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The discovery of a distinctive fossil human genome at Denisova cave in Siberia has revolutionized the world of paleoanthropology during the last ten years. The Denisovan genome was later found in modern day people form Tibet, East Asia and Oceania, and from a few additional remains at Denisova cave. Among the latter, the 13 years old (Denisova 11) female individual nicknamed Denny stands out as exceptional. Denny had a Denisovan father with some Neanderthal ancestry in his blood, and a Neanderthal mother, suggesting mating between the two hominin groups was common in the Denisova area. As of today, although Denisovans are treated as a full-fledged species in everyday practice and several spectacularly preserved skull specimens found in China are suspected to represent true Denisovans, this human lineage has no formal definition, no type material, no established area of origin, and a dim origin tracing back to an archaic hominin migrating out of Africa around 1 million years ago., BORNH Bulletin of Regional Natural History, Vol 2 No 2 (2022): BORNH 02/2022

The world-famous Roccamonfina site represents one among the very few opportunities to investigate about the evolution of bipedal locomotion of Middle Pleistocene humans. The site includes at least 80, finely preserved human footprints in anatomical position, divided into four trackways. We applied a biomechanical model to verify if the Roccamonfina���s individuals minimized energy expenditure during locomotion, moving downhill along an oblique route cutting the slope in order to avoid the steepest gradient. In keeping with the biomechanical modelling, we found Roccamonfina���s humans adjusted their walking strategy as a function of the slope gradient in a cost effective way. Moreover, the application of the model allowed to estimate stature and body mass of a particual individual. The results perfectly fits within the variability of eurasiatic Middle Pleistocene hominins., Il sito di Roccamonfina, famoso in tutto il mondo, rappresenta una delle pochissime opportunit��� per indagare sull'evoluzione della locomozione bipede degli uomini del Pleistocene medio. Il sito comprende almeno 80 impronte umane finemente conservate in posizione anatomica, coordinate in quattro piste. Si ��� applicato un modello biomeccanico per verificare se gli individui del Roccamonfina minimizzavano il dispendio energetico durante la locomozione, muovendosi in discesa lungo un percorso obliquo che tagliava il pendio per evitare la pendenza pi��� ripida. In linea con la modellazione biomeccanica, si ��� trovato che gli esseri umani del Roccamonfina hanno regolato la loro strategia d���andatura in funzione del gradiente del pendio in modo efficace dal punto di vista del costo energetico. Inoltre, l'applicazione del modello ha permesso di stimare la statura e la massa corporea di un individuo particolare. I risultati rientrano perfettamente nella variabilit��� degli ominini eurasiatici del Pleistocene medio.

The scientific views upon life and death of Homo neanderthalensis, the closest species to Homo sapiens ever lived, changed continuously through time. Once considered a form of brutish, unintelligent and savage hominin, Neanderthals are now rightfully seen as a highly social, clever and ecologically plastic species, whose behavior must have been much closer to modern humans than we thought before. Extensive gene exchange between the two species and convincing evidence of imitation by Neanderthals of H. sapiens practices and technologies bolster this view, suggesting the interactions between the two were possibly untroubled. This casts serious doubts on the conventional opinion that H. sapiens could have violently exterminated Neanderthals. In contrast, the much stronger than ever evidence that Neanderthals were not a coldloving species, and an increased awareness of the effect of climate change on extinction in hominins, reinforce the idea that H. sapiens did not cause their demise., BORNH Bulletin of Regional Natural History, V. 1 N. 1 (2021): BORNH 01/2021

