New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal)
Joan Daura a, Montserrat Sanz b,c, Juan Luis Arsuaga b,c,1, Dirk L. Hoffmann d, Rolf M. Quam c,e,f, María Cruz Ortega b,c, Elena Santos b,c,g, Sandra Gómez h, Angel Rubio i, Lucía Villaescusa h, Pedro Souto j,k, João Mauricio j,k, Filipa Rodrigues j,k, Artur Ferreira j, Paulo Godinho j, Erik Trinkaus l, and João Zilhão a,m,n
Author Affiliations
aUNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214 Lisbon, Portugal;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
cCentro Universidad Complutense de Madrid-Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
dDepartment of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
eDepartment of Anthropology, Binghamton University-State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902;
fDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024;
gLaboratorio de Evolución Humana, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain;
hGrup de Recerca del Quaternari - Seminari d'Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain;
iLaboratorio de Antropología, Departamento de Medicina Legal, Toxicología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Granada, 18010 Granada, Spain;
jCrivarque - Estudos de Impacto e Trabalhos Geo-Arqueológicos Lda, 2350 Torres Novas, Portugal;
kSociedade Torrejana de Espeleologia e Arqueologia, 2350 Torres Novas Portugal;
lDepartment of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO 63130;
mDepartment of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain;
nCatalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
Contributed by Juan Luis Arsuaga, January 27, 2017 (sent for review November 21, 2016; reviewed by William Henry Gilbert and Giorgio Manzi)
Source/Fonte: Javier Trueba
Abstract
Significance
We describe a recently discovered cranium from the Aroeira cave in Portugal dated to around 400 ka. This specimen is the westernmost Middle Pleistocene cranium of Europe and is one of the earliest fossils from this region associated with Acheulean tools. Unlike most other Middle Pleistocene finds, which are of uncertain chronology, the Aroeira 3 cranium is firmly dated to around 400 ka and was in direct association with abundant faunal remains and stone tools. In addition, the presence of burnt bones suggests a controlled use of fire. The Aroeira cranium represents a substantial contribution to the debate on the origin of the Neandertals and the pattern of human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene of Europe.
Abstract
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.
human evolution Neandertal roots evolutionary patterns Acheulean Europe
Footnotes
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jlarsuaga@isciii.es.
Author contributions: J.D., M.S., J.L.A., D.L.H., R.M.Q., E.T., and J.Z. designed research; J.D., M.S., J.L.A., D.L.H., R.M.Q., S.G., A.R., L.V., P.S., J.M., F.R., A.F., P.G., E.T., and J.Z. performed research; J.D., M.S., J.L.A., D.L.H., R.M.Q., M.C.O., E.S., E.T., and J.Z. analyzed data; and J.D., M.S., J.L.A., D.L.H., R.M.Q., M.C.O., E.S., E.T., and J.Z. wrote the paper.
Reviewers: W.H.G., California State University, East Bay; and G.M., Sapienza University of Rome.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1619040114/-/DCSupplemental.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
FREE PDF GRATIS: PNAS
