Human Evolution

The review discusses, in a format of a timeline, the studies of different types of genetic variants, present in Homo sapiens, but absent in all other primate, mammalian, or vertebrate species, tested so far. The main characteristic of these variants is that they are found in regions of high evolutionary conservation. These sequence variations include single nucleotide substitutions (called human accelerated regions), deletions, and segmental duplications. The rationale for finding such variations in the human genome is that they could be responsible for traits, specific to our species, of which the human brain is the most remarkable. As became obvious, the vast majority of human-specific single nucleotide substitutions are found in noncoding, likely regulatory regions. A number of genes, associated with these human-specific alleles, often through novel enhancer activity, were in fact shown to be implicated in human-specific development of certain brain areas, including the prefrontal cortex. Human-specific deletions may remove regulatory sequences, such as enhancers. Segmental duplications, because of their large size, create new coding sequences, like new functional paralogs. Further functional study of these variants will shed light on evolution of our species, as well as on the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.

The review discusses, in a format of a timeline, the studies of different types of genetic variants, present in Homo sapiens, but absent in all other primate, mammalian, or vertebrate species, tested so far. The main characteristic of these variants is that they are found in regions of high evolutionary conservation. These sequence variations include single nucleotide substitutions (called human accelerated regions), deletions, and segmental duplications. The rationale for finding such variations in the human genome is that they could be responsible for traits, specific to our species, of which the human brain is the most remarkable. As became obvious, the vast majority of human-specific single nucleotide substitutions are found in noncoding, likely regulatory regions. A number of genes, associated with these human-specific alleles, often through novel enhancer activity, were in fact shown to be implicated in human-specific development of certain brain areas, including the prefronta...

In the year of 2015, the Group of Studies in Human evolution (GEEvH) completed ten years of existence. Since its foundation, GEEvH’s has played an important role in the difficult task of communicating science in Portugal in the field of human evolution. In this paper, an overview of the main activities developed by GEEvH in the last decade as well as upcoming goals, will be provided. This approach will be framed by a short theoretical introduction to Charles Darwin’s Assis et al. /Cadernos do GEEvH 4 (1) 2015: 8-24 9 theories, highlighting the impact of evolutionary biology views in the Portuguese academic and schools settings. The current situation with regard to the teaching of human evolution in Portuguese schools will also be presented.

The tempo and pattern of macroevolutionary change have bearing on current controversies concerning the processes of macroevolutionary change. In this paper we reexamine the evidence lbr increase in cranial capacity in light of traditional arguments and interpretations, paying special attention to methodological problems inherent in data transformations and manipulations. Despite a large volume of descriptive material published on the subject, there has been relatively little attention paid to testing competing hypotheses of processes of macroevolutionary change (punctuational, gradual, autocatalytic); the descriptions which have emerged often reflect unstatcd and, perhaps, unrealized a priori assumptions made by researchers. Log log transformations of cranial capacity versus time are misleading and inappropriate. A uniform pattern of change in hominid cranial capacity is less obvious than generally assumed.

A partial, associated skeleton of Hadropithecus stenognathus (AHA-I) was discovered in 2003 at Andrahomana Cave in southeastern Madagascar. Among the postcranial elements found were the first hand bones (right scaphoid, right hamate, left first metacarpal, and right and left fifth metacarpals) attributed to this rare subfossil lemur. These hand bones were compared to those of extant strepsirrhines and catarrhines in order to infer the positional adaptations of Hadropithecus, and they were compared to those of Archaeolemur in order to assess variation in hand morphology among archaeolemurids. The scaphoid tubercle does not project palmarly as in suspensory and climbing taxa, and the hamate has no hook at all (just a small tubercle), which also points to a poorly developed carpal tunnel. There is a distinctive, radioulnarly directed ''spiral'' facet for articulation with the triquetrum that is most similar in orientation to that of more terrestrial primates (i.e., Lemur catta, Papio, and Gorilla). The first metacarpal is very reduced and represents only 48% of the length of metacarpal V, as in Archaeolemur, which suggests that pollical grasping of arboreal supports was not important. Compared to Archaeolemur, the shaft of metacarpal V is gracile, and the head has no dorsal ridge and lacks characteristics functionally associated with digitigrade, extended metacarpophalangeal joint postures. Proximally, the articular facet for the hamate is oriented more dorsally. Thus, the carpometacarpal joint V appears to have a distinctive hyperextended set, which has no analog among living or extinct primates. The carpals of Hadropithecus are diagnostic of a pronograde, arboreal and terrestrial (although not digitigrade) locomotor repertoire that typifies Lemur catta and some Old World monkeys. No clinging, suspensory, or climbing specializations that characterize indriids or lorises can be found in the hand of this subfossil lemur. The hand of Hadropithecus likely had similar ranges of movement at the radiocarpal and midcarpal joints as of those of pronograde primates, such as lemurids, for which the hand is held in a more extended, pronated, and neutral (i.e., showing less ulnar deviation) position during locomotion in comparison to that of vertical clingers or slow climbers. Although highly autapomorphic, the hand of Hadropithecus resembles that of its sister taxon, Archaeolemur, in having a very reduced pollex and an articular facet on the scaphoid for a sizeable prepollex. These unusual hand features reinforce the monophyly of the Archaeolemuridae.

