TY - JOUR
T1 - The Neanderthal in the karst
T2 - First dating, morphometric, and paleogenetic data on the fossil skeleton from Altamura (Italy)
AU - Lari, Martina
AU - Di Vincenzo, Fabio
AU - Borsato, Andrea
AU - Ghirotto, Silvia
AU - Micheli, Mario
AU - Balsamo, Carlotta
AU - Collina, Carmine
AU - De Bellis, Gianluca
AU - Frisia, Silvia
AU - Giacobini, Giacomo
AU - Gigli, Elena
AU - Hellstrom, John C.
AU - Lannino, Antonella
AU - Modi, Alessandra
AU - Pietrelli, Alessandro
AU - Pilli, Elena
AU - Profico, Antonio
AU - Ramirez, Oscar
AU - Rizzi, Ermanno
AU - Vai, Stefania
AU - Venturo, Donata
AU - Piperno, Marcello
AU - Lalueza-Fox, Carles
AU - Barbujani, Guido
AU - Caramelli, David
AU - Manzi, Giorgio
PY - 2015/5/1
Y1 - 2015/5/1
N2 - In 1993, a fossil hominin skeleton was discovered in the karst caves of Lamalunga, near Altamura, in southern Italy. Despite the fact that this specimen represents one of the most extraordinary hominin specimens ever found in Europe, for the last two decades our knowledge of it has been based purely on the documented on-site observations. Recently, the retrieval from the cave of a fragment of bone (part of the right scapula) allowed the first dating of the individual, the quantitative analysis of a diagnostic morphological feature, and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization of this hominin skeleton from Altamura. Overall, the results concur in indicating that it belongs to the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis, with some phenetic peculiarities that appear consistent with a chronology ranging from 172±15ka to 130.1±1.9ka. Thus, the skeleton from Altamura represents the most ancient Neanderthal from which endogenous DNA has ever been extracted.
AB - In 1993, a fossil hominin skeleton was discovered in the karst caves of Lamalunga, near Altamura, in southern Italy. Despite the fact that this specimen represents one of the most extraordinary hominin specimens ever found in Europe, for the last two decades our knowledge of it has been based purely on the documented on-site observations. Recently, the retrieval from the cave of a fragment of bone (part of the right scapula) allowed the first dating of the individual, the quantitative analysis of a diagnostic morphological feature, and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization of this hominin skeleton from Altamura. Overall, the results concur in indicating that it belongs to the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis, with some phenetic peculiarities that appear consistent with a chronology ranging from 172±15ka to 130.1±1.9ka. Thus, the skeleton from Altamura represents the most ancient Neanderthal from which endogenous DNA has ever been extracted.
KW - Ancient DNA
KW - Geometric morphometrics
KW - Scapula
KW - U/TH dating
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928697206&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.02.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.02.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 25805042
AN - SCOPUS:84928697206
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 82
SP - 88
EP - 94
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
ER -