Permanent Link:

https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0069686/00001

Material Information

Title:

Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans

Series Title:

Nature

Creator:

Hershkovitz, Israel
Marder, Ofer
Ayalon, Avner
Bar-Matthews, Miryam
Yasur, Gal
Boaretto, Elisabetta
Caracuta, Valentina
Alex, Bridget
Frumkin, Amos
Goder-Goldberger, Mae
Gunz, Philipp
L. Holloway, Ralph
Latimer, Bruce
Lavi, Ron
Matthews, Alan
Slon, Viviane
Bar-Yosef
Mayer, Daniella
Berna, Francesco
Bar-Oz, Guy
Yeshurun, Reuven
May,Hila
G. Hans, Mark
W. Weber, Gerhard
Barzilai, Omry

Publication Date:

2015-01-28

Language:

English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:

Levantine ( local )
Cranium ( local )
Colonized ( local )
Manot Cave ( local )

Genre:

serial ( sobekcm )

Notes

Abstract:

A key event in human evolution is the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia between 60 and 40 thousand years (kyr) before present (BP), replacing all other forms of hominins1. Owing to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations remain largely enigmatic. Here we describe a partial calvaria, recently discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) and dated to 54.7 ± 5.5 kyr BP (arithmetic mean ± 2 standard deviations) by uranium–thorium dating, that sheds light on this crucial event. The overall shape and discrete morphological features of the Manot 1 calvaria demonstrate that this partial skull is unequivocally modern. It is similar in shape to recent African skulls as well as to European skulls from the Upper Palaeolithic period, but different from most other early anatomically modern humans in the Levant. This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans who later successfully colonized Europe. Thus, the anatomical features used to support the ‘assimilation model’ in Europe might not have been inherited from European Neanderthals, but rather from earlier Levantine populations. Moreover, at present, Manot 1 is the only modern human specimen to provide evidence that during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic interface, both modern humans and Neanderthals contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals2,3.

Original Version:

Nature, Vol. 520 (2015-01-28).

Record Information

Source Institution:

University of South Florida Library

Holding Location:

University of South Florida

Rights Management:

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USFLDC Membership

Aggregations:

University of South Florida
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Postcard Information

Format:

serial