Knuckle-walking in Sahelanthropus? Locomotor inferences from the ulnae of fossil hominins and other hominoids.

Because the ulna supports and transmits forces during movement, its morphology can signal aspects of functional adaptation. To test whether, like extant apes, some hominins habitually recruit the forelimb in locomotion, we separate the ulna shaft and ulna proximal complex for independent shape analyses via elliptical Fourier methods to identify functional signals. We examine the relative influence of locomotion, taxonomy, and body mass on ulna contours in Homo sapiens (n = 22), five species of extant apes (n = 33), two Miocene apes (Hispanopithecus and Danuvius), and 17 fossil hominin specimens including Sahelanthropus, Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and early Homo.

Knapping tools in Magdalenian contexts: New evidence from Gough's Cave (Somerset, UK).

Our knowledge of the recolonization of north-west Europe at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum depends to a large extent on finds from Gough's Cave (Somerset, UK). Ultra-high resolution radiocarbon determinations suggest that the cave was occupied seasonally by Magdalenian hunters for perhaps no more than two or three human generations, centred on 12,600 BP (~14,950-14,750 cal BP). They left behind a rich and diverse assemblage of Magdalenian lithic and osseous artefacts, butchered animal bones, and cannibalised human remains.