Concepción de la Rúa

An analysis of genetic variants (SNPs, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) related to behaviors that may have favored the social and biological adaptation of our species in the last ~40,000 years has been carried out. These genetic polymorphisms are related to behaviors regulated by the HPA (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal) axis and have been analysed in a sample of human genomes collected from different paleogenomic databases. The obtained results show the complexity of the "prosociability" phenotypes, detecting however the existence of possible temporal changes in the allelic frequencies of some genes, such as OXTR (Oxytocin Receptor), which can be related to the development of prosocial behaviors since the end of the Upper Palaeolithic.

Dynamics of the Neolithic transition across Europe using ancient DNA datasets have established that Neolithic European populations received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers. However, the genetic diversity of Neolithic and Chalcolithic human populations was shaped predominantly by local processes. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Cantabrian fringe showed different proportions of local hunter-gatherers’ ancestry through time. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the mitochondrial variation of populations from the northern Iberian Peninsula from Neolithic to Chalcolithic time using new data from El Aramo mine (Asturias), in the context of the debate about the origin and dispersion of the Beaker culture in Europe.

After the dispersal of modern humans (Homo sapiens) Out of Africa, hominins with a similar morphology to that of present-day humans initiated the gradual demographic expansion into Eurasia. The mitogenome (33-fold coverage) of the Peştera Muierii 1 individual (PM1) from Romania (35 ky cal BP) we present in this article corresponds fully to Homo sapiens, whilst exhibiting a mosaic of morphological features related to both modern humans and Neandertals. We have identified the PM1 mitogenome as a basal haplogroup U6*, not previously found in any ancient or present-day humans. The derived U6 haplotypes are predominantly found in present-day North-Western African populations. Concomitantly, those found in Europe have been attributed to recent gene-flow from North Africa. The presence of the basal haplogroup U6* in South East Europe (Romania) at 35 ky BP confirms a Eurasian origin of the U6 mitochondrial lineage. Consequently, we propose that the PM1 lineage is an offshoot to South East Europe that can be traced to the Early Upper Paleolithic back migration from Western Asia to North Africa, during which the U6 lineage diversified, until the emergence of the present-day U6 African lineages.

Objectives: The study focuses on the estimation of demographic parameters of Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (mid 4th‐early 3rd millenniums cal. BC) burial sites from the La Rioja region (Ebro valley, northern Spain) to identify demographic characteristics.Materials and Methods: The human remains come from three caves (Las Yurdinas II, Peña Larga, and La Peña de Marañón) and three megalithic graves (Alto de la Huesera, San Martín, and Peña Guerra II). The total skeletal sample consists of a minimum of 261 individuals, 149 being buried in caves and 112 in megalithic graves. Data based on age and sex estimation are analyzed using abridged life tables, mortality rates, and sex ratios.Results: A systematic bias against children under 5 years of age is detected both in caves (₅q₀ = 187.92%) and megalithic graves (₅q₀ = 71.43%) but also against some juveniles and adults compared with population models, though a statistically significant greater lack of infants is worth noting in the megaliths (t‐test, P = 0.012). Moreover, a significant divergence in sex ratios (χ², P = 0.002) is also identified between site types, clearly prioritizing women in caves (sex ratio = 0.45) and men in megalithic graves (sex ratio = 1.33).Conclusions: This evidence is interpreted as the result of different selective burial patterns. The mortuary variability could lie behind intragroup differential status relationships, though the hypothesis of two populations performing distinct funerary practices in a small region cannot be rejected at the present state of the research. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:284–297, 2016.