Angela
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new skull for me:
this one is said being the Villabruna skull:
it seems neither on the Cro-Magnon's side (Arignacian?) nor on the Brünn-Capelle 's side;
quickly said "harmonic" face-skull so # Cro-M, and not so receding frontal so # Brünn-Capelle. Could be closer to the Chancelade model, a more "cerebral-skulled" pattern. But it seems stronger concerning the inferior jaw. Something modern yet. I hope we 'll have profil views of the new skulls we 'll have. The occipital and frontal lines are of importance for me. I think Chancelade was already incipiently mediterraneomorph, a tep towards some modern 'mediterraneans' types, the less 'westasian' ones, the more 'anatolian'-'western neareasterner' ones, speaking in a general way.
Here I make bets, nothing more: this Villabruna skull doesn't show evidence of crossing between the 2 older phyla (C-M, Br-Cap), when Loschbour could very well be one of this crossing results. So Villabruna could be a new phylum, with surely the same more ancient ancestors, but splitted from them since already a long enough time, and isolated for a time from the crossings which could have taken place between S-W France and Czechia.
???
As Fire-Haired pointed out in the thread about the Fu et al paper, the original study of the find described the head as "Caucasoid". They also provide a picture from the side. I hope the attachment function doesn't act up on me.
Click to enlarge.
I do see what you mean about it being more "modern" looking. Given what they're saying in Fu et al, a more "southern European", partly Mediterranean look would make sense.
Here's the paper to which Fire-Haired linked and from which the pictures come:
http://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2008 vol86/09_Vercelotti.pdf
"The Late Upper Paleolithic burial Villabruna 1 (Val Cismon, Belluno, Italy), directly dated to about 14,000 years ago (calibrated chronology), includes a well preserved skeleton accompanied by grave goods and covered with painted stones. The skeleton belongs to an adult male, about twenty-five years old, characterized by a relatively tall stature for the time period, short trunk and more linear body proportions than its contemporaries, similar to those of recent North-African populations. Multivariate statistical analysis of craniofacial characteristics place Villabruna 1 close to Le Bichon 1, a geographically and chronologically nearby specimen, suggesting genetic affinity among the last hunter and gatherers from the alpine region... Whereas the information on dietary habits drawn from dental wear is not conclusive, stable isotopes analysis points to a terrestrially based diet rich in animal proteins. Biomechanical study of major long bones indicates heightened overall robusticity and marked humeral asymmetry. These results suggest intense unimanual activity, possibly linked to repeated throwing movements in hunting, and the combined effect of mobile lifestyle and mountainous terrain, as far as the femur is concerned. Paleopathological analysis did not reveal signs of any major event which might help identify a possible cause of death. However, macroscopic and radiographic examination of the skull reveals traces of porotic hyperostosis, indicative of a healed anemic condition. Finally, localized tibial periostitis, probably of traumatic origin, and lumbar hyperlordosis associated with deformations of vertebral bodies and L5 spondylolysis provide evidence of additional, minor, pathological changes."
Height was about 168.2cm. "According to Formicola and Giannecchini (1999), the average stature of the European LUP males is about 165.6 cm (SD = 3.5). Consequently, the estimate obtained for Villabruna 1 falls within the upper part of the range of its contemporaries."
"Intralimb indices of Villabruna 1 (RL/HL; TL/FL) provide values similar to those of the North African sample and intermediate between those exhibited by Sub-Saharan and European populations."
There's lots of graphs and charts of comparisons which I'm sure will make more sense to you than to me.
Fwiw, one of the charts in the Fu et al paper has Loschbour as 85% Villabruna, but Bichon is 100% Villabruna.