A thorough knowledge of biological variation in extant primates is imperative for interpreting variation, and for delineating species in primate biology and paleobiology. This is especially the case given the recent, rapid taxonomic expansion in many primate groups, notably among small-bodied nocturnal forms. Here we present data on dental, cranial, and pelage variation in a single-locality museum sample of mouse lemurs from Amboasary, Madagascar. To interpret these data, we include comparative information from other museum samples, and from a newly collected mouse lemur skeletal sample from the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve (BMSR), Madagascar. We scored forty dental traits (n ¼ 126) and three pelage variants (n ¼ 19), and collected 21 cranial/dental measures. Most dental traits exhibit variable frequencies, with some only rarely present. Individual dental variants include misshapen and supernumerary teeth. All Amboasary pelage specimens display a "reversed V" on the cap, and a distinct dorsal median stripe on the back. All but two displayed the dominant grayebrown pelage coloration typical of Microcebus griseorufus. Cranial and dental metric variability are each quite low, and craniometric variation does not illustrate heteroscedasticity. To assess whether this sample represents a single species, we compared dental and pelage variation to a documented, single-species M. griseorufus sample from BMSR. As at Amboasary, BMSR mouse lemurs display limited odontometric variation and wide variation in nonmetric dental traits. In contrast, BMSR mouse lemurs display diverse pelage, despite reported genetic homogeneity. Ranges of dental and pelage variation at BMSR and Amboasary overlap. Thus, we conclude that the Amboasary mouse lemurs represent a single species e most likely (in the absence of genetic data to the contrary) M. griseorufus, and we reject their previous allocation to Microcebus murinus. Patterns of variation in the Amboasary sample provide a comparative template for recognizing the degree of variation manifested in a single primate population, and by implication, they provide minimum values for this species' intraspecific variation. Finally, discordance between different biological systems in our mouse lemur samples illustrates the need to examine multiple systems when conducting taxonomic analyses among living or fossil primates.

Over the years, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar gained a reputation as an all-knowing entity, able to talk in detail about many subjects and about the distant past and the future. Here he speaks of a future time when human babies will be created from chemical compounds in laboratories, and how human beings will lose their biological reproductive power as a natural result of this. Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna. He introduced the empowered universal spiritual mantra "Baba Nam Kevalam" ["love is all there is"], composed a collection of 5018 spiritual songs called Prabháta Saḿgiita, and founded the global socio-spiritual organization Ananda Marga ("the Path of Bliss").-Richard Gauthier, Saint Louis, USA, April 8, 2025. Laboratory Babies July 1961, Ranchi, India.

Cercopithecid monkeys make a comparatively late appearance in the Miocene Siwalik formations of the Indian Subcontinent. The oldest well-dated specimen is a 6.3 MY old colobine, ? Presbytis sivalensis, and it is doubtful that any cercopithecids were present in the Siwalik faunas prior to 7.0 MY, a date that is considerably later than estimates for their appearance elsewhere in Eurasia. Cercopithecines appear later than colobines. Although their temporal ranges are uncertain, cercopithecines evidently were not present before 3.2 MY and possibly not until 2.5 MY. They are represented by three species, ?Macaca palaeindica, Procynocephalus subhimalayanus, and Theropithecus delsoni. In the Siwaliks the appearances of colobines and cercopithecines coincide with or follow shortly after major faunal changes that also bring other northern Eurasian and African taxa into the region.

Ferrara, Venerdì 11 Aprile 2025, 17:00 - 19:00

Ripensare l'Antropocene. Oltre natura e cultura

Presentazione del libro di Paola Govoni, Maria Giovanna Belcastro, Alessandra Bonoli e Giovanna Guerzoni

Ne parla con le autrici

Agostino Cera (Università di Ferrara)

a cura di Silvana Vecchio, Associazione Amici della Biblioteca Ariostea - Ferrara - Biblioteca Ariostea Via delle Scienze, 17 Ferrara

The manufacture and use of tools in great apes may provide insights into the evolution of hominid cognitive abilities [1] and technology [2]. So far, the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is the only nonhuman species known to show extensive manufacture and flexible use of tools in nature [2], suggesting that these skills arose only in the chimpanzee-hominid clade [2, 3], around 7 million years ago [4]. Here we report on the habitual manufacture and use of tools in wild Sumatran orangutans

The manufacture and use of tools in great apes may provide insights into the evolution of hominid cognitive abilities [1] and technology [2]. So far, the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is the only nonhuman species known to show extensive manufacture and flexible use of tools in nature [2], suggesting that these skills arose only in the chimpanzee-hominid clade [2, 3], around 7 million years ago [4]. Here we report on the habitual manufacture and use of tools in wild Sumatran orangutans

Stone points are one of the key features used to define the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Regional patterns in their shape and size through time have been thought to reflect inter-group interactions and networks of populations and are used to define cultural phases within the MSA. However, eastern Africa does not have distinctive and widely applied chrono-stratigraphic point variants that divide its MSA record, which is often described as being highly variable. This paper presents a metric and geometric morphometric analysis of eastern African MSA points and evaluates potential drivers of variation in them in relation to null models of isolation by distance, time and environment. Approximately half of the shape variance in our sample can be explained by spatial, temporal and environmental differences, as well as by size, indicating a degree of demographic continuity through sustained cultural transmission. A portion of the remaining variance likely represents stylistic differences between assemblages, which are often the subject of interest in archaeological studies. The highly variable nature of the eastern African MSA may reflect the region's refugial positioning within the continent, with point technology a flexible adaptive system that was dynamically employed across Africa ARTICLE HISTORY

