Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia.
The Plio-Pleistocene site of Dmanisi, Georgia, has yielded a rich fossil and archaeological record documenting an early presence of the genus Homo outside Africa. Although the craniomandibular morphology of early Homo is well known as a result of finds from Dmanisi and African localities, data about its postcranial morphology are still relatively scarce. Here we describe newly excavated postcranial material from Dmanisi comprising a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual, associated with skull D2700/D2735, and the remains from three adult individuals. This material shows that the postcranial anatomy of the Dmanisi hominins has a surprising mosaic of primitive and derived features. The primitive features include a small body size, a low encephalization quotient and absence of humeral torsion; the derived features include modern-human-like body proportions and lower limb morphology indicative of the capability for long-distance travel. Thus, the earliest known hominins to have lived outside of Africa in the temperate zones of Eurasia did not yet display the full set of derived skeletal features.
Lordkipanidze
David
D
Georgian National Museum, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia. dlordkipanidze@museum.ge
Jashashvili
Tea
T
Vekua
Abesalom
A
Ponce de León
Marcia S
MS
Zollikofer
Christoph P E
CP
Rightmire
G Philip
GP
Pontzer
Herman
H
Ferring
Reid
R
Oms
Oriol
O
Tappen
Martha
M
Bukhsianidze
Maia
M
Agusti
Jordi
J
Kahlke
Ralf
R
Kiladze
Gocha
G
Martinez-Navarro
Bienvenido
B
Mouskhelishvili
Alexander
A
Nioradze
Medea
M
Rook
Lorenzo
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D049628:Body Size; D005580:Fossils; D005846:Georgia (Republic); D049690:History, Ancient; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007867:Leg Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008124:Locomotion; D012863:Skeleton