 VM-0 placed over KNM ER 3883. | |
| Catalog no. | VM-0 |
|---|---|
| Common name | Orce Man |
| Species | Equus altidens |
| Age | 1.6 ma |
| Place discovered | Venta Micena, Orce, Spain |
| Date discovered | 1982–1983 |
| Discovered by | Josep Gibert |
The Orce Man, Orce Donkey, or Venta Micena fossil is a fossil cranium fragment that was historically considered an infantile early European member of Homo . However, later researched suggested that the remains actually belonged to the equine species Equus altidens . [1] [2]
The specimen was discovered by Josep Gibert in 1982 [3] -1983 at Venta Micena, one of several paleo-archaeological sites in the municipality of Orce, Granada, Spain. [4] It was labelled hominid 2 or VM-0 after being freed from sediment by Gibert, Jordi Agustí, and Salvador Moyà-Solà. This team was young and established experts in various fields except paleoanthropology, and took the fragment to Barcelona, which funded the Sabadell Institute of Paleontology and thus their research. They enlisted the paleontologists Rafael Adrover, Pierre Mein, and Peter Andrews for taxonomic identification, and they agreed that the specimen was human.
At this time, the endocast of the vault remained attached to rock, but Gibert's team insisted that the portion cleaned was enough to publish it in May 1983 as the oldest human in Europe, sending it to the Granada press. This sparked scientific interest in Gibraltar as the entrance point into Europe. During another excavation of the same year, they invited Marie-Antoinette and Henry de Lumley to study it, suggesting a hominin identity. The team became very prestiged, planning several lectures and a book on the find, as well as writing articles. Marie-Antoinette de Lumley's conclusions influenced Agustí and Moyà-Solà, but not Gibert. [1]
From October 1983 through April 1984, further preparations revealed a ridge in the endocast of the upper squame on the occipital, [1] which when presented to M.-A. de Lumley again, she became convinced that it was a juvenile Equus . The new opinion racked up eleven articles published in El País in the four days following the controversy, as well as opinion pieces and even cartoons. Gibert's refusal soon became a matter of politics, between "expert" French paleontologists and overcoming colonialism in Spain. Among those who criticized Gibert were Miquel de Renzi, Jaume de Porta, and Jaume Truyols, three professors who thought Gibert's work was reckless and not properly tested. Allegedly, these comments were very damaging to his reputation, possibly leading to demotions and inability to excavate.
Gibert formed a team to prove their classification as Homo , including Agustí, Moyà-Solà and faunal expert Bienvenido Martínez (who had earned a PhD from Gibert) among many others. In total, they wrote 138 publications, including 12 in impact journals in an attempt to circulate his ideas and credibility. He also attended a conference and was met with little backlash, but M.-A. de Lumley attended a separate conference and criticized his work without his presence. Agustí and Moyà-Solà published an article accepting Equus as the identification. In 1995, a conference hosted by Gibert agreed with his findings, leading to a brief period of acceptance followed by statements by José María Bermúdez de Castro and Eudald Carbonell of Atapuerca suggesting that he is not scientifically rigorous.
Baruzzi (2013) note that during this controversy, Gibert maintained an eccentric and unorthodox attitude heading a paradigm shift in human evolution as a sort of revolutionary. Gibert's team broke again, with former members affirming taxonomic allocation to Equus and excavating the site. However, a directorial resignation from the Institute and newfound discussion over the specimen led to excavations being halted. [1]
Baruzzi suggests that politicians involved in such a media scandal were influenced by the media and were given the power to influence scientific research. As well, Gibert held considerable power in Orce as 'adoptive son of the town' and namesake of the local museum, formerly called the Orce Museum. Since he was considered prestigious locally, Baruzzi suggests that the Orce Man scandal was an attempt to sully his image, and that the media frenzy lessened in 1999. Gibert spent the remainder of his life defending his taxonomic classification of the fragment until his death in 2007 due to lymphatic cancer. Campillo (2006) discovered the skull of a Roman girl and Gibert noted Homo erectus sporting a similar crest. Discussion through media was also newfound, making science easier to engage with and quicker for scientists and the public. [1] Sanchez (2012/2013) used the informal name "Homo orcensis" for VM-0 in a photo caption.
