421 mammoths from natural depositional settings across Eurasia and North America—of which 448 are newly generated.

Genetic sex determination reveals a striking contrast between contexts: mammoths from dispersed sites show a male bias (∼66.5%), which is consistent with the heightened vulnerability of solitary males to hazards such as natural traps, where bones are more likely to be preserved,

whereas mammoths from anthropogenic bone accumulations are predominantly female (∼70%). This female bias is pervasive across multiple sites, indicating an anthropogenic origin for these accumulations as a result of Upper Paleolithic hunters preferentially exploiting female mammoths, possibly derived from herd contexts.

Together, these results provide population-scale genetic evidence that highlights the central role of mammoths in the subsistence and material economies of some Paleolithic communities."

ScienceAdviser

Paleogenomic sex inference of mammoth remains sheds light on the anthropogenic [???] nature of bone accumulations (open access)

Figure 1 Excavation documentation for four bone accumulation sites and the geographical locations of the woolly mammoths analyzed in this study

Figure 3 Genetic sex ratios for the different woolly mammoth contexts analyzed in this study

New Computational Method 'Trace' Finds Ancient DNA of extinct hominis Without Fossils

Amazing stuff! Interbreeding with Neanderthals, Denisovans and other, unknown extinct hominins!

(1) New Computational Method 'Trace' Finds Ancient DNA Without Fossils | WION Pulse - YouTube

Ancient Mesoamericans used a-maize-ing strategies to avoid malnutrition

Ama(i)zing stuff!

"Corn flakes for breakfast, tamales for lunch, and some hominy grits with a side of corn bread for dinner? As delicious as this corn-ucopia sounds, such a maize-heavy diet is not without potential health trade-offs: Maize contains very little lysine, an amino acid important for preventing connective tissue disorders and anemia. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who rely on maize as their primary source of food, finding dietary supplements that can add lysine is vital to prevent malnutrition.

To help understand how the earliest maize-eating societies avoided these consequences, a group of researchers examined the remains of 39 humans who lived in Belize between 1100 and 6100 years ago—just a few millennia after corn was first domesticated in Mexico.

By taking small samples from the skeletal remains and analyzing the ratios of carbon isotopes in their amino acids, the researchers deduced that the people ate animals like turkeys that had themselves eaten corn and concentrated the lysine in their bodies, allowing the amino acid to build up through a process known as trophic magnification. The findings ... suggest that Mesoamericans may have provided maize to food animals long before fully domesticating them around 2200 years ago ..."

From the abstract:

"The adoption of maize as a dietary staple shaped human societies. While a reliable carbohydrate-rich source, its inherent nutritional limitations posed substantial challenges.

Maize is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid crucial for maintaining balanced health.

Maize-dependent diets, therefore, necessitated complementary dietary strategies. We report amino acid stable carbon isotope data from 39 directly dated humans from southern Belize [6100 to 1100 before present (B.P.)] to investigate how early populations mitigated nutritional deficiencies.

Concentration-dependent mixing model results indicate that protein supplementation from maize-eating animals contributed maize-derived lysine to human diets through trophic magnification (elevated proportions of isotopically distinct nutrients in tissues from trophic transfer).

Our results indicate that such strategies were in place by 6100 B.P., consistent with evidence of early maize cultivation but predating reliance by ~2000 years. Our findings highlight early coevolutionary dynamics linking maize cultivation and human-animal provisioning relationships, deepening understandings of adaptive food systems during agricultural transitions and offering insights into nutritional strategies underpinning sustainable subsistence."

ScienceAdviser

Nutritional Adaptations to Early Maize Cultivation: Earliest Isotopic Evidence of Maize Based Animal Provisioning in the Neotropics Tracing Early Maize-Based Animal Provisioning (original news release)

Nutritional adaptations to early maize cultivation: Earliest isotopic evidence of maize-based animal provisioning in the Neotropics (open access)

Fig. 1. Human and turkey maize and nixtamalized maize daily requirements.

Fig. 6. Analytical framework for calculating dietary contributions of maize-based foods and maize-consuming animals to individual lysine δ13C values.

Did humans evolve from knuckle-walking ancestors?

Knuckle walking for knuckleheads? Just kidding!

"Humans are the only primates that walk upright all the time, an adaptation that has freed up our hands to more nimbly build tools, lug around food, and carry out other dexterous tasks. Hidden in the eight small bones of the wrist is an anatomical hint to where that gift of grab originated.

