Cranial Fragments Research Articles

Nouvelles découvertes de restes humains Moustériens dans les dépôts de la Baume Moula-Guercy (Soyons, Ardèche)

Abstract. — Since 1992, programmed excavations have been carried out at Baume Moula- Guercy, after a time lapse of 10 years. In 1995, the excavation of level XIV yielded six new human remains, consisting of two teeth and four small cranial fragments. Present data indicates that this level corresponds to a temperate period occurring at the beginning of the upper Pleistocene. A deciduous tooth was discovered in disturbed layers during the same excavation. The level which yielded numerous human remains bearing cutmarks in 1991, as a result of core sampling, has not yet been newly investigated, as recent work has been undertaken from the top of the stratigraphical sequence. This note describes the new human remains and establishes an inventory of all the human remains discovered up until the present at the site.

Age of the Earliest Known Hominids in Java, Indonesia

40Ar/39Ar laser-incremental heating of hornblende separated from pumice recovered at two hominid sites in Java, Indonesia, has yielded well-defined plateaus with weighted mean ages of 1.81 +/- 0.04 and 1.66 +/- 0.04 million years ago (Ma). The hominid fossils, a juvenile calvaria of Pithecanthropus and a partial face and cranial fragments of Meganthropus, commonly considered part of the Asian Homo erectus hypodigm, are at least 0.6 million years older than fossils referred to as Homo erectus (OH-9) from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, and comparable in age with the oldest Koobi Fora Homo cf. erectus (Homo ergaster) in Kenya. These ages lend further credence to the view that Homo erectus may have evolved outside of Africa. If the ancestor of Homo erectus ventured out of Africa before 1.8 Ma, the dispersal would have predated the advent of the Acheulean culture at 1.4 Ma, possibly explaining the absence of these characteristic stone cleavers and hand axes in East Asia.

The Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, from the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah

A nearly complete and well-preserved skeleton of the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) and a cranial fragment of a short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) were recovered from fossil lake deposits at 2,740 m, near the crest of the Wasatch Plateau, central Utah. The mammoth bones are reliably dated to between 11,500 and 9,500 yr B.P. and may be associated with a late Paleoindian occupation at the site. The mammoth and bear are part of a high elevation Huntington Canyon megafauna including mastodon (Mammut americanum), horse (Equus sp.), and bison (Bison sp.). The mammoth was an old bull with considerable pathology in the vertebral column, ribs, and legs. Pollen, plant macrofossils, insects, and dung associated with the mammoth suggest this megafauna occupied an essentially modern environmental setting after deglaciation of the Wasatch plateau.

Relationship of squamosal suture to asterion in pongids (Pan): relevance to early hominid brain evolution.

Based on 244 measurements of the relationship of the squamosal suture to the landmark asterion in 49 chimpanzee skulls, it is shown that in the normal lateral view the squamosal suture is very rarely inferior to asterion. In hominid crania, the squamosal suture is always well superior to asterion. Even in Pan, that part of the squamosal suture most homologous with the remnant found on the Hadar AL 162-28 Australopithecus afarensis hominid cranial fragment is very rarely inferior to asterion. Such variability suggests that Falk's (Nature 313:45-47, 1985) orientation of the Hadar specimen is incorrect; she places asterion superior to the position of the squamosal suture if projected endocranially. The implication for the brain endocast is that, however the fragment is oriented, the posterior aspect of the intraparietal (IP) sulcus is in a very posterior position relative to any chimpanzee brain. The distance from the posterior aspect of IP to occipital pole is twice as great in chimpanzee brain casts than on the Hadar AL 162-28 endocast, even though the chimpanzee brain casts are smaller in overall size. This suggests that brain reorganization, at least as exemplified as a reduction in primary visual striate cortex (area 17 of Brodmann), occurred early in hominid evolution, prior to any major brain expansion.

Meiolania brevicollissp. nov. (Testudines: Meiolaniidae): a new horned turtle from the Australian Miocene

A new horned turtle (Family Meiolaniidae), Meiolania brevicollis sp. nov. from the Mid Miocene Camfield Beds of northern Australia is diagnosed from cranial fragments and three cervical vertebrae. It is morphologically similar to M. platyceps from the Pleistocene of Lord Howe Island, but, in addition to more subtle features, has a flatter skull, proportionally elongated cranial ‘B’ horn-cores, vestigial or absent ‘A’ horn-cores, and probably a shorter neck. An hypothesis of systematic relationships within Meiolaniidae, using shared, derived cranial characters, supports the suggestion of Gaffney & McNamara (1990) that Meiolania is a monophyletic genus, derived with respect to ‘Meiolania’ oweni. Further, M. brevicollis appears to be advanced with respect to M. platyceps, though the latter is known from much younger strata. The stratigraphic ranges of M. brevicollis and M. platyceps are unknown. The hypothesis that M. platyceps might have evolved from a M. brevicollis-like ancestor is not favoured because it...

