Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (1) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.1.121-134

Annotation:  New Findings on the Middle Paleolithic of the Eastern Adriatic: The Earliest Settlement at Bioče, M Geomorphology and Quaternary Sediments at Archaeological Sites Near Anzhevka, Krasnoyarsk Territory Archaeological Sites as Markers of Hydrosystem Transformation in the Kurai and Chuya Basins, Southea Agricultural Practice on the Korean Peninsula Taking into Account the Origin of Rice Agriculture in Avtodrom 2—a Late Neolithic (Artyn Culture) Site in the Baraba Forest-Steppe, Western Siberia A Generalized Assessment of Cultural Changes at Stratified Sites: The Case of Chalcolithic Fortresse A Dugout from the Don River Exhibited at the State Historical Museum, Moscow: Discovery and Dating A House Model from Popudnya, Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture, Ukraine: A New Interpretation Old Turkic Statues from Apshiyakta, Central Altai: On Female Representations in Turkic Monumental Ar Early Medieval Armor from Southern Siberia Leather Artifacts from Tara, Western Siberia, Excavated in 2012–2014 The Morphology of Permanent Molars from the Paleolithic Layers of Denisova Cave An Anthropological Study of Mummified Remains from the Zeleny Yar Cemetery on the Lower Ob, Western Patterns of Growth and Development in Urban and Rural Children of the Northern Part of European Russ   

The Morphology of Permanent Molars from the Paleolithic Layers
of Denisova Cave

A.V. Zubova, T.A. Chikisheva, and M.V. Shunkov

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

The article describes the morphology of two permanent molars from the Pleistocene layers of Denisova Cave, the Altai Mountains. Denisova 4 is an upper left third or second molar, and Denisova 8 is an upper left third molar. Both specimens were examined using the extended trait battery. The results indicate a high informative potential for dental traits in the analysis of group variation within the genus Homo. They support the view that Denisovans, or H. altaiensis, were a distinct group of hominins, differing from both H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis not only genetically but morphologically as well. The distinctive dental features of the Denisovans include extremely large dimensions, and affinities with Homo erectus of Sangiran and the Middle Pleistocene hominins of China, such as Xujiayao. On the basis of the morphological analysis of Denisovan upper molars, it is proposed that the unidentified part of the Denisovan genome may stem from Homo erectus. Dentally, Homo altaiensis is a very conservative taxon.

Keywords: Denisovans, Homo altaiensis, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, dental anthropology.