Now, the most comprehensive analysis of primate wrist bones to date ... concludes that our wrists more closely resemble those of gorillas and chimpanzees than any other primate group, a similarity the authors link to a possible knuckle-walking past.

Scientists have long looked to wrist anatomy for clues to our evolutionary past, comparing our wrists to those of other living primates such as chimps and gorillas (which knuckle-walk) or capuchins and macaques (which flat-palm walk). Studying fossil hominins’ wrists for signs of these adaptations has proven tricky, as the wrist is a complex puzzle of eight or nine interlocking bones. So, researchers digitally reconstructed and quantified the exteriors of 2037 wrist bones across multiple living and extinct species, including monkeys and apes.

For nearly every bone examined, human wrist bones resembled the equivalents in knuckle-walking African apes far more than those of any other primate group. Human wrists also feature traits that help stabilize other primates’ wrists during knuckle walking—a sign of evolution’s opportunism. Features that once steadied the wrist in our distant ancestors laid the foundation for adaptations that yielded our dexterous wrists. ..."

"... The study also finds that bone structures tied to sophisticated tool use emerged surprisingly late in human evolution, within the past few hundred thousand years. ..."

From the abstract:

"Hominin forelimbs have evolved from primarily locomotive to manipulative appendages over approximately 6 million years. As such, hand functions in fossil hominins and the Pan–Homo last common ancestor (LCA) are intensely debated, with carpal morphology central to this debate. However, owing to their irregular and challenging shapes, few studies have comprehensively quantified carpal morphology.

We analyse the overall carpal morphology of anthropoids, including fossil hominins, using spherical harmonics and use classification methods to characterize fossil hominins within the context of extant taxa.

Results show that hominins share with African apes derived carpal morphology possibly related to knuckle walking. Furthermore, unique modern human carpal morphology appears to have evolved from these possible knuckle-walking features and in a piecemeal manner, causing some hominin capitates to resemble those of palmigrade monkeys. Striking variation in biomechanically relevant carpal morphology and retention of potentially ancestral features persists as late as Homo naledi, suggesting that most hominins probably neither knuckle walked nor extensively used stone tools. 

These results indicate that the hominin carpus evolved from an African ape-like wrist, with radial-side reorganization related to manipulation occurring only recently. Although it remains unclear whether the LCA knuckle walked, our results suggest that this is the most likely existing hypothesis."

ScienceAdviser

New study strengthens idea that humans evolved from knuckle-walking ancestors

Did modern human carpal morphology evolve from knuckle walking traits? (open access)

Figure 2. Scatterplots of PC1 and PC2 for all examined carpals. Lunate and triquetrum are similar in humans and African apes, with fossil hominins largely within the range of these two groups. Capitate, scaphoid, trapezium and trapezoid of humans appear distinct from those of other taxa, with early fossil hominins largely intermediate between humans and African apes. For extant taxa, symbols represent species averages.

The history of the domestication of horses goes back much further to at least about 3000 BCE

Amazing stuff!

"... Scholars continue to debate when this historic bond actually began. Some scientists have argued, for example, that horse domestication first occurred about 2200 to 2100 B.C.E., around the same time humans invented chariots.

This time period marked the expansion of horses from a lineage known as DOM2, the direct genetic ancestors of all modern domesticated horses. These equines possessed favorable genetic mutations linked to endurance and calmness around humans—and they eventually galloped their way across Europe, Anatolia, the Near East, and Central Asia.

But research published last week ... challenges this idea, suggesting that humans began riding horses much earlier than previously thought.

Researchers combined archaeological artifacts, ancient DNA, bone studies, and other evidence to show that horses from multiple genetic backgrounds were being eaten, managed, milked, and ridden in communities across Eurasia long before 2200 B.C.E. The team identified people from the Yamnaya culture, who lived across the Eurasian steppes between about 3200 and 2600 B.C.E., as early riders of DOM2 horses. “Rather than a sudden breakthrough, domestication was a protracted, regionally varied process whose transformative effects on human mobility and social organization began as early as the fourth, if not the fifth millennium B.C.E.,”  ..."

"Taming and domestication were not single events. They were a slow, stop-start process, full of setbacks, playing out over generations and across vast regions, before full domestication set in shortly before 2000 BCE. ...

“The role of horses in major historical developments is almost too vast to measure, hence the saying that the world was conquered on horseback,” ...

