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In 2011, an engraved limestone block was found in the cave of Arlanpe ( Lemoa, northern Iberian Peninsula). One of the figures represented on it was identified as a schematic feminine representation similar to those of the Gönnersdorf- Lalinde style. The stratigraphical position of the block is not totally clear owing to severe disturbance in the Upper Pleistocene deposits located near the entrance sector of the cave. Nevertheless, the most probable stratigraphical correlation is with Level I, which has been dated to the beginning of the Middle Magdalenian. This finding extends the distribution range of this kind of representation to the northern Iberian Peninsula, where, up to now, only two other, less clear, Gönnersdorf- Lalinde style representations have been found. It also extends its chronological range, pushing it back to the beginning of the Middle Magdalenian. In this paper, we present the archaeological context of the engraved block, followed by a detailed description of technological and stylistic features. These data will be used to discuss the implication of this discovery for an understanding of the origins, expansion and diffusion of this kind of feminine representation across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus) populations reached the Iberian Peninsula during the end of the Middle Pleistocene and there are numerous examples of this species from Late Pleistocene Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic sites. In this paper, new evidence of reindeer in the east Cantabrian region is presented that further supports the timing of this species' first appearance, and previous assessments are updated. To date, the presence of this species has been identified at 55 sites in the Iberian Peninsula, nearly as many as those of mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius) and woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta antiquitatis) combined. Most of the sites with presence of reindeer (50) are located in the Cantabrian region with a clear increase in the density of sites and remains towards the Pyrenees. The remaining five sites with evidence of reindeer are located on the other side of the Pyrenees in the NW corner of Catalonia. In contrast, archaeological evidence of reindeer in the form of art (both parietal and portable) is more scarce and scattered. Evidence for the representation of these animals has been found outside the northern fringe of the Iberian Peninsula, which could reflect either long-distance cultural communication or the movement of human groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this study, we report a case of duplication of a lower fourth premolar (P4) on an Iberian wild goat from the archaeological site cave of Arlanpe, (Lemoa, Bizkaia, Northern Spain). The preserved right mandible corpus displays two premolars and the first molar (M1). Both premolars conform in size and general shape to fourth premolars (P4) but the medialmost of the two is rotated 90° counterclockwise, and thus, its wear pattern is different. The comparative analysis to other bovids and the relative scarcity of this anomaly compared to other cases of polydontia and hypodontia suggest that it is a developmental defect consisting in the duplication of the tooth germ, and we doubt on the potential of this abnormality as a territorially based indicator of past wild populations as has been previously proposed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lordotic curvature of the lumbar spine (lumbar lordosis) in humans is a critical component in the ability to achieve upright posture and bipedal gait. Only general estimates of the lordotic angle (LA) of extinct hominins are currently available, most of which are based on the wedging of the vertebral bodies. Recently, a new method for calculating the LA in skeletal material has become available. This method is based on the relationship between the lordotic curvature and the orientation of the inferior articular processes relative to vertebral bodies in the lumbar spines of living primates. Using this relationship, we developed new regression models in order to calculate the LAs in hominins. The new models are based on primate group-means and were used to calculate the LAs in the spines of eight extinct hominins. The results were also compared with the LAs of modern humans and modern nonhuman apes. The lordotic angles of australopithecines (41° ± 4), H. erectus (45°) and fossil H. sapiens (54° ± 14) are similar to those of modern humans (51° ± 11). This analysis confirms the assumption that human-like lordotic curvature was a morphological change that took place during the acquisition of erect posture and bipedalism as the habitual form of locomotion. Neandertals have smaller lordotic angles (LA = 29° ± 4) than modern humans, but higher angles than nonhuman apes (22° ± 3). This suggests possible subtle differences in Neandertal posture and locomotion from that of modern humans. