Jean-Luc Voisin

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · UMR 7194 and UMR 7268

This note provides information on a new, online dental database and concludes with some observations about the use of the Internet and the growth of available online databases. First, we describe our web site, which allows downloading, free of charge, of dental metric data from apes to recent modern humans. Currently, the sample consists of length...

Neanderthals are the best-known fossil hominid group, but at the same time many aspects of their evolution are still poorly understood. The variation of numerous characters in Neanderthal populations shows a geographical gradient. From west to east, characters become less and less Neanderthal-like and more and more modern humanlike. Moreover, in Ce...

In spite of its importance for movements of the upper limbs, the clavicle is an infrequently studied shoulder bone. The present study compares clavicular morphology among different extant primates. Methods have included the assessment of clavicular curvatures projected on two perpendicular planes that can be assessed overall as cranial and dorsal p...

Deux fragments claviculaires, notés A63 et A91, ont été mis au jour dans la Caune de l’Arago. Le deuxième fragment (A91) présente toutes les caractéristiques des clavicules du Pléistocène moyen, en particulier des insertions musculaires prononcées ainsi qu’un aplatissement supéro-inférieur important. En revanche, la clavicule A63 se distingue des r...

Angesichts des spärlichen Baumbewuchses, der einst im südlichen Afrika herrschte, überrascht die Existenz eines Homininen, der offensichtlich ans Klettern angepasst war. Doch anscheinend konnte sich Homo naledi damit einen anderen, sonst nur schwer zugänglichen Lebensraum erschließen.

2nd Newsletter of the COST Action Integrating neandertal Legacy: From Past to Present

Deux fragments claviculaires, notés A63 et A91, ont été mis au jour dans la Caune de l’Arago. Le deuxième fragment (A91) présente toutes les caractéristiques des clavicules du Pléistocène moyen, en particulier des insertions musculaires prononcées ainsi qu’un aplatissement supéro-inférieur important. En revanche, la clavicule A63 se distingue des r...

This is the first issue of the iNEAL newsletter! With this issue, we are laying a flexible foundation for subsequent issues. We have structured the newsletter to inform you about the latest developments in the iNEAL project, to introduce you to projects, people and participating institutions or sites, and to recommend work that our members find int...

Traces of Neandertal cultural and skeletal remains are found in most European countries, covering a time-span of more than 250,000 years. Since the recognition of Neandertals as a specific human group, following discoveries in the Neander valley in 1856, much works has been taken on many aspects of their heritage (cultural, anthropological, genetic...

French L’anatomie de grimpeur d’Homo naledi semble aberrante étant donné la rareté des arbres dans la région où vivait cette espèce. Mais il pourrait s’agir d’une adaptation aux falaises et aux grottes, habitats qui étaient aussi ceux des prédécesseurs australopithèques. English The climbing anatomy of Homo naledi seems aberrant given the scarcity...

Homo naledi, a recently discovered hominin species from the Rising Star cave complex in Gauteng Province, South Africa, is a surprising species in more ways than one. The conditions of accumulation, as well as the location of these remains in the cave are intriguing, as is their age of approximately 300,000 years. Likewise, the number of remains as...

Homo naledi skeletal material described from the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star System, in the Cradle of Humankind , South Africa, includes upper limb material with remarkably ape-like morphology occurring in the context of a distinctly modern human-like lower limb, foot, and hand. Here we describe upper limb specimens from a new fossil hominin site...

The upper limb of Homo naledi has previously been described from fragmentary material discovered in the Dinaledi Chamber in the Rising Star cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. Recent work at Rising Star has led to the recovery of additional fossil material attributed to H. naledi from a new fossil site within the system called the Lesed...

The effects ofacromial impingement syndrome are common after age 40 in humans and absent in other primates, including great apes, our closest cousins. In view of the disabling effects of this phenomenon, it is still presented as a pathology. However, if one refers to human evolution, the contact between the humeral head and the rotator cuff can be...

Chapitre I : La grotte du Lazaret : Cadre géographique, Historique des recherches, Stratigraphie, par Henry de Lumley, Annie Echassoux et Samir Khatib ……………………. Chapitre II : Datation des dépôts pléistocènes de la grotte du Lazaret, par Véronique Michel, Mathieu Duval et Guanjun Shen ……………………………………………………………… Chapitre III : Historique des découver...

