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La technique des "répliques" est un procédé mis à la disposition des recherches paléontologiques. Méthode d'interprétation des restes humains, elle étudie la stabilité ou les changements de la structure des couronnes dentaires ainsi que l'empreinte laissée par l'usage des dents. Ce nouveau moyen nous a en effet permis d'apporter des éléments d'information sur l'homme préhistorique et son mode alimentaires. The technique of "replicas" is a process available to paleontological research. Method of interpretation of human remains, it studies the stability or the changes of the structure of the dental crowns and the impression left by the use of the teeth. This new method has enabled us to bring information about prehistoric man and his mode of food.

El Sidrón Cave is an archaeological and anthropological reference site of the Neanderthal world. It shows singular activity related to cannibalisation, and all existing processes are relevant to explain the specific behaviour of the concerned individuals. This paper presents geoarchaeological data, primarily based on mineralogical and petrographic techniques, from an investigation of the nature of the encrustations or hard coatings that affect a large part of the Neanderthal bone remains and their relationship with the depositional and post-depositional processes at the archaeological site. Crusts and patina were found to be numerous and diverse, mainly composed of calcite and siliciclastic grains, with different proportions and textures. The analysis indicated different origins and scenarios from their initial post-mortem accumulation to the final deposit recovered during the archaeological work. The presence of micromorphological features, such as clotted-peloidal micrite, needle-fibre calcite (NFC) aggregates, clay coatings, iron–manganese impregnation, and/or adhered aeolian dust may indicate that a significant proportion of the remains were affected by subaerial conditions in a relatively short period of time in a shelter, cave entrance, or shallower level of the karstic system, prior to their accumulation in the Ossuary Gallery. This work has been supported since 1999 through different research contracts between the Government of the Principality of Asturias, the University of Oviedo, the University of Alicante, the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC, Madrid), and the University of Salamanca. Peer reviewed

Το βιβλίο πραγματεύεται αντικείμενα Παλαιοντολογίας και ιδιαίτερα Παλαιοντολογίας Σπονδυλωτών, της Εξέλιξης της Ζωής σε σχέση με τις γεωτεκτονικές, κλιματικές και περιβαλλοντικές αλλαγές στον πλανήτη, Ιστορικής Γεωλογίας, Βιοστρωματογραφίας / Βιοχρονολογίας, Παλαιοοικολογίας, Φυλλογένεσης των μεγάλων ομάδων Χορδωτών, Παλαιοανθρωπολογίας, Γεω-Βιο-ποικιλότητας και Γεωλογικής Κληρονομιάς. Απευθύνεται πρωτίστως σε προπτυχιακούς και μεταπτυχιακούς φοιτητές που διδάσκονται θέματα Παλαιοντολογίας, Ιστορικής Γεωλογίας και Εξέλιξης με σκοπό την εξοικείωσή τους με αυτά τα επιστημονικά αντικείμενα και τους βασικούς τους επιστημονικούς προβληματισμούς. Επιπλέον το βιβλίο απευθύνεται και σε ένα ευρύτερο μη-εξειδικευμένο κοινό που ενδιαφέρεται για την Ιστορία της Ζωής, και τις σχέσεις Γεωλογίας-Βιολογίας και επιθυμεί να εμβαθύνει σε θέματα Ιστορικής Γεωλογίας αλλά και να γνωρίσει τον απολιθωματικό πλούτο της Ελλάδας.Το βιβλίο αναφέρεται - στην ιστορία, αρχές και μεθόδους της Παλαιοντολογίας,- στα συστήματα ταξινόμησης των έμβιων όντων, - στη συν-δημιουργία της Γής και της Ζωής,- στην εξέλιξη των βασικών ομάδων σπονδυλωτών οργανισμών (ιχθύες, αμφίβια, ερπετά, πτηνά, θηλαστικά) σε σχέση με το εκάστοτε γεωπεριβάλλον- στην εξέλιξη του ανθρώπου- στο αρχείο απολιθωμένων Σπονδυλωτών της Ελλάδας σε σχέση με την γεωτεκτονική εξέλιξη του ευρύτερου χώρου- στους τρόπους φύλαξης και ανάδειξης της Γεωλογικής Κληρονομιάς This book deals with Vertebrate Paleontology and Life Evolution in relation to the geotectonic and climatic frame through time, Historical Geology, Biostratigraphy/Biochronology, Palaeoecology, Fylogeny of main Chordata clades, Palaeoanthropology, and Geoheritage. It mostly concerns pre and post graduate students of Geology and Biology and aims to familiarize them with these disciplines and their main scientific concerns. Moreover, the book also addresses to a wider non-specialized audience interested in the History of Life, and Geology-Biology relations as well as in the Greek fossil record and its importance.The book refers to- The history, principles and methods of Paleontology,- The classification systems of living beings - The co-creation of Earth and Life,- The evolution and phylogeny of the main groups of vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) with respect to the Geoenvironment- The evolution of Mankind- The Greek fossil record of Vertebrates in relation to the paleogeographic evolution of the wider Mediterranean area, and- The importance of the Greek fossil record for the local and universal Geological Heritage

