A human parietal fragment from the late Early Pleistocene Gran Dolina-TD6 cave site, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain

The TD6-2 level of the Gran Dolina cave site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) has yieldedan assemblage of about 170 human fossil remains dated to > 800 ka (probably MIS 21) andassigned to the species Homo antecessor. In this study, we describe for the first time a largeportion of a parietal b...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Bruner, Emiliano, Písová, Hana, Martínez Francés, Laura, Martinón Torres, María, Arsuaga Ferreras, Juan Luis, Carbonell, Eudald, Bermúdez de Castro, José María
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/87952
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/87952
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:569
Late Early Pleistocene
Parietal bone
Cranial thickness
Craniovascular morphology
Paleontología
2416 Paleontología
Descripción
Sumario:The TD6-2 level of the Gran Dolina cave site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) has yieldedan assemblage of about 170 human fossil remains dated to > 800 ka (probably MIS 21) andassigned to the species Homo antecessor. In this study, we describe for the first time a largeportion of a parietal bone (ATD6-100/168). The morphology of the fractures on the bones iscompatible with a peri-mortem trauma. The superior parietal areas are flat. There is a largeparietal foramen and one smaller accessory parietal foramen. Middle meningeal vessels arenot particularly developed, but they are distributed in both anterior and posterior districts,with the parietal vasculature originating from the posterior branch. The meningeal vesselsshow multiple minor connections with the pericranial and diploic vascular systems. Thediploe is not particularly developed, and large diploic channels are not detected. The bone isthin when compared with adult fossil humans, and equivalent to juvenile values. All thesecharacters suggest that the parietal ATD6-100/168 probably belonged to a juvenile individ-ual, with plesiomorphic endocranial traits similar to those described for H. ergaster/erectus.The derived temporal, maxillary and dental traits in Homo antecessor and the primitiveparietal morphology further point to distinct (mosaic) patterns of morphological evolutionof face and braincase.