New hominid skull material from the late Miocene of Macedonia in Northern Greece

Miocene hominoid material is very scarce and has previously only been reported as cranial fragments in the Old World. Here we describe a new specimen of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, which consists of the right part of the face of an adult male with a portion of the frontal bone, a portion of the left part of the face and the maxilla with complete dentition except the right third molar. The characters of this specimen are not congruent with those of Sivapithecus and the pongids, but are more primitive and plesiomorphic for the recent hominid clade (Gorilla, Pan and Homo). The dental characters differ morphologically and metrically from those of the recent great apes and fit better with Australopithecus afarensis. Ouranopithecus now seems the best candidate forerunner of the Plio-pleistocene Homininae (Australopithecus and Homo). This specimen was discovered in September 1989, in the late Miocene deposits of central Macedonia (G.K., L. de B. and G.B.), and prepared by G.K. in Thessaloniki and G. Mouchelin in Poitiers. It comes from the new locality of Xirochori in the red sandstone of the Nea Messimbria formation. The fossil is the property of the University of Thessaloniki, Greece (catalogue number XIR-1).

A description of Horned-Turtle remains (Testudines: Meiol aniidae) from the mid-Miocene Camfield beds of Northern Australia

New horned-turtle fossil material from the mid- to late-Miocene Bullock Creek Local Fauna (Camfield Beds) of the Northern Territory of Australia is referable to the genus Meiolania on the basis of its morphological similarity to the Pleistocene-aged Meiolania latyceps Owen from Lord Howe Island. A single individual is represented by cranial fragments, and second and fifth cervical vertebrae. ln some details, the Bullock Creek Meiolania more closely resembles fragmentary material from New Caledonia, some of which has been assigned to a poorly defined taxon, M. mackayi Anderson. A species determination for the Bullock Creek Meiolania is not yet possible. The possible relationships of the New Caledonian and other undetermined Australian mid-Tertiary meiolaniids to M. platyceps are briefly discussed.

Anatomical study: comparison of the cranial fragment from venta micena, (orce; Spain) with fossil and extant mammals

The fragment of the skull of Orce attributed to the genusHomo is compared with fossil and extant mammals. The anatomical analysis supports the idea of ascribing it to an infantile individual of the genusHomo, close to the primitive Turkana specimens.

Características diferenciales entre el fragmento de cráneo de <i>Homo</i> sp. de Venta Micena (Orce, Granada) y los equidos

A detailed study has been made between the morphology of the cranial fragment of Orce and various young members of the horse family, as in previous works it has already been separated from the rest of the mammals. The result that has been obtained is the perfect anatomical differentiation among all the analyzed characters, by which it is concluded that this cranial fragment of Orce cannot be included in the variability of the horse family.

Use of the Cranial Base in the Identification of Fire Victims

Techniques exist for using the cranial base to estimate the race and sex of skeletalized individuals in forensic science cases. The applicability of these techniques to remains of fire victims has been uncertain because of possible cranial-base shrinkage that may result from burning. To determine the amount of shrinkage resulting from low-temperature burning (less than 800 degrees C), the cranial bases of eight dissecting room cadavers were measured, the bones then burned, and the cranial fragments remeasured. The wet-bone measurements were compared to the burned-bone measurements, and the percentage of shrinkage was calculated. The average change from wet to burned bone is less than 1.00%, a figure in agreement with other published studies. Since a change of 1.00% is less than intraobserver error, it is argued that low-temperature burning--such as an average house fire--does not significantly impair the accuracy of the identification techniques. Therefore, the techniques should be applicable to many fire victims.

A capitosaurid labyrinthodont from the Early Scythian of Tasmania

Cranial fragments pertaining to a capitosaurid labyrinthodont from the Early Scythian Knocklofty Formation of Tasmania are described. They are referred, with question, to the genus Parotosuchus Otschev and Shishkin 1968. Recent literature dealing with the systematics, morphology and palaeobiogeography of the Capitosauridae, a family widely dispersed over Pangaea during several Triassic intervals, is reviewed. It is recommended that Wetlugasaurus be retained in synonymy with Parotosuchus.

Additional upper Pleistocene human remains from Vindija cave, Croatia, Yugoslavia.

