Dental evidence on the hominin dispersals during the Pleistocene - PubMed (original) (raw)

Dental evidence on the hominin dispersals during the Pleistocene

M Martinón-Torres et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007.

Abstract

A common assumption in the evolutionary scenario of the first Eurasian hominin populations is that they all had an African origin. This assumption also seems to apply for the Early and Middle Pleistocene populations, whose presence in Europe has been largely explained by a discontinuous flow of African emigrant waves. Only recently, some voices have speculated about the possibility of Asia being a center of speciation. However, no hard evidence has been presented to support this hypothesis. We present evidence from the most complete and up-to-date analysis of the hominin permanent dentition from Africa and Eurasia. The results show important morphological differences between the hominins found in both continents during the Pleistocene, suggesting that their evolutionary courses were relatively independent. We propose that the genetic impact of Asia in the colonization of Europe during the Early and Middle Pleistocene was stronger than that of Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Dendrogram obtained from phenetic analysis of the dental evidence.

Fig. 2.

Cladogram obtained from analysis of the dental evidence.

Fig. 3.

Schematic diagram illustrating the general characteristics of the hominins found in the Eurasian continent from the Early Pleistocene until the appearance of the Neandertals (light gray shading) and in the African continent from the Plio-Pleistocene to the Middle Pleistocene (dark gray shading).

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Dental evidence on the hominin dispersals during the Pleistocene - PubMed (original) (raw)