Today, truly wild horses no longer exist. Even Przewalski's horse

Opens in a new tab, long held up as a living relic of the wild, is now known to descend from early domesticated populations, showing how deeply humans have shaped horse populations over time.

The timing matters. Around 3,500 to 3,000 BCE, steppe populations began pushing east and west across Eurasia. They brought the wheel with them. Cattle pulled the first wagons. Horses came at the same time. A rider could cover ground in hours that a wagon took days to cross but both were key innovations in mobility and transport, revolutionizing human society.

Researchers now link that leap in mobility to the spread of Proto-Indo-European languages. The horse carried people. And with them, words. The languages spoken across much of Europe and Asia today trace back to those early riders and wagon drivers. ..."

From the abstract:

"Recent papers argued that the domestication of horses can be equated with the appearance of favorable genetic mutations that are first evident in individuals in the DOM2 clade dated about ∼2200–2100 BCE.

We challenge the idea that this genetic shift alone defines domestication.

Evidence from archaeology, ancient DNA, osteology, and other disciplines shows that horses from multiple genetic backgrounds (DOM1, DOM2, and, as we suggest here, DOM3) were managed, milked, and ridden long before 2200 BCE.

Yamnaya groups (∼3200–2600 BCE) rode DOM2 horses—the direct ancestors of modern domestic stock—while incorporating them into diets, rituals, and mobility systems. 

Selection for traits linked to endurance and temperament began centuries earlier. Rather than a sudden breakthrough, domestication was a protracted, regionally varied process whose transformative effects on human mobility and social organization began as early as the fourth, if not the fifth millennium BCE, and set the stage for later DOM2 dominance."

ScienceAdviser

The first domesticated horses: 6,000 years of a complex story (original news release) "Horses were being ridden, worked, and traded long before anyone thought it possible. New research pushes back the accepted timeline of human use of horses by centuries, showing that humans used horses in organized ways as early as the 4th millennium BCE, if not earlier."

Horse genetics, archaeology, and the beginning of riding (open access)

Fig. 1. Early horse representations in the steppes.

(A) The earliest clear image of a steppe horse, embossed on a silver cup from the Maikop-Oshad chieftain’s grave, Russia dated 3520–3350 cal BCE

Fig. 9. Wagons in the third millennium BCE record.

Two time slices, three geographical regions and three horse populations: A complex map of Eurasia.

Neanderthal used stone drills to treat tooth cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests

Amazing stuff!

"Neanderthals had the know-how to identify a tooth infection and the motor skills to drill out the damage, according to a study published May 13, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Alisa Zubova of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences ..."

From the abstract:

"Neanderthal medical knowledge has long attracted scholarly interest. Evidence suggests they cared for sick, injured, and elderly group members, with possible use of medicinal plants.

However, it remains uncertain whether such practices reflect deliberate medical strategies or instinctive self-medication akin to that observed in non-human primates.

Here, we analyze and interpret traces of deliberate artificial manipulation of Chagyrskaya 64, a Neanderthal lower left second molar found in Chagyrskaya Cave (Altai Krai, Russia).

The tooth exhibits a large human-generated concavity on the occlusal surface, created during the lifetime of the individual.

Traceological and microtomographic analyses of the observed modifications, combined with experimental verification, reveal that the concavity in Chagyrskaya 64 is indicative of the earliest documented instance of caries treatment involving the drilling/rotating with a lithic perforator, ca. 59 ka.

Evidence of two distinct types of manipulations requiring different tools, in addition to the drilling/rotating technique, necessitating complex finger movements, indicates that the Chagyrskaya Cave Neanderthals possessed the cognitive capacity to intuit the source of pain, comprehend the feasibility of its elimination, and deliberately select the most efficacious dental intervention.

These patterns bring Neanderthal behavior closer to modern humans and differentiate that behavior from the instinctive actions of other primates."

Neanderthal dentists used stone drills to treat cavities nearly 60,000 years ago, ancient molar suggests

Earliest evidence for invasive mitigation of dental caries by Neanderthals (open access)

Fig 2. Chagyrskaya 64 molar tooth and its macro-features.

Fig 4. Retouched points (1, 4) and perforators (2, 3, 5) from Layer 6c/2 in Chagyrskaya Cave.

Kakapel rock art timeline reveals 9,000 years of painters in Kenya

Amazing stuff! The abstract of this research paper is lousy and dilettante!

"A recent study ... presents the first millimeter-accurate recording of the paintings at Kakapel rock shelter in Kenya, linking the layers of rock art painted over thousands of years to at least three culturally and genetically distinct groups.

