Paleogeneticists analyzed DNA extracted from ancient remains found at the Italian Paleolithic site of Riparo Tagliente. The scientists concluded that the lower jaw and postcranial bones most likely belonged to a single adult male, rather than two individuals, as previously assumed. According to a paper published in the journal Communications Biology, the remains are over 16,000 years old.
In the northern Italian province of Verona lies the Riparo Tagliente karst overhang, an archaeological site dating from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, discovered in 1958. In addition to numerous artifacts, during excavations in the 1960s and 1970s, researchers discovered the remains of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. In 1963, archaeologists discovered the lower jaw of a Cro-Magnon man in the mixed sediments of this site, and ten years later, they found the burial of a man missing his skull.
Paleoanthropologists determined that both the jaw and postcranial skeleton belonged to adult males who died at approximately 22–30 years of age. Despite this, the researchers suspected that the remains likely belonged to two different individuals who lived during the Epigravettian period. This was supported, in particular, by the results of radiocarbon dating. The scientists estimated the age of the rib at 15,570–16,130 years, and the tooth at 16,500–16,980 years, an average age difference of 890 years. Furthermore, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis also suggested that the remains belonged to two individuals.
Researchers from Germany and Italy, led by Cosimo Post of the University of Tübingen, have returned to studying these remains. Several years ago, the scientists extracted DNA from the lower jaw and teeth found at this site. Analysis revealed that the remains belonged to a man who was a member of the so-called Villabruna cluster—people who dispersed across the Italian Peninsula after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. He carried the mitochondrial haplogroup U2′3′4′7′8′9 and the Y-chromosomal haplogroup I2, which were common among European hunter-gatherers at the end of the Upper Paleolithic.
Post and his colleagues refined the age of the remains from Riparo Tagliente. According to the updated data, the femur is 16,210–16,360 years old, and the mandible is 16,130–16,460 years old. The researchers also isolated DNA from the femur to confirm whether the remains from this site belonged to one or two individuals. Genetic analysis revealed that the postcranial skeleton belonged to an individual with the same mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal haplogroups.
Further research revealed that the remains from Riparo Tagliente most likely belonged to a single individual or, less likely, identical twins. The difference in radiocarbon dates between the finds is likely due to contamination (possibly related to the preservation of the bones after excavation). Furthermore, the scientists also noted that analysis of the new genome indicated a small effective population size for Epigravettian hunter-gatherers, consistent with previous studies.
Recently, paleogeneticists analyzed the genome of a Cro-Magnon child who lived approximately 17,000 years ago in what is now Italy. Specifically, the scientists determined that he had the same mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal haplogroups as the man from Riparo Tagliente.