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The present thesis focusses on fossil Primates, their ecological characterization, morphological evolution and diversification, and an array of new tools to study their anatomical features. The text is divided in three different parts, presenting a collection of either published or submitted manuscripts. The first part regards the morphological adaptation and diversification of Primates. The inaugural paper (“Macroevolutionary trends of brain size in primates”, Melchionna et al., under review) deals with the identification and the analysis of macroevolutionary trends in brain size evolution in Primates. We applied Phylogenetic Ridge Regression (RRphylo) to found possible shifts in morphological rates and their temporal trend. Furthermore, we computed diversification rates (DR). We found a significant increase in encephalization quotient (EQ) rates in the hominins group with an overall increase in EQ values. We found a significant correlation between DR and both EQ rates EQ values. There is also a linear relationship between speciation and extinction rates. Eventually, we found an increase in speciation rates and a reduction in extinction rates with an increase in EQ values. The second paper (“Unexpectedly rapid evolution of mandibular shape in hominins”; Raia et al., 2018) is about the evolution of mandibular shape from ancient primates to the genus Homo. We used the Geometric Mophometrics and the Phylogenetic Ridge Regression to compute evolutionary rates in mandibular morphology. We found that mandible shape evolution in hominins is exceptionally rapid as compared to any other primate clade. In the second part of the thesis I introduce new advances in the field of the Virtual Anthropology. The first is a new protocol to obtain three-dimensional reconstruction of inner and outer surfaces of fossil specimens (“Reproducing the internal and external anatomy of fossil bones: Two new automatic digital tools”; Profico et al., 2018). By using the R software platform, we developed two automatic tools to reproduce the internal and external structures of bony elements. The first method, Computer‐Aided Laser Scanner Emulator (CA‐LSE), provides the reconstruction of the external portions of a 3D mesh by simulating the action of a laser scanner. The second method, Automatic Segmentation Tool for 3D objects (AST‐3D), performs the digital reconstruction of anatomical cavities. Both methods are embedded in the packages “Arothron” (Profico et al., 2018) and "Morpho" (Schlager, 2017). The second protocol presented in this section is about the reconstruction of the original shape of fossil bones damaged and deformed by taphonomical processes (“A new tool for digital alignment in Virtual Anthropology”; Profico et al., 2018). We developed a new, semi-automatic alignment R software, Digital Tool for Alignment (DTA). This tool uses the shape information contained in a reference sample to find the best alignment solution for the disarticulated regions. The third part of the thesis focusses on Homo, and in particularl on the relationship between Homo neanerthalesis and Homo sapiens. The first paper of this section is about the status of the Neanderthal niche fragmentation toward their demise (“Fragmentation of Neanderthals' pre-extinction distribution by climate change”; Melchionna et al., 2018). By using Species Distribution Models, and a habitat fragmentation analysis, we reconstructed the ecological niche of both human species. We found Homo sapiens had greater ecological plasticity over Neanderthals, which probably allowed this species to better react to climatic worsening at 44 and then at 40 ka. However, Neanderthals potential habitat appears to be very reduced and fragmented during the last phase of their occupation. The second paper of this last section regards the role of Homo sapiens in the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinction (“The well-behaved killer: Late Pleistocene humans in Eurasia were significantly associated with living megafauna only”; Carotenuto et al., 2018). Starting from a rich faunal and archaeological database, and by using SDMs, we obtained megafauna and humans occurrence probability maps over the last 40 ka in Eurasia. Then, we divided species in ecological groups (i.e., body size and feeding category combined). We evaluated their geographical overlap to human range and the species suitability in the core area of Homo sapiens. The results indicated that the extinct megafauna was rare within humans' range and Palaeolithic hunters had stronger association to extant rather than extinct herbivorous species.

