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bioRxiv2025

A morphometric approach to the taxonomic dilemma of Zonozoe drabowiensis Barrande, 1872 and Zonoscutum solum Chlup&aacute&ccaron, 1999 (Upper Ordovician, Czech Republic)

Zonozoe drabowiensis Barrande, 1872 and Zonoscutum solum Chlupa[c], 1999 are rare and incompletely preserved arthropods from the Upper Ordovician of the Czech Republic. Their classification has been a subject of debate for over a century due to the limited number of specimens and the absence of clear diagnostic features. They were previously thought to belong to Aglaspidida, an extinct group of arthropods from the Cambrian and Ordovician, within Vicissicaudata, a branch of the larger arthropod clade Artiopoda that also includes trilobites. Herein, we used analyses of cephalic outline to quantify whether Zonozoe and Zonoscutum are morphologically more similar to vicissicaudates than other early Palaeozoic arthropods. We assembled a dataset of twenty-six cephalic outlines representing twenty-six early Palaeozoic species, including Zonozoe, Zonoscutum, five euchelicerates, six aglaspidids, three cheloniellids, and a selection of other artiopodans. We quantified their shape using elliptical Fourier analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) place Zonozoe and Zonoscutum within and close to the vicissicaudatan morphospace, clearly distinguishing them from euchelicerates and non-vicissicaudatan artiopodans. These data support the most conservative classification of Zonozoe and Zonoscutum within Artiopoda, while strengthening the case for a more specific affinity with Vicissicaudata, helping to resolve a 150-year-old taxonomic uncertainty. More broadly, this study demonstrates the value of outline-based morphometrics in testing systematic hypotheses when discrete characters are unavailable or scarce, offering a reproducible tool for re-evaluating other problematic fossils.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Microwear variability in a spatially and temporally constrained elephant population: Implications for interpreting the diets of extant and extinct proboscideans

Proboscideans, including mammoths, played a crucial role in past herbivore communities, where resource partitioning helped reduce competition and promote coexistence. Stable carbon isotopes are frequently employed to differentiate between the consumption of C3 and C4 plants in the fossil record. However, as geographic variability influences {delta}13C values, dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is often used in tandem to infer dietary preferences among extinct taxa (e.g., the consumption of grass vs. browse). Interpreting the dietary ecology of proboscideans, like mammoths, rests on our ability to compare fossil specimens to modern taxa with known diets. Here, we established a modern reference for interpreting mammoth DMTA by analyzing teeth from 11 African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) culled in 1993 from Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa (CITES permit certificate no. 780873). These specimens, housed at the Illinois State Museum, originated from the arid bushveld of northern KNP and were collected during the beginning of the dry season. Previous studies indicate that modern elephants in this region consume a mixed diet, consisting of [~]40% grass in the dry season and 50% grass in the wet season. The well-documented dietary and environmental context of these individuals provides an opportunity to assess dental microwear patterns in a modern analog and compare individuals with known diets to extinct mammoths. Specifically, we compared newly acquired modern African bush elephants DMTA to published DMTA data from fossil specimens of Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi). Comparisons with fossil assemblages reveal few statistically significant differences in microwear between mammoth and KNP elephants, with the exception of mammoths from Leisey Shell Pit 1A having significantly lower complexity values than modern African bush elephants--indicative of some mammoth populations eating softer foods and/or less woody browse. Variation and breadth of DMTA from mammoths are similar to the temporally and geographically constrained population of L. africana. Despite potential time averaging in fossil assemblages, the variation in mammoth DMTA aligns with that of a geographically and temporally constrained modern population, indicating that microwear variability in fossil taxa is not necessarily greater than that observed in extant species and is consistent with the highly varied diets of modern African elephants.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Ancient DNA from the Toronto subway deer adds to the extinction list of North America's Ice Age megafauna