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone breakage is one of the most common features in the archaeological record. Fractures occur at different times and are classified as fresh or dry depending on the presence or absence of collagen in the bone. In the study of human remains, the timing of the occurrence of a fracture is of crucial importance as it can sometimes be linked to the cause of death. Types of skull breakage can be classified based on when they occurred, though not all fractures correspond to the expected features. This variability is added to the challenge of working with bones covered in consolidant, which obstructs the bone surface and hinders taphonomic analysis. This is the case of the Txispiri calotte, which was categorized as a skull cup in the early 20th century, though this classification was later rejected in the 1990s. In this study, we used statistics and machine learning (ML) to test the breakage characteristics of one set of skull fragments with fresh fractures, another set with dry fractures, and the Txispiri calotte. For this purpose, we considered the fracture type, trajectory, angles, cortical delamination and texture of each of the individual fractures. Our results show that the 13 fractures of the Txispiri calotte correspond to dry breakage and bear no relation to artificially produced skull cups. This study shows the potential of ML algorithms to classify fresh and dry fractures within the same specimen, a method that can be applied to other assemblages with similar characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlating cultural, technological and ecological aspects of both Upper Pleistocene modern humans (UPMHs) and Neandertals provides a useful approach for achieving robust predictions about what makes us human. Here we present ecological information for a period of special relevance in human evolution, the time of replacement of Neandertals by modern humans during the Late Pleistocene in Europe. Using the stable isotopic approach, we shed light on aspects of diet and mobility of the late Neandertals and UPMHs from the cave sites of the Troisième caverne of Goyet and Spy in Belgium. We demonstrate that their diet was essentially similar, relying on the same terrestrial herbivores, whereas mobility strategies indicate considerable differences between Neandertal groups, as well as in comparison to UPMHs. Our results indicate that UPMHs exploited their environment to a greater extent than Neandertals and support the hypothesis that UPMHs had a substantial impact not only on the population dynamics of large mammals but also on the whole structure of the ecosystem since their initial arrival in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex is a biological trait fundamental to the study of hominin fossils. Among the many questions that can be addressed are those related to taxonomy, biological variability, sexual dimorphism, paleoobstetrics, funerary selection, and paleodemography. While new methodologies such as paleogenomics or paleoproteomics can be used to determine sex, they have not been systematically applied to Pleistocene human remains due to their destructive nature. Therefore, we estimated sex from the coxal bone of the newly discovered pelvic remains of the Regourdou 1 Neandertal (Southwest France, MIS 5) based on morphological and metric data employing two methods that have been recently revised and shown to be reliable in multiple studies. Both methods calculate posterior probabilities of the estimate. The right coxal bone of Regourdou 1 was partially reconstructed providing additional traits for sex estimation. These methods were cross validated on 14 sufficiently preserved coxal bones of specimens from the Neandertal lineage. Our results show that the Regourdou 1 individual, whose postcranial skeleton is not robust, is a male, and that previous sex attributions of comparative Neandertal specimens are largely in agreement with those obtained here. Our results encourage additional morphological research of fossil hominins in order to develop a set of methods that are applicable, reliable, and reproducible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The size and shape of the Neandertal thorax has been debated since the first discovery of Neandertal ribs more than 150 years ago, with workers proposing different interpretations ranging from a Neandertal thoracic morphology that is indistinguishable from modern humans, to one that was significantly different from them. Here, we provide a virtual 3D reconstruction of the thorax of the adult male Kebara 2 Neandertal. Our analyses reveal that the Kebara 2 thorax is significantly different but not larger from that of modern humans, wider in its lower segment, which parallels his wide bi-iliac breadth, and with a more invaginated vertebral column. Kinematic analyses show that rib cages that are wider in their lower segment produce greater overall size increments (respiratory capacity) during inspiration. We hypothesize that Neandertals may have had a subtle, but somewhat different breathing mechanism compared to modern humans. How different Neandertal morphology was from that of modern humans has been a subject of long debate. Here, the authors develop a 3D virtual reconstruction of the thorax of an adult male Neandertal, showing similar size to modern humans, yet with greater respiratory capacity due to its different shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hominin footprints were recently discovered at Matalascañas (Huelva; South of Iberian Peninsula). They were dated thanks to a previous study in deposits of the Asperillo cliff to 106 ± 19 ka, Upper Pleistocene, making Neandertals the most likely track-makers. In this paper, we report new Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating that places the hominin footprints surface in the range of 295.8 ± 17 ka (MIS 9-MIS 8 transition, Middle Pleistocene). This new age implies that the possible track-makers are individuals more likely from the Neandertal evolutionary lineage. Regardless of the taxon attributed to the Matalascañas