Gradual Change In Human Tooth Size In The Late Pleistocene And Post‐Pleistocene

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137561/1/evo05847.pd

Neandertal Pelvic Remains from Krapina: Peculiar or Primitive?

Although fragmentary, the rich collection of fossil pelvic remains from the Neandertal site of Krapina in Croatia shows much of the morphology long considered to be characteristic of Neandertals from elsewhere in Europe and the Levant. This includes a long superior pubic ramus that is vertically thin in cross-section and an anteriorly positioned iliac pillar. The condition of the fossil material precludes evaluation of a further Neandertal characteristic, namely a broad pelvis. Comparison of the Krapina and other Neandertal fossils with earlier material from Europe, Asia and Africa demonstrates that the long pubis and broad pelvis are primitive for hominids and probably not part of a single adaptive or functional morphological complex with the vertically thin ramus or the anteriorly positioned iliac pillar. Rather than considering Neandertals to be »peculiar« or derived in their elongated pubic morphology, we see that Neandertals exhibit the long-standing primitive condition for hominids. It is modern human males who deviate from this longstanding pattern in their short pubis and it is this unusual, derived condition that requires explanation

Skeletal remains from punic carthage do not support systematic sacrifice of infants

Two types of cemeteries occur at Punic Carthage and other Carthaginian settlements: one centrally situated housing the remains of older children through adults, and another at the periphery of the settlement (the "Tophet") yielding small urns containing the cremated skeletal remains of very young animals and humans, sometimes comingled. Although the absence of the youngest humans at the primary cemeteries is unusual and worthy of discussion, debate has focused on the significance of Tophets, especially at Carthage, as burial grounds for the young. One interpretation, based on two supposed eye-witness reports of large-scale Carthaginian infant sacrifice [Kleitarchos (3rd c. BCE) and Diodorus Siculus (1st c. BCE)], a particular translation of inscriptions on some burial monuments, and the argument that if the animals had been sacrificed so too were the humans, is that Tophets represent burial grounds reserved for sacrificial victims. An alternative hypothesis acknowledges that while the Carthaginians may have occasionally sacrificed humans, as did their contemporaries, the extreme youth of Tophet individuals suggests these cemeteries were not only for the sacrificed, but also for the very young, however they died. Here we present the first rigorous analysis of the largest sample of cremated human skeletal remains (348 burial urns, N = 540 individuals) from the Carthaginian Tophet based on tooth formation, enamel histology, cranial and postcranial metrics, and the potential effects of heat-induced bone shrinkage. Most of the sample fell within the period prenatal to 5-to-6 postnatal months, with a significant presence of prenates. Rather than indicating sacrifice as the agent of death, this age distribution is consistent with modern-day data on perinatal mortality, which at Carthage would also have been exacerbated by numerous diseases common in other major cities, such as Rome and Pompeii. Our diverse approaches to analyzing the cremated human remains from Carthage strongly support the conclusion that Tophets were cemeteries for those who died shortly before or after birth, regardless of the cause. © 2010 Schwartz et al

A pathogenic haplotype, common in Europeans, causes autosomal recessive albinism and uncovers missing heritability in OCA1

Abstract Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Six genes are associated with autosomal recessive OCA (TYR, OCA2, TYRP1, SLC45A2, SLC24A5 and LRMDA), and one gene, GPR143, is associated with X-linked ocular albinism (OA). Molecular genetic analysis provides a genetic diagnosis in approximately 60% of individuals with clinical OA/OCA. A considerably number of the remaining 40% are heterozygous for a causative sequence variation in TYR. To identify missing causative sequence variants in these, we used a NGS based approach, genotyping and segregation analysis. We report two putative pathogenic haplotypes which only differ by two extremely rare SNVs, indicating that the haplotypes have a common derivation. Both haplotypes segregate consistent with an autosomal recessive inheritance pattern and include the allele p.S192Y-p.R402Q. An explanation for the pathogenicity of the haplotypes could be the combination of p.S192Y and p.R402Q. Homozygosity for the pathogenic haplotypes causes a partial albinism phenotype. In our cohort, 15% of affected individuals had a molecular genetic diagnosis involving the pathogenic haplotype. Consequently, the prevalence of albinism seems to be substantially underestimated, and children with unexplained bilateral subnormal vision and/or nystagmus should be analysed clinically and molecularly for albinism

Neonatal Shoulder Width Suggests a Semirotational, Oblique Birth Mechanism in \u3ci\u3eAustralopithecus afarensis\u3c/i\u3e

Birth mechanics in early hominins are often reconstructed based on cephalopelvic proportions, with little attention paid to neonatal shoulders. Here, we find that neonatal biacromial breadth can be estimated from adult clavicular length (R2 = 0.80) in primates. Using this relationship and clavicular length from adult Australopithecus afarensis, we estimate biacromial breadth in neonatal australopiths. Combined with neonatal head dimensions, we reconstruct birth in A. afarensis (A.L. 288-1 or Lucy) and find that the most likely mechanism of birth in this early hominin was a semi-rotational oblique birth in which the head engaged and passed through the inlet transversely, but then rotated so that the head and shoulders remained perpendicular and progressed through the midplane and outlet oblique to the main axis of the female pelvis. Any other mechanism of birth, including asynclitic birth, would have resulted in either the head or the shoulders orthogonal to the short anteroposterior dimension of the A.L. 288-1 pelvis, making birth untenable. There is a tight fit between the infant and all planes of the birth canal, perhaps suggesting a difficult labor in australopiths. However, the rotational birth mechanism of large-brained humans today was likely not characteristic of A. afarensis. Thus, the evolution of rotational birth, usually associated with encephalization, may have occurred in two stages: the first appeared with the origin of the australopiths with their platypelloid pelves adapted for bipedalism and their broad-shouldered neonates; the second which resulted in the modern mechanism of rotational birth may be associated with increasing brain size in the genus Homo. Anat Rec, 300:890–899, 2017