The late Pleistocene was a time of global megafaunal extinctions that were particularly severe in North America. The continent lost many mammal taxa, but the validity of several remain ambiguous, including a high proportion of Cervidae taxa. Torontoceros hypogaeus is represented by a single specimen (ROMM75974) discovered in 1976 during excavation work for the Toronto subway in Canada. The species was described based on its unique antler morphology, but the variable nature of that trait and the species near absence in the fossil record leads to uncertainty concerning its systematic relationships. We used ancient DNA to clarify the taxonomic relationship and evolutionary history of T. hypogaeus. We performed mitochondrial and whole genome analyses with related cervids and showed that ROMM75974 has a close affinity, but relatively high divergence from the Odocoileus sister species. While some ambiguity remains, ROMM75974 could represent a distinct Odocoileus species to be included in the list of extinct North American taxa. This unique population was likely adapted to open landscape which was rapidly replaced with dense woodland in this region at the end of the Pleistocene, highlighting the role of climate change in the extinction of megafauna biodiversity at the end of the ice age.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Brawn before bite in endemic Asian mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction

The first 10 million years (Myr) following the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction marked a period of global greenhouse conditions and dramatic rise of placental mammals. Because [~]80% of known terrestrial sections capturing post-K-Pg mammal recovery come from North America, a substantial knowledge gap exists in the tempo and mode of recovery in Asia, where only 3% of sites are located and most contain species found nowhere else. We show that isolated Paleocene placental assemblages from China (1) reached high tooth size disparity early in the Paleocene, (2) tracked regional and global environmental changes in their dental shape later in the Paleocene, and (3) achieved maximum dental shape-performance integration near the end of the first 10 Myr post-K-Pg. This brawn before bite transformation, coupled with prolonged dental shape versus performance variability, favors a scenario whereby many living orders of placental mammals were borne out of phenotypically and functionally plastic ancestral assemblages, including those in tropical south China, during the Paleocene.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

A stromatoporoid-like sediment-agglutinating sponge from microbialites of Cambrian Stage 4

Many extant demosponges, especially the non-spicular taxa, incorporate foreign detritus in their spongin or chitinous skeletons. This supposed energy-efficient way of skeleton construction is, however, rarely known in the fossil record. In this study, based on careful petrographic analyses using standard optical microscopy, cathodoluminescence and fluorescence microscopy, and a three-dimensional reconstruction, a fossil from the Cambrian Stage 4 of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, is established as a sediment-agglutinating sponge Psammolectospongia beiwangensis gen. et sp. nov. These fossils encrust stromatolitic microbialites and are often surrounded by Girvanella mats. This succession of microbialites and sponge fossils was developed in a turbulent hydrodynamic condition after the deposition of edgewise conglomerates. P. beiwangensis possesses labyrinthine skeletons with an architecture similar to that of some stromatoporoids, such as Stromatopora and Syringostromella, although dissepiments are absent in the Cambrian fossil. The skeleton of P. beiwangensis is mainly composed of packed silt-to sand-sized detritus grains and skeletal fragments of other animals, while in some places, it can contain various proportions of micrites. The morphology and skeletal composition of P. beiwangensis indicate an affinity to an agglutinating demosponge, which mainly constructed its skeleton using agglutinated and incorporated sediments, while the spongin skeleton was able to be biomineralized like that of Vaceletia. This study is the first report of a sponge fossil that mainly built its skeleton using foreign detritus, and it expands our knowledge about the physiology and ecological behaviors of early Paleozoic demosponges.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Mandibular morphology clarifies phylogenetic relationships near the origin of crown birds

BackgroundThe phylogenetic relationships of fossil birds near the origin of the avian crown group remain debated, in part due to a limited amount of character evidence from incomplete fossils. The avian lower jaw provides a potentially rich source of additional character data, yet fusion of the individual bony elements composing the avian post-dentary complex has impeded efforts to explore its phylogenetic signal. Here, we use high-resolution {micro}CT-scanning to separate the individual bony elements of the mandibles of several immature crown birds and key fossil taxa, and use those data to assess support for alternative phylogenetic hypotheses for fossils near the origin of crown birds. ResultsWe find that evidence from Asteriornis fails to support interpretations of derived mandibular similarities with palaeognaths, and instead strongly favours galloanseran, and specifically galliform, affinities. Our results also illustrate striking similarities in the architecture of the lower jaws between the toothed ornithurine Ichthyornis, Pelagornithidae and Vegavis, which, in addition to the absence of derived features linking them to Galloanserae, highlights questions regarding the phylogenetic position of these perennially controversial taxa. ConclusionsOur data reveal new insight into patterns of morphological evolution near the origin of the avian crown group while raising new phylogenetic questions, emphasising the potential untapped value of detailed comparative investigations of morphological complexes such as the post-dentary complex of the mandible for informing the early evolutionary history of crown birds.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Palaeoproteomics reveals bovine carcass processing with 6,000-year-old flint tools