이 글은 포스트휴먼·물질적 전환의 주요 두 축인 탈인간중심주의와 탈비판이 포스트휴 먼·다종 인류학에서 나타나는 방식을 비판적으로 검토한다. 첫째, 비인간을 주요 대화상대 자로 고려하고 그 행위성을 인간 행위성과 동등하게 고려하려는 경향을 ‘분석적 평등주의’ 라고 부를 수 있다면, 이 같은 시도는 현실의 구체성들을 주의 깊게 관찰하고 해석하는 것 을 목표로 하는 에스노그래피에서 어떻게 수렴될 수 있을까? 이에 대해 나는 ‘분석적 평등 주의’를 통해 포스트휴머니즘 이론틀과 에스노그래피 사이의 일치를 시도하면 할수록 에 스노그래피적 불충분성 혹은 정화의 문제를 피할 수 없으며, 그 속에서 상대적으로 배제되 는 것이 인간 사회를 주요하게 구성하는 상징적·문화적 측면은 물론 그와 같은 성질들로 매개되는 권력과 정치의 문제라는 점을 살펴볼 것이다. 에스노그래피를 ‘다종 얽힘’ 혹은 ‘다종 스토리텔링’으로 환원하고자 하는 포스트휴먼 기획은 인간-비인간 관계를 여전히 주요하게 정의하는 사회적 관계들을 비가시화하거나 동시에 종적 존재로서 인간을 과도하 게 부각시킴으로써 사회적 차이, 불평등, 이질성을 지운다. 둘째, 비판이라는 실천에 대한 (일견 적실해 보이는) 회의감은 포스트휴먼·다종 인류학에서 어떻게 구체화되는가? 이 글 에서 나는 칭의 세계 끝의 버섯(2023)에 대한 검토를 통해 포스트휴머니즘의 탈비판적 경향이 어떻게 환경파국과 자본주의 간 관계보다는 그 파국 속 다종 관계성과 세계-만들 기로 관심의 초점을 이동시키는지 살펴보고자 한다. 세계 끝의 버섯에서 ‘협력적 생존’ 의 방안 혹은 ‘잠복해 있는 공유지’에서 우리가 할 수 있는 최선으로서 제시되는 ‘알아차림 의 기술’은 급진적으로 개별적·사적·감각적·감응적 실천으로서 ‘책무성으로서 행위성’과 정치적 주체화를 통한 집합적 행동의 가능성을 차단하는 것으로 보인다. 그 결과 비판에 대한 포스트휴먼 회의감은 그것이 가리키는 문제들을 정면 돌파하기보다는 비인간과의 상 호연결됨에 몸을 맡기는 낙관적 무기력감으로 나아간다.
This article seeks to critically examine ways in which post-anthropo- centrism and post-critique, the two main themes in the posthuman/material turn, become manifested in posthuman/multispecies anthropology. First, how can the turn’s analytic egalitarianism that considers non-human agency equally with human agency be reconciled within ethnography, a methodology that stresses a careful observation of the specificities of the present? To address this question, I argue that overriding the difference between ethnog- raphy and posthumanist theoretical framwork by adopting analytic egalitari- anism cannot avoid the problem of ethnographic insufficiency and purification and that such efforts will result in the relative exclusion of the symbolic/cultural aspects that importantly constitute human society and of matters of power and politics. The posthuman project that tends to reduce ethnography into “multispecies entanglements” and/or “multispecies story- telling” may invisibilize social relations that still importantly define human- nonhuman relations or erase matters of social difference and inequality by overly stressing the human as species being. Second, how does the (albeit understandable) skepticism on the practice of critique become manifested within posthuman/multispecies anthropology? By examining Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World(2015), I show how the post-critical tendency in posthumanism redirects the focus from the relationship between capitalism and environmental catastrophe into multispecies relationship and world-making within the catastrophe’s aftermath. The “arts of noticing” that Tsing suggests as a method of “collaborative survival” and/or as the best that we can do in what she calls “latent commons” appear to indicate a form of radically individualized/privatized/sensual/affective practice that forecloses “agency as accountability” and the possibility of collective action that is mediated by political subjectification. As a result, the posthuman doubt on critique seems to immerse into optimistic lethargy that give oneself into entanglements with non-human than directly facing the questions it may raise.

The visual system of cetaceans is at best poorly understood. With a handful of electrophysiological studies and a limited number of histological preparations from well-preserved specimen, the investigation of the principles underlying the cortical organization in cetaceans remains a challenge. In the course of our current investigation, we identified the transition from V2 to V1 in the longfinned pilot whale Globicephala melas, only recognizable through immunocytochemistry, and a similar if not homologue transition in the sheep Ovis aries. Our results emphasize the importance of differential pattern recognition in which the application of different markers uncovers a diversity in a delphinid's cortex, formerly widely considered as uniform and archetypal. In fact, the evidence that we present suggests the existence of relatively unacknowledged areas beyond the well-known sensory territories in cetaceans.

The Cham people are the major Austronesian speakers of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) and the reconstruction of the Cham population history can provide insights into their diffusion. In this study, we analyzed non-recombining region of the Y chromosome markers of 177 unrelated males from four populations in MSEA, including 59 Cham, 76 Kinh, 25 Lao, and 17 Thai individuals. Incorporating published data from mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), our results indicated that, in general, the Chams are an indigenous Southeast Asian population. The origin of the Cham people involves the genetic admixture of the Austronesian immigrants from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) with the local populations in MSEA. Discordance between the overall patterns of Y chromosome and mtDNA in the Chams is evidenced by the presence of some Y chromosome lineages that prevail in South Asians. Our results suggest that male-mediated dispersals via the spread of religions and business trade might play an important role in shaping the patrilineal gene pool of the Cham people.

