Publications

mathematical analysis techniques of frontal sinus morphology, with emphasis on homo.	of all the paranasal sinuses, frontal sinus (fs) morphology, volumes, outlines, and cross-sectional areas vary most and so their statistical noise presents particular challenges. to assess and control this statistical noise requires a suite of mathematical techniques that: model their volume and cross-sectional area ontogeny, determine the uniqueness and fractal dimensions of their outlines (useful in forensics), smooth their outlines via singular value decomposition (svd), and model their expan ...	2008	18951491
comparing models on the genealogical relationships among neandertal, cro-magnoid and modern europeans by serial coalescent simulations.	populations of anatomically archaic (neandertal) and early modern (cro-magnoid) humans are jointly documented in the european fossil record, in the period between 40 000 and 25 000 years bp, but the large differences between their cultures, morphologies and dnas suggest that the two groups were not close relatives. however, it is still unclear whether any genealogical continuity between them can be ruled out. here, we simulated a broad range of demographic scenarios by means of a serial coalesce ...	2009	18971954
dental developmental pattern of the neanderthal child from roc de marsal: a high-resolution 3d analysis.	the assessment of the degree of similarity or difference between neanderthals and modern humans in their patterns of dental development remains a controversial matter. here we report results from the microtomographic-based (sr-microct) high-resolution structural investigation of the maxilla and mandible of the neanderthal child from roc de marsal, dordogne, france (likely from ois 5a). following their virtual extraction and 3d rendering, we assessed the maturational stage of each of the 41 denta ...	2009	18986680
new data on the late neandertals: direct dating of the belgian spy fossils.	in eurasia, the period between 40,000 and 30,000 bp saw the replacement of neandertals by anatomically modern humans (amh) during and after the middle to upper paleolithic transition. the human fossil record for this period is very poorly defined with no overlap between neandertals and amh on the basis of direct dates. four new (14)c dates were obtained on the two adult neandertals from spy (belgium). the results show that neandertals survived to at least approximately 36,000 bp in belgium and t ...	2009	19003923
throwing in the middle and upper paleolithic: inferences from an analysis of humeral retroversion.	when in evolutionary history did long-range projectile weapons become an important component of hunting toolkits? the archeological evidence for the development of projectile weaponry is complex and generally indirect, and has led to different conclusions about the origin and spread of this technology. lithic evidence from the middle stone age (msa) has led some researchers to suggest that true long- range projectile weaponry developed in africa perhaps as early as 80,000 years ago, and was part ...	2009	19004469
late neandertals in southeastern iberia: sima de las palomas del cabezo gordo, murcia, spain.	middle paleolithic fossil human remains from the sima de las palomas in southeastern iberia (dated to <or=43,000-40,000 calendar years before present) present a suite of derived neandertal and/or retained ancestral morphological features in the mandibular symphysis, mandibular ramus, dental occlusal morphology, and distal hand phalanx. these traits are combined with variation in the mandibular corpus, discrete dental morphology, tooth root lengths, and anterior dental size that indicate a freque ...	2008	19074275
gibraltar data are too sparse to inform on neanderthal exploitation of coastal resources.		2008	19088185
culture, population structure, and low genetic diversity in pleistocene hominins.	paleogenomic research has shown that modern humans, neanderthals, and their most recent common ancestor have displayed less genetic diversity than living great apes. the traditional interpretation that low levels of genetic diversity in modern humans resulted from a relatively recent demographic bottleneck cannot account for similarly low levels of genetic diversity in middle pleistocene hominins. a more parsimonious hypothesis proposes that the effective population size of the human lineage has ...	2009	19104042
neanderthal extinction by competitive exclusion.	despite a long history of investigation, considerable debate revolves around whether neanderthals became extinct because of climate change or competition with anatomically modern humans (amh).	2008	19107186
genetic characterization of the abo blood group in neandertals.	the high polymorphism rate in the human abo blood group gene seems to be related to susceptibility to different pathogens. it has been estimated that all genetic variation underlying the human abo alleles appeared along the human lineage, after the divergence from the chimpanzee lineage. a paleogenetic analysis of the abo blood group gene in neandertals allows us to directly test for the presence of the abo alleles in these extinct humans.	2008	19108732
allometric scaling of infraorbital surface topography in homo.	infraorbital morphology is often included in phylogenetic and functional analyses of homo. the inclusion of distinct infraorbital configurations, such as the "canine fossa" in homo sapiens or the "inflated" maxilla in neandertals, is generally based on either descriptive or qualitative assessments of this morphology, or simple linear chord and subtense measurements. however, the complex curvilinear surface of the infraorbital region has proven difficult to quantify through these traditional meth ...	2009	19118866
auto-validating von neumann rejection sampling from small phylogenetic tree spaces.	in phylogenetic inference one is interested in obtaining samples from the posterior distribution over the tree space on the basis of some observed dna sequence data. one of the simplest sampling methods is the rejection sampler due to von neumann. here we introduce an auto-validating version of the rejection sampler, via interval analysis, to rigorously draw samples from posterior distributions over small phylogenetic tree spaces.	2009	19128477
