Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia

• Published in: Nature 2007-09, Vol.449 (7160), p.305-310
• Main Authors: Lordkipanidze, David, Jashashvili, Tea, Vekua, Abesalom, de León, Marcia S. Ponce, Zollikofer, Christoph P. E, Rightmire, G. Philip, Pontzer, Herman, Ferring, Reid, Oms, Oriol, Tappen, Martha, Bukhsianidze, Maia, Agusti, Jordi, Kahlke, Ralf, Kiladze, Gocha, Martinez-Navarro, Bienvenido, Mouskhelishvili, Alexander, Nioradze, Medea, Rook, Lorenzo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adults; Anatomy; Animals; Anthropology; Archaeology; Body Size; Discovery and exploration; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Environmental aspects; Exact sciences and technology; Fossil hominids; Fossils; Georgia (Republic); History, Ancient; Hominidae - anatomy & histology; Hominidae - classification; Hominidae - physiology; Hominids; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Leg Bones - anatomy & histology; Limbs; Locomotion; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Paleontology; Pleistocene; Prehistoric era; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Skeleton; Skull; Temperate zones; Torsion; Vertebrate paleontology
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687; 1476-4679
• DOI: 10.1038/nature06134

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. Headed for Europe The primitive hominins from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia are often thought to be similar to Homo erectus and are arguably the earliest known members of the human family outside Africa. This conclusion has come, so far, from skulls. The discovery of postcranial material — a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual associated with a skull, and remains from three more adults — suggests that the Dmanisi hominids are even more primitive, similar to Homo habilis . In News & Views, Daniel Lieberman draws parallels between these new finds and those from Lake Turkana, Kenya, featured on the cover of the 9 August issue of Nature . Early indications from the similarities between the recent Dmanisi and Turkana finds suggest, says Lieberman, that they belong to the same species. The primitive hominins from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia are often thought to be akin to Homo erectus and are arguably the earliest known members of the human family outside Africa. This conclusion has come, so far, from the presentation of postcranial material: now a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual associated with a skull, and remains from three adult individuals, suggest that the Dmanisi hominids are even more primitive than that, akin to Homo habilis .