Lithic tools are the most abundant cultural artefacts found at prehistoric archaeological sites. Through their study, we can understand essential activities such as hunting, processing of animal carcasses and plant materials, and working of resources such as ochre and bone, as well as broader technological and cultural practices. For the first time, proteomics was applied alongside use-wear and optical microscopy residue analyses, enabling the identification of bovine, plant, and human proteins on faceted tools from the Mesolithic-Neolithic site of Bazel-Sluis, Belgium. This retrieval of identifiable protein from an area with poor organic preservation demonstrates wide-reaching potential for archaeological research, opening a new avenue of investigation into prehistoric lifeways and adding to the growing corpus of evidence accessible through palaeoproteomics. A workflow for future analyses is suggested, based on our integrated sampling strategy requiring no additional tool manipulations.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

{micro}CT Scanning Effects on DNA and a Multi-Step Workflow for Archaeological Petrous Bones

The petrous portion of the temporal bone is a key element in human evolutionary studies due to its exceptional preservation of biomolecules and morphological information. However, intensive and often redundant sampling has raised concerns about sustainability and long-term conservation. Here we present the first systematic evaluation of whether micro-Computed Tomography ({micro}CT)--a widely used tool for digital preservation--affects ancient DNA (aDNA) integrity in human petrous bones. We analyzed 93 archaeological samples from Argentina, of which 50 had been scanned using {micro}CT and 43 had not. We compared six molecular parameters, including endogenous content, read length, cytosine deamination patterns and contamination estimates. No statistically significant differences were observed between scanned and unscanned samples across any parameter (Mann-Whitney/Wilcoxon tests, p <0.05). Although mitochondrial contamination was marginally higher in scanned samples (p = 0.051), this was not driven by contamination estimates above the widely accepted 5% threshold for genomic analysis, Moreover, this pattern was not observed when considering nuclear contamination. These results indicate that, under appropriate scanning conditions, {micro}CT imaging does not compromise DNA preservation. Building on this evidence, we propose a sustainable, multi-step workflow that integrates biological profiling, osteobiography, imaging, and compositional pre-screening prior to molecular sampling. This interdisciplinary approach maximizes the scientific information obtained from skeletal collections while minimizing destructive practices, thereby promoting ethical and sustainable research on irreplaceable anthropological remains, and fosters collaboration across research fields.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

The locomotor behavior of subfossil Malagasy sloth-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Palaeopropithecidae) and koala-lemurs (Strepsirrhini: Megaladapidae): new insights from limb trabecular bone

The locomotion of Malagasy Quaternary subfossil lemurs--including palaeopropithecids ( sloth-lemurs) and megaladapids ( koala-lemurs)--has been investigated on abundant postcranial remains. Proposed strategies include some without living primate parallels, including sloth-like suspensory arboreality in palaeopropithecids, although the degree of suspensory behaviour in palaeopropithecids, or locomotor diversity in koala-lemurs are poorly understood. Differently from external morphology, internal bone structure in these taxa is largely unexplored. We compared the humeral and femoral trabecular architecture of sloth- and koala-lemurs to several extant mammals, studying spherical trabecular samples extracted from high-resolution scans. After defining locomotor categories from quantitative data, we tested links between trabecular parameters and locomotor modes through exploratory and multivariate analyses, accounting for body size and phylogeny. In extant mammals, only femoral trabecular traits--particularly Degree of Anisotropy and Bone Volume Fraction--were significantly associated with locomotion, distinguishing suspensory and bridging arboreal taxa from others. Using this model, we inferred suspensory adaptations in palaeopropithecids, especially Palaeopropithecus--confirming earlier reconstructions--but also in Megaladapis edwarsi, a striking result that would make M. edwarsi the largest mammal ever known to adopt such habits, approached only by extant orangutans. This work highlights the potential of internal bone structure for reconstructing primate locomotor evolution.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

The phylogenetic signal of extinction through the rise and fall of early vertebrates: field of bullets or clustered strike?

