The Human That Doesn’t Fit the Family Tree: Skull Challenges Human Evolution in Europe

Frontal bony from Hahnöfersand. Credit: Archaeological Museum Hamburg / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

A skull unearthed from a German stream much than 50 years agone has agelong puzzled scientists trying to acceptable it into the quality household tree. New probe settles the debate. The frontal bony from Hahnöfersand, Germany, belongs to a modern human who lived astir 7,500 years ago, not a Neanderthal hybrid from the distant past.

A study published successful Scientific Reports, led by Carolin Röding of Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany, utilized three-dimensional signifier investigation to scope that conclusion.

Researchers compared the bony against Neanderthals, Middle Pleistocene European hominins, and a wide modern quality sample. Every measurement placed Hahnöfersand firmly wrong Holocene Homo sapiens variation.

Workers gathering a dyke discovered the bony successful March 1973 from Elbe River sediments adjacent Hahnöfersand. An aboriginal statement by researcher Bräuer recovered a puzzling premix of features. The midsagittal outline appeared Neanderthal-like, but the supraorbital portion pointed toward modern quality characteristics.

An archetypal radiocarbon day of astir 36,000 years, combined with that mixed morphology, led Bräuer to suggest the bony whitethorn correspond a hybrid betwixt Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens.

A skull that near a quality extracurricular the household tree

Multiple researchers aboriginal questioned that decision and described Hahnöfersand arsenic a robust modern human. A revised radiocarbon day placed the specimen astatine astir 7,500 years old, firmly successful the Mesolithic period.

The archetypal hybrid mentation ne'er afloat faded, partially due to the fact that the updated findings were published successful German and remained hard to entree internationally.

A morphological investigation of frontal bony from Hahnöfersand. Credit: Carolin Röding / CC BY 4.0

Röding and colleagues applied a method called “surface registration” to supply a definitive answer. The method captures the afloat three-dimensional geometry of a bony alternatively than relying connected a fixed acceptable of anatomical measurement points.

This proved particularly invaluable for a fragmentary specimen similar Hahnöfersand, wherever accepted methods produced measurement errors excessively precocious to beryllium usable.

Shape investigation silences decades of Neanderthal hybrid speculation

The signifier investigation placed Hahnöfersand closest successful wide bony signifier to 3 medieval Germans. Its region from the Neanderthal radical mean was importantly larger, and its region from the Middle Pleistocene European radical mean was 3 orders of magnitude larger than its region from Holocene modern humans.

A main constituent investigation besides placed the bony squarely wrong Holocene quality variation, good distant from Neanderthal and Middle Pleistocene European clusters.

Röding noted that the bone’s evident Neanderthal-like qualities apt bespeak 3 factors: the ocular power of surrounding bony structures, the trouble of correctly orienting an incomplete fossil, and the earthy saltation that exists wrong modern humans.

Robust individuals wrong Homo sapiens tin look much archaic erstwhile assessed visually without precise quantitative tools.

Hahnöfersand lawsuit warns against dating fossils by quality alone

The lawsuit besides carries a broader connection for the survey of quality improvement successful Europe. Several Holocene quality fossils person been incorrectly identified arsenic Pleistocene specimens due to the fact that of their robust quality oregon unclear origins. Hahnöfersand fits that pattern.

Röding stressed that a thorough knowing of saltation wrong modern humans is indispensable earlier drafting steadfast conclusions astir isolated bones that deficiency a unafraid discourse oregon reliable date.