This report presents a morphological description of ten hominid skeletal fragments found at Vindija cave, northwestern Yugoslavia, in 1980-1981. Eight of the specimens (seven cranial fragments and one complete hand proximal phalanx) were excavated from level G3, a stratum correlated to the Lower Würm stadial and containing Mousterian lithic elements. The salient morphological features of these new specimens are similar to those of previously described hominids from this same stratum, indicating that the new specimens are also remains of archaic H. sapiens (Neandertals). One parietal fragment was excavated from the stratigraphically more recent F complex. The F complex contains Upper Paleolithic lithic elements, and the new hominid specimen from this complex appears to exhibit features similar to other early modern H. sapiens in southcentral Europe.

Archaic Homo sapiens at Lake Eyasi, Tanzania: Recent misrepresentations

Archaic Homo sapiens cranial fragments from northern Tanzania, commonly termed the Eyasi skulls, have been the subject of several recent studies. Microanalytical chemical analysis (F,U,N) and aspartic acid racemization dates provided by R. Protsch are criticized here for serious inconsistencies in the data presented. Also, attention is drawn to inaccuracies in this recent literature concerning the context at Lake Eyasi from which these fossilized hominid remains were recovered.

Presapiens in Soviet Central Asia (by archaeological materials)

Two adjacent chambers of the cave of La Chaise, Grotte de Bourgeois-Delaunay (B-D) and Grotte Suard, have been studied. Both were partly filled with detrital sediments containing lower and middle Palaeolithic artifacts and skeletal remains of pre-Neanderthalian hominids. Layers of stalagmitic calcite occur interstratified in the sediments of both chambers. Dates obtained by 230Th/234U ratios have provided a time scale for hominid and cultural evolution as represented in this cave.In B-D the lower travertine rests on a breccia containing cranial remains of juvenile Neanderthals. The base of the travertine dates to 151 ± 15 Ky (Ky = 1000 years BP); the top of the travertine yields a date of 112±5 Ky. The travertine contains pollen of an interglacial flora. Overlying detrital sediments 1·2 m in thickness contain artifacts transitional from Acheulian to Mousterian industries. They are capped by a travertine (Layer 7) whose base is dated at 100±6 Ky, and which is capped by stalagmites ranging in age down to 58±7 Ky. Overlying the travertine is sediment containing first Mousterian, and then Aurignacian artifacts.Near the base of the sediments filling Grotte Suard is a stalagmite layer dated to 249±30 Ky. It contains interglacial pollen and presumably dates to the beginning of the isotope stage 7 interglacial. Neanderthaloid hominid teeth and cranial fragments are found scattered through the overlying sediments, up to a capping stalagmitic layer whose base is dated at 101±7 Ky. The best described hominids from Suard are from a section that was probably overlying the capping stalagmite. The capping stalagmite is temporally correlated with layer 7 of B-D.

Absolute dating of hominids and palaeolithic artifacts of the cave of La Chaise-de-Vouthon (Charente), France

Abstract Two adjacent chambers of the cave of La Chaise, Grotte de Bourgeois-Delaunay (B-D) and Grotte Suard, have been studied. Both were partly filled with detrital sediments containing lower and middle Palaeolithic artifacts and skeletal remains of pre-Neanderthalian hominids. Layers of stalagmitic calcite occur interstratified in the sediments of both chambers. Dates obtained by 230Th/234U ratios have provided a time scale for hominid and cultural evolution as represented in this cave. In B-D the lower travertine rests on a breccia containing cranial remains of juvenile Neanderthals. The base of the travertine dates to 151 ± 15 Ky (Ky = 1000 years BP); the top of the travertine yields a date of 112±5 Ky. The travertine contains pollen of an interglacial flora. Overlying detrital sediments 1·2 m in thickness contain artifacts transitional from Acheulian to Mousterian industries. They are capped by a travertine (Layer 7) whose base is dated at 100±6 Ky, and which is capped by stalagmites ranging in age down to 58±7 Ky. Overlying the travertine is sediment containing first Mousterian, and then Aurignacian artifacts. Near the base of the sediments filling Grotte Suard is a stalagmite layer dated to 249±30 Ky. It contains interglacial pollen and presumably dates to the beginning of the isotope stage 7 interglacial. Neanderthaloid hominid teeth and cranial fragments are found scattered through the overlying sediments, up to a capping stalagmitic layer whose base is dated at 101±7 Ky. The best described hominids from Suard are from a section that was probably overlying the capping stalagmite. The capping stalagmite is temporally correlated with layer 7 of B-D.

