Posted by
Joker
401 days ago
(http://www.fossilscience.com)
Category: Science Discovery Environment |
In an article appearing online at the Journal of Human Evolution, a team of researchers from the Max Plack Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, and the University of Bucharest, Romania, conducted the most comprehensive anatomical description of the specimen to date and 3-d comparative shape analysis. They reject the hypothesis that the Cioclovina speciment is a Neanderthal-early modern human hybrid.
"Cioclovina does not conform to any of our expectations for a Neanderthal-early modern human hybrid either in its overall shape or its anatomical details. It is a typical modern human in all respects." Said leader of the research team Katerina Harvati (Max Plack Institute)
The team was able for the first time to develop criteria for identifying hybrids in the fossil record, based on evidence from living hybridizing primate and mammal species. These criteria (such as the much greater or much smaller size than the parental species average, evidence for development instability, and the intermediate shape) were then applied to Cioclovina, in order to test the proposal that it represents a Neanderthal-modern human mybrid.
Contrary to recent claimes, Cioclovina did not show any of the expercted hybrid conditions. Instead both its overall detailed anatomy are very close to average for modern humans. The cranium in fact showed strong morphological similarities to other early modern Europeans.
"We feel that this morphology was probably representative of early modern people who migrated out of Africa around 40 thousand years ago and were the ancestors of people living today" concludes Harvati
The study was conducted by:
* Katerina Harvati (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany)
* Philipp Gunx (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany)
* Dan Grigorescu (University of Bucharest, Romania)
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