Restos humanos neandertales de la cueva del Sidrón, Piloña, Asturias. Nota preliminar

Abstract

We present here a new and uncommon finding of a large sample of Neanderthal remains. Over 120 fossil human remains have been found at the Sidrón Cave, Asturias, Northern Spain. AH the skeletal parts are represented, including two well preserved mandibles. A minimum number of three individuals have been identified on the basis of humerus remains. For classification purposes, we have compared Sidrón lower jaws with an extensive sample of Homo mandibles, making especial emphasis in Neanderthals and Middle Pleistocene specimens, as well as those from European Upper Palaeolithic and recent populations. A large number of apomorphies of the European evolutionary lineage have been identified, and morphological and metrical traits allow to assign the Sidrón remains to Homo neanderthalensis. Bivariate and multivariate analysis unambiguously locate the Sidrón specimens within the range of Neanderthals, and outside the Upper Palaeolithic mandibles range. The development of a large mid-facial prognatism characterises the evolution of the European lineage, a process in which the mandible is profoundly involved. Several distances between landmarks of the mandible record this pattern, particularly those relating the last molar (M3) to the mental foramen and to the mandibular foramen, among others. In aH of these variables, Sidrón mandibles show consistently values like those of the Neanderthal, and clearly distinct from those of late Upper Pleistocene age. A similar arrangement is found when, up to a maximum of 15 distances are included in multivariate analysis. Moreover, the Sidrón mandibles display a certain resemblance to samples from the last interglacial period (e.g. Krapina), and even to the Atapuerca-SH specimens, both in shape features and bone structure.