Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Researchers recently studied the remains of a modern human baby unearthed in the Grotte du Renne (“Reindeer’s cave”) located in Arcy-sur-Cure, Northeast France. The cave is considered as one of the most fascinating Paleolithic sites in Europe, with Neanderthal remains.

Grotte du Renne (Deer cave). Image credit: Pueblopᴀssingby – CC BY-SA 4.0

Researchers identified an ilium (one of the three bones that make up the human pelvis) belonging to a newborn (AR-63)  whose morphology required a thorough analysis to compare it to that of 2 Neanderthals and 32 recent individuals deceased during the perinatal period (the period around the time of birth) to explore their morphological variation.

Interestingly, the analysis of the found remains showed that the infant could represent an early – previously unknown – lineage of Homo sapiens.

“Our results indicate a morphological distinction between the ilia of Neanderthals and anatomically modern neonates. Although AR-63 is slightly outside recent variability, it clearly differs from the Neanderthals. We propose that this is due to its belonging to an early modern human lineage whose morphology differs slightly from present-day humans,” the researchers state in their paper.

“Around 42,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans appeared in Western Europe to the detriment of indigenous Neanderthal groups,” paper states.

Lateral (left) and medial (right) view of (a) the right ilium (mirrored in left) of AR-63, (b) the left ilium of the perinatal Neanderthal LM2 and (c) the left ilium of a recent perinatal individual (T41).

The famous Reindeer Cave (in Arcy-sur-Cure) have revealed evidence of Neanderthal occupation. However, this ancient place has also confirmed that groups of  anatomically modern humans, were once present in the cave.

Inside the cave, researchers have found many tools, cave art, and bone ornaments ᴀssociated with the Châtelperronian techno-cultural ensemble.

Therefore, the cave is a very important site for further studies of the interaction between Neanderthals and representants of the other groups. There is a continuous debate that focuses on  human plurality at the site, Neanderthals or Homo sapien, the biological idenтιтy of these people.

(a) Comparison between the AR-63 (gold) and the mean shape of the recent perinatal individuals mean shape (RH, red) in lateral view. The superposition of the ilia highlights the morphological proximity between AR-63 and the recent individuals, especially in the orientation of their acetabular area. (b) Same comparison in posterior view. Note the similar curvature of their iliac crest and the slight difference in the localization of their posterior-superior iliac spine. The figure was generated using R software (version 4.1.2) http://www.R-project.org/ and Adobe Illustrator (version 4.1.2) https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html.

There are alsodifferent hypotheses proposed in the paper. One of them is that ”if we ᴀssume that Neanderthals (acculturated or not) are the only makers of the Châtelperronian then the AR-63 ilium could be considered intrusive within the Xb2 level (hypothesis H1)… The bone could have come from overlying layer of the Aurignacian, as a result of human or large carnivore activities.

So, ”only a direct dating of the piece could resolve this issue. However, taking into account the post-excavation history (including various manipulations, consolidations and probably casting and the very thin compact bone of the specimen, to date, no direct dating was undertaken,” the paper states.

Finally the researchers say: ”the 3D morphometric analysis of the perinatal ilium from the Châtelperronian layer Xb2 of the GDR compared to two perinatal Neanderthal ilia and the RH collections allows us to attribute AR- 63 to the AMH.”

”If we accept the presence, on the same territory and ᴀssociated with the same techno-complex, Neanderthals and AMH, it becomes crucial to test the hypothesis of a potential AMH genetic contribution within the genome of the Neanderthal individuals from Arcy-sur-Cure.

Although the existence of genetic introgressions from ancient population of African origin into Middle Pleistocene Neanderthal genomes have already been identified, a similar phenomenon remains to document for the time period of the Neanderthal replacement in Europe…”

Paper

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer