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Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia

Nature volume 449, pages 305–310 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

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.

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Figure 1: Stratigraphy of the Dmanisi postcranial hominin remains recovered from block 2.
Figure 2: Dmanisi postcranial elements.
Figure 3: Long-bone shape and proportions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge H. Herrmer for identification of cheetah remains from Dmanisi; M. Delfino for providing a revision of the amphibian and reptilian fauna; E. Trinkaus and M. Häusler for comments; G. Bumbiashvili and N. Andriashvili for the photographs; and the excavation team for constant support. Palaeomagnetic measurements were carried out at the SCT of the Barcelona University. This work was supported by a grant of the Georgian National Science Foundation, a Rolex award for enterprise, BP Georgia, the National Geographic Society, a Dan David 2003 scholarship, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Strategic Research Funds of the University of Zurich, Wenner-Gren Foundation short-term fellowships, the Fundación Duques de Soria, a CNRS international research project grant, ECO-NET (a joint international project of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs between France, Georgia and Azerbaijan), The Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (DGPCC-V), the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, the Consejeria de Cultura de Andalucia, The National Science Foundation (USA) and the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation.

Author Contributions D.L. directs and coordinates research at Dmanisi; T.J, M.S.P.de L. and C.P.E.Z. performed comparative morphological/morphometric analyses, designed the paper and wrote the main text; G.P.R. and H.P. contributed to comparative descriptions; R.F. performed stratigraphical analyses; O.O. performed palaeomagnetic analyses; M.T. performed taphonomic analyses; G.K. organized fieldwork and prepared specimens; and A.V., M.B., J.A., R.K., B.M.-N., A.M., M.N. and L.R. performed fieldwork and provided comparative faunal analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgian National Museum, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia

    David Lordkipanidze, Tea Jashashvili, Abesalom Vekua, Maia Bukhsianidze, Gocha Kiladze & Alexander Mouskhelishvili

  2. Anthropologisches Institut, Universität Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland

    Tea Jashashvili, Marcia S. Ponce de León & Christoph P. E. Zollikofer

  3. Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA,

    G. Philip Rightmire

  4. Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri 63130, USA,

    Herman Pontzer

  5. Department of Geography, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203, USA,

    Reid Ferring

  6. Departament de Geologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain

    Oriol Oms

  7. Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA,

    Martha Tappen

  8. ICREA, Institute of Human Paleoecology, University Rovira i Virgili, 43005 Tarragona, Spain

    Jordi Agusti & Bienvenido Martinez-Navarro

  9. Senckenberg Research Institute, 99423 Weimar, Germany

    Ralf Kahlke

  10. Othar Lordkipanidze Center for Archaeological Research, 0102 Tbilisi, Georgia

    Medea Nioradze

  11. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, 50121 Firenze, Italy

    Lorenzo Rook

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  1. David Lordkipanidze
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Correspondence to David Lordkipanidze.

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Lordkipanidze, D., Jashashvili, T., Vekua, A. et al. Postcranial evidence from early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Nature 449, 305–310 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06134

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