Tautavel Man
Tautavel Man refers to the archaic humans which—from approximately 550,000 to 400,000 years ago—inhabited the Caune de l’Arago, a limestone cave in Tautavel, France. They are generally grouped as part of a long and highly variable lineage of transitional morphs which inhabited the Middle Pleistocene of Europe, and would eventually evolve into the Neanderthals. They have been variably assigned to either H. heidelbergensis, or as a European subspecies of H. erectus as H. e. tautavelensis. The skull is reconstructed based on the specimens Arago 21 and 47, and it is, to a degree, more characteristic of what might be considered a typical H. erectus morphology than a typical H. heidelbergensis morphology. The brain capacity is 1,166 cc. They seem to have had an overall robust skeleton. Average height may have been.
The Caune de l'Arago opens on a cliffside above a river, overlooking the Tautavel plain, with a plateau above, and mountainous terrain to the sides. During and after human occupation, the area swung from temperate and humid forestland, to cold and dry steppeland. Stratigraphically, humans are present from beds Q–C. Bed G, dating to roughly 455,000 years old during a forested event, has yielded the most remains. They seem to have hunted a variety of animals, including red deer, fallow deer, argali, tahr, horse, reindeer, beaver, and the extinct narrow-nosed rhinoceros, among others. They made Acheulean stone tools, but mainly produced smaller retouched tools such as scrapers, rather than more iconic macro-tools such as bifaces. In beds G and F, they may have been practicing ritual cannibalism. Evidence of fire is absent until bed C.
Research history
Animal fossils were first reported from the Caune de l’Arago in 1828 by French geologist Marcel de Serres, who considered them antediluvian remains. In 1963, French archaeologist recovered stone tools, which inspired French archaeologist Henry de Lumley to continue excavation for human remains. He found such remains in 1964, and recovered the first face in 1971. He and fellow archaeologist Marie-Antoinette de Lumley formally described the remains that same year. They dated them to the Riss glaciation—that is, predating the European Neanderthals.They and subsequent researchers made several parallels between the Arago material and Homo erectus as well as to Neanderthals. Similarly, these fossils were initially postulated to represent an intermediate form between H. erectus and Neanderthals, and were commonly referred to as "Pre-Neanderthals" to avoid assigning them to a specific species. Nonetheless, in 1979, the de Lumley's suggested the name "H. e. tautavelensis", but subsequent authors preferred to classify the remains into the then strictly Middle Pleistocene European H. heidelbergensis, described from the German Mauer 1 mandible in 1908. H. heidelbergensis is typically defined as the direct ancestor of Neanderthals.
The skull of the Tautavel inhabitants can only be reconstructed using the crushed partial face Arago 21 and the partial parietal bone Arago 47. The actual shape of the skull before crushing was speculated using the skulls of contemporaneous European humans. It is possible Arago 21 and 47 represent the same individual. Several such reconstructions were done in the 1980s, with the conclusion of strong affinities to H. heidelbergensis. The first reconstruction was done by French moulder René David, with the oversight of Mrs. de Lumley, and was completed in 1982. Other reconstructions were made in 1982 and again in 1986 by Italian palaeontologist Antonio Ascenzi; in 1982 and again in 1984 by French anthropologist Éliane Spitery; in 1986 by Czech palaeoanthropologist Emanuel Vlček; in 1982 and again in 1991 by French palaeoanthropologist Dominique Grimaud-Hervé; in 2005 by French anthropologist Gaspard Guipert ; and most recently by Mrs. de Lumley in 2015. Like his predecessors, Guipert decided to relegate the material to H. heidelbergensis, and defined H. heidelbergensis as a highly polymorphic species. In 2015, Mrs. de Lumley redescribed the Arago material, and decided to consider H. e. tautavelensis as a completely distinct and valid subspecies by using a much stricter definition of H. heidelbergensis and focusing on the parallels between the Tautavel remains and H. erectus s. s. The Tautavel remains are quite similar to other archaic human remains from Europe which have variously been classified as H. erectus or H. heidelbergensis depending on the definition of these species: Ceprano, Italy; Galería, Spain; Swanscombe, England; Vértesszőlős, Hungary; and Petralona, Greece.
