Integrating mandibular evidence to assess morphological variation of the Australopithecus afarensis maxilla.

Geometric morphometric analyses are used to explore variation of maxillary dental arcades of Australopithecus afarensis, expanding on the work of Hanegraef and Spoor, 2025 (Morphological variation of the Australopithecus afarensis maxilla. Journal of Human Evolution, 201, 103651) by integrating evidence from a large sample of virtually reconstructed mandibles. Size and shape of maxillary dental arcades can be predicted accurately from mandibular landmarks based on strong covariation between occluding upper and lower dentitions, and a novel method was developed to correct for reduced shape variation in these predictions.

Geochemical chronologies in Paranthropus robustus teeth inform habitat and life histories.

Radiogenic strontium isotopes (Sr/Sr) and the alkaline earth ratios (AERs) Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca in fossil dental enamel can inform the habitat, residence and life histories of early hominins recovered from the Pleistocene cradle-of-humankind sites of Gauteng, South Africa. Key questions, which may be addressed with these indices, are the relative exploitation of wet versus dry botanic regimes and whether early hominins dispersed in a manner similar to that of chimpanzees (characterized by male philopatry and female dispersal at puberty) or to that of humans (who are not so characterized). Here we developed 28 new dental chronologies in 20 Paranthropus robustus teeth from Swartkrans and Kromdraai.

Expansion of forest cover and coeval shifts in Later Stone Age land-use at Taforalt and Rhafas Caves, Morocco, as inferred from carbon isotopes in ungulate tooth enamel.

Later Stone Age (Iberomaurusian) hunter-gatherer groups in northwestern Africa appear to have experienced a major reorganization of land-use strategies and settlement dynamics around 15-13 cal ka BP, which broadly corresponds to the globally recognized Greenland Interstadial 1 (Bølling-Allerød) climate interval. However, our understanding of the local impacts of this interval on environments in Morocco is incomplete, as is our understanding of the strength of the relationship, if any, between paleoenvironmental change and human behavior in the Moroccan Later Stone Age. This paper reconstructs changes through time in local forest canopy cover during the Later Stone Age around the archaeological cave sites of Taforalt and Rhafas (northeastern Morocco), using stable isotopes of carbon in ungulate tooth enamel.

Morphological variation of the Australopithecus afarensis maxilla.

Central to discussions about hominin diversity in the mid-Pliocene of eastern Africa is whether or not certain fossils should be attributed to Australopithecus afarensis, instead of representing separate species. Key to answering this question is a good understanding of the magnitude and pattern of intraspecific variation shown by A. afarensis.

Dentition of the Mugharet El'Aliya Fossil Human Maxilla, Morocco.

Objective: This study follows up on our recent morphological analysis of the juvenile maxilla from Mugharet el'Aliya, Morocco. Although this specimen shows a reportedly archaic morphology, likely due to its large size, 3D shape analyses indicated affinities with early Homo sapiens. Here, we conducted an in-depth comparative investigation of the associated dentition to further clarify this individual's phylogenetic and taxonomic affinities.

Synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography enhances our knowledge of the skull anatomy of a Late Triassic ecteniniid cynodont with hypercanines.

Hypercanines, or hypertrophied canines, are observed in a wide range of both extinct and extant synapsids. In non-mammaliaform cynodonts, the Permo-Triassic forerunners of mammals, long canines are not uncommon, appearing in several unrelated taxa within the clade. Among them is Trucidocynodon riograndensis, a carnivorous ecteniniid cynodont from the Late Triassic of Brazil, which exhibits a specialized dentition, including spear-shaped incisors, very long and narrow canines, and sectorial postcanines with distally oriented cusps, all of which have finely serrated margins.

Human evolution: The lonely Neanderthal?

A recently excavated Neanderthal skeleton from southern France has yielded DNA from a distinct lineage, different from other late Neanderthals. This suggests Neanderthals expanded and diversified about 120,000 years ago, and some of that diversity persisted in Europe until near the time of their extinction.