the inner ear of nazlet khater 2 (upper paleolithic, egypt).	this paper presents a description and comparison of the nazlet khater 2 (nk 2) inner ear structures. this specimen is the only complete modern human skeleton from the earliest late stone age in africa. the interest in the inner ear structures lies with their strong genetic component. the morphology and biometrical characteristics of the nk 2 bony labyrinth are described and compared to extant modern humans, middle and upper paleolithic modern humans, and neanderthal specimens by means of uni-, b ...	2009	19144388
a homo erectus hyoid bone: possible implications for the origin of the human capability for speech.	authors describe a hyoid bone body, without horns, attributed to homo erectus from castel di guido (rome, italy), dated to about 400,000 years bp. the hyoid bone body shows the bar-shaped morphology characteristic of homo, in contrast to the bulla-shaped body morphology of african apes and australopithecus. its measurements differ from those of the only known complete specimens from other extinct human species and early hominid (kebara neandertal and australopithecus afarensis), and from the mea ...	2008	19149203
temporal trails of natural selection in human mitogenomes.	mildly deleterious mutations initially contribute to the diversity of a population, but later they are selected against at high frequency and are eliminated eventually. using over 1,500 complete human mitochondrial genomes along with those of neanderthal and chimpanzee, i provide empirical evidence for this prediction by tracing the footprints of natural selection over time. the results show a highly significant inverse relationship between the ratio of nonsynonymous-to-synonymous divergence (d( ...	2009	19150805
brief communication: high-resolution assessment of the dental developmental pattern and characterization of tooth tissue proportions in the late upper paleolithic child from la madeleine, france.	affinities and differences in dental maturational patterns between modern humans and neanderthals remain a matter of discussion. in particular, deciduous teeth are rare for late pleistocene humans, and few entire sequences have been detailed for their developmental status. here, we report the results from the 3d virtual reconstruction and structural analysis of the deciduous lower dentition (nine teeth in situ) of the child from la madeleine (lm4), france, the first upper paleolithic specimen de ...	2009	19170211
from neanderthal to nanobiotech: from plant potions to pharming with plant factories.	plants were the main source for human drugs until the beginning of the nineteenth century when plant-derived pharmaceuticals were partly supplanted by drugs produced by the industrial methods of chemical synthesis. during the last decades of the twentieth century, genetic engineering has offered an alternative to chemical synthesis, using bacteria, yeasts and animal cells as factories for the production of therapeutic proteins. after a temporary decrease in interest, plants are rapidly moving ba ...	2009	19183890
neanderthal genome to be unveiled.		2009	19194415
[from neandertal to therapeutic education].	therapeutic education will be part of every patient's care. it is not an additional tool in the medical care but a new way to consider the relationship between patients and physicians. in therapeutic education, the medical knowledge transfer is essential but probably insufficient to obtain a real change in the patient's behaviour. looking back, the origins of the words may help patients and physicians understand the real issues of therapeutic education and therefore, render it more efficient.	2009	19195741
neandertal genomics. tales of a prehistoric human genome.		2009	19213888
neandertal genomics. wanted: clean neandertal dna.		2009	19213889
neandertal genomics. a neandertal primer.		2009	19213890
how neandertals inform human variation.	since their first discovery, neandertals have served as an out-group for interpreting human variation. their out-group role has changed over the years because in spite of the fact that neandertals are the most abundant of all fossil remains (or perhaps because of this) their interpretation is the most controversial of all human fossils. many believe them to be a different, albeit human-like species, but recent genetic evidence supports anatomical interpretations indicating that interbreeding wit ...	2009	19226640
is homo heidelbergensis a distinct species? new insight on the mauer mandible.	the discovery of new fossils in africa, asia, and europe, and the recognition of a greater diversity in the middle pleistocene fossil record, has led to a reconsideration of the species homo heidelbergensis. this nomen, formulated by schoetensack in 1908 to describe the mauer jaw (germany), was almost forgotten during most of the past century. numerous fossils have been attributed to it but no consensus has arisen concerning their classification. the holotype anatomical traits are still poorly u ...	2009	19249816
optimization of 454 sequencing library preparation from small amounts of dna permits sequence determination of both dna strands.	to increase the yield of dna sequence generated by the 454 technology from small amounts of starting dna, we investigated the efficiency of each step in the 454 library preparation process. we find that the last step, when the single-stranded library is released by naoh, is inefficient and highly variable. when this step is replaced with heat treatment, library amounts dramatically increase. furthermore, when sequencing templates are first isolated by naoh treatment and subsequently by heat trea ...	2009	19301622
genetic evidence of geographical groups among neanderthals.	the neanderthals are a well-distinguished middle pleistocene population which inhabited a vast geographical area extending from europe to western asia and the middle east. since the 1950s paleoanthropological studies have suggested variability in this group. different sub-groups have been identified in western europe, in southern europe and in the middle east. on the other hand, since 1997, research has been published in paleogenetics, carried out on 15 mtdna sequences from 12 neanderthals. in t ...	2009	19367332
