Evidence for increased hominid diversity in the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Indonesia

Clément Zanolli (1, 2) , Ottmar Kullmer (3, 4) , Jay Kelley (5, 6, 7) , Anne-Marie Bacon (8) , Fabrice Demeter (9, 10) , Jean Dumoncel (2) , Luca Fiorenza (11, 12) , Frederick Grine (13) , Jean-Jacques Hublin (14, 15) , Nguyen Anh Tuan (16) , Nguyen Thi Mai Huong (16) , Lei Pan (17, 18) , Burkhard Schillinger (19) , Friedemann Schrenk (3, 4) , Matthew Skinner (15, 20) , Xueping Ji (21, 22) , Roberto Macchiarelli (23, 24)

1 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
2 AMIS - Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse
3 Senckenberg Research Institute
4 Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
5 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
6 Smithsonian Institution
7 Department of Human Evolutionary Biology
8 BABEL - Biologie, anthropologie, biométrie, épigénétique, lignées : De la diversité des populations à l'individu, de l'identification à l'identité
9 EAE - Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie
10 Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Center
11 Monash University [Melbourne]
12 UNE - University of New England
13 Department of Anthropology [Stony Brook University]
14 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
15 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology [Leipzig]
16 The Institute of Archaeology
17 Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins
18 State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy
19 FRM II - Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz
20 SAC - School of Anthropology and Conservation [University of Kent]
21 Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
22 School of Resource Environment and Earth Science
23 Département Géosciences [Université de Poitiers]
24 HNHP - Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique

Since the first discovery of Pithecanthropus (Homo) erectus by E. Dubois at Trinil in 1891, over 200 hominid dentognathic remains have been collected from the Early-Middle Pleistocene deposits of Java, Indonesia, forming the largest palaeoanthropological collection in Southeast Asia. Most of these fossils are currently attributed to H. erectus. However, because of the substantial morphological and metric variation in the Indonesian assemblage, some robust specimens, such as the partial mandibles Sangiran 5 and Sangiran 6a, were formerly variably allocated to other taxa (Meganthropus palaeojavanicus, Pithecanthropus dubius, Pongo sp.). To resolve the taxonomic uncertainty surrounding these and other contentious Indonesian hominid specimens, we used Occlusal Fingerprint Analysis to reconstruct their chewing kinematics, and also used various morphometric approaches based on microtomography to examine internal dental structures. Our results confirm the presence of Meganthropus as a Pleistocene Indonesian hominid distinct from Pongo, Gigantopithecus and Homo, and further reveal that

Domaines: Paléontologie; Anthropologie biologique

Clément Zanolli, Ottmar Kullmer, Jay Kelley, Anne-Marie Bacon, Fabrice Demeter, et al.. Evidence for increased hominid diversity in the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Indonesia. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2019, 3 (5), pp.755-764. ⟨10.1038/s41559-019-0860-z⟩. ⟨hal-02296699⟩