An analysis of age, specimen associations, demographic characteristics, and metric features is presented for the Krapina dental sample. A critical analysis of emergence criteria applicable to skeletal samples leads to an occlusal eruption schedule which can be used to determine wear rates. These are used to provide dental ages for the Krapina jaws and isolated teeth. A number of individual associations of isolated teeth with existing jaws and with each other result in an estimated individual count between 75 and 82. Demographic analysis indicates that the specimens do not accurately sample a living population; numerous adults as well as children under the age of three are not represented. Metric analysis indicates a moderate range of variation. The interproximal wear rates are low, and no evidence of tooth size associated differential survivorship can be demonstrated. The sample fits in a European evolutionary sequence of reducing posterior and expanding anterior permanent teeth, while the deciduous teeth seem to undergo expansion through the Würm glaciation.
Human remains excavated from Vindija cave include a large although fragmentary sample of late Mousterian‐associated specimens and a few additional individuals from the overlying early Upper Paleolithic levels. The Mousterian‐associated sample is similar to European Neandertals from other regions. Compared with earlier Neandertals from south central Europe, this sample evinces evolutionary trends in the direction of Upper Paleolithic Europeans. Compared with the western European Neandertals, the same trends can be demonstrated, although the magnitude of difference is less, and there is a potential for confusing temporal with regional sources of variation. The early Upper Paleolithic‐associated sample cannot be distinguished from the Mousterian‐associated hominids. We believe that this site provides support for Hrdlička's “Neandertal phase” of human evolution, as it was originally applied in Europe.
The replacement theory of modern human origins stipulates that populations outside of Africa were replaced by a new African species of modern humans. Here we test the replacement theory in two peripheral areas far from Africa by examining the ancestry of early modern Australians and Central Europeans. Analysis of pairwise differences was used to determine if dual ancestry in local archaic populations and earlier modern populations from the Levant and/or Africa could be rejected. The data imply that both have a dual ancestry. The diversity of recent humans cannot result exclusively from a single Late Pleistocene dispersal.
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