Post by archaeologist on Sept 16, 2024 13:13:37 GMT -5
Sometimes certain places can contribute to rewriting history, or at least create new knowledge about it. One such place is Grotte Mandrin (Mandrin cave) in France. Here they have found a tooth of what is possibly among the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe. The tooth was located in a layer sequence with traces of Neanderthals both below and above it, and was dated to around 54000 years.
Another surprise was the finding of the first Neanderthal human remains in France since 1978. These remains could be DNA tested. The test showed that the Neanderthal individual belonged to a lineage that remained isolated from other Neanderthals for many millennia.
About the Homo sapiens finding:
Simak, Ludovic et al 2022: Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France
About the new lineage of Neanderthals:
Simak, Ludovic et al, 2024: Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
Another surprise was the finding of the first Neanderthal human remains in France since 1978. These remains could be DNA tested. The test showed that the Neanderthal individual belonged to a lineage that remained isolated from other Neanderthals for many millennia.
About the Homo sapiens finding:
Abstract
Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to ~45,000 to 43,000 years ago. Here, we report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal the earliest known presence of modern humans in Europe between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. This early modern human incursion in the Rhône Valley is associated with technologies unknown in any industry of that age outside Africa or the Levant. Mandrin documents the first alternating occupation of Neanderthals and modern humans, with a modern human fossil and associated Neronian lithic industry found stratigraphically between layers containing Neanderthal remains associated with Mousterian industries.
Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to ~45,000 to 43,000 years ago. Here, we report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal the earliest known presence of modern humans in Europe between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. This early modern human incursion in the Rhône Valley is associated with technologies unknown in any industry of that age outside Africa or the Levant. Mandrin documents the first alternating occupation of Neanderthals and modern humans, with a modern human fossil and associated Neronian lithic industry found stratigraphically between layers containing Neanderthal remains associated with Mousterian industries.
About the new lineage of Neanderthals:
Highlights
• We present the discovery of a Neanderthal body and its genome
• It is one of the last representatives of these populations in Eurasia
• It belongs to an unknown lineage, isolated for 50 ka
• It is similar to Gibraltar Neanderthals, with whom it forms a specific branch
Summary
Neanderthal genomes have been recovered from sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly complex picture of their populations’ structure that mostly indicates that late European Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation with no significant evidence of population structure. Here, we report the discovery of a late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed “Thorin,” from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and his genome. These dentognathic fossils, including a rare example of distomolars, are associated with a rich archeological record of Neanderthal final technological traditions in this region ∼50–42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals a relatively early divergence of ∼105 ka with other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a population with a small group size that showed no genetic introgression with other known late European Neanderthals, revealing some 50 ka of genetic isolation of his lineage despite them living in neighboring regions. These results have important implications for resolving competing hypotheses about causes of the disappearance of the Neanderthals.
• We present the discovery of a Neanderthal body and its genome
• It is one of the last representatives of these populations in Eurasia
• It belongs to an unknown lineage, isolated for 50 ka
• It is similar to Gibraltar Neanderthals, with whom it forms a specific branch
Summary
Neanderthal genomes have been recovered from sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly complex picture of their populations’ structure that mostly indicates that late European Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation with no significant evidence of population structure. Here, we report the discovery of a late Neanderthal individual, nicknamed “Thorin,” from Grotte Mandrin in Mediterranean France, and his genome. These dentognathic fossils, including a rare example of distomolars, are associated with a rich archeological record of Neanderthal final technological traditions in this region ∼50–42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals a relatively early divergence of ∼105 ka with other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a population with a small group size that showed no genetic introgression with other known late European Neanderthals, revealing some 50 ka of genetic isolation of his lineage despite them living in neighboring regions. These results have important implications for resolving competing hypotheses about causes of the disappearance of the Neanderthals.