The diaphyseal fragment of the left humerus, Laz 14, altered, provides little structural information. This diaphysis shows a more circular outline than in the majority of European Neanderthals from which it can be differentiated. Because of its gracefulness, highlighted by the small perimeter in the middle, Laz 14 also individualizes Neanderthals (...

This short chapter is about species definitions. This text was written for the exhibition entitled "Néandertal" which is held at the Musée de l'Homme (Paris, France) during the year 2018.

Abstract The enigmatic Homo naledi has many special characteristics. This geologically recent species is characterized by a mosaic of derived and archaic characters. Today, 12 clavicles and 15 scapulas have been discovered, coming from the cave chambers Dinaledi (site 101) and Lesedi (also known as Site 102). The scapulas are very fragmentary and a...

French abstract below the english one *Abstract The human shoulder often poses many problems from fourth decade in man, whereas the great apes (Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan and Gibbons) do not appear to be subject to such disorders. The shoulder of great apes and man shares many common traits but also many differences. These differences are the r...

(For English Abstract: See below). La grotte des Deux-Ouvertures s’ouvre en rive gauche peu avant la sortie des gorges de l’Ardèche, sur le territoire de la commune de Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche. Bien que connue depuis 1896, ce n’est qu’en 1985 qu’était découverte la partie profonde du réseau : une galerie qui présentait des ossements éparpillés sur l...

Résumé Introduction De nombreuses études anatomocliniques se sont intéressées aux variations de l’acromion, du ligament acromiocoracoïdien (LAC) et de l’espace sous-acromial associées aux lésions de la coiffe des rotateurs. Aucune étude n’a, en revanche, défini anatomiquement le canal ostéoligamentaire circonscrivant le muscle supra-épineux en sou...

Introduction: Many clinical anatomy studies have looked into how variations in the acromion, coracoacromial ligament (CAL) and subacromial space are associated with rotator cuff injuries. However, no study up to now had defined anatomically the fibro-osseous canal that confines the supraspinatus muscle in the subcoracoacromial space. Through an an...

This chapter is a short introduction about following chapters (chapters 50 to 65) concerning the anatomical study of the "Dame du Cavillon" before known as "Homme de Menton"

Metric and morphological analyzes of the Cavillon’s skeletal elements showed slight asymmetry of length, of robustness and of entheses of the upper and lower limbs. The greater slenderness of the left upper limb might be the result of the consolidated fracture of the radius which involved a long immobilization of the arm. Concerning the lower limb,...

The scapular girdle of the "Dame du Cavillon", although of modern type, is characterized by bones with large dimensions, almost always in the superior part of the variability of Modern humans as well as Upper Paleolithic humans. The clavicles of "Dame du Cavillon" share with many other Upper Paleolithic remains: - a very pronounced lower curvature,...

The suprascapular foramen is a rare but not exceptional variation of the suprascapular notch. The suprascapular notch and suprascapular foramen could lead to pain and muscles atrophy because of nerve compression. In this study, we present a suprascapular foramen which does not correspond to a nerve's trajectory but rather corresponds to a specific...

Le muscle long palmaire, également appelé palmaris longus (PL) dans la nomenclature internationale, est décrit comme un fléchisseur accessoire et inconstant du poignet. Sa variabilité est très élevée selon les espèces et au sein des différentes populations humaines. Lorsqu’il est présent son tendon peut servir de greffon. Les patients se demandent...

This is the summary of a presentation to be held at the congress of the SFA (Société Française d’Arthroscopie) 9 to 12 December, 2015 in Grenoble (France)

This is the summary of a presentation to be held at the congress of the SFA (Société Française d’Arthroscopie) 9 to 12 December, 2015 in Grenoble (France)

L'Homme est caractérisé par une forte prévalence des tendinopathies de la coiffe des rotateurs après 40 ans. La forme intrinsèque de l'acromion n'est plus considérée comme responsable de ces pathologies (contra Bigliani et al., 1986) remplacée par l'hypothèse de La prévalence élevée des tendinopathies de la coiffe des rotateurs de l’homme moderne e...

Since the discovery of three well preserved australopithecine skeletons, viz., Malapa (Australopithecus sediba), Woranso-Mille (Australopithecus afarensis) and Dikika (juvenile Australopithecus afarensis) the debate about their putative arboreal locomotion is still not closed although their upper limbs, and in peculiar their shoulder girdles, are w...

The high prevalence of rotator cuff tendinopathy in modern humans may be partly related to the shape acquired by the scapula as species changed throughout evolution. Here, we compared the anatomic features of the scapula across members of the Hominoid group. The results support the hypothesis that the scapula of Homo sapiens sapiens exhibits distin...