Taphonomic significance of sub‐aerial transport of vertebrate fossils on steep semi‐arid slopes

Burial and fossilization of terrestrial vertebrate remains may be a singular process, but is more likely to involve several phases of re-exhumation and sedimentary displacement, especially in arid environments. Each exhumation offers the opportunity for selective entrainment of sub-aerial slope processes which leave slopes-the principal collecting ground-impoverished of certain fossils and enriched in others. Fossil shape is shown to be a major determinant of displacement on steep slopes, with rod-like particles (e.g., limb-bones) and spheroids (e.g., joints and some vertebrae) vying for downslope evacuation at mean rates up to 1.85 m.a-1 and 1.14 m.a-1. Disc-and blade-like fossils (e.g., cranial fragments and scapulae) arc concentrated in the talluvium. Transport is shown to vary directly with size on steep slopes, but the relationship is confused by the complicated shapes of fossil material. The post-exhumation sub-aerial displacement of vertebrate fossils not only determines the constituents of a collection, so influencing palacoecological reconstruction, but reduces biostratigraphical resolution. Fossils of different shape are given stratigraphical (i.e. vertical) ‘aging rates’ (up to 0.47 m.a-1) that can be used as correction factors at frequently visited sites.Vertebrata, taphonomy, sub-aerial transport.

A reconstruction of the skeleton of A.L. 288-1 (Hadar) and its consequences

The partial skeleton of Australopithecus from the Hadar Formation, Ethiopia, is reconstructed and compared with other primates. It is demonstrated that the skull of A.L. 288-1 is not as chimplike as it was proposed for Australopithecus afarensis and that the cranial fragments do not differ from Australopithecus africanus. Structural features like the funnelshaped thorax and the pelvis, with its broad iliaca for insertion of musculus latissimus dorsi and the long lever arm of the pubic muscular attachments, invoke a high level of suspensorial behavior. In our opinion, A. africanus is a generalized hominid primate that differs from the specialized African apes, the living pongids beeing too derived to represent a model of a primitive hominoid or hominid ancestor.

Studies on the condition and structure of bone of the Saldanha fossil cranium.

The external surface of the Saldanha cranium shows extensive exfoliation and cracking. In a few places remnants of the probable original bone surfaces can be observed. These are orange-brown in color, contrasting with the nearly white color of exposed deeper layers, and are subdivided into small segments with pits in their centers. Causes of the color differences are uncertain but merit investigation. The surface cracking and exfoliation probably result from weathering before fossilization. This conclusion is based on the observation that the endocranial surfaces show no such effects, despite the scattering of the cranial fragments at the time of discovery. A depressed fracture in the frontal bone indicates a heavy blow at or shortly after the time of death. This blow probably created some of the fragments, but there are also incomplete fracture cracks which may have resulted from the blow. Unresolved taphonomic problems include the manner in which the cranium held together after decay of soft tissues allowed weathering, and the manner in which the fragments were subsequently scattered. Chips from the cranial vault indicate that the outer table was very thick, tending to support recent proposals that the specimen and assoicated fauna and tools are from a considerably earlier time period than originally believed. The surface damage to the brow ridges gives information on the structure of deeper layers. These are lacking orientation, supporting the hypothesis that hominid brow ridges are not primarily a response to masticatory forces, but may afford protection for the eyes.

Hominid taphonomy: transport of human skeletal parts in an artificial fluviatile environment.

Flume experiments demonstrate that human skeletal parts sort into lag and transportable groups in a current flow of 31 cm/sec. Orientations, rates and types of movement, and stable positions are recorded. Density of a skeletal part is correlated with the average rate of movement, whereas wet weight in air, weight in water, and volume are not. Shape is an important but unquantifiable factor. Complete crania are the fastest moving elements; individual cranial fragments are in the lag group. Omo fluviatile deposits show a preponderance of hominid lag elements, whereas Olduvai and East Rudolf perilacustrine deposits present a mixture of transportable and lag elements.

Anatomy of the temporal bone in the oligocene anthropoid, Apidium and the origin of Anthropoidea.

An associated group of cranial fragments and upper teeth of Apidium phiomense from the Oligocene of Egypt includes two fragments of the right temporal bone. The petrosal fragment preserves part of a large unbranched carotid canal similar to that of all Anthropoidea. The squamosal fragment demonstrates that there was no ossified ectotympanic lateral to the bulla, and that the anterior crus of the tympanic annulus was not fused to the squamosal. This suggests the presence in Apidium of a free tympanic ring within the bulla similar to that of Eocene lemuroid primates. Osteological and paleontological evidence favors the view that Anthropoidea evolved directly from lemuroid ancestors, without passing through an intermediate tarsioid stage.