Философия информационного общества ОТ INDUSTRY 4.0 К ПРИРОДе 2.0 * Господствующие в тот или иной исторический период формы промышленного производства, особенности взаимоотношений человека и машины 1 вносят существенный вклад в преобразование антропологической и социальной реальности. Корректнее даже говорить о неразрывной и взаимозависимой социо-технологической и антропо-технологической коэволюции с нарастающей сложностью (complexity) систем и сетей, «производящих» артефакты. В этих производственных социотехнических системах и сетях в качестве актантов выступают как субъекты (индивидуальные и коллективные), так и «вещи» (Б. Латур). Стоит отметить, что задолго до появления того, что принято называть «промышленностью», овладение новыми уровнями энергии и сложности производства артефактов были ассоциированы со сложностью организации колллективных субъектов (мегамашины Льюиса Мамфорда). Начиная с 2009 г. в Германии активно продвигается проект, поддержанный правительством, так называемой Четвертой Промышленной Революции (Industry 4.0) 2 . В США также созданы «Коалиция Лидерства в Умном Производстве» (SMLC) 3 , «Консорциум Промышленного Интернета» (IIC) 4 , действующие в контексте реиндустриализации страны и возвращения промышленности (нового уровня, где рабочая сила в значительной степени подменяется «умными системами» и робототехникой) из Юго-Восточной Азии. Обозначим три предыдущих индустриальных скачка и затем охарактеризуем особенности предстоящей -четвертой, по классификации немецких исследователей, промышленной революции. Первая индустриальная революция происходит в конце XVIII в. с распостранением механических ткацких и прочих станков, приводимых в силу водой и паром. Вторая промышленная революция конца XIX -начала XX вв. знаменуется появлением первых электрических конвейеров. Причем исторически первыми были не линии сборки, а линии «разборки» -разделки туш на скотобойнях Цинциннати (Генри Форд открыто указывал, что взял идею конвейера у мясопромышленников). Третья промышленная революция начала 70-х гг. XX в. характеризуется внедрением в производство информационных технологий -программируеммых контроллеров и комплексов. И, наконец, четвертая промышленная революция ожидается в ближайшие 10 лет и будет связана с распространением так называемых киберфи-* Работа выполнена в рамках проекта Российского гуманитарного научного фонда (РГНФ) «Человек -NBIC машина: исследование метафизических оснований инновационных антропотехнических проектов», грант N 12-03-00625. Статья посвящена антропологическим и социальным измерениям, связанным с проектами четвертой промышленной революции и Интернета вещей. Ключевые слова: четвертая промышленная революция; Industry 4.0; Интернет вещей; природа 2.0; конвергентные технологии; NBIC; искусственный интеллект; робототехника; разумная среда. The article deals with antropological and social dimensions based on Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things projects.

This is Chapter 6 of a book called 'Living, Minding World,' which I am publishing chapter by chapter as I do a final edit. It's subtitle is 'where science and religion overlap . . .,' and its over-all thesis is that the ancients were correct to see a kind of intention and intelligence in Nature but went wrong when they interpreted that volition on the analogy of a human king or emperor. This was a fruitful mistake as it suggested the possibility that humans could “read the mind of God in the Book of Nature,” thereby contributing to the launch of science as distinct from religion and philosophy. But it was also deeply misleading; and it's even more so today, given the state of current knowledge.
Today we're in a position to see a kind of intelligence at work in our best understanding of the physical universe – in quantum field, theory, cosmology, genetics and evolutionary biology. We study that intelligence under labels like 'self-organization,' 'autopoiesis,' 'least action' and 'emergence,' and we begin to see ourselves as tentative by-products of self-organization, and not as Lords of Creation, appointed so by an Almighty God. It appears now that all the intelligence needed to account for the world's complexity was inherent from the beginning in that world itself. No external 'watchmaker' was needed.

Nell'ambito di
Ecologie Algoritmi Poteri
Seminario interdipartimentale permanente
9 aprile 2025 – ore 17.00
Aula Jemolo, Palazzo Hercolani
Strada Maggiore, 45
Con M.G.Belcastro, A.Bonoli, P.Govoni, G.Guwerzoni
a cura di Dipartimento delle Arti - Dipartimento di Scienze politiche e sociali - Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. We analyze genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000-7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3-6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas the earliest modern humans in Europe did not contribute substantially to present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. A ~35,000 year old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe during the Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a new genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners appears in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory. Modern humans arrived in Europe around 45,000 years ago and have lived there ever since, even during the Last Glacial Maximum 25,000-19,000 years ago when large parts of Europe were covered in ice 1 . A major question is how climatic fluctuations influenced the population history of Europe and to what extent changes in material cultures documented by archaeology and correlating to climatic events corresponded to movements of people. To date, it has been difficult to address this question because genome-wide ancient DNA has been retrieved from just five Upper Paleolithic individuals in Eurasia 2-4 . Here we assemble and analyze genome-wide data from 51 modern humans dating from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago (Table ; Extended Data Table ; Supplementary Information section 1). Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use: and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.