By 2014, a total of 148 human bones had been recovered from the Caune de l'Arago, including 123 teeth, 5 jawbones, 9 upper limb elements, and 19 lower limb elements. These represent 18 adults and 12 juveniles, 30 individuals in total. Based on dental development, about 30% of the specimens died between the ages of 7 and 12, 37% between 18 and 30, 30% between 30 and 40, and 3% over 40. This would give an average life expectancy of 20–25 years. The perceived infant mortality rate is 11%, which is conspicuously low. If especially robust bones are assumed to be males, then females slightly outnumber males, but the proportion is roughly equally. All the non-tooth skull specimens are assumed to be male. For the jawbone specimens, only Arago 13 is assumed to be male, and the others are assumed to be female. The iliac specimens, Arago 44 and 121, are female.
Phylogenetic analyses have placed the Arago population within a Homo heidelbergensis clade, potentially as the lineage most closely related to the Mauer population.
Anatomy
The reconstructed skull of Tautavel Man shares many similarities with that of H. erectus s. s. These include: strongly defined brows, a receding forehead, a relatively low face, a depression between the eyebrows, post-orbital constriction, strongly defined ridges below the eye sockets, a weak chin, strong and thick jaws, U-shaped tooth rows, and marked sexual dimorphism. However, it differs in having a wider base, more forwardly oriented cheek bones, more massive supraorbital trigons, and a more defined post-orbital constriction. According to Mrs. de Lumley, they differ from the roughly contemporaneous H. heidelbergensis by retaining basal characteristics, including a longer skull, more defined brow ridge, more receding forehead, less defined post-orbital constriction, less developed prognathism, and smaller brain capacity—that is, by being somewhat more H. erectus grade than H. neanderthalensis grade. The Arago 21 face probably belonged to a 20-year-old, as indicated by the state of the fronto-pariental suture; based on its robustness, it is assumed to be male.The reconstructed Tautavel skull measures along its long axis. This maximum measurement is similar to that of H. erectus from Sangiran and longer than the Sima de los Huesos hominins, but shorter than that of Neanderthals, whose braincase was further developed. The length of the short axis is, which is typical of contemporaneous and more ancient H. erectus s. s. and within the exceptionally wide range reported for the SH hominins, but is narrower than more recent hominins, including more recent H. erectus s. s. For comparison, the dimensions of a modern human skull average for men and for women. Like H. erectus s. s., the Tautavel face strongly projects from back to front, with the face-to-skull-base length ratio being 48.1%. In comparison, this ratio is 44% in Neanderthals, and 38% in modern humans. As for the mandibles, the robust male jawbones align more closely to H. erectus s. s., whereas the more gracile female ones cluster closer to the Mauer mandible, the SH hominins, and Neanderthals. This demonstrates rather strong jaw musculature in the Tautavel inhabitants, as well as pronounced sexual dimorphism. The Tautavel mandibles all have strongly developed mandibular tori, subhorizontal mylohyoid lines, deep and narrow submandibular fovea, and a narrow and convex plane which merges into the tori. The teeth are proportionally quite large for a Middle Pleistocene European human, notably the P4 and M2. The cusps of the molars retain an anterior fovea, a mesial and distal trigonid crest, a cusp of Carabelli, and one or two accessory cusps, which are basal traits.
In 1983, American anthropologist Ralph Holloway estimated the brain volume as using the Arago 21 face, Arago 47 parietal, and Swanscombe occipital bone. This volume is comparable to that of Peking Man from Zhoukoudian, China, and is on the lower end of the range of variation for modern humans. Originally, Holloway theorized that Tautavel Man was a "very garrulous individual" based on the expanded Broca's area, but in 2004 he admitted "this was pure speculation." Evidence regarding the speech capability of Middle Pleistocene European hominins is mixed. A 400,000-year-old hyoid bone from Castel di Guido, Italy, assigned to a terminal population of H. erectus is quite apelike, but a hyoid bone from the SH hominins appears quite humanlike.
As for the rest of the skeleton, the only elements of the spine and torso identified are a single atlas and axis bones, and two clavicles. For the arms, four humeri and an ulna, which are notably massive, were discovered. For the pelvis, four pelvic bones and a sacrum were identified; the two identified iliac wings are quite robust. The acetabulum is oval-shaped much like in H. erectus, as opposed to circular, as in modern humans and Neanderthals. For the legs, seven femora, two tibiae, and seven fibulae have been identified, and, as in H. erectus, they are quite thick; this would have constricted the medullary cavity, where bone marrow is stored. This thickening is generally explained as being due to fast bone growth in adolescence. As in Neanderthals, the leg bones are quite robust, which may be a response to the cold climate, greater physical activity, or both. Using the femora and fibulae, Tautavel Man's average height has been estimated as roughly.