Fabio Di Vincenzo

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Sapienza University of Rome

Reconstructing ancient population size dynamics is fundamental to understanding human evolution. Using the fast infinitesimal time coalescent process (FitCoal), we identified a severe population bottleneck around 930,000 years ago that drastically reduced the ancestral population. Despite its profound evolutionary consequences, this event left only...

The study of human evolution integrates insights from a variety of fields, including palaeontology, archaeology, and genetics. The fossil record discloses the physical traits, taxonomic identity, life histories and social structures of ancient human ancestors, while artefacts from material culture provide clues to their cognitive abilities and beha...

Population size history is essential for studying human evolution. However, ancient population size history during the Pleistocene is notoriously difficult to unravel. In this study, we developed a fast infinitesimal time coalescent process (FitCoal) to circumvent this difficulty and calculated the composite likelihood for present-day human genomic...

Complete Neanderthal skeletons are almost unique findings. A very well-preserved specimen of this kind was discovered in 1993 in the deepest recesses of a karstic system near the town of Altamura in Southern Italy. We present here a detailed description of the cranium, after we virtually extracted it from the surrounding stalagmites and stalactites...

The increase of brain dimensions and complexity has characterized the evolution of the genus Homo. According to the available fossil and genetic evidence, a crucial stage came before the divergence of Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens , during the Middle Pleistocene. We consider a specimen of about 400 ka, whose phenotype is at the roots of...

The increase of brain dimensions and complexity has characterized the evolution of the genus Homo. According to the available fossil and genetic evidence, a crucial stage came before the divergence of Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo sapiens, during the Middle Pleistocene. We consider a specimen of about 400 ka, whose phenotype is at the roots of...

Human remains can tell us the story of single individuals as well as entire populations, and they can be informative on cultural practices. Thus, they are part of our cultural heritage. The management of human remains as cultural heritage must consider the needs of preservation, research, and dissemination. The use of 3D technologies provides advan...

The Fuegians, ancient inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, are an exemplary case of a cold-adapted population, since they were capable of living in extreme climatic conditions without any adequate clothing. However, the mechanisms of their extraordinary resistance to cold remain enigmatic. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a crucial role in this kind of...

A recent protocol of digital restoration is applied to the Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Steinheim (Germany). The retrodeformation of the specimen sheds new light on the taphonomic origin of some peculiar features observed on the cranium and returned a morphology consistent with its attribution to the Neanderthal lineage.

A number of different approaches are currently available to digitally restore the symmetry of a specimen deformed by taphonomic processes. These tools include mirroring and retrodeformation to approximate the original shape of an object by symmetrisation. Retrodeformation has the potential to return a rather faithful representation of the original...

The fossil record from the Italian peninsula is of special interest for assessing the variability of pre-modern human populations (i.e., extinct humans non-belonging to the proper species Homo sapiens) and their evolutionary history. In 2005, a detailed “Catalogue of Italian Fossil Human Remains from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic” was publishe...

The fossil record from the Italian peninsula is of special interest for assessing the variability of pre-modern human populations (i.e., extinct humans non-belonging to the proper species Homo sapiens) and their evolutionary history. In 2005, a detailed "Catalogue of Italian Fossil Human Remains from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic" was publishe...

Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant Our understanding of the origin, distribution, and evolution of early humans and their close relatives has been greatly refined by recent new information. Adding to this trend, Hershkovitz et al. have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown archaic Homo population, the “Nesher Ramla Homo ” (see the Perspecti...

The Fuegians, extinct inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, were an exemplary case of a cold-adapted population capable of living in extreme weather conditions without any adequate clothing, however the mechanisms of their extraordinary resistance to cold remain enigmatic. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays a crucial role in this kind of adaptation beside...

The Neanderthal specimen from Lamalunga Cave, near Altamura (Apulia, Italy), was discovered during a speleological survey in 1993. The specimen is one of the most complete fossil hominins in Europe and its state of preservation is exceptional, although it is stuck in calcareous concretions and the bones are mostly covered by calcite depositions. Ne...

The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The trajectory of the spread of Longobards in Italy across the Alps and into the South is known from many literary sources. However, their mobility and residence patterns at a popu...

Modern humans have larger and more globular brains when compared to other primates. Such anatomical features are further reflected in the possession of a moderately asymmetrical brain with the two hemispheres apparently rotated counterclockwise and slid anteroposteriorly on one another, in what is traditionally described as the Yakovlevian torque....

In modern shape analysis, deformation is quantified in different ways depending on the algorithms used and on the scale at which it is evaluated. While global affine and non-affine deformation components can be decoupled and computed using a variety of methods, the very local deformation can be considered, infinitesimally, as an affine deformation....

Purpose Medical imaging applied to archaeological human remains represents a powerful tool for the study of specimens of exceptionally fragile nature. Here, the authors report a tomographic computerized investigation on the naturally mummified human remains from the Takarkori rock shelter (Libyan Sahara), dated to the Middle Pastoral Neolithic (ca....