The combination of rock art analysis, aDNA, and excavation data makes Kakapel one of the most comprehensively understood rock art sites in eastern Africa. ..."

From the abstract:

"... first described the Kakapel rock art of western Kenya in 1977.  ...

Fieldwork in 2011 was undertaken to ... further research at the site. This paper presents the first millimetre-accurate redrawing of the main panel at Kakapel and places the site within the broader context of eastern African rock art to propose an age and authorship for the different painted traditions represented there.

It thus builds on and extends current understandings of the rock art sequence of eastern Africa."

Kakapel rock art timeline reveals 9,000 years of painters in Kenya

The rock art of Kakapel Shelter, western Kenya (open access)

Figure 4. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 1 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 5. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 2 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 6. Kakapel: redrawing of the images in Layer 3 (redrawn by Wendy Voorveld in 2012 and coloured for publication by Kgolagano Vena).

Figure 1. Map of East Africa showing location of Kakapel rock art site in relation to other sites and places mentioned in the paper.

Did the first modern apes emerge in northern Africa and the Middle East instead of East Africa?

Amazing stuff! Maybe the pyramids in Egypt distracted too much! Just kidding!

"Scientists have long assumed that modern apes—the group that includes gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans—first emerged in East Africa. Newly discovered fossils described recently in Science, however, may rewrite that history.

Researchers working at the Wadi Moghra archaeological site in northern Egypt unearthed teeth and jawbones belonging to a previously unknown ape genus and species, which lived around 17 to 18 million years ago during the Early Miocene epoch. “Discovering a fossil ape in this region is both significant and somewhat surprising,” ...

The ancient animal, dubbed Masripithecus moghraensis , appears to be closely related to the last common ancestor of all living apes, suggesting this group actually got its start in northern Africa and the Middle East. Based on its large, textured teeth and robust jaw, the team believes M. moghraensis ate a flexible diet of fruit, nuts, and seeds—helping the species thrive during a period of climatic change. ..."

"... The remains, discovered in 2023 and 2024, are very incomplete ‪—‬ just a few fragments of lower jawbone and some worn teeth. But Al-Ashqar and her colleagues established that the remains didn't belong to any known ape species. The researchers have assigned the fossils to a new genus and species named Masripithecus moghraensis; the genus name translates to "Egypt monkey or trickster" in Arabic and Greek, while the species name refers to "Wadi Moghra," where it was found. ..."

From the Perspective abstract:

"Research on the closest extinct relatives of humans (such as australopiths) can only explain the most recent evolutionary history of the human lineage. Older apes are essential to reconstructing the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans—that is, the starting point of human evolution

(1). The ape and human lineage (hominoids) diverged from Old World monkeys in Afro-Arabia more than 25 million years ago (Ma)

(2). In the Miocene epoch (23 to 5 Ma), apes were much more diverse and widespread than they are today (1, 3). Various lineages of African archaic (stem) hominoids evolved before the origin of modern (crown) hominoids and their eventual dispersal into Eurasia. However, the origins of crown hominoids are still unclear. On page 1383 of this issue, Al-Ashqar et al. (4) describe a previously unknown Miocene ape from North Africa and discuss its relevance for crown-hominoid origins."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

The vast majority of early hominoid fossil hunting has occurred in East Africa, where a trove of early fossils and lineages have been found. Other regions in Africa have been less explored for various reasons, inspiring the question of whether a focus on East Africa has shaped opinions about where early hominoid evolution occurred. Al-Ashqar et al. now describe a Miocene ape from Egypt with crown hominoid affinities suggesting both that this lineage diverged before entering Eurasia and that a focus on one African region may have shaped our ideas about where hominoids first emerged (see the Perspective by Alba and Arias-Martorell). ... 

Abstract

The Early Miocene fossil record documenting hominoid evolution has long been restricted primarily to sites in East Africa, whereas contemporaneous North African sites have only yielded remains of cercopithecoid monkeys.

Here, we describe a fossil ape from North Africa, a new genus (Masripithecus) from the Early Miocene (~17 million to 18 million years) of northern Egypt, on the basis of mandibular remains. A combined molecular-morphological Bayesian tip-dating analysis positions Masripithecus closer to crown hominoids than coeval fossil apes from East Africa, thereby filling a phylogenetic and biogeographic gap in the evolution of stem hominoids. This evidence suggests that crown Hominoidea might have originated during the Early Miocene in the underexplored northeastern part of Afro-Arabia, rather than in eastern Africa or Eurasia."