The new Krapina Neanderthal Museum consists of two sections: a section reconstructing the life of the Krapina Neanderthal and a section bringing the latest knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth. It is a well of scientific information, a teaching tool, and the world’s largest find of Neanderthal fossil remains. This article briefly reports a tour visit of members of the Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture to the Museum, describes the facets of the exhibition, and gives the most important facts about the life of the Krapina Neanderthal. Novootvoreni Muzej krapinskih neandertalaca s dvosegmentarnim postavom: prikazom karakteristika života krapinskog pračovjeka te suvremenih znanja o evoluciji života na Zemlji izvor je znanstvene, stručne i edukativne spoznaje posjetiteljima, kao i reprezent najbogatijeg nalazišta fosilnih ostataka neandertalaca u svijetu. U ovom radu ukratko je prikazan stručnoznanstveni posjet Muzeju članova Hrvatskoga znanstvenog društva za povijest zdravstvene kulture, ispreplećući pritom opis funkcije i postav Muzeja s najvažnijim činjenicama o životu krapinskog pračovjeka.

The emergence of the Acheulean from the earlier Oldowan constitutes a major transition in human evolution, the theme of this special issue. This paper discusses the evidence for the origins of the Acheulean, a cornerstone in the history of human technology, from two perspectives; firstly, a review of the history of investigations on Acheulean research is presented. This approach introduces the evolution of theories throughout the development of the discipline, and reviews the way in which cumulative knowledge led to the prevalent explanatory framework for the emergence of the Acheulean. The second part presents the current state of the art in Acheulean origins research, and reviews the hard evidence for the appearance of this technology in Africa around 1.7 Ma, and its significance for the evolutionary history ofHomo erectus.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’.

Body size is a central determinant of a species' biology and adaptive strategy, but the number of reliable estimates of hominin body mass and stature have been insufficient to determine long-term patterns and subtle interactions in these size components within our lineage. Here, we analyse 254 body mass and 204 stature estimates from a total of 311 hominin specimens dating from 4.4 Ma to the Holocene using multi-level chronological and taxonomic analytical categories. The results demonstrate complex temporal patterns of body size variation with phases of relative stasis intermitted by periods of rapid increases. The observed trajectories could result from punctuated increases at speciation events, but also differential proliferation of large-bodied taxa or the extinction of small-bodied populations. Combined taxonomic and temporal analyses show that in relation to australopithecines, earlyHomois characterized by significantly larger average body mass and stature but retains considerable diversity, including small body sizes. Within laterHomo, stature and body mass evolution follow different trajectories: average modern stature is maintained fromca1.6 Ma, while consistently higher body masses are not established until the Middle Pleistocene atca0.5–0.4 Ma, likely caused by directional selection related to colonizing higher latitudes. Selection against small-bodied individuals (less than 40 kg; less than 140 cm) after 1.4 Ma is associated with a decrease in relative size variability in laterHomospecies compared with earlierHomoand australopithecines. The isolated small-bodied individuals ofHomo naledi(ca0.3 Ma) andHomo floresiensis(ca100–60 ka) constitute important exceptions to these general patterns, adding further layers of complexity to the evolution of body size within the genusHomo. At the end of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, body size inHomo sapiensdeclines on average, but also extends to lower limits not seen in comparable frequency since earlyHomo.

International audience; The speech abilities of fossil hominins are one of the oldest and most challenging questions in palaeoanthropology. The theory of « laryngeal descent » has long been used to explain human singularity. However, recent work has shown that some non-human primates were « speech ready ». The organs and soft tissues of the vocal apparatus are not preserved in the fossil record.This is why, to understand human-like speech capacity, we have developed a project untitled « Origins of speech », mainly supported by the institute of computing and data sciences (ISCD) of Sorbonne University, based on the bony articulators of speech. It aims at inferring soft tissue of the vocal tract (mainly the tongue and the pharyngeal walls) in fossil hominins based on the bony structure of the head, using transformation models from soft tissues (recorded with MR imaging) and bony structure (CT scans) of a living Homo Sapiens. These transformation models are evaluated and validated on data recorded from non-human primates, in which both soft tissues and bony structure are preserved.This multidisciplinary research involves palaeoanthropologists, biomechanicians, specialists in speech sciences, mathematical modeling and mathematicians. We present the preliminary results of this work, which aims at generating a Finite Element tongue model of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neanderthal specimen by transforming an existing model of a modern Homo sapiens using 3D image registration. Then we expect to quantify the parametric uncertainties resulted from the tongue model generation by a non-intrusive approach.Moreover, we are seeking to test the consequence of a vertical posture on human elocution faculty. We focused on an anatomical study (2D-3D) to test the relationships between bone structures within primates using a series of skeletons from the collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle to understand the geometry of the vocal apparatus (bone substrate) within the cranial complex and regarding the cervical spine (head position), and to carry out comparisons between genus (Homo/Pan/Gorilla/Papio) and species (Homo sapiens/Neanderthals).