neandertal birth canal shape and the evolution of human childbirth.	childbirth is complicated in humans relative to other primates. unlike the situation in great apes, human neonates are about the same size as the birth canal, making passage difficult. the birth mechanism (the series of rotations that the neonate must undergo to successfully negotiate its mother's birth canal) distinguishes humans not only from great apes, but also from lesser apes and monkeys. tracing the evolution of human childbirth is difficult, because the pelvic skeleton, which forms the m ...	2009	19380728
size variation in early human mandibles and molars from klasies river, south africa: comparison with other middle and late pleistocene assemblages and with modern humans.	previous studies of the middle stone age human remains from klasies river have concluded that they exhibited more sexual dimorphism than extant populations, but these claims have not been assessed statistically. we evaluate these claims by comparing size variation in the best-represented elements at the site, namely the mandibular corpora and m(2)s, to that in samples from three recent human populations using resampling methods. we also examine size variation in these same elements from seven ad ...	2009	19382177
to what extent did neanderthals and modern humans interact?	neanderthals represent an extinct hominid lineage that existed in europe and asia for nearly 400,000 years. they thrived in these regions for much of this time, but declined in numbers and went extinct around 30,000 years ago. interestingly, their disappearance occurred subsequent to the arrival of modern humans into these areas, which has prompted some to argue that neanderthals were displaced by better suited and more adaptable modern humans. still others have postulated that neanderthals were ...	2009	19391204
detecting ancient admixture and estimating demographic parameters in multiple human populations.	we analyze patterns of genetic variation in extant human polymorphism data from the national institute of environmental health sciences single nucleotide polymorphism project to estimate human demographic parameters. we update our previous work by considering a larger data set (more genes and more populations) and by explicitly estimating the amount of putative admixture between modern humans and archaic human groups (e.g., neandertals, homo erectus, and homo floresiensis). we find evidence for ...	2009	19420049
evolution of m1 crown size and cusp proportions in the genus homo.	previous research into tooth crown dimensions and cusp proportions has proved to be a useful way to identify taxonomic differences in pliocene and pleistocene fossil hominins. the present study has identified changes in both m(1) crown size and cusp proportions within the genus homo, with m(1) overall crown size reduction apparently occurring in two main stages. the first stage (a reduction of ca. 17%) is associated with the emergence of homo ergaster and homo erectus sensu stricto. the second s ...	2009	19438761
why do humans have such a prominent nose? the final result of phylogenesis: a significant reduction of the splanchocranium on account of the neurocranium.	during the last few decades several authors tried to clarify the anthropological aspects of the shape of the human nose and why it has so emphasized projection. our hypothesis suggests the essentiality of the role of morphologic changes of the human skull which occurred during the phylogenesis. it seems that erectile posture of the man caused remarkable morphological changes of the skull base shape thus being a part of morphologic evolution. the changes in the shape of the human spine from birth ...	2009	19442453
who made the aurignacian and other early upper paleolithic industries?	the aurignacian is typically taken as a marker of the spread of anatomically modern humans into europe. however, human remains associated with this industry are frustratingly sparse and often limited to teeth. some have suggested that neandertals may, in fact, be responsible for the aurignacian and the earliest upper paleolithic industries. although dental remains are frequently considered to be taxonomically undiagnostic in this context, recent research shows that neandertals possess a distinct ...	2009	19476971
when did the modern human pattern of childbirth arise? new insights from an old neandertal pelvis.		2009	19497869
the ontogeny of holocene and late pleistocene human postcranial strength.	while a wide variety of studies have focused on population variation in adult cross-sectional properties, relatively little is known about population variation in postcranial robusticity in immature individuals. furthermore, the age at which the population differences readily detected in adults manifest during growth is also unknown. this research addresses these gaps in our current understanding through the analysis of immature humeral and femoral long bone strength. cross-sectional geometry wa ...	2010	19530138
kebara 2: new insights regarding the most complete neandertal thorax.	in this study, we present a new analysis of the costal skeleton of the kebara 2 neandertal that challenges the original description of the fossil remains. in addition to correcting an erroneous rib rejoin, we document that kebara 2 shows significant metric and morphological differences in comparison to a wide range of modern human comparative samples. moreover, kebara 2's thorax is large, but it is not an isometrically scaled version of a modern human thorax. we also present updated information ...	2009	19540563
comparative 3d quantitative analyses of trapeziometacarpal joint surface curvatures among living catarrhines and fossil hominins.	comparisons of joint surface curvature at the base of the thumb have long been made to discern differences among living and fossil primates in functional capabilities of the hand. however, the complex shape of this joint makes it difficult to quantify differences among taxa. the purpose of this study is to determine whether significant differences in curvature exist among selected catarrhine genera and to compare these genera with hominin fossils in trapeziometacarpal curvature. two 3d approache ...	2010	19544574
genotyping human ancient mtdna control and coding region polymorphisms with a multiplexed single-base-extension assay: the singular maternal history of the tyrolean iceman.	progress in the field of human ancient dna studies has been severely restricted due to the myriad sources of potential contamination, and because of the pronounced difficulty in identifying authentic results. improving the robustness of human adna results is a necessary pre-requisite to vigorously testing hypotheses about human evolution in europe, including possible admixture with neanderthals. this study approaches the problem of distinguishing between authentic and contaminating sequences fro ...	2009	19545382
new flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern germany.	considerable debate surrounds claims for early evidence of music in the archaeological record. researchers universally accept the existence of complex musical instruments as an indication of fully modern behaviour and advanced symbolic communication but, owing to the scarcity of finds, the archaeological record of the evolution and spread of music remains incomplete. although arguments have been made for neanderthal musical traditions and the presence of musical instruments in middle palaeolithi ...	2009	19553935
linkage disequilibrium extends across putative selected sites in foxp2.	polymorphism data in humans suggest that the gene encoding the transcription factor foxp2, which influences speech and language development, has been subject to a selective sweep within the last 260,000 years. it has been proposed that one or both of two substitutions that occurred on the human evolutionary lineage and changed amino acids were the targets for selection. in apparent contradiction to this is the observation that these substitutions are present in neandertals who diverged from huma ...	2009	19608635
ancient dna. sequencing neandertal mitochondrial genomes by the half-dozen.		2009	19608883
targeted retrieval and analysis of five neandertal mtdna genomes.	analysis of neandertal dna holds great potential for investigating the population history of this group of hominins, but progress has been limited due to the rarity of samples and damaged state of the dna. we present a method of targeted ancient dna sequence retrieval that greatly reduces sample destruction and sequencing demands and use this method to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial dna (mtdna) genomes of five neandertals from across their geographic range. we find that mtdna genetic div ...	2009	19608918
shanidar 3 neandertal rib puncture wound and paleolithic weaponry.	since its discovery and initial description in the 1960s, the penetrating lesion to the left ninth rib of the shanidar 3 neandertal has been a focus for discussion about interpersonal violence and weapon technology in the middle paleolithic. recent experimental studies using lithic points on animal targets suggest that aspects of weapon system dynamics can be inferred from the form of the bony lesions they produce. thus, to better understand the circumstances surrounding the traumatic injury suf ...	2009	19615713
homo floresiensis: a cladistic analysis.	the announcement of a new species, homo floresiensis, a primitive hominin that survived until relatively recent times is an enormous challenge to paradigms of human evolution. until this announcement, the dominant paradigm stipulated that: 1) only more derived hominins had emerged from africa, and 2) h. sapiens was the only hominin since the demise of homo erectus and homo neanderthalensis. resistance to h. floresiensis has been intense, and debate centers on two sets of competing hypotheses: 1) ...	2009	19628252
twilight of the neandertals.		2009	19634561
the neandertal genome and ancient dna authenticity.	recent advances in high-thoughput dna sequencing have made genome-scale analyses of genomes of extinct organisms possible. with these new opportunities come new difficulties in assessing the authenticity of the dna sequences retrieved. we discuss how these difficulties can be addressed, particularly with regard to analyses of the neandertal genome. we argue that only direct assays of dna sequence positions in which neandertals differ from all contemporary humans can serve as a reliable means to ...	2009	19661919
cutmarked human remains bearing neandertal features and modern human remains associated with the aurignacian at les rois.	the view that aurignacian technologies and their associated symbolic manifestations represent the archaeologicalproxy for the spread of anatomically modern humans into europe, is supported by few diagnostic human remains, including those from the aurignacian site of les rois in south-western france. here we reassess the taxonomic attribution of the human remains, their cultural affiliation, and provide five new radiocarbon dates for the site. patterns of tooth growth along with the morphological ...	2009	19663173
bitter taste perception in neanderthals through the analysis of the tas2r38 gene.	the bitter taste perception (associated with the ability or inability to taste phenylthiocarbamide) is mediated by the tas2r38 gene. most of the variation in this gene is explained by three common amino-acid polymorphisms at positions 49 (encoding proline or alanine), 262 (alanine or valine) and 296 (valine or isoleucine) that determine two common isoforms: proline-alanine-valine (pav) and alanine-valine-isoleucine (avi). pav is the major taster haplotype (heterozygote and homozygote) and avi is ...	2009	19675003
new neandertal remains from the grotte du bison at arcy-sur-cure, france.		2009	19683787
out of africa: modern human origins special feature: isotopic evidence for the diets of european neanderthals and early modern humans.	we report here on the direct isotopic evidence for neanderthal and early modern human diets in europe. isotopic methods indicate the sources of dietary protein over many years of life, and show that neanderthals had a similar diet through time (approximately 120,000 to approximately 37,000 cal bp) and in different regions of europe. the isotopic evidence indicates that in all cases neanderthals were top-level carnivores and obtained all, or most, of their dietary protein from large herbivores. i ...	2009	19706482
did we kill the neanderthals?		2009	19728428
primer extension capture: targeted sequence retrieval from heavily degraded dna sources.	we present a method of targeted dna sequence retrieval from dna sources which are heavily degraded and contaminated with microbial dna, as is typical of ancient bones. the method greatly reduces sample destruction and sequencing demands relative to direct pcr or shotgun sequencing approaches. we used this method to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial dna (mtdna) genomes of five neandertals from across their geographic range. the mtdna genetic diversity of the late neandertals was approximatel ...	2009	19730410