Restructuring of Femoral Cortical Bone During Growth and Locomotor Development of Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus).

Objective: Chimpanzees are altricial in terms of their locomotor development and transition from being carried to engaging in suspensory and arboreal locomotor behaviors to eventually relying on terrestrial quadrupedalism as their main form of locomotion. Here, we consider the mechanical implications of femoral cortical bone restructuring during growth and locomotor development in wild chimpanzees.

Materials And Methods: Cortical bone structure was examined in an ontogenetic sample of wild chimpanzees from a single subspecies (P.

Late pleistocene exploitation of Ephedra in a funerary context in Morocco.

The active compounds found in many plants have been widely used in traditional medicine and ritual activities. However, archaeological evidence for the use of such plants, especially in the Palaeolithic period, is limited due to the poor preservation and fragility of seed, fruit, and other botanical macro-remains. In this study, we investigate the presence and possible uses of Ephedra during the Late Pleistocene based on the analysis of exceptionally preserved plant macrofossils recovered from c.

First evolutionary insights into the human otolithic system.

The human otolithic system (utricle and saccule), housed within the bony vestibule of the inner ear, establishes our sense of balance in conjunction with the semicircular canals. Yet, while the morphological evolution of the semicircular canals is actively explored, comparative morphological analyses of the otolithic system are lacking. This is regrettable because functional links with head orientation suggest the otolithic system could be used to track postural change throughout human evolution and across primates more broadly.

Chris Stringer.

Interview with Chris Stringer, who studies human origins at the Natural History Museum of London.

Naming Homo erectus: A review.

Following the discovery of hominin fossils at Trinil (Java, Indonesia) in 1891 and 1892, Eugène Dubois named a new species, now known as Homo erectus. Although the main historical events are well-known, there appears to be no consensus regarding two important aspects of the naming of the species, including what constitutes the original publication of the name, and what is the name-bearing type specimen. These issues are addressed in this paper with reference to original sources and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

Maxillary morphology of chimpanzees: Captive versus wild environments.

Morphological studies typically avoid using osteological samples that derive from captive animals because it is assumed that their morphology is not representative of wild populations. Rearing environments indeed differ between wild and captive individuals. For example, mechanical properties of the diets provided to captive animals can be drastically different from the food present in their natural habitats, which could impact cranial morphology and dental health.

The Distribution and Biogenic Origins of Zinc in the Mineralised Tooth Tissues of Modern and Fossil Hominoids: Implications for Life History, Diet and Taphonomy.

Zinc is incorporated into enamel, dentine and cementum during tooth growth. This work aimed to distinguish between the processes underlying Zn incorporation and Zn distribution. These include different mineralisation processes, the physiological events around birth, Zn ingestion with diet, exposure to the oral environment during life and diagenetic changes to fossil teeth .

Auditory thresholds compatible with optimal speech reception likely evolved before the human-chimpanzee split.

The anatomy of the auditory region of fossil hominins may shed light on the emergence of human spoken language. Humans differ from other great apes in several features of the external, middle and inner ear (e.g.

Did our ancestors nearly die out?

Genetic analyses suggest an ancient human population crash 900,000 years ago.

Extreme glacial cooling likely led to hominin depopulation of Europe in the Early Pleistocene.

The oldest known hominin remains in Europe [~1.5 to ~1.1 million years ago (Ma)] have been recovered from Iberia, where paleoenvironmental reconstructions have indicated warm and wet interglacials and mild glacials, supporting the view that once established, hominin populations persisted continuously.

Trabecular bone structure of the proximal capitate in extant hominids and fossil hominins with implications for midcarpal joint loading and the dart-thrower's motion.

Objectives: This research examines whether the distribution of trabecular bone in the proximal capitates of extant hominids, as well as several fossil hominin taxa, is associated with the oblique path of the midcarpal joint known as the dart-thrower's motion (DTM).

