A scientific study, based partly on the Spanish fossil site of Atapuerca (North) and published today in the journal Nature Communications, concludes that the pattern of the face of Homo sapiens is “unique in human evolution,” reported today the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos.
The study was conducted by an international team of paleoanthropologists with extensive Spanish participation, including the scientific director of the museum and co-director of Atapuerca Juan Luis Arsuaga, and studies the evolution of the skeleton of the human face in the last two million years.
The researchers of this study concluded that the histological pattern seen in Homo sapiens, with wide areas of bone resorption in the facial area, is unique in human evolution.
The growth model of the face of Homo erectus, Neanderthal fossils and the Pit of Bones in the Sierra de Atapuerca continues, however, a primitive pattern, where there are virtually only tank in the face and bone resorption does not exist or is minimal.
Only in the case of Homo antecessor from the Gran Dolina in the Sierra de Atapuerca, the growth model could resemble the modern , but for now there is only one individual, rather incomplete, which can be studied, in part, Histology of the surface of the face.
The method used in this study was to examine electron microscopy and confocal surface of the facial bones of individuals in development in order to distinguish the areas where other bone where the bone is resorbed is deposited.
During the facial development , the bones of the face grow mainly in areas where bone deposition occurs.
In areas where resorption predominates, growth is much more limited.
That difference in dynamics of these processes makes the modern human face has highlighted, it is “sculpted” , with high cheekbones, for example, and it is vertical instead of projecting forward on a hill, while in apes only no bone deposition and therefore the entire face forward during growth.
The first author of the work is Rodrigo Lacruz , a Spanish professor at New York University, who says the study ensures that facial growth patterns in Neanderthals and the Pit of Bones at Atapuerca are very different from today’s man.
Juan Luis Arsuaga says it is a discovery “very important” because it confirms that the present human species has many originalities , unique features not found in Neanderthals and other human species that have existed. EFE
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