Discovering the large overlap between Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens
Modern humans were present in central and north-western Europe long before Neanderthals became extinct in the south-west of the continent, according to three new studies carried out by an international team of researchers. Supported by the EU-funded PUSHH, PROSPER and BACBONE projects, the studies shed valuable light on the two species’ interaction as far back as 45 000 years ago, suggesting that they lived alongside each other and may even have interbred. The findings are the result of a recent re-excavation conducted at the base of a mediaeval castle, at a depth of 8 metres into the sediment of the Ilsenhöhle cave site in Ranis, Germany. Here, scientists unearthed a number of leaf-shaped spear points, animal remains and human bone fragments. The three studies discuss the Ilsenhöhle Homo sapiens fossils and their associated context, the ecology, subsistence and diet of early Homo sapiens, and these early humans’ ability to adapt to different climates and habitats. The genetic analysis of the fossils reveals that these early Homo sapiens were capable of enduring northern Europe’s cold climate and making spear-shaped tools.
Not by Neanderthals
“The Ranis cave site provides evidence for the first dispersal of Homo sapiens across the higher latitudes of Europe. It turns out that stone artefacts that were thought to be produced by Neanderthals were in fact part of the early H. sapiens tool kit,” states Prof. Jean-Jacques Hublin of PUSHH project partners Collège de France, Paris, and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The leaf-shaped spears are characteristic of the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician culture dating to the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, about 45 000 years ago. “This fundamentally changes our previous knowledge about this time period: H. sapiens reached northwestern Europe long before Neanderthal disappearance in southwestern Europe,” adds Prof. Hublin, who co-authored all three studies. The team used genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA to confirm that the bone fragments unearthed – from the recent re-excavation and from the preceding 1930s excavation – did indeed belong to Homo sapiens. They found that several fragments even had the same mitochondrial DNA, suggesting that they belonged either to the same individual or to people related through the mother’s line.
Braving the cold earlier
The animal teeth and bone remains analysed also indicate that these early humans lived in a cold tundra-like landscape inhabited by reindeer, cave bears, woolly rhinoceroses and horses. “Until recently, it was thought that resilience to cold-climate conditions did not appear until several thousand years later, so this is a fascinating and surprising result,” states co-author Dr Sarah Pederzani, who led the palaeoclimate study while at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “Perhaps cold steppes with larger herds of prey animals were more attractive environments for these human groups than previously appreciated.” The research supported by PUSHH (Palaeoproteomics to Unleash Studies on Human History), PROSPER (Hominin phyloproteomics for the Pleistocene: PalaeoPROteomics of Skeletal Parts for Evolutionary Research), and BACBONE (Contrasting Neanderthal and modern human subsistence practices across Europe 50,000-40,000 years ago: an interdisciplinary approach to micro-scale taphonomy and BACterial bioerosion on BONE.) changes our understanding of Homo sapiens’ first arrival in northern Europe during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. The next step is to establish to what extent Neanderthals and early humans crossed paths and furthering insight into what led to the Neanderthals’ demise. For more information, please see: PUSHH project website PROSPER project BACBONE project
Keywords
PUSHH, PROSPER, BACBONE, Homo sapiens, human, Neanderthal, fossil, bone
