This report aims to give notice of and provide a more detailed dataset and detailed remarks on what can be considered a one-of-a-kind hominin fossil walking pattern: Trackway B of the Foresta ichnological site (Tora e Piccilli, Caserta, Central Italy). Although the site is known since 2003, only recently has the study been performed by means of the newest photogrammetric and experimental techniques of collection, analysis and interpretation of ichnological data. The results obtained enable us to depict an astonishing movie printed in rock, describing some body features and common moments of the everyday movements of a hominin who lived about 350 ka. In particular, some up-to-now absolutely unique fossil prints of body parts of a Pleistocene hominin (calf, ankle, and gluteus), which have simply been mentioned in the ichnological fossil record, are here quantitatively described for the first time. The data coming from this research will provide scientists with new valuable elements thus far undetected anywhere else in the world.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.4436/JASS.98013 | DOI Listing |
Yi Chuan
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China.
It has been more than 40 years since the beginning of exploring the genetic composition of ancient organisms from the perspective of ancient DNA. In the recent 20 years, with the development and application of high-throughput sequencing technology platforms and the improved efficiency of retrieving highly fragmented DNA molecules, ancient DNA research moved forward to a brand-new era of deep-time paleogenomics. It not only solved many controversial phylogenetic problems, enriched the migration and evolution details of various organisms including humans, but also launched exploration of the molecular responses to climate changes in terms of "whole genomic-big data-multi-species" level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Prehistory, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
The evolution of human behaviour is marked by key decision-making processes reflected in technological variability in the early archaeological record. As part of the technological system, differences in raw material quality directly affect the way that humans produce, design and use stone tools. The selection, procurement and use of various raw materials requires decision-making to evaluate multiple factors such as suitability to produce and design tools, but also the materials' efficiency and durability in performing a given task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Department of Geoscience, Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Campus Jeli, 17600 Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Accurately identifying Milankovitch cycles has been a significant challenge in cyclostratigraphic studies, as it is essential for improving geochronology. This manuscript focuses on developing a method that distinguishes Milankovitch cycles from sedimentary noise to enhance stratigraphic precision. Despite their often-conspicuous magnitude, these periodicities frequently intertwine with noise, posing a challenge for conventional spectral analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants often require long, multistep processing techniques that involve significant cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to perform. These costs are thought to have hindered how hominins used these foods and delayed their adoption into our diets. Through the analysis of starch grains preserved on basalt anvils and percussors, we demonstrate that a wide variety of plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene hominins at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Hum Evol
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing 100044, China.
The hominin mandible SK 15 was discovered in April 1949 in Swartkrans Member 2, dated to ∼1.4 Ma. Albeit distorted on the right side, the left and right corpus of SK 15 are relatively low and thick, even compared to most Early to Middle Pleistocene Homo specimens.
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