Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Postcranial morphology of the middle Pleistocene humans from Sima de los Huesos, Spain

Juan Luis Arsuaga, José-Miguel Carretero, Carlos Lorenzo, Asier Gómez-Olivencia, Adrián Pablos, Laura Rodríguez, Rebeca García-González, Alejandro Bonmatí, Rolf M. Quam, Ana Pantoja-Pérez, Ignacio Martínez, Arantza Aranburu, Ana Gracia-Téllez, Eva Poza-Rey, Nohemi Sala, Nuria García, Almudena Alcázar de Velasco, Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, José María Bermúdez de Castro, and Eudald Carbonell
  1. aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  2. bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  3. cLaboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geografía, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain;
  4. dÀrea de Prehistòria, Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;
  5. eInstitut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, 43007 Tarragona, Spain;
  6. fDepartamento Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco–Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48080 Bilbao, Spain;
  7. gIkerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain;
  8. hUMR 7194, CNRS, Département Préhistoire, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, 75016 Paris, France;
  9. iÁrea de Antropología Física, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
  10. jCentro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana, 09002 Burgos, Spain;
  11. kDepartment of Anthropology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000;
  12. lDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192;
  13. mDepartamento Mineralogía y Petrología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco–Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48080 Bilbao, Spain;
  14. nÁrea de Paleontología, Departamento de Geografía y Geología, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
  15. oPaleontología, Aragosaurus–Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón and Facultad Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain;
  16. pInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Beijing, 100044 Beijing, China

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS first published August 31, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1514828112
Juan Luis Arsuaga
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: jlarsuaga@isciii.es
José-Miguel Carretero
cLaboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geografía, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Carlos Lorenzo
dÀrea de Prehistòria, Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;
eInstitut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, 43007 Tarragona, Spain;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Asier Gómez-Olivencia
fDepartamento Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco–Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48080 Bilbao, Spain;
gIkerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain;
hUMR 7194, CNRS, Département Préhistoire, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, 75016 Paris, France;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Adrián Pablos
iÁrea de Antropología Física, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laura Rodríguez
cLaboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geografía, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain;
jCentro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana, 09002 Burgos, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Rebeca García-González
cLaboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geografía, Universidad de Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alejandro Bonmatí
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Rolf M. Quam
kDepartment of Anthropology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000;
lDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024-5192;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ana Pantoja-Pérez
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ignacio Martínez
iÁrea de Antropología Física, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Arantza Aranburu
mDepartamento Mineralogía y Petrología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco–Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 48080 Bilbao, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ana Gracia-Téllez
nÁrea de Paleontología, Departamento de Geografía y Geología, Universidad de Alcalá, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Spain;
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Eva Poza-Rey
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Nohemi Sala
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Nuria García
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
bDepartamento de Paleontología, Facultad Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Almudena Alcázar de Velasco
aCentro Mixto Universidad Complutense de Madrid - Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gloria Cuenca-Bescós
oPaleontología, Aragosaurus–Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón and Facultad Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
José María Bermúdez de Castro
jCentro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana, 09002 Burgos, Spain;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Eudald Carbonell
dÀrea de Prehistòria, Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;
eInstitut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, 43007 Tarragona, Spain;
pInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Beijing, 100044 Beijing, China
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Contributed by Juan Luis Arsuaga, July 29, 2015 (sent for review May 20, 2015; reviewed by Trenton W. Holliday and Christopher B. Ruff)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos (SH) fossil collection provides the rare opportunity to thoroughly characterize the postcranial skeleton in a fossil population, comparable only to that obtained in the study of the Neandertal hypodigm and recent (and fossil) modern humans. The SH paleodeme can be characterized as relatively tall, wide, and muscular individuals, who are less encephalized than both Neandertals and modern humans. Some (but not all) Neandertal derived traits are present, which phylogenetically links this population with Neandertals. Thus, the full suite of Neandertal features did not arise all at once, and the evolution of the postcranial skeleton could be characterized as following a mosaic pattern.