ScienceAdviser

18 million-year-old fossils of ape found in Africa, but in an unexpected place "The ancestor of apes was long thought to come from East Africa, but newly discovered fossils in Egypt may prompt a rethink."

The dawn of modern apes (Perspective, no public access)

An Early Miocene ape from the biogeographic crossroads of African and Eurasian Hominoidea (no public access)

A map showing the dispersal of apes, including Masripithecus moghraensis, in the Miocene.

A jaw fragment from Masripithecus moghraensis, photographed at the moment of discovery.

Neanderthals survived on a knife’s edge Between 400,000 and 45,000 years ago

Amazing stuff! 350,000 years on knife's edge? Really!

"Between 400,000 and 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals had most of Eurasia to themselves, hunting large game, harvesting plants, expertly knapping stone tools, and fashioning clothing from animal skins. But their existence was precarious. Two new studies show many Neanderthals lived in small, far-flung groups; likely experienced significant inbreeding; and survived a close brush with extinction about 75,000 years ago. ...

The team found that Neanderthal sites and skeletal remains were widely distributed across the continent, and their genomes relatively diverse, until about 75,000 years ago, Then, as an ice age gripped the continent between 75,000 and 65,000 years ago, “we see the number of sites decline,” ... Archaeological data show some Neanderthals found refuge in southwestern Europe, taking shelter inside caves in the valleys of southern France, while abandoning or dying out in the rest of the continent. ..."

Neanderthals survived on a knife’s edge for 350,000 years | Science | AAAS

A high-coverage Neandertal genome from the Altai Mountains reveals population structure among Neandertals (open access)

Archaeogenetic insights into the demographic history of Late Neanderthals (open access)

Fig. 1 Neandertal D17 and its relationship with other Neandertals. (A) Locations of high-coverage Neandertal genomes used in the study.

The biggest myths about Neanderthals

Recommendable!

(1) The biggest myths about Neanderthals - Bruce Hardy - YouTube

Only humans have chins: Study shows it's an evolutionary accident. Really!

Does it not provide any significant benefits to humans? How about speech and eating?

So far this paper is only published on PLOS.

The lead author Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel has only less than 4900 lifetime citations!

Why these authors even used the term "spandrel" (the space between the shoulders of adjoining arches) in the title of their paper?

"... "The chin evolved largely by accident and not through direct selection, but as an evolutionary byproduct resulting from direct selection on other parts of the skull," says Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UB Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences. ..."

From the abstract:

"Humans are unique among primates in possessing a chin, yet it is currently unclear whether the form of the symphyseal region of the mandible where the chin is located is the product of direct selection or a by-product of evolutionary pressures on other craniomandibular features.

Here, we conduct an evolutionary analysis of hominoid craniomandibular traits to test three hypotheses: symphyseal mandibular traits evolved

(1) neutrally due to genetic drift,

(2) under direct selection, and 

(3) as a by-product (or “spandrel”) of selection on other craniomandibular traits. Evolutionary rates of morphological change, via Lande’s generalized genetic distance, were estimated along each branch of a fully-resolved hominoid phylogeny to reveal patterns of neutral, stabilizing and directional selection.

Directional selection was detected along the branch between humans and the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans, against a backdrop of pervasive stabilizing selection and neutral evolution in hominoids. Significant directional selection was found on cranial traits reflecting increased basicranial flexion, neurocranial expansion, and reduction in lower facial prognathism, and on mandibular traits that generate a more parabolic-shaped, gracile mandible with a smaller ramus and shallower corpus.

In contrast, of the nine mandibular “chin” traits, only three were under significant direct selection, while the other six were either under no selection or indirect selection. Thus, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the symphyseal morphology that forms the human chin evolved largely as a by-product (i.e., spandrel) [???] of direct selection for reduced anterior dental size and the craniofacial changes correlated with the evolution of bipedalism in hominins, rather than as a specific adaptation."

Only humans have chins: Study shows it's an evolutionary accident

Is the human chin a spandrel? Insights from an evolutionary analysis of ape craniomandibular form

Fig 2. Craniomandibular landmarks with all 22 cranial and 24 mandibular interlandmark distances considered here.

Landmark definitions can be found in S1 Table. Solid colored lines show the expected selection gradients to increase (red) and to decrease (blue) for the nine mandibular symphyseal traits related to the evolution of a chin under a hypothetical model of direct selection along the Homo sapiens branch since the last common ancestor with chimpanzees. [Notice, the authors forgot to explain the meaning of the capital letters!]

Exposure to burn injuries played key role in shaping human evolution, study suggests

Amazing stuff! How did the harnessing of fire by humans affect human evolution?

"A new study ... suggests that this increased exposure to burn injuries may have driven notable genetic adaptations which differentiated humans from other primates and mammals. This may also explain both beneficial and maladaptive responses to severe burn injury. ...

Using comparative genomic data across primates, the researchers found examples of genes associated with burn injury responses which show signs of accelerated evolution in humans. These genes are involved in wound closure, inflammation and immune system response—likely helping to rapidly close wounds and fight infection; a major complication after burn injury, particularly before the widespread use of antibiotics.

These findings support the theory that exposure to burn injuries may have been a notable force on the evolution of humans. ..."

From the abstract:

"The mastery of fire transformed human evolution through advantages spanning diet, behavior, physiology, and ecology. While these benefits are well established, here we highlight a previously overlooked cost — and selective pressure — unique to humans: high-temperature burn injury.

Unlike other species, humans and their hominin ancestors have faced increased lifetime risk of burns, which we argue has driven genetic adaptation. Drawing on comparative genomic evidence across primates, we suggest that genes associated with burn injury response — relating to wound healing and inflammation — show signs of accelerated evolution in humans.

We propose that recurrent exposure to burns acted as a selective force in our lineage, helping to explain both beneficial adaptations and paradoxical maladaptive responses to severe injury.

By framing burns as an evolutionary pressure, the Burn Selection Hypothesis invites a re-evaluation of how fire shaped human biology and offers new perspectives for understanding both the evolutionary past and modern burn care."

Exposure to burn injuries played key role in shaping human evolution, study suggests

Exposure to burn injuries played key role in shaping human evolution, study suggests (original news release) "Humans’ exposure to high temperature burn injuries may have played an important role in our evolutionary development, shaping how our bodies heal, fight infection, and sometimes fail under extreme injury, according to new research."

Burn Selection: How Fire Injury Shaped Human Evolution (open access)

World's Oldest Monumental Site Built 12,000 Years Before Agriculture - Göbekli Tepe

Recommendable!

Advanced ancient stone tools in China are forcing scientists to rethink early humans

Amazing stuff!

"An international research team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out excavations at Xigou in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region of central China. Their work revealed evidence of advanced stone tool technologies dating from about 160,000 to 72,000 years ago. ..."

"... The explorations ... revealed hominins in this region were far more inventive and adaptable than previously believed, at a time when multiple large-brained hominins were present in China, such as Homo longi and Homo juluensis, and possibly Homo sapiens. ..."

From the abstract:

"Technological innovations in Africa and western Europe in the later part of the Middle Pleistocene signal the behavioural complexity of hominin populations. Yet, at the same time, it has long been believed that hominin technologies in Eastern Asia lack signs of innovation and sophistication.

Here, we report on technological innovations occurring at Xigou, in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, central China, dating to ~160,000–72,000 years ago. Technological, typological, and functional analyses reveal the presence of advanced technological behaviours spanning over a 90,000-year period. The Xigou hominins used core-on-flake and discoid methods to effectively obtain small dimensional flakes to manufacture a diverse range of tool forms. 

he identification of the hafted tools provides the earliest evidence for composite tools in Eastern Asia, to our knowledge.

Technological innovations revealed at Xigou and other contemporary sites in China correspond with increasing evidence for Late Quaternary hominin morphological variability, including larger brain sizes, such as demonstrated at Lingjing (Xuchang) in central China.

The complex technological advancements recorded at Xigou indicate that hominins developed adaptive strategies that enhanced their survivability across fluctuating environments of the late Middle Pleistocene and middle Late Pleistocene in Eastern Asia."

Ancient tools in China are forcing scientists to rethink early humans | ScienceDaily "A recently uncovered archaeological site in central China is changing how scientists understand early hominin behavior in East Asia. The discoveries suggest these ancient populations were far more capable and adaptable than previously assumed."

Discovery challenges long-held beliefs on early human technology in East Asia (original news release)

Technological innovations and hafted technology in central China ~160,000–72,000 years ago (open access)

Excavation of Xigou site

Fig. 2: Core metric and techno-typological variables.

