title: Human remains from Valdegoba Cave (Huérmeces, Burgos, Spain).
abstract: Systematic excavations, begun in 1987, at the Valdegoba cave site in northern Spain have yielded the remains of five individuals associated with a Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology and Pleistocene fauna. A fragmentary mandible of an adolescent (VB1), preserving nearly a full set of teeth, exhibits a symphyseal tubercle and slight incurvatio mandibulae anterior on the external symphysis. Both the superior and inferior transverse tori are present on the internal aspect. A second individual (VB2) is represented by a set of ten deciduous teeth consistent with an age at death of 6-9 months. A proximal manual phalanx (VB3) displays a relatively broad head, a characteristic which is found in both Neandertals, as well as European Middle Pleistocene hominids. VB4 is a fourth metatarsal that lacks the distal epiphysis, indicating it comes from an adolescent individual, and has a relatively high robusticity index. Finally, VB5 is a fifth metatarsal of an adult. The VB1 mandible shows a combination of archaic characteristics as well as more specific Neandertal morphological traits. The VB2 deciduous teeth are very small, and both the metrics and morphology seem more consistent with a modern human classification. The postcranial elements are undiagnostic, U-Th dating has provided an age of >350 ka for the base of the sequence and a date of <73.2+/-5 ka for level 7, near the top. Faunal analysis and radiometric dates from other nearby Mousterian sites suggests that the Valdegoba site is correlative with oxygen isotope stages 3-6 on the Iberian peninsula, and an Upper Pleistocene age for the Valdegoba hominids seems most reasonable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, 13902-6000, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Quam
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Arsuaga
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bermúdez de Castro
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Díez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lorenzo
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Carretero
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Ortega
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001641:Bicuspid / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003481:Cuspid / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010161:Paleodontology; D010163:Paleontology; D011631:Pubic Symphysis / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D013030:Spain; D014070:Tooth / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D019228:Tooth Crown / Q000033:anatomy & histology