Materials And Methods: We analyzed proximal capitates from extant (Pongo n = 12; Gorilla n = 11; Pan n = 10; fossil and recent Homo sapiens n = 29) and extinct (Australopithecus sediba n = 2; Homo naledi n = 1; Homo floresiensis n = 2; Neandertals n = 3) hominids using a new canonical holistic morphometric analysis, which quantifies and visualizes the distribution of trabecular bone using relative bone volume as a fraction of total volume (rBV/TV).

Results: Homo sapiens and Neandertals had a continuous band of high rBV/TV that extended across the scaphoid, lunate, and hamate subarticular regions, but other fossil hominins and extant great apes did not.

Investigating the "scapula sign" as an indicator of rickets.

Objective: In 1971, Weiss identified a "scapula sign" comprising a defect at the inferior angle of the scapula in juveniles with vitamin D deficiency rickets, but this has been little studied since. This study aimed to explore pathological variation of this defect in juveniles with other skeletal manifestations of vitamin D deficiency rickets.

Materials And Methods: 527 juveniles, aged from birth to 12 years, from two post-medieval British assemblages were macroscopically evaluated to document the range of pathological changes at the inferior angle.

Using SXRF and LA-ICP-TOFMS to Explore Evidence of Treatment and Physiological Responses to Leprosy in Medieval Denmark.

Leprosy can lead to blood depletion in Zn, Ca, Mg, and Fe and blood enrichment in Cu. In late medieval Europe, minerals were used to treat leprosy. Here, physiological responses to leprosy and possible evidence of treatment are investigated in enamel, dentine, and cementum of leprosy sufferers from medieval Denmark (n = 12) and early 20th century Romania (n = 2).

The development of ideas about a recent African origin for Homo sapiens.

In this contribution I will review the development of ideas about a recent African origin for our species over the last 50 years, starting from the time of my PhD in the early 1970s. I will examine the instructive and quite different interpretations placed on the 1979 discovery of a partial Neanderthal skeleton associated with a Châtelperronian industry at the rock shelter of St-Césaire in France, and then focus on the crucial years from 1987-1989, including the so-called 'Human Revolution' conference of 1987, and my 1988 Science paper with Peter Andrews: 'Genetic and Fossil Evidence for the Origin of Modern Humans'. Following the historical review, I will assess the status of five proposed models for the evolution of derived Homo sapiens: Recent African Origin (RAO); RAO and Hybridisation (RAOH); Assimilation (AM); Multiregional Evolution (MRE); and Braided Stream (BS).

Taphonomic and technological analyses of Lower Palaeolithic bone tools from Clacton-on-Sea, UK.

The exceptional survival of Middle Pleistocene wooden spears at Schöningen (Germany) and Clacton-on-Sea (UK) provides tantalizing evidence for the widespread use of organic raw materials by early humans. At Clacton, less well-known organic artefacts include modified bones that were identified by the Abbé Henri Breuil in the 1920s. Some of these pieces were described and figured by Hazzledine Warren in his classic 1951 paper on the flint industry from the Clacton Channel, but they have been either overlooked in subsequent studies or dismissed as the product of natural damage.

Frontal sinuses and human evolution.

The frontal sinuses are cavities inside the frontal bone located at the junction between the face and the cranial vault and close to the brain. Despite a long history of study, understanding of their origin and variation through evolution is limited. This work compares most hominin species' holotypes and other key individuals with extant hominids.

Patterns of permanent incisor, canine and molar development in modern humans, great apes and early fossil hominins.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to quantify the variation in coincident stages of incisor, canine and molar eruption and tooth formation in modern humans and great apes and then to ask if any early fossil hominins showed a dental development pattern beyond the human range and/or clearly typical of great apes.

Design: Four stages of eruption and 18 stages of tooth development were defined and then scored for each developing tooth on radiographs of 159 once-free-living subadult great apes and on orthopantomographs of 4091 dental patients aged 1-23 years. From original observations, and from published images of eleven early fossil hominins, we then scored formation stages of permanent incisors when M1 was at root formation stage R¼-R½ and R¾-RC.