This is the french version of the paper "The human acromion viewed from an evolutionary perspective" La prévalence élevée des tendinopathies de la coiffe des rotateurs de l’homme moderne pourrait être en partie expliquée par la morphologie de la scapula issue de l’évolution des espèces. Cette étude d’anatomie osseuse comparée au sein du groupe des...

Paglicci Cave (Rignano Garganico-FO), with its deposit of 12 m, contains (in addition to the Acheulean phases and those of the ancient middle Paleolithic), the entire sequence of the upper Paleolithic (from the Aurignacian to the final Epigravettian culture). It is an invaluable resource for knowledge of the ancient populations of Homo sapiens in E...

La clavicule, os clé dans l’articulation de l’épaule, a été peu étudiée aussi bien en Anthropologie du Vivant qu’en Paléoanthropologie. Ici, nous nous posons des questions sur sa variabilité et sur son évolution chez l’Homme moderne, comme cela a déjà été fait sur des os longs. Ce qui rend l’analyse de la clavicule intéressante, c’est sa morphologi...

Le site de Paglicci est situé sur le versant méridional du Gargano, en Puglie (Italie). Ce très riche site a été fouillé entre 1961 et 1963, sous la direction de F. Zorzi, par le Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, puis à partir de 1971 c'est l’Università di Siena qui a eu la charge de ce site d'abord , sous la direction de A. Palma di Cesno...

Central European evidence has proven invaluable to our understanding of modern human origins. Important early discoveries such as Feldhofer and Krapina have continued to offer new insights on Neandertal biology and lifeways, as have large samples of early modern humans. More recently, the discoveries at Vindija Cave and sites in Romania have provid...

Article de vulgarisation sur le site http://www.hominides.com Domaine : Préhistoire, anthropologie, news, ... http://www.hominides.com/html/actualites/neandertal-sapiens-hybridation-visible-fossiles-0715.php

Article de vulgarisation sur le site http://www.hominides.com Domaine : Préhistoire, anthropologie, news, ... http://www.hominides.com/html/chronologie/glaciations-ere-glaciaire.php

Depuis les travaux de Finnegan et de Saunders à la fin des années 1970, aucun travail de synthèse sur les caractères discrets postcrâniens n’a été entrepris. Or, les connaissances concernant ces caractères, en particulier leur étiologie, ont beaucoup progressé, notamment grâce aux nombreuses études médicales. De surcroît, ces travaux sont répartis...

This article is a confrontation with Eric Buffetaut on the future of humanity: two researchers, two opposing views.

Les premiers hommes modernes auraient eu d’autant plus de mal à s’hybrider avec les Néandertaliens qu’ils les rencontraient vers l’Ouest de l’Europe.

This communication introduces a new web site, <http://anthropologicaldata.free.fr/> (without www), which allows anyone to download free metric tooth data. The aim of this web site is to provide comprehensive, standard dental metrics for most, if not all, of the permanent teeth of the earliest hominins to modern humans. Much of the human fossil reco...

Neanderthal extinction is still under debate and there are two main schools of thought on this topic: (1) Neanderthals and modern humans are two distinct species and (2) Neanderthals and modern humans are a single species, with or without two subspecies. Recently, a new hypothesis has risen up, which takes into account arguments from both schools:...

Communications orales et affichées de la 1836ème Journée de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris parues dans Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris , 23 S1-S40

We compared the dental assemblage of the Rhône Valley corridor (RVC) with that of European Neandertals dating to MOIS 7-4 using two linear measurements and three indices. To test if the RVC population was significantly different from Western European Neandertals, we preformed a multi-tiered approached. First, we tested for the normality of the vari...

The morphology of human clavicles can be estimated by projecting them on two perpendicular planes in order to assess the shapes of their cranial and dorsal primary curvatures. In cranial view no differences in curvature appear within the genus Homo, which means the different species had similar arms elevation capacity, especially in protraction. On...

No abstract

The morphology of human clavicles can be estimated by projecting them on two perpendicular planes in order to assess the shapes of their cranial and dorsal primary curvatures. In cranial view no differences in curvature appear within the genus Homo, which means the different species had similar arms elevation capacity, especially in protraction. On...

