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We thank the many funding agencies that supported this work, in particular the National Geographic Society, the National Research Foundation, the Lyda Hill Foundation, and the Lee R. Berger Foundation for Exploration for particularly significant funding of the discovery, recovery, and analysis of this material. DGM and MB were funded through CGL2012-37279, MINECO, Spain, and a Leakey Research Grant to DGM. A visit to the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA; Tervuren, Belgium) by DGM was funded by the European Commission's Research Infrastructure Action via the Synthesys Project (BE-TAF-5639). SAW was funded through the New York University Research Challenge Fund., Hominin evolution featured shifts from a trunk shape suitable for climbing and housing a large gut to a trunk adapted to bipedalism and higher quality diets. Our knowledge regarding the tempo, mode, and context in which these derived traits evolved has been limited, based largely on a small-bodied Australopithecus partial skeleton (A.L. 288-1; “Lucy”) and a juvenile Homo erectus skeleton (KNM-WT 15000; “Turkana Boy”). Two recent discoveries, of a large-bodied Australopithecus afarensis (KSD-VP-1/1) and two Australopithecus sediba partial skeletons (MH1 and MH2), have added to our understanding of thorax evolution; however, little is known about thorax morphology in early Homo. Here we describe hominin vertebrae, ribs, and sternal remains from the Dinaledi chamber of the Rising Star cave system attributed to Homo naledi. Although the remains are highly fragmented, the best-preserved specimens—two lower thoracic vertebrae and a lower rib—were found in association and belong to a small-bodied individual. A second lower rib may belong to this individual as well. All four of these individual elements are amongst the smallest known in the hominin fossil record. H. naledi is characterized by robust, relatively uncurved lower ribs and a relatively large spinal canal. We expect that the recovery of additional material from Rising Star Cave will clarify the nature of these traits and shed light on H. naledi functional morphology and phylogeny., Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2012-37279, MINECO), the Leakey Foundation, and PI10/02089 ( Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria) Ministry of Health, Spain., Chest size is important for reconstructing Neandertal paleobiology. The large size of the Neandertal skeletal thorax has been interpreted about cold adaptation, increased body mass, specific body shape, and increased activity levels (Franciscus and Churchill, 2002, Churchill, 2006, Gómez-Olivencia et al., 2009). Large Neandertal chests should also be expected because chest and lung sizes are correlated developmentally (Thurlbeck, 1982, Bastir et al., 2013a), because lung size scales isometrically with body mass across mammals (Stahl, 1967), and because body mass was larger in Neandertals than in modern humans (Ruff et al., 1997, Froehle and Churchill, 2009). The notion of large chests has recently been reinforced by Gómez-Olivencia et al. (2009), who measured the ribs of the Kebara 2 Neandertal male using arc lengths. Their study suggested that the upper ribs of Kebara 2 are within the range of modern humans, and the middle (ribs 4, 5, 7) and lower (ribs 8, 10) thoracic ribs exceed the range of modern human variation. Consequently, this predicts that the total thorax size (the sum of the sizes of each of the ribs) should be larger in Kebara than in modern humans. However, Gómez-Olivencia et al. (2009) also identified a problem in the original reconstruction of the 6th and 7th ribs of Kebara due to a misidentification of fragments fitted together by Arensburg (1991), who stated that the ribs of “Kebara man are quite similar in metric and morphological respects to those of ribs in present human populations” (Arensburg, 1991: 142). Nevertheless, misidentifications such as those identified by Gómez Olivencia et al. (2009) could affect size assessments. Bastir et al. (2012) measured the reconstruction of the Kebara rib cage (Sawyer and Maley, 2005) using 3D geometric morphometrics, and no evidence for such enlarged chest size was found, supporting Arensburg's (1991) opinion. Thus, the size of one of the best-preserved Neandertal male thoracic skeletons is currently uncle, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