These ancient handprints from Indonesia may represent some of the world’s first rock art about 70,000 years old

Amazing stuff!

"Brown-pigmented hand stencils found on the walls of caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and dated to at least 67,800 years ago may be the oldest known examples of rock art in the world. The paintings—reported today in Nature—indicate that Sulawesi was a waypoint for early migrants to the greater region known as Sahul, which once connected Australia and New Guinea. ...

If the dates hold up, they would predate the oldest known Neanderthal paintings in Europe by about 1000 years. In some cases, similar motifs are found in the Sulawesi caves that are separated by tens of thousands of years, indicating a remarkable degree of continuity in the artistic culture of the islands’ early inhabitants. ..."

From the abstract:

"The Indonesian archipelago is host to some of the earliest known rock art in the world. Previously, secure Pleistocene dates were reported for figurative cave art and stencils of human hands in two areas in Indonesia—the Maros-Pangkep karsts in the southwestern peninsula of the island of Sulawesi and the Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat region of eastern Kalimantan, Borneo.

Here we describe a series of early dated rock art motifs from the southeastern portion of Sulawesi. Among this assemblage of Pleistocene (and possibly more recent) motifs, laser-ablation U-series (LA-U-series) dating of calcite overlying a hand stencil from Liang Metanduno on Muna Island yielded a U-series date of 71.6 ± 3.8 thousand years ago (ka), providing a minimum-age constraint of 67.8 ka for the underlying motif. The Muna minimum (67.8 ± 3.8 ka) exceeds the published minimum for rock art in Maros-Pangkep by 16.6 thousand years (kyr) (ref. 5) and is 1.1 kyr greater than the published minimum for a hand stencil from Spain attributed to Neanderthals, which until now represented the oldest demonstrated minimum-age constraint for cave art worldwide.

Moreover, the presence of this extremely old art in Sulawesi suggests that the initial peopling of Sahul about 65 ka7 involved maritime journeys between Borneo and Papua, a region that remains poorly explored from an archaeological perspective."

These ancient handprints may represent some of the world’s first rock art | Science | AAAS

Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi (open access)

Fig. 1: Map of Sulawesi and the wider region.

Fig. 2 Fig. 2: Dated rock art from Liang Metanduno.

Ice age Europeans imported tools from distant lands, perhaps as souvenirs

Amazing stuff!

"To survive Europe’s bitterly cold ice age some 25,000 years ago, people did what people do best: They networked. In a paper published today in Science Advances, archaeologists report finding stone tools in central Spain that came from almost 800 kilometers away, the farthest confirmed distance a stone tool has been found from its source in this time period, known as the European Paleolithic. ..."

From the abstract:

"Social networking is an essential feature of hunter-gatherer societies. It fosters the circulation of goods and information and enables kinship ties across different scales, including long-distance contacts. While such behaviors are known since at least the Upper Palaeolithic, evidence for geographically extensive social networks remains scarce. This evidence is limited to indirect inferences based on shared cultural traits, “art” styles, and symbolic items, while lithic raw material movements are mostly local and regional, with few cases exceeding 300 kilometers.

We provide geochemical evidence for the largest confirmed distance between the source and discard location of a knapped lithic object in Palaeolithic Europe. Solutrean artifacts discarded at Peña Capón, Central Iberia, were sourced in Southwest France, 600 to 700 kilometers away.

This demonstrates social networks of unprecedented geographic scale maintained during ∼1400 years during the Last Glacial Maximum. It also suggests that stone tools were exchanged as symbolic items to solidify social contacts and sustain far-reaching networks as risk-buffering mechanisms among widely dispersed hunter-gatherers."

Ice age Europeans imported tools from distant lands, perhaps as souvenirs | Science | AAAS

Far-reaching hunter-gatherer networks during the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe (open access)

Fig. 1. Jasperoid chert artifacts.

Fig. 2. Location of studied geological units and outcrops.

On the last common ancestor (LCA) to modern human, Neanderthals and Denisovans found in Morocco dated to around 773,000 years ago

Amazing stuff! Casablanca is not only famous for the same name 1942 movie (director Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman)!

"Thanks to estimates for how long it would have taken for DNA differences to accrue, scientist have a good idea of when the last common ancestor (LCA) to modern humans—Neanderthals and Denisovans—lived: sometime around 765,000 to 550,000 years ago. But the identity of that LCA, and where it lived, have long been a mystery. A trove of fossils unearthed from a rock quarry in Morocco could shed light on the hominin that lived at this critical juncture in the story of human evolution.