the prehistory of handedness: archaeological data and comparative ethology.	homo sapiens sapiens displays a species wide lateralised hand preference, with 85% of individuals in all populations being right-handed for most manual actions. in contrast, no other great ape species shows such strong and consistent population level biases, indicating that extremes of both direction and strength of manual laterality (i.e., species-wide right-handedness) may have emerged after divergence from the last common ancestor. to reconstruct the hand use patterns of early hominins, later ...	2009	19758680
the homo sapiens 'hemibun': its developmental pattern and the problem of homology.	the occipital bun is widely considered a neanderthal feature. its homology to the 'hemibun' observed in some european upper palaeolithic anatomically modern humans is a current problem. this study quantitatively evaluates the degree of occipital plane convexity in african and australian modern human crania to analyse a relationship between this feature and some neurocranial variables. neanderthal and european upper palaeolithic homo sapiens crania were included in the analysis as well. the resul ...	2009	19781697
out of africa: modern human origins special feature: the origin of neandertals.	western eurasia yielded a rich middle (mp) and late pleistocene (lp) fossil record documenting the evolution of the neandertals that can be analyzed in light of recently acquired paleogenetical data, an abundance of archeological evidence, and a well-known environmental context. their origin likely relates to an episode of recolonization of western eurasia by hominins of african origin carrying the acheulean technology into europe around 600 ka. an enhancement of both glacial and interglacial ph ...	2009	19805257
out of africa: modern human origins special feature: the meaning of neandertal skeletal morphology.	a procedure is outlined for distinguishing among competing hypotheses for fossil morphology and then used to evaluate current views on the meaning of neandertal skeletal morphology. three explanations have dominated debates about the meaning of neandertal cranial features: climatic adaptation, anterior dental loading, and genetic drift. neither climatic adaptation nor anterior dental loading are well supported, but genetic drift is consistent with the available evidence. climatic adaptation and ...	2009	19805258
paleoanthropology. new work may complicate history of neandertals and h. sapiens.		2009	19815751
material rhetoric: spreading stones and showing bones in the study of prehistory.	since the linguistic turn, the role of rhetoric in the circulation and the popular representation of knowledge has been widely accepted in science studies. this article aims to analyze not a textual form of scientific rhetoric, but the crucial role of materiality in scientific debates. it introduces the concept of material rhetoric to understand the promotional regimes in which material objects play an essential argumentative role. it analyzes the phenomenon by looking at two students of prehist ...	2009	19827370
extension rates and growth in tooth height of modern human and fossil hominin canines and molars.	the aim of this study was to describe similarities and differences in the way modern and fossil hominin teeth grow in height. measurements from longitudinal ground sections of 7 modern human canines and 19 first permanent molars were used to calculate extension rates in the crowns and roots and to plot distance curves for growth in tooth height. these were compared with identical data for 3 fossil hominin teeth attributed respectively to paranthropus robustus, homo erectus and homo neanderthalen ...	2009	19828973
temporal nature of periradicular bands ('striae periradicales') on mammalian tooth roots.	periradicular bands, or fine circumferential lines on tooth roots, have received attention recently due to their prominence on hominin fossils and their potential utility for informing studies of root formation. in 1938, komai and miyauti [dtsch zahn mund kieferheilkd 1938;5:791-795] demonstrated that periradicular bands are related to dentine growth rather than cementum, suggesting that they were equal to accentuated lines in dentine ('dentine lamellae' or 'contour lines'). more recent indirect ...	2009	19828976
comparative morphology and morphometric assessment of the neandertal occipital remains from the el sidrón site (asturias, spain: years 2000-2008).	this paper analyses the occipital remains recovered from the el sidrón (asturias, spain) neandertal site between the years of 2000-2008. the sample is represented by three specimens, sd-1219, sd-1149, and sd-370a. descriptive morphology, linear measurements, 3d geometric morphometrics, and virtual anthropological methods were employed to address the morphological, morphometric, and phylogenetic affinities of these fossils. the fossils display neandertal autapomorphies (e.g., bilaterally protrudi ...	2010	19836056
out of the north sea: the zeeland ridges neandertal.	in 2001, a portion of human frontal bone was discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the north sea, 15km off the coast of the netherlands. the extraction zone is located in the so-called zeeland ridges area located at 51 degrees 40' northern latitude and 3 degrees 20' eastern longitude. the specimen was dredged up from sediments containing late pleistocene faunal remains and middle palaeolithic artefacts, including well-finished small handaxes and levallois flakes. the details of th ...	2009	19853278
a comparative study of frontal bone morphology among pleistocene hominin fossil groups.	features of the frontal bone that are conventionally used to distinguish among fossil hominin groups were quantitatively examined. fifty-five fossil crania dating from the early to the late pleistocene were analyzed. using a modified pantograph, outlines of the frontal bone were collected along the midsagittal and two parasagittal planes. the profile from nasion to bregma, as well as two profiles above the medial and lateral sections of the orbit, respectively, extending from the orbital margin ...	2009	19878968