Baruzzi identifies multiple causes for concern in identification of the skull. First is the crest along the occiput, which is expected in Equus and the exception in Homo. Though it is rarely within variation for Homo, the occipital variability is exceedingly large. As well, the coronal suture is seen in the interior but not on the exterior, as it was abraded. This is equine in nature, but Gibert and colleagues suggest that it is not a natural anatomical feature, but rather a posthumous fracture. Digital impressions, like the ridge, are typical of equines but not adult humans, which VM-0 is suggested not to be. A transverse and longitudinal curvature is typical of infant humans, horses and rhinos, or as Agustí proposes, taphonomic deformation. These features, as well as a minute data pool, caused for great controversy. [1]
Gibert et al. (1989) note that comparison with carnivores is impossible due to a prominent sagittal and occipito-transverse crest and defined differences from bears (i.e. suture straightness, closure, impression pronouncement, thickness). They suggested affiliation with Homo erectus KNM ER 3733 and 3883, with dissimilarities to Homo habilis , Arago, Swanscombe, Broken Hill, and Petralona. They found similarity with human children and some likeness to the Sangiran hominins, but not those at Zhoukoudian. [5]
Moyà-Solà and Köhler (1997) suggest that many of Gibert and team's observations are objectable, most prominently the interpretation of the sutures. They suggest that it is Equus altidens based on how common fossils of this species are at Venta Micena. Additionally, they call for scientists to consider that it is more likely that it is an ordinary equine than a hominin exhibiting rare morphological combinations and pathologies, and that it is flawed "wishful thinking" otherwise. [2]
Hominin occupation at Orce is generally uncontested because genuine evidence has come to light since the discovery of cranial fragment VM-0.
A lower left first deciduous molar with a worn occlusal surface and resorption in the roots suggesting antemortem shedding, catalogued as BL02-J54-100, was described by Toro-Moyano et al. (2013) and found to be 1.4 million years old. A defined mesial marginal ridge is elongated by a vestigial paraconid and separates from the metaconid by a deep, V-shaped groove, opening in the direction of the lingual face. This is seen in Australopithecus and Homo, especially human specimens KNM-ER 820, KNM-ER 1507, and Zhoukoudian, but absent in Paranthropus . It is a confirmed specimen of Homo due to a tuberculum molare, relative expansion of the mesial cusps and mesial marginal ridge, and the larger and misplaced protoconid. Some similarity with Gran Dolina, Arago, Barranco León and certain Neanderthals is observed, so no taxonomic identification is given. [6]
Oldowan tools, 1244 (26 cores, 185 whole flakes, 78 flake fragments, 759 debris, 17 retouched, 92 angular fragments, 12 various modified cobbles, and 75 unmodified cobbles), were reported from the 1.4 mya-old Barranco León site in 2013. these tools were produced with flint, quartzite, and limestone, and most raw material was probably originated from Jurassic deposited 3 kilometers south of the site or secondary alluvial/colluvial deposits near the site. They knapped using hard-hammer percussion and direct unipolar and bipolar techniques, coordinated with the texture and quality of the rock. They seem to have prioritized small flakes for immediate use in cutting large carcasses. Striations and polishes are similar to Olduvai, Koobi Fora, and Monte Poggiolo, which indicates use on a variety of materials. Spiral or helical fractures, impact points, flake scars, and bone flakes were discovered on megafaunal remains and are associated with the tools. [6]
Kenyanthropus is a genus of extinct hominin identified from the Lomekwi site by Lake Turkana, Kenya, dated to 3.3 to 3.2 million years ago during the Middle Pliocene. It contains one species, K. platyops, but may also include the 2 million year old Homo rudolfensis, or K. rudolfensis. Before its naming in 2001, Australopithecus afarensis was widely regarded as the only australopithecine to exist during the Middle Pliocene, but Kenyanthropus evinces a greater diversity than once acknowledged. Kenyanthropus is most recognisable by an unusually flat face and small teeth for such an early hominin, with values on the extremes or beyond the range of variation for australopithecines in regard to these features. Multiple australopithecine species may have coexisted by foraging for different food items, which may be reason why these apes anatomically differ in features related to chewing.
Orrorin is an extinct genus of primate within Homininae from the Miocene Lukeino Formation and Pliocene Mabaget Formation, both of Kenya.
Homo ergaster is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether H. ergaster constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into H. erectus is an ongoing and unresolved dispute within palaeoanthropology. Proponents of synonymisation typically designate H. ergaster as "African Homo erectus" or "Homo erectus ergaster". The name Homo ergaster roughly translates to "working man", a reference to the more advanced tools used by the species in comparison to those of their ancestors. The fossil range of H. ergaster mainly covers the period of 1.7 to 1.4 million years ago, though a broader time range is possible. Though fossils are known from across East and Southern Africa, most H. ergaster fossils have been found along the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. There are later African fossils, some younger than 1 million years ago, that indicate long-term anatomical continuity, though it is unclear if they can be formally regarded as H. ergaster specimens. As a chronospecies, H. ergaster may have persisted to as late as 600,000 years ago, when new lineages of Homo arose in Africa.
Homo rudolfensis is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2 million years ago (mya). Because H. rudolfensis coexisted with several other hominins, it is debated what specimens can be confidently assigned to this species beyond the lectotype skull KNM-ER 1470 and other partial skull aspects. No bodily remains are definitively assigned to H. rudolfensis. Consequently, both its generic classification and validity are debated without any wide consensus, with some recommending the species to actually belong to the genus Australopithecus as A. rudolfensis or Kenyanthropus as K. rudolfensis, or that it is synonymous with the contemporaneous and anatomically similar H. habilis.