Any account of "what is special about the human brain" (Passingham 2008) must specify the neural basis of our unique ability to produce speech and delineate how these remarkable motor capabilities could have emerged in our hominin ancestors. Clinical data suggest that the basal ganglia provide a platform for the integration of primate-general mechanisms of acoustic communication with the faculty of articulate speech in humans. Furthermore, neurobiological and paleoanthropological data point at a two-stage model of the phylogenetic evolution of this crucial prerequisite of spoken language: (i) monosynaptic refinement of the projections of motor cortex to the brainstem nuclei that steer laryngeal muscles, presumably, as part of a "phylogenetic trend" associated with increasing brain size during hominin evolution; (ii) subsequent vocal-laryngeal elaboration of cortico-basal ganglia circuitries, driven by human-specific FOXP2 mutations.;>This concept implies vocal...

The exceptional preservation at Schöningen together with a mixture of perseverance, hard work, and sheer luck led to the recovery of unique finds in an exceptional context. The 1995 discovery of numerous wooden artifacts, most notably at least 10 carefully made spears together with the skeletons of at least 20 to 25 butchered horses, brought the debate about hunting versus scavenging among late archaic hominins and analogous arguments about the purportedly primitive behavior of Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals to an end. Work under H. Thieme's lead from 1992 to 2008 and results from the current team since 2008 demonstrate that late H. heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals used sophisticated artifacts made from floral and faunal materials, in addition to lithic artifacts more typically recovered at Lower Paleolithic sites. The finds from the famous Horse Butchery Site and two dozen other archeological horizons from the edges of the open-cast mine at Schöningen provide many n...

Geoarchaeological research at the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen 13 II-4, often referred to as the Speerhorizont, has focused on describing and evaluating the depositional contexts of the well-known wooden spears, butchered horses, and stone tools. These finds were recovered from the transitional contact between a lacustrine marl and an overlying organic mud, originally thought to be a peat that accumulated in place under variable moisture conditions. The original excavators proposed that hominin activity, including hunting and butchery, occurred on a dry lake shore and was followed by a rapid sedimentation of organic deposits that embedded and preserved the artifacts. Our geoarchaeological analysis challenges this model. Here, we present evidence that the sediments of Schöningen 13 II-4 were deposited in a constantly submerged area of a palaeolake. Although we cannot exclude the possibility that the artifacts were deposited during a short, extreme drying event, there are no ...

When and how humans began to control fire has been a central debate in Paleolithic archaeology for decades. Fire plays an important role in technology, social organization, subsistence, and manipulation of the environment and is widely seen as a necessary adaptation for the colonization of northern latitudes. Many researchers view purported hearths, burnt wooden implements, and heated flints from Schöningen as providing the best evidence for the control of fire in the Lower Paleolithic of Northern Europe. Here we present results of a multianalytical study of the purported hearths along with a critical examination of other possible evidence of human use or control of fire at Schöningen. We conclude that the analyzed features and artifacts present no convincing evidence for human use or control of fire. Our study also shows that a multianalytical, micromorphological approach is the best methodology for evaluating claims of early evidence of human-controlled fire. We advise caution with macroscopic, qualitative identification of combustion features, burnt flint, and burnt wood without the application of such techniques as micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, organic petrology, luminescence, and analysis of mineral magnetic parameters. The lack of evidence for the human control of fire at Schöningen raises the possibility that fire control was not a necessary adaptation for the human settlement of northern latitudes in the Lower Paleolithic.

A filogênese e a antropogênese da linguagem tornam-se elementos fundamentais para conhecimento anatômico e fisiológico dos mecanismos da comunicação humana, bem como suas aplicações clínicas. Durante o processo de desenvolvimento primata, importantes transformações no corpo do animal, notadamente na cabeça, ocorreram a partir da vida arborícola com implicações importantes na gênese da linguagem. A aquisição de uma postura semi-vertical do corpo, o uso exploratórios das mãos e o desenvolvimento da visão em detrimento da olfação permitiram o crescimento craniano e o aumento do encéfalo. Com o retorno do primata ao chão e o desenvolvimento da bipedia nos Australopithecus, ocorreu progressivo crescimento em leque das regiões frontais, parietais e temporais, permitindo o desenvolvimento simultâneo dos centros neuroanatômicos de linguagem, expressão facial e atividade motora manual.

Desde la óptica desde la socio formación y la sociedad del conocimiento, consideramos que el proyecto ético de vida de una persona se convierte es una estrategia generadora de acuerdos y compromisos, en el proceso de paz que se está llevando en Colombia, entre actores causantes del conflicto, la población civil y su entorno, para lograr un propósito común:  la reconstrucción del país y de los corazones. Debe existir en este proceso una estrecha relación con los nuevos escenarios educativos que inciten al aprendizaje, con base en “nodos problematizadores”, como lo determina el Enfoque Basado en Competencias (EBC), que en nuestra investigación retomamos para formar en competencias ciudadanas para vivir en familia y en comunidad.  Por tanto, el EBC es un plan de acción generado por los facilitadores de este proceso con la población civil, victimas sobrevivientes del conflicto armado colombiano que ya fenece, con una finalidad contextuada al integrar diversos contenidos que promuevan la construcción de aprendizajes significativos. Esta investigación tiene como propósito familiarizar entre sí  la “mediación pedagógica”, a través de la formación y las estrategias didácticas basadas en el enfoque de las competencias,  con la “mediación tecnológica”, y desde luego con la didáctica especial, mediante los nuevos escenarios educativos para la inserción social de los excluidos, habitantes de la provincia profunda, desde el referente  de “lo apropiado” para el contexto, utilizando la acción instrumental por medio de experiencias de tecnologías apropiadas para zonas rurales y la inclusión social a través de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TICs).

