Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 41 (3) 2013

Annotation:  The Bohunician in Moravia and Adjoining Regions A Paleolithic Cache at Tolbor (Northern Mongolia) Upper Paleolithic “Sounding Artifacts” from Mesin, Ukraine: Modifi cation Marks An Experimental Technological Study of Upper Paleolithic Kostenki-Type Figurines Geoinformation Modeling of Environments Favorable for Prehistoric Humans of the Altai Mountains Mechanisms Shaping the Transition to Farming in Europe and the North American Woodland Intramural Burials of Children at Bronze Age Sites in the Southern Urals (Early 2nd Millennium BC) Clay Plates with Stylized Ornithomorphic Representations from Section VI of the Gorbunovo Peat Bog Composite Bows from Uch-Kurbu in Kyrgyzstan Bronze Age Copper Mining in the Mugodzhary An Ongoing Tradition: The Use of Russian Metal Dishware in Ob Ugrian Rites The Spring Festival of Akaska / Bidzim Nunal Celebrated by the Southern Udmurts in the Late 19th–Ear The Iranian Chapter in the History of the Chuvash A Micro Computerized Tomography (X-Ray Microscopy) of the Hand Phalanx of the Denisova Girl The Foramina Transversaria of the Sunghir 2 and 3 Cervical Vertebrae Dental Affi nities of the Irmen People, Western Siberia Paleopathology of the Population of Krasnoyarsk, Central Siberia (Pokrovskiy and Voskresensko-Preobr   

A Micro Computerized Tomography (X-Ray Microscopy) of the Hand Phalanx of the Denisova Girl

M.B. Mednikova, M.V. Dobrovolskaya, B. Viola, A.V. Lavrenyuk, P.R. Kazansky, V.Y. Shklover, M.V. Shunkov, and A.P. Derevianko.

In 2010, the complete mitochondrial genome of a fossil hominin from Denisova Cave, Altai was sequenced on the basis of mtDNA extracted from the hand phalanx of a girl. Modern micro tomographic techniques mark a new stage in the morphological study of extant and fossil hominins, offering opportunities to work with fragmentary material. We have used the nondestructive method of micro computerized tomography for a comparative histological assessment of the Denisova girl’s biological age. The diaphyseal and metaphyseal parts of the phalanx, refl ecting different ontogenetic stages, were undergoing rapid growth. The histological pattern of the walls of the diaphysis, specifi cally the lamellar structure with rare osteons, indicates a stage corresponding to 6–7 years in modern children. An altogether different pattern, resembling that of adults, was earlier observed in a Neanderthal child from Okladnikov Cave, Altai. The resemblance between the Denisova individual and extant humans in certain features of growth and skeletal maturation may point to the very early origin of the modern skeletal growth pattern. The Neanderthal pattern is quite distinct and may have originated after these hominins had branched off from the common stem.

Keywords: Denisova Cave, Pleistocene, hand phalanges, micro computerized tomography, histology, morphometry, biological age, Neanderthals.