is the suprainiac fossa a neandertal autapomorphy? a complementary external and internal investigation.	the occipital bone of neandertals contains an association of morphological features that is considered characteristic of this fossil human population. one of the possible autapomorphic traits of neandertals is the presence of a suprainiac fossa, a horizontal oval-shaped depression located on the occipital plane. the question of whether suprainiac depressions observed on neandertals and in other human samples are homologous has been widely discussed. the present study provides a detailed anatomic ...	2010	19896701
brief communication: the distribution of perikymata on qafzeh anterior teeth.	recent studies have suggested that neandertals and modern humans differ in the distribution of perikymata (enamel growth increments) over their permanent anterior tooth crowns. in modern humans, perikymata become increasingly more compact toward the cervix than they do in neandertals. previous studies have suggested that a more homogeneous distribution of perikymata, like that of neandertals, characterizes the anterior teeth of homo heidelbergensis and homo erectus as well. here, we investigated ...	2010	19902531
the neandertal lower right deciduous second molar from trou de l'abîme at couvin, belgium.	a human lower right deciduous second molar was discovered in 1984 at the entrance of trou de l'abîme at couvin (belgium). in subsequent years the interpretation of this fossil remained difficult for various reasons: (1) the lack of taxonomically diagnostic elements which would support its attribution to either homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis or h. s. sapiens; (2) the absence of any reliable chronostratigraphic interpretation of the sedimentary sequence of the site; (3) the contradiction between ...	2010	19910020
survival of the weakest: why neanderthals went extinct.		2009	19911761
the evolution of handedness in humans and great apes: a review and current issues.	population-level right-handedness is a defining characteristic of humans. despite extensive research, we still do not know the conditions or timing of its emergence in human evolution. we present a review of research into the origins of handedness, based on fossil and archaeological data for hand preference and great ape hand-use. the data show that skeletal asymmetries in arm and hand bones supporting a rightsided dominance were present at least in the genus homo, although data are more robust ...	2008	19934467
technological responses of neanderthals to macroclimatic variations (240,000-40,000 bp).	using a database of 499 archaeological assemblages from 332 sites in europe, we statistically test a model of the economic reactivity of the hunter-gatherer production system to climatic variations. this model predicts an increase in the diversity of lithic tools during harsh cold periods, in order to maintain carrying capacity, and a reduction during favorable climatic periods. diversity was measured from the variations in flint tool distributions in traditional bordes typological categories, u ...	2009	19943748
archaeology. better homes and hearths, neandertal-style.		2009	19965402
archaeology. did neandertals dine in?		2009	19965403
young man with arrested development; neanderthal type of physiognomy.		1930	19987764
neandertal mandibles from the sima de las palomas del cabezo gordo, murcia, southeastern spain.	the middle paleolithic levels of the sima de las palomas have yielded eight partial mandibles (palomas 1, 6, 7, 23, 49, 59, 80, and 88). palomas 7, 49, 80, and 88 are immature, and palomas 49, 59, 80, and 88 are among the latest neandertals (approximately 40,000 cal bp). palomas 1 is geologically older (approximately 50,000-60,000 cal bp), and the other three were found ex situ. the mandibles exhibit a suite of characteristics that align them with the neandertals among later pleistocene humans, ...	2010	20014182
removal of deaminated cytosines and detection of in vivo methylation in ancient dna.	dna sequences determined from ancient organisms have high error rates, primarily due to uracil bases created by cytosine deamination. we use synthetic oligonucleotides, as well as dna extracted from mammoth and neandertal remains, to show that treatment with uracil-dna-glycosylase and endonuclease viii removes uracil residues from ancient dna and repairs most of the resulting abasic sites, leaving undamaged parts of the dna fragments intact. neandertal dna sequences determined with this protocol ...	2010	20028723
a bivariate approach to the widening of the frontal lobes in the genus homo.	within the genus homo, the most encephalized taxa (neandertals and modern humans) show relatively wider frontal lobes than either homo erectus or australopithecines. the present analysis considers whether these changes are associated with a single size-based or allometric pattern (positive allometry of the width of the anterior endocranial fossa) or with a more specific and non-allometric pattern. the relationship between hemispheric length, maximum endocranial width, and frontal width at broca' ...	2010	20035967
explaining the imperfection of the molecular clock of hominid mitochondria.	the molecular clock of mitochondrial dna has been extensively used to date various genetic events. however, its substitution rate among humans appears to be higher than rates inferred from human-chimpanzee comparisons, limiting the potential of interspecies clock calibrations for intraspecific dating. it is not well understood how and why the substitution rate accelerates. we have analyzed a phylogenetic tree of 3057 publicly available human mitochondrial dna coding region sequences for changes ...	2009	20041137
a complete mtdna genome of an early modern human from kostenki, russia.	the recovery of dna sequences from early modern humans (emhs) could shed light on their interactions with archaic groups such as neandertals and their relationships to current human populations. however, such experiments are highly problematic because present-day human dna frequently contaminates bones [1, 2]. for example, in a recent study of mitochondrial (mt) dna from neolithic european skeletons, sequence variants were only taken as authentic if they were absent or rare in the present popula ...	2010	20045327
archaeology. neandertal jewelry shows their symbolic smarts.		2010	20075218