Palabras Claves:  Colombia, socio formación, inclusión, ciudadanía,  paz, solución de conflictos, mediación, escenarios futuros, prospectiva, futurología, ábaco, provincia, ruralidad. 




Summary
From the perspective of the formation partner and the knowledge society, we consider that the ethical project of a person's life becomes a strategy that generates agreements and commitments, in the peace process that is being carried out in Colombia, between actors that cause the conflict, the civilian population and its environment, to achieve a common purpose: the reconstruction of the country and the hearts. There must be in this process a close relationship with the new educational scenarios that stimulate learning, based on "problematic nodes", as determined by the Competence Based Approach (EBC), which in our research we resume to form in citizens' competences to live in family and in community. Therefore, the EBC is a plan of action generated by the facilitators of this process with the civilian population, surviving victims of the Colombian armed conflict that is already fading, with a purpose contextualized by integrating various contents that promote the construction of meaningful learning. This research aims to familiarize one another with "pedagogical mediation", through training and didactic strategies based on the approach of competencies, with "technological mediation", and of course with special didactics, through the new scenarios education for the social insertion of the excluded, inhabitants of the province, from the point of reference of "appropriateness" to the context, using instrumental action through experiences of appropriate technologies for rural areas and social inclusion through technologies of information and communication (ICTs).

Cet article, pour la première fois traduit en français et introduit par une présentation, pose les jalons du paradigme de l'esthétique bio-évolutive dont Ellen Dissanayake est aujourd'hui une des théoriciennes les plus reconnues. À contre-courant des approches objectivistes ou subjectivistes qui structurent la pensée esthétique occidentale classique, il propose d'aborder l'art comme un comportement dont il s'agit d'étudier les caractéristiques. La plus importante est sa fonction évolutive : l'art a joué un rôle fondamental pour notre évolution, notamment à travers sa capacité à « rendre spécial » et du fait de son utilisation nécessaire lors des rituels primitifs dont la fonction socialisante est déjà démontrée. Cette approche ouvre la voie à une nouvelle conception plus englobante et universelle de l'expérience esthétique, censée en élargir la compréhension afin de se situer au-delà des théories situées de l'esthétique élitiste occidentale.

From c. 2 Ma (millions of years ago) onwards, hominin brain size and cognition increased in an unprecedented fashion. The exploitation of high-quality food resources, notably from aquatic ecosystems, may have been a facilitator or driver of this phenomenon. The aim of this study is to contribute to the ongoing debate on the possible role of aquatic resources in hominin evolution by providing a more detailed nutritional context. So far, the debate has focused on the relative importance of terrestrial versus aquatic resources while no distinction has been made between different types of aquatic resources. Here we show that Indian Ocean reef fish and eastern African lake fish yield on average similarly high amounts of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and arachidonic acid (AA). Hence a shift from exploiting tropical marine to freshwater ecosystems (or vice versa) would entail no material difference in dietary long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA) availability. However, a shift to marine ecosystems would likely mean a major increase in access to brain-selective micronutrients such as iodine. Fatty fish from marine temperate/cold waters yield twice as much DHA and four times as much EPA as tropical fish, demonstrating that a latitudinal shift in exploitation of African coastal ecosystems could constitute a significant difference in LC-PUFA availability with possible implications for brain development and functioning. We conclude that exploitation of aquatic food resources could have facilitated the initial moderate hominin brain increase as observed in fossils dated to c. 2 Ma, but not the exceptional brain increase in later stages of hominin evolution. We propose that the significant expansion in hominin brain size and cognition later on may have been aided by strong directional selecting forces such as runaway sexual selection of intelligence, and nutritionally supported by exploitation of high-quality food resources in stable and productive aquatic ecosystems.

Recent survey of the fossiliferous variegated mudstones of the PK1 locality (Sabapondaung) in the late middle Eocene Pondaung Formation (central Myanmar) has led to the recovery of a partial right innominate of a relatively large-bodied primate. Given its size and provenance, this bone probably belongs to the same individual represented by the NMMP 20 primate partial skeleton described previously from the same locality. The new fossil, which preserves the region around the acetabulum and the adjacent part of the ilium, clearly exhibits strepsirrhine rather than anthropoid affinities. This addition to our knowledge of the NMMP 20 partial skeleton allows us to reassess the different locomotor interpretations that have been proposed for this specimen. Aspects of pelvic morphology suggest that the NMMP 20 partial skeleton documents a primate that probably engaged in active arboreal quadrupedalism similar to that practiced by medium-sized Malagasy lemurids rather than lorislike slow moving and climbing. Given the conflicting phylogenetic signals provided by NMMP 39 (a talus showing anthropoid affinities) and NMMP 20 (a partial skeleton bearing adapiform affinities), it appears that two higher-level taxonomic groups of relatively large-bodied primates are documented in the Pondaung Formation. The recent discovery of two taxa of sivaladapid adapiforms from the Pondaung Formation indicates that the assumption that the NMMP 20 partial skeleton belongs to an amphipithecid can no longer be sustained. Instead, this specimen apparently documents a third large-bodied sivaladapid species in the Pondaung Formation.

