The Neanderthal in the karst: First dating, morphometric, and paleogenetic data on the fossil skeleton from Altamura (Italy)

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Abstract

In 1993, a fossil hominin skeleton was discovered in the karst caves of Lamalunga, near Altamura, in southern Italy. Despite the fact that this specimen represents one of the most extraordinary hominin specimens ever found in Europe, for the last two decades our knowledge of it has been based purely on the documented on-site observations. Recently, the retrieval from the cave of a fragment of bone (part of the right scapula) allowed the first dating of the individual, the quantitative analysis of a diagnostic morphological feature, and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization of this hominin skeleton from Altamura. Overall, the results concur in indicating that it belongs to the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis, with some phenetic peculiarities that appear consistent with a chronology ranging from 172 ± 15 ka to 130.1 ± 1.9 ka. Thus, the skeleton from Altamura represents the most ancient Neanderthal from which endogenous DNA has ever been extracted.

Introduction

The Lamalunga cave opens in the limestone of the Murgia plateau at an elevation of 508 m a.s.l., near the town of Altamura (Puglia, Italy; Agostini, 2011). It constitutes the upper part of a larger karstic complex where stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstones occur together with “coralloid” formations, which mostly represent the last phase of calcite precipitation caused by spray/aerosol phenomena. This complex consists mainly of a sub-horizontal gallery that had developed at a shallow depth from the surface, intercepted by pits that had originally opened to the surface but which have subsequently been clogged by detritus. In this context, the discovery of a virtually complete fossilized hominin skeleton in an excellent state of preservation gives rise to interesting taphonomic considerations. Particularly, faunal remains found in some of the galleries are often isolated bony elements accumulated in depressed areas of the cave, suggesting that they were transported and dispersed by water. This was not the case with the human skeleton, given that it is largely represented and concentrated in a small area. Thus, we may hypothesize that, after death and decomposition of the body, the skeleton collapsed where it has been found. Thus far, no lithic tools have been found in the cave.

Even though the skeleton is partly incorporated into calcite concretions and is covered by coralloid formations, most of the bones are visible (see Fig. 1; see also Supporting Online Material [SOM] Fig. 1), including the cranium (upside down), the mandible, and several postcranial elements. From the photographs available and direct observations made in situ by one of us (GM), the skeleton appears to exhibit a mixture of archaic and derived features, which fit the range of variation typical of European hominins of the late Middle/early Late Pleistocene (Manzi et al., 2011). In fact, even though a number of Neanderthal traits can be seen—particularly in the face and in the occipital bone—there are features that distinguish this specimen from the more typical morphology of Homo neanderthalensis, such as the shape of the brow ridges, the relative dimension of the mastoids, and the general architecture of the cranial vault.

Nevertheless, for many years after its discovery, the only information we had on this extraordinary fossil skeleton was based primarily on on-site photographs and observations (Pesce Delfino and Vacca, 1993), which were biased by the presence of calcite formations. More recently, a survey in the cave was carried out as part of a new project commissioned by the local authorities, with the aim of carefully removing an isolated skeletal fragment. Subsequently, in February 2011, other samples were taken, including calcite material suitable for U/Th dating.

Therefore, for the first time, we are able to report quantitative data for the skeleton from Altamura, including its first dating, the morphometric analysis of an aspect of its post-cranial morphology (part of the right scapula), and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization.

Section snippets

The sample

The skeleton from Altamura is in an excellent state of preservation with virtually every bone belonging to a single adult individual preserved in the rather small space in which it was found. In fact, all bones were concentrated at the end of a narrow corridor known as the “ramo dell'uomo” (“branch of man”) and generally do not appear to be damaged or distorted, with the exception of a few elements identified in a smaller chamber behind the area where the main assemblage was found (SOM Fig. 1).

U/Th dating and petrography

A previous series of 25 U/Th dating was carried out by alpha spectrometry on a series of stalactites, flowstones, and coralloids (Fig. 2) by Branca and Voltaggio (2011). These revealed an ancient phase of speleothem formation, dating to between 189 ± 29 and 172 ± 15 ka, and a second phase, indicated by some of the flowstones, between 45.9 ± 1.7 and 34.4 ± 1.5 ka, while the ages of the coralloids (13 analyses in all) were distributed continuously between 43.3 ± 1.6 and 29.1 ± 1.0 ka and between

Conclusions

Overall, the results of our morphometric and the paleogenetic analyses concur in indicating that the skeleton from Altamura belongs to a Neanderthal. In addition, using U/Th dating we were able to provide the first range of dates for the specimen, between 130 ± 2 ka and 172 ± 15 ka.

Nevertheless, some features exhibited by the skeleton and observed in situ (on the cranium, in particular, as summarized in the Introduction) differ from the morphology known among the typical representatives of Homo

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Direzione Regionale, the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Puglia, the municipality of Altamura, and the speleologists of the C.A.R.S. (particularly Giovanni Ragone, Nino Reale, and Francesco Del Vecchio). The authors are also grateful to Lee Berger, José Miguel Carretero, Tea Jashashvili, Stephany Potze, Erik Trinkaus, Milford Wolpoff and, particularly, Steven E. Churchill, for kindly providing comparative samples and discussions on scapular morphology. Our thanks

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