CGL2016-76431-P and CGL2017-82654-P, AEI/FEDER-UE, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2011-28681, CGL2011-27343, CGL2010-21672, RYC-2009-04533 to D.M.A., BES-2009-020612 to M.P.R. and JCI-2010-08241 to I.C.V) as well as the Generalitat de Catalunya (2009 SGR 754 GRC). CESPA Gestión de Residuos, S.A.U. funded fieldwork at ACM. Microtomographic images were made at the Multidisciplinary Laboratory of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics thanks to the ICTP/Elettra EXACT Project funded by Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy)., New dental remains of the fossil great ape Anoiapithecus brevirostris are described from the Middle Miocene local stratigraphic series of Abocador de Can Mata (ACM) in els Hostalets de Pierola (Vallès-Penedès Basin, NE Iberian Peninsula). These specimens correspond to maxillary fragments with upper teeth from two female individuals from two different localities: left P3–M1 (IPS41712) from ACM/C3-Aj (type locality; 11.9 Ma [millions of years ago]); and right M1–M2 and left P4–M2 (IPS35027) from ACM/C1-E* (12.3–12.2 Ma). Relative enamel thickness is also computed in the latter individual and re-evaluated in other Middle Miocene hominoids from ACM, in order to better assess their taxonomic affinities. With regard to maxillary sinus development, occlusal morphology, molar proportions and enamel thickness, the new specimens show greater resemblances with the (male) holotype specimen of A. brevirostris. They differ from Pierolapithecus catalaunicus in displaying less inflated crests, a more lingually-located hypocone, and relatively lower-crowned molars; from Dryopithecus fontani, in the relatively thicker enamel and lower-crowned molars; from Hispanopithecus spp., in the more inflated crown bases, less peripheral cusps and more restricted maxillary sinus; and from Hispanopithecus laietanus also in the thicker crests, more restricted occlusal foveae, and relatively lower-crowned molars. The new specimens of A. brevirostris show some slight differences compared with the holotype of this species: smaller size (presumably due to sexual size dimorphism), and less distally-tapering M2 occlusal contour (which is highly variable in both extant and extinct hominoids). The reported remains provide valuable new evidence on dental intraspecific variation and sexual dimorphism in Anoiapithecus. From a taxonomic viewpoint, they support the distinction of this taxon from both Dryopithecus and Pierolapithecus. From a chronostratigraphic perspective, IPS35027 from ACM/C1-E* enlarges the, Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

The internal (nasal and paranasal) cranial anatomy of the Middle Miocene (11.9 Ma [millions of years ago]) great ape Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (Hominidae: Dryopithecini) is described on the basis of computed-tomography scans of the holotype specimen (IPS21350), with particular emphasis on its phylogenetic implications. Pierolapithecus displays the following characters: an anteriorly-restricted maxillary sinus that posteriorly spreads towards the ethmoidal area (thus resembling the pongine condition), although being situated well above the molar roots (as in kenyapithecins, other dryopithecins and pongines); lack of frontal sinus (a synapomorphy of derived pongines, independently acquired by both cercopithecoids and hylobatids); posteriorly-situated turbinals (as in Pongo); anteriorly-projecting nasolacrimal canal (as in Pongo); and probably stepped nasal floor with non-overlapping premaxillary emaxillary contact (as in dryopithecines and stem hominoids, although it cannot be conclusively shown due to bone damage). Overall, Pierolapithecus displays a mosaic of primitive hominid and derived pongine features that are inconsistent with this taxon being a hominine (as previously suggested). Two alternative phylogenetic interpretations are possible: Pierolapithecus may be a stem member of the Hominidae as previously suggested in its original description, or alternatively this taxon may be a stem member of the Ponginae s.l. (with the European dryopithecines being the sister taxon to the Asian pongines)., Depto. de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

This study describes and compares two hyoid bones from the middle Pleistocene site of the Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain). The Atapuerca SH hyoids are humanlike in both their morphology and dimensions, and they clearly differ from the hyoid bones of chimpanzees and Australopithecus afarensis. Their comparison with the Neandertal specimens Kebara 2 and SDR-034 makes it possible to begin to approach the question of temporal variation and sexual dimorphism in this bone in fossil humans. The results presented here show that the degree of metric and anatomical variation in the fossil sample was similar in magnitude and kind to living humans. Modern hyoid morphology was present by at least 530 kya and appears to represent a shared derived feature of the modern human and Neandertal evolutionary lineages inherited from their last common ancestor., Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. de Ciencias Geológicas, TRUE, pub