The so-called “objective reality” is not “the dance of shadows on the wall of a cave” as Plato claimed. Nothing like it. The eyes and other sense organs cannot deceive or be mistaken. The perceptual apparatus and neurobiological system of any living being has evolved over hundreds of millions of years and cannot make mistakes. Even single-celled organisms could not survive if they were even slightly susceptible to illusions or hallucinations. Any living organism exists only because its perception has learned to adequately display the external world and the decoding system of consciousness (or proto-consciousness) is able to almost accurately interpret signals from the senses. Every living being recognizes, “evaluates” and “scales” according to the degree of significance almost all external phenomena. Of course, such “objectivity” does not extend beyond the boundaries of the habitat imprinted in the genotype of the phylum.
    The consciousness (or proto-consciousness) of each phylum uses the “memory” of the genotype and the predispositions stored there. The neurobiological system recognizes and selects from all external objects those that contribute or, on the contrary, threaten the preservation of the species. Every living organism “knows” where its “food” is, where it is “obstacle” and where it is “dangerous”. Almost any delusion or mistake brings death. Moreover, each phylum carries within itself a predisposition to adapt and regenerate and, within certain limits, is able to withstand continuous and inevitable environmental changes.

    “Dancing shadows on the wall of a cave” begins when the human mind stumbles upon evolutionary barriers and tries to explain to itself and others what the perceptual apparatus is not able to sense and understand what is beyond the ability to understand. Using abstract thinking, fantasy and arbitrary analogies, the mind too often creates a speculative symbolic "reality" while falsely calling its illusions "facts." There is a huge number of esoteric doctrines and “discourses” based on emptiness in which subjective obvious or far-fetched “feelings” are interpreted as “unconditional grounds” of anything. All the misconceptions of mankind, without exception, can in one way or another be reduced to the arbitrariness of the mind, which equates its speculative abstract “unsupported” constructions with facts confirmed by the perceptual system and consistent with the genotype.
    Illusions and misconceptions do not pose a mortal threat to the homo sapiens species. In the worst case scenario, they can only kill their hosts. This does not in any way cancel the impact of fictitious foundations and illusory conclusions and goals on the increase in entropy and long periods of stagnation in human society.

“I want to emphasize that human society moves ahead through clash and cohesion. It moves ahead through ideological unity and disunity, through ideological clash. It has moved ahead, it is moving ahead, and it will move ahead,” explains Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar.  “To stop this movement means destruction, a great destruction – hence we have to advance with great speed. When the speed of this advancement gets slowed down, people will face trouble at every step.” (excerpt 43) This article is a selection of quotations from various discourses of P. R. Sarkar where he explains biological and social evolutionary processes in terms of clash and cohesion. Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921-1990), also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, was a spiritual master and guru in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, and founded the international socio-spiritual organization Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”).

The human brain represents an unprecedented leap in functional architecture, not merely by degree but by categorical design. This work dismantles evolutionary gradualism as a viable framework for explaining the emergence of uniquely human cognitive traits, and instead advances a model of engineered neurological architecture. Through a detailed examination of human-specific genes (e.g., FOXP2, NOTCH2NL, SRGAP2C, ARHGAP11B), regulatory sequences (HARs, HARE5), epigenetic reprogramming, chromatin spatial logic, and transcriptomic shifts, the analysis uncovers tightly integrated, high-order modifications with no plausible intermediate states. These features do not emerge from mutation and selection; they are functionally orchestrated interventions operating across molecular control layerstiming, spatial positioning, expression regulation, and behavioral outcome. The evidence converges on one conclusion: the human brain is not a product of cumulative biological accidents. It is a constructed system, governed by modular logic, precision edits, and foresight-designed for high-capacity symbolic reasoning, social agency, and metacognitive governance.

Aristotle's and Aquinas's metaphysical reflection on causation goes far beyond enumerating four causes of change and stability of things. They both develop a sophisticated and intriguing analysis of the complexity of causal dependencies and the variety of modes of causation. This aspect of Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics is often lost in the contemporary cursory presentations of this tradition. The article goes back to the robust ancient and medieval notions of causation and causal situations, indicating some exemplary points of correspondence between the classical and the contemporary (analytic and scientifically informed) philosophy of causation.

The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology. However, the purportedly oldest of the Early Pleistocene sites in Eurasia lack precise age control and contain stone tools rather than human fossil remains. Here we report the discovery of a human mandible associated with an assemblage of Mode 1 lithic tools and faunal remains bearing traces of hominin processing, in stratigraphic level TE9 at the site of the Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain. Level TE9 has been dated to the Early Pleistocene (approximately 1.2-1.1 Myr), based on a combination of palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclides and biostratigraphy. The Sima del Elefante site thus emerges as the oldest, most accurately dated record of human occupation in Europe, to our knowledge. The study of the human mandible suggests that the first settlement of Western Europe could be related to an early demographic expansion out of Africa. The new evidence, with previous findings in other At...