dental maturational sequence and dental tissue proportions in the early upper paleolithic child from abrigo do lagar velho, portugal.	neandertals differ from recent and terminal pleistocene human populations in their patterns of dental development, endostructural (internal structure) organization, and relative tissue proportions. although significant changes in craniofacial and postcranial morphology have been found between the middle paleolithic and earlier upper paleolithic modern humans of western eurasia and the terminal pleistocene and holocene inhabitants of the same region, most studies of dental maturation and structur ...	2010	20080622
symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by iberian neandertals.	two sites of the neandertal-associated middle paleolithic of iberia, dated to as early as approximately 50,000 years ago, yielded perforated and pigment-stained marine shells. at cueva de los aviones, three umbo-perforated valves of acanthocardia and glycymeris were found alongside lumps of yellow and red colorants, and residues preserved inside a spondylus shell consist of a red lepidocrocite base mixed with ground, dark red-to-black fragments of hematite and pyrite. a perforated pecten shell, ...	2010	20080653
morphology and function of the lumbar spine of the kebara 2 neandertal.	the morphology of the lumbar spine is crucial for upright posture and bipedal walking in hominids. the excellent preservation of the lumbar spine of kebara 2 provides us a rare opportunity to observe a complete spine and explore its functionally relevant morphology. the lumbar spine of kebara 2 is analyzed and compared with the lumbar spines of modern humans and late pleistocene hominids. although no size differences between the vertebral bodies and pedicles of kebara 2 and modern humans are fou ...	2010	20091808
the middle-to-upper palaeolithic transition in cova gran (catalunya, spain) and the extinction of neanderthals in the iberian peninsula.	the excavations carried out in cova gran de santa linya (southeastern prepyrenees, catalunya, spain) have unearthed a new archaeological sequence attributable to the middle palaeoloithic/upper palaeolithic (mp/up) transition. this article presents data on the stratigraphy, archaeology, and (14)c ams dates of three early upper palaeolithic and four late middle palaeolithic levels excavated in cova gran. all these archaeological levels fall within the 34-32 ka time span, the temporal frame in whic ...	2010	20097404
the first neanderthal tooth found north of the carpathian mountains.	an upper second permanent molar from a human was found alongside numerous tools of the micoquian tradition and was excavated in stajnia cave, which is located over 100 km north of the carpathian mountains in southern poland. the age of these finds has been established within a time-span of late saalian to early weichselian, most likely to ois 5c or 5a, according to the palaeontological, geological, archaeological and absolute dating of the layer from which they were obtained. an examination of t ...	2010	20107973
pego do diabo (loures, portugal): dating the emergence of anatomical modernity in westernmost eurasia.	neandertals and the middle paleolithic persisted in the iberian peninsula south of the ebro drainage system for several millennia beyond their assimilation/replacement elsewhere in europe. as only modern humans are associated with the later stages of the aurignacian, the duration of this persistence pattern can be assessed via the dating of diagnostic occurrences of such stages.	2010	20111705
testing the hypothesis of fire use for ecosystem management by neanderthal and upper palaeolithic modern human populations.	it has been proposed that a greater control and more extensive use of fire was one of the behavioral innovations that emerged in africa among early modern humans, favouring their spread throughout the world and determining their eventual evolutionary success. we would expect, if extensive fire use for ecosystem management were a component of the modern human technical and cognitive package, as suggested for australia, to find major disturbances in the natural biomass burning variability associat ...	2010	20161786
did viral disease of humans wipe out the neandertals?	neandertals were an anatomically distinct hominoid species inhabiting a vast geographical area ranging from portugal to western siberia and from northern europe to the middle east. the species became extinct 28,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans (amhs) in europe 40,000 years ago. there has been considerable debate surrounding the main causes of the extinction of neandertals. after at least 200,000 years of successful adaption to the climate, flora and fauna ...	2010	20172660
technical note: morphometric maps of long bone shafts and dental roots for imaging topographic thickness variation.	qualitative and quantitative characterization through functional imaging of mineralized tissues is of potential value in the study of the odontoskeletal remains. this technique, widely developed in the medical field, allows the bi-dimensional, planar representation of some local morphometric properties, i.e., topographic thickness variation, of a three-dimensional object, such as a long bone shaft. nonetheless, the use of morphometric maps is still limited in (paleo)anthropology, and their feasi ...	2010	20229503
mechanical impact of incisor loading on the primate midfacial skeleton and its relevance to human evolution.	the midfacial skeleton in the human lineage demonstrates a wide spectrum of variation that may be the consequence of different environmental and mechanical selective pressures. however, different facial configurations may develop under comparable selective regimes. for example, the neanderthal high and projected face and the inuit broad and flat face are hypothesized to be the consequence of (1) life in a cold climate, and (2) excessive paramasticatory stresses focused on the anterior dentition. ...	2010	20235317
the complete mitochondrial dna genome of an unknown hominin from southern siberia.	with the exception of neanderthals, from which dna sequences of numerous individuals have now been determined, the number and genetic relationships of other hominin lineages are largely unknown. here we report a complete mitochondrial (mt) dna sequence retrieved from a bone excavated in 2008 in denisova cave in the altai mountains in southern siberia. it represents a hitherto unknown type of hominin mtdna that shares a common ancestor with anatomically modern human and neanderthal mtdnas about 1 ...	2010	20336068
