The costal skeleton of Homo antecessor: preliminary results.
The Lower Pleistocene TD6 level at the Gran Dolina site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) has yielded nine ribs that represent a minimum of three individuals of the species, Homo antecessor. We present a detailed morphological and metric study of these costal elements, including the siding and anatomical position of all of the rib remains. The adult or nearly adult ribs are also metrically compared with other fossil hominins and with modern comparative samples. The costal elements recovered to date from the TD6 level at Gran Dolina can neither confirm nor reject the hypothesis that H. antecessor had a large thorax, similar to that of Neandertals. However, the fragmentary evidence of the H. antecessor thoracic skeleton is not inconsistent with this suggestion based on other skeletal elements, such as clavicles.
Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, c/Sinesio Delgado, 4 (Pabellón 14), 28029 Madrid, Spain. asiergo@gmail.com
Asier
A
Gómez-Olivencia
José Miguel
JM
Carretero
Carlos
C
Lorenzo
Juan Luis
JL
Arsuaga
José María
JM
Bermúdez de Castro
Eudald
E
Carbonell
D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001824:Body Constitution; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D010163:Paleontology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012272:Ribs / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D013030:Spain; D013909:Thorax / Q000033:anatomy & histology*