"Cro-Magnon 1" Reconstruction

[Jovialis]

Cro-Magnon man had a face covered in lumps including a large one on his forehead—likely benign tumours caused by a genetic disease, according to a team of French researchers in new findings published Friday.

The skeleton of Cro-Magnon 1, a male Homo sapiens dating back 28,000 years, was discovered in 1868 in the Eyzies cave in France's southwestern Dordogne region.

To mark 150 years since the discovery of the bones, a team of researchers including anthropologist Philippe Charlier reexamined the remains.

At the end of their investigation, "we proposed a new diagnosis: he had suffered from a type of neurofibromatosis," Charlier told AFP.

Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disease which can cause benign tumours to develop in the nervous system, and also spots or areas of pigmentation on the skin.

The team's findings will be published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet.

Cro-Magnon man's skull "has a lesion on the forehead which corresponds to the presence of a neurofibroma (a benign nerve sheath tumor)" which has eroded the bone, Charlier said.

"His left ear canal was also damaged, presumably also by a tumour that had grown," he added.

Equipped with this diagnosis, "we have made a realistic reconstruction of the face of this middle-aged man, taking into account his pathology".

The visual forensic reconstruction shows a face covered in tumours, including a large one on the forehead and scores more little nodules across his face, in particular clustered around the mouth, nose and eyes.

"He has them everywhere," Charlier said.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-03-warts-reconstruct-cro-magnon.html#jCp
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30495-1/fulltext

This looks incorrect, because the pigmentation is wrong.

Wouldn't he have been part of the Gravettian Expansion?

http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/607

 

[Angela]

This looks incorrect, because the pigmentation is wrong.

Wouldn't he have been part of the Gravettian Expansion?

http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/607

Unless they did an analysis of his genes and know otherwise, you're correct.

As I said, some researchers, especially anthropologists, seem to be living in a time warp.

 

[MOESAN]

They have been serious enough to study this genetic disease - maybe they could not extract the zone concerned by pigmentation?
concerning waving hair, did they study the concerned genes?

 

[Jovialis]

The Cro-Magnon 1 skeleton corresponds to a 28 000 BCE Homo sapiens male individual that was discovered in 1868 in a rock shelter in Les Eyzies, France.1 Since its discovery, various diagnoses have been proposed with regards to a round polycyclic osteolytic lesion on the right frontal bone, measuring 37 mm x 27 mm (appendix): post-mortem alteration due to the soil,2 rickets,3 actinomycosis,4 and Langerhans cell histiocytosis.5


Recently, we did a medical CT scan, followed by a micro CT scan, on the lesion. The results showed the exact bone aspect of the pathological zone and peripheral limits (figure A): a limited resorption of the external cortical bone, of granular aspect, without peripheral sclerosis in the internal table, which excludes a malignant transformation. This aspect agrees with the radiological morphology of a subcutaneous schwannoma with progressive bone erosion in the context of neurofibromatosis type 1, as confirmed by biomedical literature6, 7 and direct comparison with palaeopathological reference collections (for example, skull 101 of the Tessier collection, in Amiens, France).

Additionally, an asymmetry of the size of the internal auditory meatus is visible after a micro CT scan examination and three-dimensional reconstruction of the Cro-Magnon 1 skull (appendix), which could be related to the development of an acoustic neurinoma (a schwannoma).8 Examination of other nerve foramina at the level of the skull base did not show any anomaly. Although acoustic neurinomas are more frequent in neurofibromatosis type 2, they have also been reported in type 1.9 Cases of internal auditory meatus enlargement in neurofibromatosis type 1 have also been described without any associated acoustic nerve tumour, with the cause of the enlargement being related to bone dystrophy (bony dysplasia) or dural ectasia.10


According to this retrospective diagnosis, a new facial reconstruction of this individual can be proposed, featuring the macroscopic aspect of the disease (figure B). A further analysis of the rest of the skeleton might be of interest to search for other bone lesions with characteristics of low growth rate.


We declare no competing interests.


http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)30495-1/fulltext

It looks like they were able to determine the size of the growths by using CT and Micro CT scans on the skull. I didn't see anything in regards to genetic testing though.

 

[Ygorcs]

This looks incorrect, because the pigmentation is wrong.

Wouldn't he have been part of the Gravettian Expansion?

http://journals.openedition.org/paleo/607

I noticed that too and was going to comment on it. It is a pity many other people in the scientific academia seem to be almost totally unaware of the many findings that became possible due to population genetics recently, especially through analysis of ancient DNA. Just yesterday a Kenyan man was telling me that he couldn't believe anything I say about West Eurasian admixture in East Africans and even indigenous South Africans because he had talked to historians and other scientists in a museum of African history about that and they told him that there is no evience at all of Eurasians there before the Arabs (of course they must've naively understood that Eurasian admixture means that Eurasians came directly, unadmixed, from Asia to Kenya and southwards milennia ago). It seems like historians and anthropologists are neglecting a hugely transformative possibility to either confirm or refine their interpretations, and sometimes, what's even worse, they do it willfully.

 

[MOESAN]

OK I had not red the background - so they had NO DNA at hand? and they could not guess the skin colour if they did not read genetic papers (ATW it would have been only a sensible guess, by reasonable assimilation, not a certitude)