We investigate patterns of phylogenetic selectivity of extinction in early aquatic vertebrates from the Silurian to the Carboniferous, an interval punctuated by one of the Big Five mass extinctions and marked by many critical anatomical (e.g. jaws, limbs) and ecological (e.g. macrophagy, terrestrialization) vertebrate evolutionary innovations. Using a new >1300 taxon, formally inferred supertree, we show that phylogenetic extinction clustering in early vertebrates varied through time and between major ecomorphological divisions of the tree. At the end of the Silurian and into the Early Devonian, jawless fishes became marginalized components of vertebrate faunas and show more strongly clustered extinction than jawed fishes, which became ecologically dominant during this interval. Clustered extinction (contemporaneous extinction of close relatives) is typical of most stages of the Devonian, particularly during the Late Devonian extinctions. By contrast, the subsequent early Carboniferous interval of putative recovery is characterized by overdispersed extinction (contemporaneous extinction of distant relatives), consistent with widespread persistence of phylogenetically distinct lineages. This work shows how varying patterns of extinction selectivity pruned the vertebrate tree at the time when the first-order patterns of diversity apparent in modern aquatic vertebrate faunas were first established.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Niche partitioning and limited mobility characterise Middle Pleistocene kangaroos from eastern Australia

Australias Quaternary fossil record is characterised by a high diversity of macropodid taxa. Based on fossil faunal assemblages, it has been hypothesised many macropodids lived in sympatry during the Pleistocene, however, local geographic and dietary overlap is equivocal due to taphonomic uncertainty. Modern macropodid species rarely exhibit sympatry, suggesting anthropogenic or environmental changes may have disrupted these communities. Using Sr and C isotopes, we reconstruct foraging ranges and dietary preferences of several fossil macropodid lineages recovered in Middle Pleistocene cave deposits, at Mount Etna Caves, central eastern Queensland, Australia. Our results show that most macropodids, baring a single Petrogale potentially dispersing > 60 km, had limited foraging ranges and remained within 15 km of the fossil site. Moderate to large scale dispersal in individual Petrogale mirrors male-biased dispersal observed in some modern Petrogale populations indicating some individuals have the propensity to move between isolated colonies when corridors for dispersal are present. Smaller macropodids show dietary preferences similar to modern counterparts, while Protemnodon exhibit a division between C3/C4 intake, potentially indicating species-level differences. The analysis of geographic range and diet of this fossil assemblage reveals that macropodids partitioned on the landscape around the cave with a C3-dominant community - comprised of Protemnodon, Petrogale, and Thylogale - to the northwest, and a C4-dominant grassland community - comprised of Notamacropus and isolated members of Protemnodon and Petrogale - to the south. Therefore, we conclude, that although faunal assemblages alone suggest a larger number of macropodids living in sympatry, isotopic proxies uncover complex habitat partitioning between C3 and C4 environments around Mount Etna Caves.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Predator-prey scaling laws support a suspension-feeding lifestyle in Cambrian lobopodians

The early Paleozoic saw a dramatic diversification of shelly epibenthic metazoans adapted to suspension and filter-feeding, but the extent to which these radiations affected the evolution of non-biomineralized suspension-feeding taxa is uncertain because these organisms are not typically well represented in the fossil record. Luolishaniids are a highly derived and disparate clade of (typically) armoured lobopodians widely interpreted as having a suspension-feeding ecology based on the presence of five or six anterior pairs of setulose appendages. Luolishaniids are globally widespread and represent the only Cambrian non-biomineralized free living epibenthic bilaterians regarded as having a suspension feeding mode of life, but their proposed ecology only relies on a qualitative interpretation of their functional morphology. Here we test the hypothesis that the setulose appendages of luolishaniids were adapted for a suspension feeding function. Quantitative morphological comparisons reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between body length and the mesh spacing of the setulose anterior limbs of luolishaniids. This pattern correlates with suspension-feeding scaling in extant aquatic organisms, and suggests that luolishaniids primarily fed on mesoplanktonic seston. We provide quantitative evidence for suspension-feeding in luolishaniids, which represents the first statistically supported example of modern-like predator-prey scaling patterns observed in Cambrian soft-bodied metazoans.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