footprints, they supplement the existing partial fossil record for the European Middle Pleistocene Hominins being notably the first palaeoanthropological evidence (hominin skeleton or footprints) from the MIS 9 and MIS 8 transition discovered in the Iberian Peninsula, a moment of climatic evolution from warm to cool. Thus, the Matalascañas footprints represent a crucial record for understanding human occupations in Europe in the Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001 and between 2010 and 2013 El Mirón cave in northern Spain yielded a partial human skeleton in a Cantabrian Lower Magdalenian deposit. The skeleton has been directly radiocarbon dated to 15,460 ± 40 BP. The archaeological context suggests that the human remains were deposited at the site as a result of a deliberate burial. Here we present a complete inventory and anthropological study of this individual. The remains belong to a single, middle-aged, robust female individual of ca. 160 cm in height and weighing ca. 60 kg, with good health status. The individual is represented by the mandible, numerous teeth and many postcranial bones, including significant portions of the vertebral column, costal skeleton, hands and feet. The Magdalenian context of El Mirón cave provides additional data on the otherwise poorly known Upper Paleolithic populations of Southwestern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival, occupation, and disappearance of Neanderthals in the Cantabrian region is the subject of a long-running debate that continues to this day. Knowledge of the evolution of Neanderthal societies since the end of the Middle Pleistocene in the north of the Iberian Peninsula is greatly impacted by the scarcity of a good chronological framework. This absence of good data creates difficulties in evaluating the cultural adaptations of these populations to environmental changes and their historical dynamics. The Amalda III cave, surveyed in 1983-84, contains a sequence of occupations ranging from the end of MIS5 (Levallois with Mousterian points and bifaces) to the beginning of MIS3 (Vasconian). It is possible to observe substantial changes in the environmental conditions and cultural responses of Neanderthal groups that inhabited the cave. Here we present the first results of the Amalda III sequence, which is currently being excavated by an interdisciplinary team. Our objective is to test, enrich and refine the regional environmental and Neanderthal cultural framework and the transformations that took place between the MIS5 and the MIS3. These new data are compared with the information available from several Middle Paleolithic sites in the region, advancing our understanding of the behavioural adaptations of Neanderthals to different ecological and socio-cultural situations between ca. 100 and 45 kyr BP in the Eastern Cantabrian region. In this way, we will be able to deepen our interpretation of the processes of cultural change of the last groups of Neanderthals that inhabited this region. • Chronology, environment and cultural data of a new Middle Palaeolithic (MIS5-MIS3) sequence in the Cantabrian region. • During a warm episode of the MIS5, short-term occupation with hunting weapon points and typical Levallois technology • During a warm episode of the MIS3, specialised occupations with heavy tools typical of the Vasconian. • Understanding the adaptation of Neanderthals to different ecological and socio-cultural situations between MIS5 and MIS3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple factors have been proposed to explain the disappearance of Neandertals between ca. 50 and 40 kyr BP. Central to these discussions has been the identification of new techno-cultural complexes that overlap with the period of Neandertal demise in Europe. One such complex is the Châtelperronian, which extends from the Paris Basin to the Northern Iberian Peninsula between 43,760–39,220 BP. In this study we present the first open-air Châtelperronian site in the Northern Iberian Peninsula, Aranbaltza II. The technological features of its stone tool assemblage show no links with previous Middle Paleolithic technology in the region, and chronological modeling reveals a gap between the latest Middle Paleolithic and the Châtelperronian in this area. We interpret this as evidence of local Neandertal extinction and replacement by other Neandertal groups coming from southern France, illustrating how local extinction episodes could have played a role in the process of disappearance of Neandertals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of funerary practices has important implications for the emergence of so-called modern cognitive capacities and behaviour. We provide new multidisciplinary information on the archaeological context of the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal skeleton (grand abri of La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France), including geochronological data -14C and OSL-, ZooMS and ancient DNA data, geological and stratigraphic information from the surrounding context, complete taphonomic study of the skeleton and associated remains, spatial information from the 1968–1973 excavations, and new (2014) fieldwork data. Our results show that a pit was dug in a sterile sediment layer and the corpse of a two-year-old child was laid there. A hominin bone from this context, identified through Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) and associated with Neandertal based on its mitochondrial DNA, yielded a direct 14C age of 41.7–40.8 ka cal BP (95%), younger