Earliest modern humans in Europe found in Romania.

[braham]

Earliest modern humans in Europe found in Romania.

Sept. 22, 2003 — A research team co-directed by Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, has dated a human jawbone from a Romanian bear hibernation cave to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago. That makes it the earliest known modern human fossil in Europe.

etc.

http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/427.html

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Thanks for passing this on. Somewhat similar info has also appeared
HERE and HERE.

And, below, the Abstract of the actual paper that can be read HERE.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

PS  By the way, I took the liberty of adding a geographic indicator to the title of your post.

Trinkaus, Erik, Oana Moldovan, Stefan Milota, Adrian Bîlgar, Laurentiu Sarcina, Sheela Athreya, Shara E. Bailey, Ricardo Rodrigo, Gherase Mircea, Thomas Higham, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, and Johannes van der Plicht. 2003. An early modern human from the Pestera cu Oase, Romania. PNAS. Published online before print September 22, 2003.

Abstract:

The 2002 discovery of a robust modern human mandible in the Pestera cu Oase, southwestern Romania, provides evidence of early modern humans in the lower Danubian Corridor. Directly accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (14C)-dated to 34,000-36,000 14C years B.P., the Oase 1 mandible is the oldest definite early modern human specimen in Europe and provides perspectives on the emergence and evolution of early modern humans in the northwestern Old World. The moderately long Oase 1 mandible exhibits a prominent tuber symphyseos and overall proportions that place it close to earlier Upper Paleolithic European specimens. Its symmetrical mandibular incisure, medially placed condyle, small superior medial pterygoid tubercle, mesial mental foramen, and narrow corpus place it closer to early modern humans among Late Pleistocene humans. However, its cross-sectional symphyseal orientation is intermediate between late archaic and early modern humans, the ramus is exceptionally wide, and the molars become progressively larger distally with exceptionally large third molars. The molar crowns lack derived Neandertal features but are otherwise morphologically undiagnostic. However, it has unilateral mandibular foramen lingular bridging, an apparently derived Neandertal feature. It therefore presents a mosaic of archaic, early modern human and possibly Neandertal morphological features, emphasizing both the complex population dynamics of modern human dispersal into Europe and the subsequent morphological evolution of European early modern humans.

[Iain Davidson]

This presumably joins the list of examples where statements are made despite the evidence rather because of it.


If you look at the claim that "some features that are very primitive in nature, such as large molars" and compare it with the data, I have some
difficulty with the claim.


For all of the measurements on the Oase 1 teeth, the value is greater than the Neandertal mean.  For 2 of the 5 measurements the Qafzeh Skhul mean is larger than the Neandertal mean, and for other Early Upper Palaeolithic teeth two of the means are greater than or equal to the Neandertal mean.


There is not much difference even when the means are smaller for the non-Neandertals.

This does not look like a primitive feature at all.


I also looked out the measurements for Kow Swamp and other Australians
(Thorne, A.G. 1977 Morphological contrasts in Pleistocene Australians. in R.L. Kirk & A.G. Thorne (eds) The origin of the Australians. pp. 95-112. AIAS, Canberra).


All Kow Swamp means are larger than all the means (Neandertal and non-Neandertal) given in the Oase paper, and larger than Oase 1 in 2 cases.  But
the maximum values for Kow Swamp and for other Australians are larger than all the means and than Oase 1.  And no one doubts that all Australians (including Kow Swamp) are modern humans, and did not interbreed with "primitive" hominins.

Ah well.  Pity about the data.


Iain

The Roth family, anthropology and colonial administration
Conference 9-10 February   www.une.edu.au/arts/Roth_Conf
__________________________________________________
Iain Davidson
Professor of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology
and
Director of the Heritage Futures Research Centre
School of Human and Environmental Studies
U. of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, AUSTRALIA
Tel: (02) 6773 2441 fax: (02) 6773 3030

http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~idavidso/
Modified 3 January 2003

"Archaeologists are so laid back because they have time on their hands" M. Wheeler.

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