a new model for calculating the lumbar lordosis angle in early hominids and in the spine of the neanderthal from kebara.	the debate over the posture of early hominids is longstanding, perhaps because the absence of a reliable method for reconstructing the lumbar lordosis angle (la) in early hominid spines has made it difficult to determine whether their posture resembled or differed from that of modern humans. we have developed a new model for predicting the lordotic curvature of the lumbar spine of early hominids based on the relationship between the lordotic curvature and the orientation of the articular process ...	2010	20340096
interactions of neanderthals and modern humans: what can be inferred from mitochondrial dna?	this paper reviews the state-of-the-art knowledge concerning the relationship between neanderthals and upper paleolithic modern humans. the branching-process method is applied to infer the upper limit of hypothetical neanderthal admixture, consistent with the evidence based on mitochon- drial dna sequences of contemporary modern humans, as well as neanderthal and early modern european h. sapiens fossils. as a result, a maximum value of 15% admixture is obtained. this estimate is discussed in the ...	2005	20369935
effects of brain and facial size on basicranial form in human and primate evolution.	understanding variation in the basicranium is of central importance to paleoanthropology because of its fundamental structural role in skull development and evolution. among primates, encephalisation is well known to be associated with flexion between midline basicranial elements, although it has been proposed that the size or shape of the face influences basicranial flexion. in particular, brain size and facial size are hypothesized to act as antagonists on basicranial flexion. one important an ...	2010	20378153
analysis of ancient human genomes: using next generation sequencing, 20-fold coverage of the genome of a 4,000-year-old human from greenland has been obtained.	high-capacity sequencing technologies have dramatically reduced both the cost and time required to generate complete human genome sequences. besides expanding our knowledge about existing diversity, the nature of these technologies makes it possible to extend knowledge in yet another dimension: time. recently, the complete genome sequence of a 4,000-year-old human from the saqqaq culture of greenland was determined to 20-fold coverage. these data make it possible to investigate the population af ...	2010	20414896
neanderthal genomics and the evolution of modern humans.	humans possess unique physical and cognitive characteristics relative to other primates. comparative analyses of the human and chimpanzee genomes are beginning to reveal sequence changes on the human lineage that may have contributed to the evolution of human traits. however, these studies cannot identify the genetic differences that distinguish modern humans from archaic human species. here, i will discuss efforts to obtain genomic sequence from neanderthal, the closest known relative of modern ...	2010	20439435
colloquium paper: terrestrial apes and phylogenetic trees.	the image that best expresses darwin's thinking is the tree of life. however, darwin's human evolutionary tree lacked almost everything because only the neanderthals were known at the time and they were considered one extreme expression of our own species. darwin believed that the root of the human tree was very deep and in africa. it was not until 1962 that the root was shown to be much more recent in time and definitively in africa. on the other hand, some neo-darwinians believed that our fami ...	2010	20445090
paleogenetics. cloned neandertals still in the realm of sci-fi.		2010	20448164
a draft sequence of the neandertal genome.	neandertals, the closest evolutionary relatives of present-day humans, lived in large parts of europe and western asia before disappearing 30,000 years ago. we present a draft sequence of the neandertal genome composed of more than 4 billion nucleotides from three individuals. comparisons of the neandertal genome to the genomes of five present-day humans from different parts of the world identify a number of genomic regions that may have been affected by positive selection in ancestral modern hu ...	2010	20448178
targeted investigation of the neandertal genome by array-based sequence capture.	it is now possible to perform whole-genome shotgun sequencing as well as capture of specific genomic regions for extinct organisms. however, targeted resequencing of large parts of nuclear genomes has yet to be demonstrated for ancient dna. here we show that hybridization capture on microarrays can successfully recover more than a megabase of target regions from neandertal dna even in the presence of approximately 99.8% microbial dna. using this approach, we have sequenced approximately 14,000 p ...	2010	20448179
the microcephalin ancestral allele in a neanderthal individual.	the high frequency (around 0.70 worldwide) and the relatively young age (between 14,000 and 62,000 years) of a derived group of haplotypes, haplogroup d, at the microcephalin (mcph1) locus led to the proposal that haplogroup d originated in a human lineage that separated from modern humans >1 million years ago, evolved under strong positive selection, and passed into the human gene pool by an episode of admixture circa 37,000 years ago. the geographic distribution of haplogroup d, with marked di ...	2010	20498832
using genetic evidence to evaluate four palaeoanthropological hypotheses for the timing of neanderthal and modern human origins.	a better understanding of the evolutionary relationship between modern humans and neanderthals is essential for improving the resolution of hominin phylogenetic hypotheses. currently, four distinct chronologies for the timing of population divergence are available, ranging from the late middle pleistocene to the late early pleistocene, each based on different interpretations of hominin taxonomy. genetic data can present an independent estimate of the evolutionary timescale involved, making it po ...	2010	20510437