The research team at the Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome has a long-standing interest in th e study of past ecosystems and human adaptation to environment across time. Researches span from the earliest phases of prehistory to modern times and include the study of both human and botanical remains. Within the ADAMO pr...

One of the features that distinguishes modern humans from our extinct relatives and ancestors is the globular shape of the braincase. As the endocranium closely mirrors the outer shape of the brain, these differences might reflect altered neural architecture. However, in the absence of fossil brain tissue the underlying neuroanatomical changes as w...

Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond - edited by M. C. Gatto February 2019

During collation of the Supplemental Information for this article, a formatting error occurred that affected the small values that were in scientific notation in the original text file. All data values reported in the paper and shown in the figures are correct, and this error in formatting the Supplemental Information for publication did not have a...

One of the features that distinguishes modern humans from our extinct relatives and ancestors is a globular shape of the braincase [1–4]. As the endocranium closely mirrors the outer shape of the brain, these differences might reflect altered neural architecture [4, 5]. However, in the absence of fossil brain tissue, the underlying neuroanatomical...

The exceptionally well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton discovered in October 1993 within the Lamalunga cave near Altamura (Puglia, Italy) has been recently dated to a late Middle Pleistocene chronology, bracketed between 128.2 and 187.0 ka. Although the skeleton is still sealed in situ, in 2009 and 2015 a large part of its fragmentary right scapula...

Several digital technologies are nowadays developed and applied to the study of the human fossil record. Here, we present a low-cost hardware implementation of the digital acquisition via photogrammetry, applied to a specimen of paleoanthropological interest: the Neanderthal skull Saccopastore 1. Such implementation has the purpose to semi-automati...

The remains that typically compose the human fossil record often bear cracks, damage, and deformations. The recent rapid development of ‘virtual anthropology’ has provided innovative tools to manage, study, and preserve cultural and natural heritage. Such tools include computerized tomography (CT), laser scanning, photogrammetry, 3D imaging, and ra...

The remains that tipically compose the human fossil and archeological record often bear cracks, damages and deformations. The rapid development of virtual anthropology has provided innovative tools to manage, study and preserve cultural and natural heritage. The first step in a virtual anthropology study is represented by the acquisition, that can...

The Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis and the social brain hypothesis have revolutionized traditional views on how primate cognition can be studied. Beyond the study of individual problem-solving capacities of various primates, these hypotheses have demonstrated the close relationship between the complexity of primate social life and the emerge...

The creation of cultural information by humans is an ability that requires to compound together different factors. Although information needs to be transmitted faithfully enough so to prevent errors, space must be left to create innovations at the same time. Individual trial and error is the principal source of innovations among all primate species...

The Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese dates from the 6th to the 8th centuries AD. Among the 164 tombs excavated, the skeleton of an older male shows a well-healed amputated right forearm. The orientation of the forearm fracture suggests an angled cut by a single blow. Reasons why a forearm might be amputated include combat, medical interv...

Members of the hominins - namely the so-called 'australopiths' and the species of the genus Homo - are known to possess short and deep mandibles and relatively small incisors and canines. It is commonly assumed that this suite of traits evolved in early members of the clade in response to changing environmental conditions and increased consumption...

The Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese dates from the 6th to the 8th centuries AD. Among the 164 tombs excavated, the skeleton of an older male shows a well-healed amputated right forearm. The orientation of the forearm fracture suggests an angled cut by a single blow. Reasons why a forearm might be amputated include combat, medical interv...

Many fossil specimens exhibit deformations caused by taphonomic processes. Due to these deformations, even important specimens have to be excluded from morphometric analyses, impoverishing an already poor paleontological record. Techniques to retrodeform and virtually restore damaged (i.e. deformed) specimens are available, but these methods genene...

This supplementary material provides the code and data to reproduce the results from our artificial case study using a virtually deformed Gorilla gorilla cranium. (ZIP)

This interdisciplinary volume brings together expert researchers coming from primatology, anthropology, ethology, philosophy of cognitive sciences, neurophysiology, mathematics and psychology to discuss both the foundations of non-human primate and human social cognition as well as the means there currently exist to study the various facets of soci...

The evolutionary relationship between the base and face of the cranium is a major topic of interest in primatology. Such areas of the skull possibly respond to different selective pressures. Yet, they are often said to be tightly integrated. In this paper, we analyzed shape variability in the cranial base and the facial complex in Cercopithecoidea...

The Ceprano calvarium was discovered in fragments on March 1994 near the town of Ceprano in southern Latium (Italy), embedded in Middle Pleistocene layers. After reconstruction, its morphological features suggests that the specimen belongs to an archaic variant of H. heidelbergensis, representing a proxy for the last common ancestor of the divergin...

Virtual anthropology has been rapidly developing in recent years. Innovative tools, as well as software and methodologies, allow the study of specimens with increased detail and limited physical intervention. The first step in a virtual anthropology study is represented by the acquisition, that can be carried out by different methods. The one that...

The Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese located in Veneto; Northern Italy was discovered in 1985. Archaeological evidence tells us the necropolis was used during the VI-VIII centuries AD. Over 240 skeletons have been recovered from the necropolis. Age and sex for each burial has been previously reported (Micarelli 2015). The skeleton of an...

The native groups of Patagonia have relied on a hunter-gatherer economy well after the first Europeans and North Americans reached this part of the world. The large exploitation of marine mammals (i.e., seals) by such allochthonous groups has had a strong impact on the local ecology in a way that might have forced the natives to adjust their subsis...

Statistics report. Summary of the Mann-Whitney U test for human carbon and nitrogen data according to sex. The three subsets are kept separate. For the Ushuaia subset 7 individuals were excluded, as no sex estimate was available. (DOCX)

Biplot of stable carbon and nitrogen data. Mean humans∂13C and ∂15N values (with sd) for pre-contact (n = 14) and post-contact (n = 28) subsets. (DOCX)

The recent and rapid development of the diagnostic potential of virtual archaeology has provided innovative tools to manage and study skeletal remains, with 3D imaging techniques substituting physical interventions. The development of computerized technologies based on photogrammetry and CT-scan allow us to acquire, record, and process digitally re...

Museal collections include a large amount of cranial specimens of living and fossil primates. This material served as the basis for detailed morphological studies also relatively to their internal anatomy. Unfortunately, until recently, the study of the cranial cavity (e.g. the endocranial cavity) was often possible only by removing mechanically ex...

Discovered in 1993 [1], the so-called ”uomo di Altamura” is a rare example of a rather complete non-modern human skeleton and one of the most amazing paleoanthropological specimen ever found in Europe. It represents a massive adult male Neanderthal with some peculiarities in its morphology and a very ancient age, ranging between 128 and 187 ka [2]....

During the “Sabato al Museo” (7 and 21 May 2016) and the European Night at the Museums (21 May 2016) events, organized by the “Polo museale Sapienza” (PmS - https://web.uniroma1.it/polomuseale/), the Italian Geological Society (SGI - http://www.socgeol.it/) designed and realized six laboratories for children. These were carried out in two of “Sapie...

During the “Sabato al Museo” (7 and 21 May 2016) and the European Night at the Museums (21 May 2016) events, organized by the “Polo museale Sapienza” (PmS - https://web.uniroma1.it/polomuseale/), the Italian Geological Society (SGI - http://www.socgeol.it/) designed and realized six laboratories for children. These were carried out in two of “Sapie...

The Middle Pastoral human remains from Wadi Takarkori in the Libyan Acacus mountains (Fezzan) are exceptionally preserved partial mummies ranging between 6100 and 5000 uncal years BP; this small sample represents the most ancient of its kind ever found. In this report, we present a survey of the skeletal anatomy of these mummifed corpses, based on...

African archaic humans dated to around 1,0 Ma share morphological affinities with Homo ergaster and appear distinct in cranio-dental morphology from those of the Middle Pleistocene that are referred to Homo heidelbergensis. This observation suggests a taxonomic and phylogenetic discontinuity in Africa that ranges across the Matuyama/Brunhes reversa...

Survival in refugia could have been a critical aspect in the demise of Neanderthals, in a way that makes it crucial to investigate human dispersal and paleoecology of the last Neanderthal populations during the Late Pleistocene. South of the Alps and bound by the Appennines to the east and the Tyrrhenian coast to the west, southern Latium constitut...

The Ceprano calvarium was found on March 1994 in the Mid-Pleistocene site of Campogrande (southern Latium, Italy) [1]. At the time of its discovery its presumed position in the regional stratigraphy suggested an age of about 800-900 ka. However, after systematic field activities started in 2001, new results obtained through a multidisciplinary appr...

All living beings communicate but only humans have language. This is because in order to work properly, language requires the co-occurrence of a "symbolic mind" and of a "computational mind" (based on recursive thinking). The former must be able to give a specific meaning to gestures, sounds and signs which in themselves would not have one, the lat...

“Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history”: this was the single line that Charles Darwin devoted to human evolution in the Origin of Species (1859). At present, there is a number of extinct species, which we understand to be related to human evolution, demonstrating that the Darwin’s prediction was correct: light has been thrown, i...

The field seasons 2004-2006 at the necropolis of Fewet provided 33 human ske-letons in various state of preservation. A comprehensive description of the human skeletal sample is reported here, with the aim to provide anthropological data related to the emer-gence of the Garamantian society in the Fezzan. Overall, the study includes: a tentative pal...

Although the shape of the scapular glenoid fossa (SGF) may be influenced by epigenetic and developmental factors, there appears to be strong genetic control over its overall form, such that variation within and between hominin taxa in SGF shape may contain information about their evolutionary histories. Here we present the results of a geometric mo...

Depuis 1987, on sait que l'homme moderne, Homo sapiens, est une espèce née en Afrique, il y a envi-ron 200000 ans. Cette conclusion, issue des études sur la diversité génétique de notre espèce, a fait pencher la balance en faveur de la théorie d'une origine africaine de l'homme moderne, au détriment de la théorie alternative, le modèle de l'évolu-t...