Jawbones, teeth, and vertebrae discovered at the Grotte à Hominidés site have a mixed bag of derived and ancestral traits. The molars tapered toward the back of the mouth, and the lower surface of a vertebra was curved and inward-facing, like those of earlier hominins such as Homo erectus. Yet the shape and small size of wisdom tooth roots is a trait usually associated with Homo sapiens. The fossils were dated to around 773,000 years ago, close in time to when the LCA of humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans would have lived.

Taken together, that’s suggestive evidence that these fossils may have come from close relatives of that LCA, though exactly where their species falls in the human family tree remains a mystery. Still, other researchers urged caution, noting that while the authors’ interpretation is plausible, the fossils’ mixture of traits could simply represent normal variation, not a true blend of old and new that would anchor it at the root of our species’ split with its close cousins."

"... But the identity of the last common ancestor of all three has long eluded scientists. And rather than imagining one progenitor species, a growing number of researchers now think populations in different regions mated intermittently and contributed to the ancestry of these three big-brained human types. “There probably wasn’t one population that gave rise to the human lineage. There probably were lots of populations in various places,” Schroeder says.

Well-dated fossils from that time span could help untangle things, but few have been found. One exception, a trove of remains from a species called H. antecessor, comes from a site known as Gran Dolina in Spain. Fossils there date to between 950,000 and 770,000 years ago. Some scientists think H. antecessor could be that last common ancestor, but its Spanish residency flies against the consensus in paleoanthropology that our species’ roots were in Africa. ..."

"... The site, also known as Grotte à Hominidés (“Hominid Cave”), has drawn the interest of scientists since 1969—when a partial jaw of a modern human relative was discovered, along with dental remains and a femur.

In the Nature study, the authors used high-resolution magnetostratigraphy, a sophisticated technique that can precisely date geological sequences, to confirm that the fossils are approximately 773,000 years old.  ...

The results stem from over three decades of archaeological and geological research conducted under the Moroccan-French Program “Préhistoire de Casablanca.” This program conducts extensive excavations, systematic stratigraphic studies, and large-scale geoarchaeological analyses in the southwest part of the city of Casablanca. ...

As a result, the Casablanca region has become one of Africa’s richest repositories of Pleistocene palaeontology and archaeology, documenting the early Acheulean and its developments, diverse faunas reflecting environmental change, and several phases of hominin occupation."

From the abstract:

"Palaeogenetic evidence suggests that the last common ancestor of present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans lived around 765–550 thousand years ago (ka). However, both the geographical distribution and the morphology of these ancestral humans remain uncertain.

The Homo antecessor fossils from the TD6 layer of Gran Dolina at Atapuerca, Spain, dated between 950 ka and 770 ka, have been proposed as potential candidates for this ancestral population.

However, all securely dated Homo sapiens fossils before 90 ka were found either in Africa or at the gateway to Asia, strongly suggesting an African rather than a Eurasian origin of our species.

Here we describe new hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 ka. These fossils are similar in age to H. antecessor, yet are morphologically distinct, displaying a combination of primitive traits and of derived features reminiscent of later H. sapiens and Eurasian archaic hominins. The ThI-GH hominins provide insights into African populations predating the earliest H. sapiens individuals discovered at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco and provide strong evidence for an African lineage ancestral to our species. These fossils offer clues about the last common ancestor shared with Neanderthals and Denisovans."

ScienceAdviser

Fossils point to common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals

Human Ancestors in Morocco Reveal an African Lineage Near the Root of Modern Humans (original news release) "Study pinpoints 773,000-year-old fossils with high-resolution dating technique, illuminating the shared ancestry of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans"

Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage (open access)

A partial jaw of a modern human relative discovered during the excavation at Thomas Quarry I (Grotte à Hominidés) in Morocco

Extended Data Fig. 7: Molar morphology of ThI-GH-10978.

Principal component plots of enamel-dentine junction (EDJ) shape of the

first deciduous molar (top left),

second deciduous molar (top right), and

first permanent molar (bottom) from the ThI-GH-10978 mandible.

The EDJ shape of all molars is different, and approximately equidistant from H. neanderthalensis and modern H. sapiens. Note that the H. antecessor second deciduous and first permanent molar are more derived in shape and sit closer to these two taxa.

Now back to the Casablanca movie. "Here's looking at you, kid"! (This is not the correct scene picture)