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Ancient tooth suggests Denisovans ventured far beyond Siberia Molar found in Laos could be the first fossil evidence that the hominin species was far-ranging and able to adapt to different climates. Freda Kreier, Nature News, May 17, 2022 The Open Access paper is: Demeter, F., Zanolli, C., Westaway, K.E., Joannes-Boyau, R., Duringer, P., Morley, M.W., Welker, F., Rüther, P.L., Skinner,; M.M., McColl, H. and Gaunitz, C., 2022. A Middle Pleistocene Denisovan molar from the Annamite Chain of northern Laos. Nature Communications, 13(1), pp.1-17. Your, Paul H.

A group of UK scientists reexamined a group of late stage Neanderthal teeth from the early 1900s with modern techniques such as CT scanning. They discovered a mix of new characteristics indicative of both modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthal, more evidence supporting a gradual absorption of Neanderthals into emerging modern human populations. Article Link Published Paper Link (Not free access)

"Cradle of Humankind" fossils can now be dated Maddie Bender, Earth Magazine, February 5, 2019 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/cradle-humankind-fossils-can-now-be-dated The paper is: Pickering, R., Herries, A.I., Woodhead, J.D., Hellstrom, J.C., Green, H.E., Paul, B., Ritzman, T., Strait, D.S., Schoville, B.J. and Hancox, P.J., 2019. U–Pb-dated flowstones restrict South African early hominin record to dry climate phases. Nature, 565(7738), p.226. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0711-0 A related paper is: Dirks, P.H., Berger, L.R., Roberts, E.M., Kramers, J.D., Hawks, J., Randolph-Quinney, P.S., Elliott, M., Musiba, C.M., Churchill, S.E., de Ruiter, D.J. and Schmid, P., 2015. Geological and taphonomic context for the new hominin species Homo naledi from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa. Elife, 4, p.e09561. https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/09561/elife-09561-v1.pdf Yours, Paul H.

Laos / Cave fossils shed light on the world of 80,000 years ago By: Uffe Wilken, Sotheast Asia Globe, January 10, 2019 https://sea-globe.com/lao-cave-fossils/ Tam Pa Ling Cave - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_Pa_Ling_Cave A couple of papers: Pierret, A., Zeitoun, V. and Forestier, H., 2012. Irreconcilable differences between stratigraphy and direct dating cast doubts upon the status of Tam Pa Ling fossil. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(51), pp.E3523-E3523. https://www.pnas.org/content/109/51/E3523.short Shackelford, L., Demeter, F., Westaway, K., Duringer, P., Ponche, J.L., Sayavongkhamdy, T., Zhao, J.X., Barnes, L., Boyon, M., Sichanthongtip, P. and Sénégas, F., 2018. Additional evidence for early modern human morphological diversity in Southeast Asia at Tam Pa Ling, Laos. Quaternary International, 466, pp.93-106. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314164578_Additional_evidence_for_early_modern_human_morphological_diversity_in_Southeast_Asia_at_Tam_Pa_Ling_Laos https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320628876_Early_Modern_Humans_from_Tam_Pa_Ling_Laos_Fossil_Review_and_Perspectives https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fabrice_Demeter Yours, Paul H.

Archaeologists say human-evolution study used stolen bone. Bizarre tale of theft and suspicious packages casts doubt on claims for early-human occupation in northern Europe. by Ewen Callaway, Nature News. November 13, 2017 https://www.nature.com/news/archaeologists-say-human-evolution-study-used-stolen-bone-1.22984 The preprint is: Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe: The Case of Untermassfeld (Germany) Wil Roebroeks, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Michael Baales, Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/211268 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/31/211268 Yours, Paul H.

Short Story I am photographing and cataloging fossil hominin skulls for my college, and I need some help identifying some of the unlabelled casts. I can generally get the species, but I am trying to narrow it down to a specific specimen that the model/cast is based on. Long Story I'm doing an independant study course at college, part of which is to photograph and catalogue all of the fossil hominin skull casts. It's the usual assemblage of Australopithecus through to H. erectus, Neanderthals and then Homo sapiens. However, a lot of the casts are very old and not that accurate, and most aren't labelled. I can generally get the species without too much of a problem, but I am trying to work out the specific fossil specimen the cast is based on, if it is based on a particular one. Also, the college does have some weird and outdated information. They classify the Paranthropus species as Robust Australopithecines, and all they Homo heidelbergensis are called Archaic Homo sapiens. I have taken all the photos, and am sorting through and creating the database. My first step is to label all the photos, export them to a simple folder database. Each photo is titled with the species, fossil catalogue name, nickname, then view. So for example: Au. africanus STS 5 "Mrs Ples" Anterior.jpg. Then I am creating a database of each cast, with all the relevant info (age, location, date found, brain capacity, etc). I am doing this with Bento software, but I plan to export from there to excel, or for whatever software the professors will use. After all of that, what I need is some help with working out which skull is which, particularly trying to figure out exactly which one eg. KNM-ER 1813 or whatever. There are a few, I'll post them up one at a time. Thanks in advance. Mystery Skull Number 1 It's certainly H. erectus, but I'm not certain if it's meant to be of a specific individual or just a general representation. I have seen a reconstruction composed of several of the remains found at Zhoukadian, so I wonder if it is one of those. Or perhaps Peking Man?