Oreopithecus is an extinct genus of hominoid primate from the Miocene epoch whose fossils have been found in today's Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy. It existed nine to seven million years ago in the Tusco-Sardinian area when this region was an isolated island in a chain of islands stretching from central Europe to northern Africa in what was becoming the Mediterranean Sea.
Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines within the family Hominidae, working from biological evidence and cultural evidence.
Turkana Boy, also called Nariokotome Boy, is the name given to fossil KNM-WT 15000, a nearly complete skeleton of a Homo erectus youth who lived 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago. This specimen is the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found. It was discovered in 1984 by Kamoya Kimeu on the bank of the Nariokotome River near Lake Turkana in Kenya.
Homo antecessor is an extinct species of archaic human recorded in the Spanish Sierra de Atapuerca, a productive archaeological site, from 1.2 to 0.8 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene. Populations of this species may have been present elsewhere in Western Europe, and were among the first to settle that region of the world, hence the name. The first fossils were found in the Gran Dolina cave in 1994, and the species was formally described in 1997 as the last common ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals, supplanting the more conventional H. heidelbergensis in this position. H. antecessor has since been reinterpreted as an offshoot from the modern human line, although probably one branching off just before the modern human/Neanderthal split.
Dmanisi is a town and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera. The hominin site is dated to 1.8 million years ago. It was the earliest known evidence of hominins outside Africa before stone tools dated to 2.1 million years were discovered in 2018 in Shangchen, China.
Paranthropus boisei is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and described by her husband Louis a month later. It was originally placed into its own genus as "Zinjanthropus boisei", but is now relegated to Paranthropus along with other robust australopithecines. However, it is also argued that Paranthropus is an invalid grouping and synonymous with Australopithecus, so the species is also often classified as Australopithecus boisei.
Megantereon is an extinct genus of prehistoric machairodontine saber-toothed cat that lived in North America, Eurasia, and Africa from the late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. It is a member of the tribe Smilodontini, and closely related to and possibly the ancestor of the famous American sabertooth Smilodon. In comparison to Smilodon it was somewhat smaller, around the size of a jaguar, though it is thought to have had a similar hunting strategy as an ambush predator.
Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language:
In the language of the Gabbra people who live near the site, the term Koobi Fora means a place of the commiphora and the source of myrrh...
Orce is a municipality located in the province of Granada, in southeastern Spain. According to the 2009 census (INE), the town has a population of 1,333 inhabitants.
Homo erectus is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Its specimens are among the first recognizable members of the genus Homo.
Ileret is a village in Marsabit County, Kenya. It is located in Northern Kenya, on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, north of Sibiloi National Park and near the Ethiopian border.
Australopithecus deyiremeda is an extinct species of australopithecine from Woranso–Mille, Afar Region, Ethiopia, about 3.5 to 3.3 million years ago during the Pliocene. Because it is known only from three partial jawbones, it is unclear if these specimens indeed represent a unique species or belong to the much better-known A. afarensis. A. deyiremeda is distinguished by its forward-facing cheek bones and small cheek teeth compared to those of other early hominins. It is unclear if a partial foot specimen exhibiting a dextrous big toe can be assigned to A. deyiremeda. A. deyiremeda lived in a mosaic environment featuring both open grasslands and lake- or riverside forests, and anthropologist Fred Spoor suggests it may have been involved in the Kenyan Lomekwi stone-tool industry typically assigned to Kenyanthropus. A. deyiremeda coexisted with A. afarensis, and they may have exhibited niche partitioning to avoid competing with each other for the same resources, such as by relying on different fallback foods during leaner times.
The Dmanisi hominins, Dmanisi people, or Dmanisi man were a population of Early Pleistocene hominins whose fossils have been recovered at Dmanisi, Georgia. The fossils and stone tools recovered at Dmanisi range in age from 1.85 to 1.77 million years old, making the Dmanisi hominins the earliest well-dated hominin fossils in Eurasia and the best preserved fossils of early Homo from a single site so early in time, though earlier fossils and artifacts have been found in Asia. Though their precise classification is controversial and disputed, the Dmanisi fossils are highly significant within research on early hominin migrations out of Africa. The Dmanisi hominins are known from over a hundred postcranial fossils and five famous well-preserved skulls, referred to as Dmanisi Skulls 1–5.
Barranco León is an archaeological site in Orce, Andalusia, Spain with an age range between 1.2 and 1.4 million of years. It is noted for having yielded evidence of hominin occupation, including the milk tooth of a boy or girl of 10 years. After the tooth had been dated, its original owner was hailed as having left the earliest anatomical evidence for humans in Western Europe.
The Kocabaş cranium is the damaged calvarium fossil of a young Homo erectus discovered near the village of Kocabaş, located in the Denizli Province of Turkey by quarry workers in 2002.
Equus altidens is an extinct species of equine native to western Eurasia including Europe during the Early Pleistocene to early Middle Pleistocene.
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