Atapuerca: a virtual trip into the past

Abstract

The Sierra de Atapuerca is a small mountainous region situated 15 km north-east of the city of Burgos (Spain). Its strategic position on the Iberian Peninsula has allowed that the Sierra has been occupied almost continuously for more than one million years. The hominin samples found there comprise the earliest and only human remains available for the Early Pleistocene in Europe -the Homo sp. mandible from Sima del Elefante- and the H. antecessor hypodigm from Gran Dolina-TD6. Also from Atapuerca there is the Sima de los Huesos sample which represents more than the 80% worldwide record and provides an exceptional opportunity to assess intrapopulational variability in a Middle Pleistocene population. There is no doubt that Atapuerca is an exceptional scientific setting that has contributed so much to the study of human evolution. With my thesis titled ?Morphological characterization of the enamel-dentine junction of the Pleistocene human population molars from the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos) by means of micro-computer tomography (micro-CT) ? and supervised by Dr. María Martinón-Torres, I am characterizing the intra- and inter-population dental variability of extinct and extant human species by means of microCT in the search of variables with paleoanthropological interest. Thus, I am studying and comparing the morphology at the enamel and dentine surfaces in order to explore the phylogenetic relationship between the Early and the Middle Pleistocene populations of Europe. Hence, during my visit at the Muséum National d ?Histoire Naturelle, I will investigate in the characterization of the dental variability of the human species that inhabitated in our continent from Upper Pleistocene to present. Having already analyzed the molars of H. antecessor and H. heidelbergensis samples from Atapuerca sites, this project will help me to study the comparative samples of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens placed at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine and Muséum National d ?Histoire Naturelle. Thanks to the Synthesys program, I will be able to increase the hominin data collection that helps me to analyze and understand better the variability at the enamel, in order to revise taxonomic, phylogenetic and evolutionary hypothesis suggested to date and based on the classical morphometric studies.