The autapomorphic status of the Neanderthal suprainiac fossa was recently confirmed. This was a result of a detailed analysis of the internal bone composition in the area of the suprainiac depression on Neanderthal and Homo sapiens specimens. However, while anatomical differences between Neanderthal suprainiac fossa and the depression in the inion region of the occipital bone of fossil and recent Homo sapiens have been discussed in detail, the etiology of these structures has not been resolved. In this article, the hypothesis that the Homo sapiens non-supranuchal fossa and the Neanderthal suprainiac fossa both formed to maintain the optimal shape of the occipital plane (to minimize strain on the posterior cranial vault) is tested. First, the variation in the expression of the fossa above inion in the crania of recent Homo sapiens from European, African, and Australian samples was examined, and the degree of structural similarity between these depressions and the Neanderthal suprainiac fossa was assessed. Next, the relationship between the shape of the occipital squama in the midsagittal plane and two particular features (the degree of the occipital torus development and the occurrence of a depression in the inion region that is not the supranuchal fossa) were analyzed. Based on the results, it is suggested that the Homo sapiens non-supranuchal fossa and Neanderthal suprainiac fossa are convergent traits.
High levels of directional asymmetry of cross-sectional shape and properties in medieval farmers may be caused by the performance of more physically demanding tasks using one side of the body from an early age in that population. Various patterns of asymmetry in Neandertals and modern humans may be caused by different habitual behaviors during growth, eco-geographic patterns in body proportions, genetic factors, and differences in ontogeny.
The Micoquian is the broadest and longest enduring cultural facies of the Late Middle Palaeolithic that spread across the periglacial and boreal environments of Europe between Eastern France, Poland, and Northern Caucasus. Here, we present new data from the archaeological record of Stajnia Cave (Poland) and the paleogenetic analysis of a Neanderthal molar S5000, found in a Micoquian context. Our results demonstrate that the mtDNA genome of Stajnia S5000 dates to MIS 5a making the tooth the oldest Neanderthal specimen from Central-Eastern Europe. Furthermore, S5000 mtDNA has the fewest number of differences to mtDNA of Mezmaiskaya 1 Neanderthal from Northern Caucasus, and is more distant from almost contemporaneous Neanderthals of Scladina and Hohlenstein-Stadel. This observation and the technological affinity between Poland and the Northern Caucasus could be the result of increased mobility of Neanderthals that changed their subsistence strategy for coping with the new low biomass environments and the increased foraging radius of gregarious animals. The Prut and Dniester rivers were probably used as the main corridors of dispersal. The persistence of the Micoquian techno-complex in South-Eastern Europe infers that this axis of mobility was also used at the beginning of MIS 3 when a Neanderthal population turnover occurred in the Northern Caucasus.
Background: Recent advances in the next-generation sequencing (NGS) allowed the metagenomic analyses of DNA from many different environments and sources, including thousands of years old skeletal remains. It has been shown that most of the DNA extracted from ancient samples is microbial. There are several reports demonstrating that the considerable fraction of extracted DNA belonged to the bacteria accompanying the studied individuals before their death. Results: In this study we scanned 344 microbiomes from 1000-and 2000-year-old human teeth. The datasets originated from our previous studies on human ancient DNA (aDNA) and on microbial DNA accompanying human remains. We previously noticed that in many samples infection-related species have been identified, among them Tannerella forsythia, one of the most prevalent oral human pathogens. Samples containing sufficient amount of T. forsythia aDNA for a complete genome assembly were selected for thorough analyses. We confirmed that the T. forsythia-containing samples have higher amounts of the periodontitis-associated species than the control samples. Despites, other pathogens-derived aDNA was found in the tested samples it was too fragmented and damaged to allow any reasonable reconstruction of these bacteria genomes. The anthropological examination of ancient skulls from which the T. forsythia-containing samples were obtained revealed the pathogenic alveolar bone loss in tooth areas characteristic for advanced periodontitis. Finally, we analyzed the genetic material of ancient T. forsythia strains. As a result, we assembled four ancient T. forsythia genomes -one 2000-and three 1000-year-old. Their comparison with contemporary T. forsythia genomes revealed a lower genetic diversity within the four ancient strains than within contemporary strains. We also investigated the genes of T. forsythia virulence factors and found that several of them (KLIKK protease and bspA genes) differ significantly between ancient and modern bacteria.
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