Search

This review is a follow up to Grün et al. (2006): Direct Dating of Human Fossils. Since that time there has been progress on the experimental side of the geochronological analyses, which are detailed for uranium-series isotope and ESR dating. Also, many new human fossils, including several new species (e.g., H. naledi, H. luzonensis, and H. longi) have been discovered, named and dated. Direct dating of human fossils has contributed to some major revisions in our understanding of human evolution. For example, the enigmatic Homo floresiensis has been dated to >60 ka instead of ∼18 ka as was originally published. This put an end to the heated debate about how H. floresiensis could have survived the arrival of H. sapiens on Flores for several tens of thousands of years. From Africa, results are presented for Swartkrans, Thomas Quarry, Broken Hill (Kabwe), the Rising Star sites Djebel Irhoud, Florisbad and Omo Kibish. In western Asia, human fossils from Mislya, Tabun, Qafzeh and Al Wusta were analysed and in Europe from Payre, Moula Guercy, Lezetxiki, Apidima, El Sidron and Atapuerca (Sima de los Huesos and Gran Dolina). From Asia and Oceania we discuss the results from Denisova, Penghu, Harbin, Liujiang, Liang Bua, Mata Menge, Callao, Ngandong, Sambungmacan, Wajak, Niah and Tabon, while from Australia WLH50 is added to WLH3. We describe the dating procedures for each site. All published data were re-evaluated. The systematic analysis of the U-series isotopic data led to new insights, particularly with respect to detailed U-diffusion processes (provenance of the uranium, leaching, secondary overprints etc.), which altered the interpretation of the ages for some of the sites. For example, we can show that the minimum age of H. luzonensis is 134 ± 14 ka, covering the transition of MIS6 to MIS 5 (younger dates were the result of secondary U-overprints), and that Apidima 1 and 2 have significantly different isotopic characteristics, refuting claims of initial contemporaneous burials. We discuss the implications of the results for our present understanding of human evolution. • Critical assessment of U-series and ESR dating. • Dating the earliest occurrences of Homo sapiens in Africa, the Levant and Europe. • The ages of new human species found since 2000: H. floresiensis, H. luzonensis, H. nadeli, H. longi. • Updated summary of our present understanding of human evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timing and geographic origin of the common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals remain controversial. A poor Pleistocene hominin fossil record and the evolutionary complexities introduced by dispersals and regionalisation of lineages have fuelled taxonomic uncertainty, while new ancient genomic data have raised completely new questions. Here, we use maximum likelihood and 3D geometric morphometric methods to predict possible morphologies of the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals from a simplified, fully resolved phylogeny. We describe the fully rendered 3D shapes of the predicted ancestors of humans and Neandertals, and assess their similarity to individual fossils or populations of fossils of Pleistocene age. Our results support models of an Afro-European ancestral population in the Middle Pleistocene ( Homo heidelbergensis sensu lato) and further predict an African origin for this ancestral population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventeen Middle Pleistocene hominin teeth were excavated at Pontnewydd Cave in North Wales between 1980 and 1995 with a probable age of ~225 ka, associated with handaxe and levallois artefacts. Their Neanderthal characteristics and their affinities with other European Middle Pleistocene teeth and the major sites of Atapuerca-SH in Spain and Krapina in Croatia are explored. The Pontnewydd teeth are shown to have a marked similarity to those of Atapuerca-SH, more pronounced than similarities to teeth from other European Middle Pleistocene sites, and to belong in the pre-Neanderthal stage of Neanderthal evolution. Distinct dental morphological differences between later European Middle Pleistocene specimens, together with those from Atapuerca-SH, and European Middle Pleistocene Homo heidelbergensis specimens are identified, contradicting the view that both the Pontnewydd and the Atapuerca-SH fossils belong in that species. Additionally, the similarities in dental morphology between European and non-European H. heidelbergensis specimens are demonstrated. We argue that when sites are grouped together for comparative purposes this should be done on morphological grounds, and not by apparent date, in view of the possible contemporaneity of European Middle Pleistocene sites that exhibit different degrees of Neanderthal affinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The early Middle Pleistocene human fossil assemblage from Tighenif, Algeria, likely samples some among the earliest representatives of the Homo heidelbergensis morph. A previous study of three deciduous molars from this assemblage revealed an inner structural signature (crown tissue proportions and enamel thickness topography) roughly approximating the modern human figures. By using advanced techniques of microtomographic-based 3D virtual imaging and quantitative analysis, we significantly extend here the currently available record to 22 permanent teeth, mostly from the mandibular dentition, and provide the first detailed description of the structural condition characterizing this North African deme near the Lower-Middle Pleistocene boundary. Together with a certain degree of individual variation, the teeth of Tighenif exhibit a structural pattern combining primitive, derived, and unique features. The lower molars display a set of enamel-dentine junction nonmetric traits more frequently found in recent humans than in Neanderthals, but also a blend of Neanderthal- and modern-like characteristics in terms of structural conformation and crown tissue proportions. They also exhibit relatively large pulp cavities, with a rather high root bifurcation and well-separated pulp canals, a pattern more closely approximating the condition reported for Late Pleistocene Aterians. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Ceprano calvarium, found in 1994 in Italy and attributed to Homo cepranensis, is one of the most celebrated hominin remains of Europe. It was considered at least 700 ka-old until a recent investigation incorporating magnetostratigraphy and K-Ar ages from the literature assigned to the calvarium an age of ∼450 (+50, −100) ka. Here we pin down the age of the Ceprano calvarium to 353 ± 4 ka (±1σ external) by means of new 40Ar/39Ar dating on K-feldspars retrieved from the sediments that hosted the skull. In absence of evidence of reworking, this refined age sinks the conviction that H. cepranensis belonged to human evolution at the Brunhes–Matuyama boundary (c.a. 781 ka). Our refined age indicates that H. cepranensis lived in central Italy probably during the cold period of marine isotope stage (MIS) 10, and that despite his archaic morphology and lack of Neanderthal traits, he was contemporaneous with more advanced species such as H. heidelbergensis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]