than the 14C dates of the overlying archaeopaleontological layers and the OSL age of the surrounding sediment. This age makes the bone one of the most recent directly dated Neandertals. It is consistent with the age range for the Châtelperronian in the site and in this region and represents the third association of Neandertal taxa to Initial Upper Palaeolithic lithic technocomplex in Western Europe. A detailed multidisciplinary approach, as presented here, is essential to advance understanding of Neandertal behavior, including funerary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental conditions that existed during the period between 45 and 30 ka are of vital importance for addressing the transition between the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. It seems to be a hiatus of Paleolithic populations, a "no (hu)man's land" in Central Iberia, coinciding with the mid part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, between 42 and 28 cal kyr BP. This break in the archaeological record makes it difficult to address this period paleoecologically. Here we present a new cave site, Portalón del Tejadilla (Segovia), dated to a period roughly between ∼34.2 and 40.4 cal kyr BP in which cold-adapted faunas, such as woolly rhinoceros and giant deer, have been recovered in a hyena den site context. This site is located in Central Iberia, and more specifically, on the southern edge of the northern Plateau, an unexpected region for the presence of these faunas during the MIS 3. These new findings extend the geographical distribution of several species, including Coelodonta antiquitatis and Megaloceros giganteus. Furthermore, they document a climatic deterioration (colder and dryer) during the mid MIS 3 in Central Iberia in one of the coldest and driest episodes of the Late Pleistocene. Portalón del Tejadilla fills this temporal gap and provides valuable paleoecological information about the transition between the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. • Portalón del Tejadilla (PT) is dated to a period between ∼34.2 and 40.4 cal kyr BP. • Cold-adapted faunas have been recovered in a hyena den site context. • The new findings extend the geographical distribution of cold-adapted species. • Here we document a climatic deterioration during the mid MIS 3 in Central Iberia. • PT provides paleoecological information about the Mid-Upper Paleolithic transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlantic Western Pyrenean area is exceptionally rich in archaeological evidence of funerary contexts dated to Late Prehistory. These funerary deposits are mainly recorded in caves and megalithic structures. Burials attributed to the Holocene have been recorded in more than 187 caves (177 just in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia), reflecting the relevance of this phenomenon in the AWP. Nonetheless, just a few of these inhumation contexts have been properly studied, and even fewer have direct and systematic 14C dates. Here, we present the results from the analysis of two sepulchral caves from Biscay: Atxuri-I and Txotxinkoba, that preserve a minimum number of 9 and 14 individuals, respectively. Both caves present subadult individuals of different ages-at-death and among adults, both sexes are represented. Although the representation of osteological elements is roughly similar in both sites, small differences in the preservation of pelvic bones and the completeness of long bones suggest a potential bias in Atxuri-I. We provide six new radiocarbon dates on human remains. Two 14C dates from Atxuri-I show that the cave was used for funerary purposes at least during two very different times: the Mesolithic and the Bronze Age. The latter period is represented by a directly dated complete femur, which was also studied biomechanically, providing results similar with the available Bronze Age female sample from the Iberian Peninsula. The four dates from Txotxinkoba show that the cave was only used for a relatively short period during the Chalcolithic. When put within the Atlantic Western Pyrenean context, despite the limited amount of direct dates a pattern is evident, where most of the largest accumulations of human remains are found in sites with Chalcolithic burials (between 4,600 and 4,000 BP), such as Lacilla II, Pico Ramos, Urtao II and Abauntz, and Txotxinkoba would fit within this group. Those caves that show human burial chronologies spanning longer periods of time, such as Lumentxa, Santimamiñe, Marizulo or Aizpea, generally contain smaller numbers of individuals, and Atxuri-I would fit within this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lumentxa is a classic site in Basque Prehistory, excavated in three different phases during the 20th century, which has yielded evidence of both Pleistocene and Holocene occupations. In this article, we present a detailed study of the human remains from this site including paleobiological, taphonomic, biomechanical and chronological perspectives. The human assemblage comprises of a minimum number of seven individuals: three subadult and four adults, with both sexes represented, although part of the human collection is currently lost. We have obtained C14 dates from 4 of these 7 individuals indicating a prolonged funerary use of the cave from the Early Neolithic until the Bronze Age. We observed some biases in the skeletal representation which could be due to differences in the excavation methods between field seasons and/or the action of carnivores, the latter being evident in at least three of the