The TD6 level lithic industry from Gran Dolina, Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain): production and use Technological analysis of lithic artefacts recovered at the Aurora stratum of Atapuerca-TD6 shows that this Lower Pleistocene assemblage is similar to Mode I Technology (=Oldowan tradition) documented at many African sites. Diachronic comparison of the different levels of Gran Dolina allows us to conclude that this particular form of early European technology lacks the production of big flakes to manufacture large tools such as bifaces and cleavers. Rather, it is characterized by the presence of small artefacts, including flakes, denticulates, notches, and side-scrapers, many of which bear usewear traces of butchery and woodworking. The dominant production technique is orthogonal, which is also reflected in the core recovered at the slightly older level of TD4. The raw materials also found in the Middle Pleistocene occupations at Atapuerca, though with significant proportion differences, have a local origin and include varieties of flint, quartzite and sandstone as well as limestone and quartz. TD6 small artefacts were made from most of these, although the retouched pieces seem to have been preferentially made of the best quality flint, i.e., Cretaceous flint, pointing to the existence of differential use of lithic material, and therefore, some degree of planned knapping behaviour. Most of the ''chaı ˆnes ope ´ratoires'' or reduction sequences took place inside the cave, although some artefacts, elaborated on Cretaceous flint, seem to have been retouched off site, possibly near the supply sources.

Understanding human-specific patterns of brain gene expression and regulation can provide key insights into human brain evolution and speciation. Here, we use next-generation sequencing, and Illumina and Affymetrix microarray platforms, to compare the transcriptome of human, chimpanzee, and macaque telencephalon. Our analysis reveals a predominance of genes differentially expressed within human frontal lobe and a striking increase in transcriptional complexity specific to the human lineage in the frontal lobe. In contrast, caudate nucleus gene expression is highly conserved. We also identify gene coexpression signatures related to either neuronal processes or neuropsychiatric diseases, including a human-specific module with CLOCK as its hub gene and another module enriched for neuronal morphological processes and genes coexpressed with FOXP2, a gene important for language evolution. These data demonstrate that transcriptional networks have undergone evolutionary remodeling even within a given brain region, providing a window through which to view the foundation of uniquely human cognitive capacities. Neuron

Ovaj diplomski rad pregled je do sada poznatih nalazišta na kojima je iz koštanih ostataka ekstrahirana i analizirana nuklearna DNA. Podatci dobiveni morfološkom analizom kostiju, nadopunjeni podatcima dobivenim sekvenciranjem mitohondrijske i nuklearne DNA omogućuju znanstvenicima bolji uvid u živote arhaičnih populacija tijekom pleistocena. Uz pomoć različitih softvera, statističkih i analitičkih metoda kojima se analiziraju podatci, dolazimo do novih zaključaka o odnosima različitih arhaičnih populacija, ali i o odnosima različitih populacija ranih modernih ljudi. Ovaj rad zasniva se na pregledu podataka iz paleogenetike i paleoantropologije te na pokušaju usporedbe dobivenih podataka sa svrhom boljega razumijevanja života različitih arahičnih populacija tijekom pleistocena.This thesis is a review of the sites with currently available sequences of aDNA extracted from hominin fossils. The information obtained by morphological analysis of the bones from these sites is complemented ...

Abstract: This article considers the example of palaeo-heritage tourism at Sterkfontein Cave, situated in a geographic area designated the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, or Cradle for short. The article looks at how a particular" African" tourist experience is ...

Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to ~45,000 to 43,000 years ago. Here, we report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal the earliest known presence of modern humans in Europe between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. This early modern human incursion in the Rhône Valley is associated with technologies unknown in any industry of that age outside Africa or the Levant. Mandrin documents the first alternating occupation of Neanderthals and modern humans, with a modern human fossil and associated Neronian lithic industry found stratigraphically between layers containing Neanderthal remains associated with Mouste...

The evolutionary development of the hominids that culminated in the appearance of Homo sapiens included the subdivision of the species into societies on the basis of culturally, instead of biologically, constructed differentiation. It is argued that this change must have occurred after the mental ability to formulate and culturally express conceptual structures of extended relationships had been biologically introduced, and that intergroup competition within a species provided the selective impetus for this more complex form of organization. The combination of conceptual structures for organization at a more extensive scale and the effects of intergroup competition would lead to a restructuring of the whole species into society like groups.

Standard scientific modeling uses a conceptual framework inadequate for modeling that is intended to take into account the implications of the capacity of individuals in human societies to reflexively assess goals, interests, statuses and the like. Standard scientific modeling is also insufficient for representing the shared, constructed universe --which we subsume under the term culture --within which individuals operate and the way individuals are capable of changing and restructuring their constructed universe. Standard scientific modeling partitions the modeling enterprise into a theoretic component (theory driven models) and an empirical component (data driven models), both assumed to be embedded within a single, fixed empirical universe. But the notion of a "constructed reality" implies that in addition to the external, empirical universe there is an internal, constructed universe within which behavior is both formulated and becomes the instrument of change. A new modeling paradigm is needed that takes into account these different dimensions of what constitutes behavior. In this paper I suggest that such a paradigm is provided through making a distinction between formal models of the logic of cultural constructs and the logic of the instantiation of the symbolic/abstract elements of those cultural constructs. An example illustrating this paradigm, based on the logic of a kinship terminology structure in comparison with the logic of the instantiation of a kinship terminology structure, will be discussed.

Different hypotheses identifying factors affecting the complexity of implements used to obtain food resources by hunter-gatherer groups are assessed with regression analysis. A regression model based on interaction between growing season as a proxy measure for risk and number of yearly moves fits data on the complexity of implements for 20 hunter-gatherer groups. The interaction model leads to a division of hunter-gatherer groups into two subgroups that correspond to collector vs. forager strategies for procuring resources. Implications of the interaction model for the evolution of complex implements are discussed.