Auditory capacities in Middle Pleistocene humans from the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain

Martı́nez, Ignacio; Rosa, Manuel Megías; Arsuaga, Juan Luís; Jarabo, Pilar; Quam, Rolf; Lorenzo, Carlos; Gràcia, Ana; Carretero, José Miguel; Castro, José Marı́a Bermúdez de; Carbonell, Eudald

doi:10.1073/pnas.0403595101

Cited by 138 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Phylogenetic evidence suggests that the SH sample and all European middle Pleistocene hominins represent populations that were ancestral to the Neandertal populations, as they are characterized by a mixture of shared primitive features and Neandertal apomorphies (Arsuaga et aI., 1997c;Carretero Martinez and Arsuaga, 1997). In the SH upper cer vical vertebral sample, we have found some features that could be ofphylogenetic significance but whose polarity is difficult to ascertain due to the scarcity of horninin vertebrae.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metric and morphological study of the upper cervical spine from the Sima de los Huesos site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)

Gómez‐Olivencia

Carretero

Arsuaga

et al. 2007

Journal of Human Evolution

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In this article, the upper cervical spine remains recovered from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) middle Pleistocene site in the Sierra de Ata puerca (Burgos, Spain) are described and analyzed. To date, this site has yielded more than 5000 human fossils belonging to a minimum of 28 individuals of the species Homo heidelbergensis. At least eleven individuals are represented by the upper cervical (Cl and C2) specimens: six adults and five subadults, one of which could represent an adolescent individual. The most complete adult vertebrae (three atlases and three axes) are described, measured, and compared with other fossil hominins and modern humans. These six specimens are associated with one another and represent three individuals. In addition, one of these sets of cervical vertebrae is associated with Cranium 5 (Individual XXI) from the site. The metric analysis demonstrates that the Sima de los Huesos atlases and axes are metrically more similar to Neandertals than to our modern human comparative sample. The SH atlases share with Neandertals a sagittally elongated canal. The most remarkable feature of the SH (and Neandertal) axes is that they are craniocaudally low and mediolaterally wide compared to our modern male sample. Morphologically, the SH sample shares with Neandertals a higher frequency of caudally projected anterior atlas arch, which could reflect greater development of the longus colli muscle.In other features, such as the frequency of weakly developed tubercles for the attachment of the transverse ligament of the atlas, the Sima de los Huesos fossils show intermediate frequencies between our modern comparative samples and the Neandertals, which could represent the prim itive condition. Our results are consistent with the previous phylogenetic interpretation of H. heidelbergensis as an exclusively European species, ancestral only to H. neanderthalensis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metric and morphological study of the upper cervical spine from the Sima de los Huesos site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)

Gómez‐Olivencia

Carretero

Arsuaga

et al. 2007

Journal of Human Evolution

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“…This is one of the most salient distinctions in the hearing pattern of humans compared with other primates. Although the relationship between individual auditory structures and hearing performance is complex (28,(33)(34)(35)38), the suggestion of an auditory difference in early hominins based on the ear ossicles is further supported by additional anatomical differences noted previously in their outer, middle, and inner ear (8,21,28,39), some of which have clear auditory implications (40). These anatomical differences in the early hominin ear highlight the possibility of reconstructing their auditory capacities, as has been done for archaic members of the genus Homo (33,36), an approach that promises to reveal new insights into the sensory ecology of early hominins.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The functional lengths of the malleus and incus (and the associated lever ratio) and the stapes footplate area are important physiological variables in modeling audition (31,(33)(34)(35)(36). Individually, each of these dimensions is strongly correlated with several measures of auditory sensitivity in primates (35).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early hominin auditory ossicles from South Africa

Quam

Ruiter

Masali

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The middle ear ossicles are only rarely preserved in fossil hominins. Here, we report the discovery of a complete ossicular chain (malleus, incus, and stapes) of Paranthropus robustus as well as additional ear ossicles from Australopithecus africanus. The malleus in both early hominin taxa is clearly human-like in the proportions of the manubrium and corpus, whereas the incus and stapes resemble African and Asian great apes more closely. A deep phylogenetic origin is proposed for the derived malleus morphology, and this may represent one of the earliest human-like features to appear in the fossil record. The anatomical differences found in the early hominin incus and stapes, along with other aspects of the outer, middle, and inner ear, are consistent with the suggestion of different auditory capacities in these early hominin taxa compared with modern humans.T he middle ear ossicles have historically played a prominent role in paleontological studies because the appearance of the three bone ossicular chain is considered a defining feature of the emergence of mammals (1, 2). The evolutionary transformation of the malleus and incus, which once formed part of the lower jaw, represents a profound modification of both the feeding and auditory apparatuses and had important implications for the sensory ecology of early mammals (3), including primates (4). However, surprisingly little is known of the auditory ossicles in our early human ancestors because they are among the rarest hominin fossils recovered (5-11). Nevertheless, their study holds great potential as an avenue of inquiry into the evolutionary relationships among fossil taxa, as well as aspects of their sensory perception.In humans, the embryological origins of each of the three ear bones have been thoroughly studied. These tiny bones are fully formed at birth (12, 13) and, unlike other bones of the skeleton, generally do not remodel after about the first year of life (14). The ear ossicles then, in some ways, remain "relic" embryonic bones throughout life, and their evolutionarily conservative nature makes them particularly suitable for phylogenetic analysis (15)(16)(17). Comparative genomic studies have revealed changes during the course of our evolutionary history in several genes related to the development of the auditory structures (18) and hearing (19), and previous studies of the inner ear in early hominins have provided insights into their taxonomic relationships and locomotion (20).A few anatomical differences in the ear ossicles of fossil hominins have been reported previously (6-11). Among early hominins, the incus in Paranthropus robustus (SK 848) was argued to show a highly derived articular facet morphology, revealing profound differences from living hominids (7, 21). In contrast, the stapes of Australopithecus africanus (Stw 151) appears similar to African apes in showing generally small metric dimensions, including the size of the footplate (8). We report here on a complete right ossicular chain (malleus, incus, and stapes) (Table 1) that was ...

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“…The appearance of archaic humans around 500 ka is associated with a shift from a primate-like form to a modern human-like form in a number of key anatomical features related to speech, the most important of which is the thoracic nerve bundle (controlling diaphragm and chest wall muscles) (MacLarnon & Hewitt, 1999). However, the hypoglossal nerve (controlling the tongue and articulatory space) exhibits a similar pattern (Kay, Cartmill, & Balow, 1998), while the position of the hyoid bone (lowering the larynx to increase the articulatory space to allow vowel sounds) (Arensburg et al, 1989) and ear canals capable of hearing human speech (Martinez et al, 2004) all seem to appear at around this time (Dunbar, 2014a; see also Fitch, 2000). While the significance, and even validity, of the last three has been questioned (not always validly in respect of the first; Dunbar, 2009), the fact that, within the limits of the archaeological record, all four seem to converge on the same time point for the appearance of a human-like form adds weight to the more secure finding for the thoracic nerve.…”

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confidence: 99%