individuals. The taphonomic modifications are typical off those found in the post-abandonment phases in cave funerary contexts. The relatively low number of individuals compared with other sites in the region and extended timespan over which the remains were deposited suggest that the cave was used only sporadically for funerary purposes. We report the first biomechanical data for a Neolithic individual from the Iberian Peninsula, which show greatest overall similarity to the Neolithic sample from France and Italy. Finally, the broad time period covered by the direct dates and the more complex taphonomic history than was previously assumed for such sites indicate that caution is warranted when assigning sepulchral caves to cultural periods in the Western Pyrenees when no direct radiocarbon dates have been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus Cuvier, 1823) is a medium-sized ursid that currently mostly inhabits environments of dense foliage and forests in southern and eastern Asia. This species is currently extinct in Europe, but during the Middle Pleistocene and the beginning of the Late Pleistocene its distribution was wider and reached until Southern Siberia, the Ural Mountains, Caucasus and western Europe. The main objective of this work is to provide a detailed description of all the Ursus thibetanus remains from the Iberian Peninsula, describing for the first time the new remains, and discuss the chronological framework of the presence of this taxon in the largest of the southern European peninsulas. The Iberian Peninsula has yielded paleontological evidence of this taxon in five sites (Bolomor, Koskobilo, La Llanera, Cau d'en Borràs and Villavieja), and we present new paleontological evidence from the latter three sites, which is important due to the scarcity of U. thibetanus fossil remains. We compare the morphology of these new remains with both European Pleistocene fossils and recent U. thibetanus. Up until recently, its distribution in Iberia was thought to be restricted to the East of the Iberian Peninsula. But the recent identification of U. thibetanus remains in Koskobilo (Navarre) and in La Llanera (Oviedo) has resulted in a wider distribution of this species than what was previously thought. The dental remains from Koskobilo, La Llanera, Villavieja, Bolomor and Cau d'en Borràs fit well within the Pleistocene U. thibetanus from Europe morphologically and metrically. Some Iberian remains are morphologically similar to previously described U. thibetanus Pleistocene fossil subspecies. A M2 from Bolomor is morphologically closer to U. t. mediterraneus (MIS 7), and a M2 from Koskobilo is similar to U. t. kurteni (MIS 6–7). The postcranial fossil remains from Cau d'en Borràs and Villavieja fit well within the recent U. thibetanus range of variation. Except for the remains from Bolomor (MIS 5e and MIS 7), the rest of the Iberian U. thibetanus fossils are difficult to ascribe chronologically. Based on other biochronological proxies, Cau d'en Borràs and Koskobilo can tentatively be assigned to the MIS 7–5 range, Villavieja could be assigned to MIS 13–5, and La Llanera is probably the oldest record of U. thibetanus in Iberia (MIS 15–13). However, until new direct datings are performed on the sites, the proposed chronologies should be regarded with caution. • We identified new Pleistocene Ursus thibetanus fossils, which is interesting due to the of this species scarcity during Pleistocene. • The postcranial fossil sample is enlarged, while the majority of the fossil record correspond to cranio-dental remains. • A new site that extends the range of distribution for the U. thibetanus in the Iberian Peninsula is identified. • A detailed description of the dental morphology is performed, as well as a review of the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primate vertebral column has been extensively studied, with a particular focus on hominoid primates and the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The number of vertebrae in hominoids—up to and including the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees—is subject to considerable debate. However, few formal ancestral state reconstructions exist, and none include a broad sample of primates or account for the correlated evolution of the vertebral column. Here, we conduct an ancestral state reconstruction using a model of evolution that accounts for both homeotic (changes of one type of vertebra to another) and meristic (addition or loss of a vertebra) changes. Our results suggest that ancestral primates were characterized by 29 precaudal vertebrae, with the most common formula being seven cervical, 13 thoracic, six lumbar, and three sacral vertebrae. Extant hominoids evolved tail loss and a reduced lumbar column via sacralization (homeotic transition at the last lumbar vertebra). Our results also indicate that the ancestral hylobatid had seven cervical, 13 thoracic, five lumbar, and four sacral vertebrae, and the ancestral hominid had seven cervical, 13 thoracic, four lumbar, and five sacral vertebrae. The last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees likely either retained this ancestral hominid formula or was characterized by an additional sacral vertebra, possibly acquired through a homeotic shift at the sacrococcygeal border. Our results support the 'short-back' model of hominin vertebral evolution, which postulates that hominins evolved from an ancestor with an African ape–like numerical composition of the vertebral column. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]