Research was carried out in Naples province in 2004 and 2005, in winter, with the aim of assessing the production and quality of basil plants grown in pot (peat-lapil) inside plastic gullies, under a thermal PE polytunnel equipped with an air heating system. Four plant densities (9, 12, 15 and 18 plants per pot) were compared, arranging a randomised complete block design with three replicates. The 12 plants per pot density gave the best results, in terms of weights and leaf area and, not differently from the 9 units treatment, showed the shortest cycle duration. As regards individual features, the 9 plants per pot produced the best performances, i.e. the highest stem thickness. Plant water and nutrient uptakes showed the highest intensities in the last growing week, in the 12 plants pots, except for phosphorus and calcium, whose adsorptions didn’t differ between the 9 and 12 unit treatments. La ricerca é stata condotta in Campania nel 2004 e 2005, nella stagione invernale, con l’obiettivo di valutare la produzione di piantine di basilico (cv “Gecom FT”) allevato in vaso, all’interno di una serra-tunnel rivestita con film di PE termico e dotata di generatori di aria calda. Sono stati posti a confronto quattro densità d’investimento (9, 12, 15 e 18 piante per vaso), adottando un disegno sperimentale a blocchi completi randomizzati con tre ripetizioni; ciascun trattamento includeva 30 piante. L’impianto idroponico consisteva di: a) canalette rigide in PVC (larghe ciascuna 12 cm, profonde 10 e lunghe 300), posizionate a 70 cm di altezza dal suolo; b) contenitori in plastica da 220 l; c) pompe sommerse della potenza di 90 W; tubazioni di mandata e ritorno in PE. I vasi, riempiti con torba e lapillo (rapporto di 1:1 in volume), sono stati collocati nelle canalette il 15 gennaio, attraverso fori praticati nel film di PE bianco e distanziati di 10 cm lungo e tra le file (18 per m2). Le piante sono state alimentate con una soluzione nutritiva (EC = 2.8 mS•cm-1; pH=5.8; N:K:Ca=1.0:1.2:0.9), che non è stata mai corretta ma completamente cambiata al termine di ciascun ciclo settimanale. Tra le densità esaminate, quelle basate su 12 piante per vaso hanno determinato i valori più elevati di produzione ed espansione fogliare e, unitamente al trattamento “9 piante per vaso”, hanno manifestato la durata del ciclo colturale più breve. In termini di singole piante, invece, la densità di 9 unità per alloggiamento ha generato i migliori risultati, soprattutto lo spessore degli steli più rilevante. Gli assorbimenti giornalieri idrici e nutrizionali hanno espresso le intensità più elevate nell’ultima settimana del ciclo e nei vasi contenenti 12 piante. Un’eccezione è stata rappresentata da fosforo e calcio, che sono stati assunti dalle piante con ritmi analoghi in corrispondenza delle due densità colturali più basse (9 e 12 piante per vaso).

Lo studio dell’emodinamica, cioè delle proprietà fisiche del flusso sanguigno, ha, tra i suoi obiettivi, la comprensione della genesi delle malattie cardiovascolari per arrivare, auspicabilmente, a prevederne l’evoluzione. Una nuova tecnica computazionale multiscala, descritta nell’articolo, permette di studiare, ad un altissimo livello di risoluzione, il sistema arterioso umano in tutta la sua complessità. I risultati ottenuti dalle simulazioni permettono di offrire nuove possibilità per salvare la vita a chi non ha ancora manifestato i sintomi dell’infarto pur avendone in atto le cause prime.

Vengono descritti i risultati di uno studio volto ad ad ottimizzare il procedimento di estrazione di ammine aromatiche da matrici acquose. L'estratto, opportunamente concentrato, è stato analizzato mediante gascromatografia ad alta risoluzione-spettrometria di massa (HRGC-MS). Sono state prese in considerazione le ammine inserite nel D.Lgs. 3 aprile 2006 n.152 (Tabb. 1-2, All. V, parte 4) concernente la bonifica di siti contaminati (anilina, o-toluidina, p-toluidina, o-anisidina, m-anisidina, p-anisidina, difenilammina). La sperimentazione condotta ha evidenziato la maggiore efficacia delle colonnine impaccate con N-vinilpirrolidone-divinilbenzene), rispetto a quelle contenenti stirene-divinilbenzene, nell'isolare gli analiti di interesse dalla matrice acquosa. L'estrazione in fase solida con N-vinilpirrolidone-divinilbenzene si è dimostrata più vantaggiosa rispetto alla tradizionale estrazione liquido-liquido, in quanto ha fornito percentuali di recupero dei diversi analiti paragonabili (in qualche caso addirittura superiori) mediante una procedura operativa più semplice e con un minor consumo di solventi.