Reassessment and new evidence of the dental remains from Payre site (France)

Abstract

Morphological evidence suggests that European Middle Pleistocene hominins share a common phylogenetic history, yet they display a substantial morphometric variability. In particular, MIS 7 − 5 hominins have been proposed to exhibit a distinctive combination of traits differentiating them from both earlier and later Neanderthal populations. However, the scarcity of fossil remains from this period limits our understanding of Neanderthal evolutionary dynamics and regional variability. Here, we present a morphometric reassessment of the dental remains from Payre (n = 9), combining external morphological descriptions, geometric morphometrics of the EDJ, and analysis of the dental tissue proportions. We test whether the Payre sample can be distinguished from earlier populations (e.g., Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos) and from later Neanderthal groups (MIS 5 − 3), and we evaluate morphological variation across stratigraphic levels. Our results show that the Payre teeth align more closely with the MIS 7 samples from Biache-Saint-Vaast and Montmaurin-La Niche (France) than with later Neanderthals, although the observed traits are also widely shared with Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos. Importantly, the assemblage exhibits internal variability, with less derived morphology primarily confined to anterior teeth from the lower stratigraphic levels. The Payre dental record documents persistent regional variability within the Neanderthal clade during MIS 7. This variability may reflect localized demographic processes, possibly including small-scale admixture associated with climatic fluctuations during the Middle Pleistocene.