Les néandertaliens (-200 000 à -33 000 ans) constituent le premier groupe humain fossile reconnu. Leur aire de répartition s’étend sur toute l’Europe jusqu’au Levant. En 1856, les restes du premier néandertalien reconnu ont été découverts dans une carrière, près de Düsseldorf. Les descriptions de ce fossile n’ont été traduites en anglais qu’en 1861...

Assessment of clavicular curvatures projected onto two perpendicular planes to decompose the three dimensional shape into cranial and dorsal primary curvatures has shown that two morphological groups of clavicle exist within the genus Homo. The first one includes all species from Homo habilis to Neandertals, while the second includes only Upper Pal...

Neanderthals are certainly the best known fossil hominid group. At the same time many aspects of their history are still misunderstood and especially their extinction and taxonomic relations with modern humans. There are two schools on this topic: the first one considers Neanderthal and modern humans as two distinct species and the second considers...

The clavicle is the less studied element of the shoulder girdle, even if it is a very important bone for human evolution because it permits all movements outside the parasagittal plan. In this work, clavicle curvatures are studied by projecting them on a cranial and a dorsal plan, which are perpendicular. In cranial view, there is no difference wit...

The « transitional lithic assemblages » and the Neanderthal speciation in Europe between 40–30 ka. In Europe, 14C dating provides various histories about the relationship between Neanderthals and the oldest Modern Humans who inhabited Europe. ‘Transitional cultures’ have been identified these latest years in lithic assemblages according to the tech...

This study presents the preliminary results of an examination of internal clavicular structures using CT scan data analysis. The complex morphology of this bone makes the determination of a reproducible CT slice plane impossible and so any classical analysis of the two-dimensional CT data is ruled out. We propose a new protocol which enables quanti...

Clavicle: shoulder architecture and thoughts about the systematic of Neanderthals. The clavicle morphology in dorsal view, which is associated to shoulder architecture, is different in Neanderthals, great apes and modern humans. Its morphology shows that the Neanderthal scapula was in a higher position in regard to the thorax than in modern humans,...

Ce travail présente une étude de la position de la tubérosité deltoïdienne chez les hominoïdes, les atèles et certains cercopithécoïdes. Les résultats montrent que les tubérosités deltoïdiennes les plus distales ne sont pas associées à des comportements brachiateurs extrêmes, mais au contraire aux grands singes africains et à l’homme. La plus court...

This work presents a study related to the position of the humeral tuberosity in hominoids, spider monkeys and some cercopithecoids. Results show that the most distal humeral tuberosities are not associated to extreme brachiator behaviours, contrary to great apes and human. The shortest exten- sion of the deltoid's insertion area on the brachiator p...

Ce travail présente les résultats préliminaires d’une étude sur les structures claviculaires internes, par l’intermédiaire du scanner à rayon X. La morphologie complexe de cet os rend impossible la détermination d’un plan de coupe similaire et reproductible d’un individu à l’autre et interdit ainsi toute analyse classique des données scanographique...

The clavicle is a very slightly known bone in spite of is importance for the arm movements outside the sagital plan. In this work I compare curvatures between apes, modern man and neandertal. When the clavicles curvatures are projected on two perpendicular plans (superior and posterior), they split on elementary curvatures. When clavicle morpholo...

Survey in the upper reaches of the Yarkhun valley (Chitral district, northern Pakistan), on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush range, led to the discovery of six sites yielding lithic industries at altitudes between 3000 and 4000 m. These lithic series bear common features. Technologically they appear archaic for they just consist of coarsely tr...

Le premier reste de ce primate, une molaire, a été découvert par Ralph von Koenigswald dans une pharmacie de Hong Kong en 1935. Depuis, d’autres dents ainsi que trois mandibules ont été mises au jour. Ces dents, en dehors de leur taille exceptionnelle, présentent une morphologie proche de celle des hommes modernes. Leur forme indique un régime herb...

The clavicle is the less studied shoulder bone from the point of view of comparative anatomy in spite of its importance for the movements of the upper limbs. In this study, we have compared the clavicle curvature between extant hominoids and some fossils (Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo antecessor and Neandertal). The curvature in superior view s...

Evolution of the Clavicular Morphology within the Genus Homo. Architectural and Functional Consequences on the Shoulder Girdle.The clavicle is the less studied shoulder bone from the point of view of comparative anatomy in spite of its importance for the movements of the upper limbs. In this study we have compared the clavicle curvature between ext...

The orientation of the coracoid process, in relation to the scapula, is different in man on one hand and other hominoids (Pan, Gorilla, Pongo, Hylobates), spider and colobus mo