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Hu W, Hao Z, Du P, Di Vincenzo F, Manzi G, Cui J, Fu YX, Pan YH, Li H. Genomic inference of a severe human bottleneck during the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition. Science 2023; 381:979-984. [PMID: 37651513 DOI: 10.1126/science.abq7487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Abstract
Population size history is essential for studying human evolution. However, ancient population size history during the Pleistocene is notoriously difficult to unravel. In this study, we developed a fast infinitesimal time coalescent process (FitCoal) to circumvent this difficulty and calculated the composite likelihood for present-day human genomic sequences of 3154 individuals. Results showed that human ancestors went through a severe population bottleneck with about 1280 breeding individuals between around 930,000 and 813,000 years ago. The bottleneck lasted for about 117,000 years and brought human ancestors close to extinction. This bottleneck is congruent with a substantial chronological gap in the available African and Eurasian fossil record. Our results provide new insights into our ancestry and suggest a coincident speciation event.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wangjie Hu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ziqian Hao
- College of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for Medical Sciences, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China
| | - Pengyuan Du
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- College of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for Medical Sciences, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China
| | | | - Giorgio Manzi
- Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Jialong Cui
- Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yun-Xin Fu
- Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA
- Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bioresources, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Yi-Hsuan Pan
- Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Haipeng Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
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Bräuer G, Pitsios T, Säring D, von Harling M, Jessen F, Kroll A, Groden C. Virtual Reconstruction and Comparative Analyses of the Middle Pleistocene Apidima 2 Cranium (Greece). Anat Rec (Hoboken) 2019; 303:1374-1392. [PMID: 31336034 DOI: 10.1002/ar.24225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2019] [Revised: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 05/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The Apidima 2 fossil cranium from South Peloponnese is one of the most important hominin specimens from Southeast Europe. Nevertheless, there has been continuous controversy as to whether it represents a so-called Preneandertal/Homo heidelbergensis such as, for example, the Petralona cranium from Northern Greece or a more derived Neandertal. Recent absolute dating evidence alone cannot clarify the issue because both classifications would be possible during the respective Middle Pleistocene time span. Since only limited data were available on the cranium, there have been repeated claims for the need of a broader comparative study of the hominin. The present article presents a CT-based virtual reconstruction including corrections of postmortem fractures and deformation as well as detailed metrical and morphological analyses of the specimen. Endocranial capacity could be estimated for the first time based on virtual reconstruction. Our multivariate analyses of metric data from the face and vault revealed close affinities to early and later Neandertals, especially showing the derived facial morphometrics. In addition, comparative analyses of Apidima 2 were done for many derived Neandertal features. Here again, a significant number of Neandertal features could be found in the Apidima cranium but no conditions common in Preneandertals. In agreement with a later Middle Pleistocene age Apidima is currently the earliest evidence of a hominin in Europe with such a derived Neandertal facial morphology. The place of Apidima in the complex process of Neandertal evolution as well as its taxonomic classification are discussed as well. Anat Rec, 303:1374-1392, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Günter Bräuer
- Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Theodoros Pitsios
- Museum of Anthropology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Dennis Säring
- Department of Medical and Industrial Image Processing, University of Applied Sciences Wedel, Wedel, Germany
| | | | | | - Angelika Kroll
- Biozentrum Grindel, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Christoph Groden
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg/University Hospital Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
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Stringer C. The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2017; 371:rstb.2015.0237. [PMID: 27298468 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 133] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/29/2016] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
If we restrict the use of Homo sapiens in the fossil record to specimens which share a significant number of derived features in the skeleton with extant H. sapiens, the origin of our species would be placed in the African late middle Pleistocene, based on fossils such as Omo Kibish 1, Herto 1 and 2, and the Levantine material from Skhul and Qafzeh. However, genetic data suggest that we and our sister species Homo neanderthalensis shared a last common ancestor in the middle Pleistocene approximately 400-700 ka, which is at least 200 000 years earlier than the species origin indicated from the fossils already mentioned. Thus, it is likely that the African fossil record will document early members of the sapiens lineage showing only some of the derived features of late members of the lineage. On that basis, I argue that human fossils such as those from Jebel Irhoud, Florisbad, Eliye Springs and Omo Kibish 2 do represent early members of the species, but variation across the African later middle Pleistocene/early Middle Stone Age fossils shows that there was not a simple linear progression towards later sapiens morphology, and there was chronological overlap between different 'archaic' and 'modern' morphs. Even in the late Pleistocene within and outside Africa, we find H. sapiens specimens which are clearly outside the range of Holocene members of the species, showing the complexity of recent human evolution. The impact on species recognition of late Pleistocene gene flow between the lineages of modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans is also discussed, and finally, I reconsider the nature of the middle Pleistocene ancestor of these lineages, based on recent morphological and genetic data.This article is part of the themed issue 'Major transitions in human evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris Stringer
- Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
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Scerri EML. The North African Middle Stone Age and its place in recent human evolution. Evol Anthropol 2017. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.21527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor M. L. Scerri
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, School of Archaeology; University of Oxford; Oxford U.K
- Department of Archaeology; Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History; Jena Germany
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