Abstract

Current knowledge of the evolution of the postcranial skeleton in the genus Homo is hampered by a geographically and chronologically scattered fossil record. Here we present a complete characterization of the postcranium of the middle Pleistocene paleodeme from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) and its paleobiological implications. The SH hominins show the following: (i) wide bodies, a plesiomorphic character in the genus Homo inherited from their early hominin ancestors; (ii) statures that can be found in modern human middle-latitude populations that first appeared 1.6–1.5 Mya; and (iii) large femoral heads in some individuals, a trait that first appeared during the middle Pleistocene in Africa and Europe. The intrapopulational size variation in SH shows that the level of dimorphism was similar to modern humans (MH), but the SH hominins were less encephalized than Neandertals. SH shares many postcranial anatomical features with Neandertals. Although most of these features appear to be either plesiomorphic retentions or are of uncertain phylogenetic polarity, a few represent Neandertal apomorphies. Nevertheless, the full suite of Neandertal-derived features is not yet present in the SH population. The postcranial evidence is consistent with the hypothesis based on the cranial morphology that the SH hominins are a sister group to the later Neandertals. Comparison of the SH postcranial skeleton to other hominins suggests that the evolution of the postcranium occurred in a mosaic mode, both at a general and at a detailed level.

  • human evolution
  • bauplan
  • postcranial anatomy
  • Sierra de Atapuerca
  • phylogeny

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jlarsuaga{at}isciii.es.
  • Author contributions: J.L.A., J.M.B.d.C., and E.C. codirected the Atapuerca excavations and research project; J.L.A. designed research; J.L.A., J.-M.C., C.L., A.G.-O., A.P., L.R., R.G.-G., A.B., R.M.Q., A.P.-P., I.M., A.A., A.G.-T., E.P.-R., N.S., N.G., A.A.d.V., G.C.-B., J.M.B.d.C., and E.C. performed research; J.L.A., J.-M.C., C.L., A.G.-O., A.P., L.R., R.G.-G., A.B., R.M.Q., A.P.-P., I.M., A.A., A.G.-T., E.P.-R., N.S., N.G., A.A.d.V., and G.C.-B. analyzed data; and J.L.A., J.-M.C., C.L., A.G.-O., A.P., L.R., R.G.-G., A.B., R.M.Q., A.P.-P., and I.M. wrote the paper.

  • Reviewers: T.W.H., Tulane University; and C.B.R., The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1514828112/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Postcranial morphology of the middle Pleistocene humans from Sima de los Huesos, Spain
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Postcranial skeleton from Sima de los Huesos
Juan Luis Arsuaga, José-Miguel Carretero, Carlos Lorenzo, Asier Gómez-Olivencia, Adrián Pablos, Laura Rodríguez, Rebeca García-González, Alejandro Bonmatí, Rolf M. Quam, Ana Pantoja-Pérez, Ignacio Martínez, Arantza Aranburu, Ana Gracia-Téllez, Eva Poza-Rey, Nohemi Sala, Nuria García, Almudena Alcázar de Velasco, Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2015, 201514828; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1514828112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Postcranial skeleton from Sima de los Huesos
Juan Luis Arsuaga, José-Miguel Carretero, Carlos Lorenzo, Asier Gómez-Olivencia, Adrián Pablos, Laura Rodríguez, Rebeca García-González, Alejandro Bonmatí, Rolf M. Quam, Ana Pantoja-Pérez, Ignacio Martínez, Arantza Aranburu, Ana Gracia-Téllez, Eva Poza-Rey, Nohemi Sala, Nuria García, Almudena Alcázar de Velasco, Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, José María Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2015, 201514828; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1514828112
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 118 (15)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Water from a faucet fills a glass.
News Feature: How “forever chemicals” might impair the immune system
Researchers are exploring whether these ubiquitous fluorinated molecules might worsen infections or hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Dmitry Naumov.
Reflection of clouds in the still waters of Mono Lake in California.
Inner Workings: Making headway with the mysteries of life’s origins
Recent experiments and simulations are starting to answer some fundamental questions about how life came to be.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Radoslaw Lecyk.
Cave in coastal Kenya with tree growing in the middle.
Journal Club: Small, sharp blades mark shift from Middle to Later Stone Age in coastal Kenya
Archaeologists have long tried to define the transition between the two time periods.
Image credit: Ceri Shipton.
Mouse fibroblast cells. Electron bifurcation reactions keep mammalian cells alive.
Exploring electron bifurcation
Jonathon Yuly, David Beratan, and Peng Zhang investigate how electron bifurcation reactions work.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Panda bear hanging in a tree
How horse manure helps giant pandas tolerate cold
A study finds that giant pandas roll in horse manure to increase their cold tolerance.
Image credit: Fuwen Wei.

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Cozzarelli Prize
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490