Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Devièse, Thibaut
• Massilani, Diyendo
• Yi, Seonbok
• Comeskey, Daniel
• Nagel, Sarah
• Nickel, Birgit
• Ribechini, Erika
• Lee, Jungeun
• Tseveendorj, Damdinsuren
• Gunchinsuren, Byambaa
• Meyer, Matthias
• Pääbo, Svante
• Higham, Tom

Titel

Compound-specific radiocarbon dating and mitochondrial DNA analysis of the Pleistocene hominin from Salkhit Mongolia

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2019-01, Vol.10 (1), p.274-274, Article 274

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A skullcap found in the Salkhit Valley in northeast Mongolia is, to our knowledge, the only Pleistocene hominin fossil found in the country. It was initially described as an individual with possible archaic affinities, but its ancestry has been debated since the discovery. Here, we determine the age of the Salkhit skull by compound-specific radiocarbon dating of hydroxyproline to 34,950-33,900 Cal. BP (at 95% probability), placing the Salkhit individual in the Early Upper Paleolithic period. We reconstruct the complete mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) of the specimen. It falls within a group of modern human mtDNAs (haplogroup N) that is widespread in Eurasia today. The results now place the specimen into its proper chronometric and biological context and allow us to begin integrating it with other evidence for the human occupation of this region during the Paleolithic, as well as wider Pleistocene sequences across Eurasia.