A Quantitative Review of Biodiversity Trends during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) embodies the most dramatic increase of marine biodiversity and escalation of macroecological complexity during the early Phanerozoic. Despite its critical role, the precise timing and duration of the GOBE remain controversial. Numerous palaeobiological studies have attempted to quantify the GOBE based on estimates of species richness through time for various groups of marine organisms. However, these studies use fossil data restricted to specific geographic regions or employ disparate methodologies that preclude direct analytical comparisons. We present a meta-analysis of Ordovician biodiversity that integrates information from multiple temporal, geographic, and ecological scales. We collate 98 datasets from 54 publications to analyze temporally standardized rates of marine species biodiversity accumulation between the latest Cambrian and throughout the entire Ordovician using an effect-size approach. Our results indicate statistically significant high rates of sustained species accumulation that can be traced from the late Cambrian and until the Middle Ordovician, stabilization during the Late Ordovician and then a precipitous decline caused by the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction. Geographic scale (global vs regional) has no significant bearing on rates of biodiversification, with the only exception observed during the Dapingian-Darriwilian transition, supporting the hypothesis of mass dispersal of generalists during the Early Ordovician. Benthic and suspension-feeding organisms show high rates of biodiversity accumulation throughout most of the Ordovician (Tremadocian-Sandbian), whereas the diversification of nektonic, pelagic and predatory/scavenger organisms was mostly restricted to the Early Ordovician.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

New data on Quaternary lagomorphs from Lagoa Santa, State Of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Lagomorpha have a long evolutionary history, dating back to the Paleogene and currently exhibit a cosmopolitan distribution, inhabiting all continents except Antarctica. The present study analyzed and revised 148 fossil and subfossil specimens from Gruta Cuvieri, in Lagoa Santa (MG), attributed to the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The methodology included sorting, anatomical identification of all skeletal elements, taxonomy, and taphonomy. The taxonomic analysis of a skull confirmed the presence of the species Sylvilagus brasiliensis, although it is not possible to rule out the occurrence of other species in the remaining assemblage, given the abundance of non-diagnostic bone elements. The taphonomy of the Cuvieri Cave revealed distinct patterns, with less reworked specimens in the Holocene deposits and greater dispersion in the Pleistocene deposits. The results indicate relevant differences in the fossil distribution and high fragmentation, suggesting distinct taphonomic processes associated with multiple depositional events.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Complexity Begets Simplicity: Self-Supervised Learning for Palaeontological Images with Few or No Labels

Palaeontology has seen widespread and growing use of machine learning to classify and analyse large datasets of fossils. However, palaeontology is a challenging field in which to apply machine learning. Datasets may be small or unlabelled, images may be complex and different from standard datasets and palaeontologists may lack specialist training and access to necessary computational resources. We show how these challenges can be addressed by utilising recent developments in self-supervised learning (SSL). Using a frozen DINOv3 feature extractor and a simple linear classifier, with reduced data, we can achieve comparable results to literature benchmarks using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), the previous standard, when classifying fossil tracks, pollen, radiolaria, foraminifera and a dataset of diverse fossil images. Additionally, the rich feature vectors generated by the model can be used for few-shot learning, unsupervised clustering and quantification of disparity. Using state-of-the-art self-supervised methods increases accessibility by reducing code, compute and data required. It also maintains accuracy, while increasing reproducibility by reducing parameters and allowing simple future-proof model agnostic pipelines which may become the new standard approach in palaeontology.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

FINS - A global occurrence dataset of fossil neoselachians from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary

MotivationModern sharks, rays and skates (Neoselachii) are a diverse, globally distributed, and ecologically important group. They possess a rich, geologically extensive, and well-documented fossil record that provides a powerful basis for studying their macroevolution, paleoecology and biogeography. However, addressing paleobiological questions require quantifying the fossil record trough occurrences, i.e., records of the presence of a taxon at a unique location in space and time. Although the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) offers an invaluable source of fossil occurrences, it still does not provide a complete compilation of neoselachian data. To facilitate exploring questions in quantitative paleobiology, here we present the Fossil Neoselachian (FINS) dataset--a comprehensive, systematically curated global synthesis of fossil occurrences spanning the past 145 million years. Main types of variables containedFINS consists of fossil occurrences, each linked to a collection (location where fossils were reported from) and a source (citation of the publications from which data was obtained). Occurrence data mostly consists of taxonomic variables (e.g., classification, names and ranks), status (extinct/extant) and abundance. Collection data provide geographic (e.g., country, ocean and paleo-coordinates) and geological (e.g., formation and age) variables. All data was subjected to a meticulous curation process, which is described through taxonomic and age validation variables. Spatial location and grainGlobal, with fossil occurrences recovered from all continents. Time period and grainFrom the Cretaceous to the Quaternary (145 - 0 Ma), with temporal resolution generally corresponding to geological stages or epochs. Major taxa and level of measurementNeoselachians (superorders: Selachimorpha and Batoidea). FINS comprises 30,100 occurrences from 5,972 collections and 1,990 publications. It consists of 1,606 species, 512 genera, 88 families and 14 orders. Over 70% of occurrences are identified at the species level. Overall, FINS effectively doubles the number of neoselachian records previously available in the PBDB and substantially expands their geographic coverage, particularly in the Global South. Software formatThe dataset is provided an .xlsx spreadsheet with four tabs - Collections, Occurrences, References_Literature and References_PBDB.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2025

Old Collections, New Perspectives: Analytical Reassessment of One of Europe's Biggest Archaeological Broomcorn Millet Deposits (Romania)

The broomcorn millet grains (Panicum miliaceum) analysed in this study, recovered from Morteni tell (Romania), represent one of Europes largest archaeological millet deposits (150 kg). Originally attributed to the Chalcolithic period (Gumelnita culture), radiocarbon dating revealed a significantly later context (361 cal BC - 61 cal AD (95.4%)), placing the grains in the Late Iron Age - Latene, when millet was an established staple in the region. The uncharred, desiccated grains exhibited uneven preservation: while some retained isotopic values akin to fresh millet, others showed evidence of nitrogen loss due to diagenesis. High {delta}15N values point to intensive manuring, highlighting millets agricultural significance during the Iron Age. Combining isotopic data with FTIR-ATR analysis allowed the detection of diagenetic impacts and underscored the importance of cross-disciplinary approaches in archaeobotanical studies. These findings demonstrate the necessity of radiocarbon dating and integrated analyses to avoid misinterpretations based on stratigraphy alone and to enhance the reliability of data on ancient crop use and significance.

paleontology↗

bioRxiv2017

Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe: The Case of Untermassfeld (Germany)

The database regarding the earliest occupation of Europe has increased significantly in quantity and quality of data points over the last two decades, mainly through the addition of new sites as a result of long-term systematic excavations and large-scale prospections of Early and early Middle Pleistocene exposures. The site distribution pattern suggests an ephemeral presence of hominins in the south of Europe from around one million years ago, with occasional short northward expansions along the western coastal areas when temperate conditions permitted. From around 600,000-700,000 years ago Acheulean artefacts appear in Europe and somewhat later hominin presence seems to pick up, with more sites and now some also present in colder climatic settings. It is again only later, around 350,000 years ago, that the first sites show up in more continental, central parts of Europe, east of the Rhine. A series of recent papers on the Early Pleistocene palaeontological site of Untermassfeld (Germany) makes claims that are of great interest for studies of earliest Europe and are at odds with the described pattern: the papers suggest that Untermassfeld has yielded stone tools and humanly modified faunal remains, evidence for a one million years old hominin presence in European continental mid-latitudes, and additional evidence that hominins were well-established in Europe already around that time period. Here we evaluate these claims and demonstrate that these studies are severely flawed in terms of data on provenance of the materials studied and in the interpretation of faunal remains and lithics as testifying to a hominin presence at the site. In actual fact any reference to the Untermassfeld site as an archaeological one is unwarranted. Furthermore, it is not the only European Early Pleistocene site where inferred evidence for hominin presence is problematic. The strength of the spatiotemporal patterns of hominin presence and absence depend on the quality of the data points we work with, and data base maintenance, including critical evaluation of new sites, is crucial to advance our knowledge of the expansions and contractions of hominin ranges during the Pleistocene.

paleontology↗