Description: Modern strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the Americas are closely related to those from Europe, supporting the assumption that human tuberculosis was introduced post-contact. This notion, however, is incompatible with archaeological evidence of pre-contact tuberculosis in the New World. Comparative genomics of modern isolates suggests that M. tuberculosis attained its worldwide distribution following human dispersals out of Africa during the Pleistocene epoch, although this has yet to be confirmed with ancient calibration points. Here we present three 1,000-year-old mycobacterial genomes from Peruvian human skeletons, revealing that a member of the M. tuberculosis complex caused human disease before contact. The ancient strains are distinct from known human-adapted forms and are most closely related to those adapted to seals and sea lions. Two independent dating approaches suggest a most recent common ancestor for the M. tuberculosis complex less than 6,000 years ago, which supports a Holocene dispersal of the disease. Our results implicate sea mammals as having played a role in transmitting the disease to humans across the ocean.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550673/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550673/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bos, Kirsten I -- Harkins, Kelly M -- Herbig, Alexander -- Coscolla, Mireia -- Weber, Nico -- Comas, Inaki -- Forrest, Stephen A -- Bryant, Josephine M -- Harris, Simon R -- Schuenemann, Verena J -- Campbell, Tessa J -- Majander, Kerttu -- Wilbur, Alicia K -- Guichon, Ricardo A -- Wolfe Steadman, Dawnie L -- Cook, Della Collins -- Niemann, Stefan -- Behr, Marcel A -- Zumarraga, Martin -- Bastida, Ricardo -- Huson, Daniel -- Nieselt, Kay -- Young, Douglas -- Parkhill, Julian -- Buikstra, Jane E -- Gagneux, Sebastien -- Stone, Anne C -- Krause, Johannes -- 098051/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- AI090928/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- MC_U117581288/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 AI090928/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2014 Oct 23;514(7523):494-7. doi: 10.1038/nature13591. Epub 2014 Aug 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2]. ; 1] School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402, USA [2]. ; 1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2] Center for Bioinformatics, University of Tubingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tubingen, Germany [3]. ; 1] Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland [2] University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland [3]. ; Center for Bioinformatics, University of Tubingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tubingen, Germany. ; 1] Genomics and Health Unit, FISABIO-Public Health, Avenida Cataluna 21, 46020 Valencia, Spain [2] CIBER (Centros de Investigacion Biomedica en Red) in Epidemiology and Public Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/ Monforte de Lemos 3-5, Pabellon 11, Planta 0, 28029 Madrid, Spain. ; Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Pathogen Genomics, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK. ; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X1, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa. ; School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402, USA. ; CONICET, Laboratorio de Ecologia Evolutiva Humana (FACSO, UNCPBA), Departamento de Biologia (FCEyN, UNMDP), Calle 508 No. 881 (7631), Quequen, Argentina. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 250 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, 701 East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7100, USA. ; 1] Molecular Mycobacteriology, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 1, 23845 Borstel, Germany [2] German Center for Infection Research, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 1, 23845 Borstel, Germany. ; McGill International TB Centre, McGill University, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal H3G 1A4, Canada. ; Biotechnology Institute, CICVyA-INTA Castelar, Dr. Nicolas Repetto y De Los Reseros S/N, (B1686IGC) Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina. ; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (CONICET-UNMdP), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, San Luis 1722, Mar del Plata 7600, Argentina. ; 1] Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK [2] Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK. ; 1] Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland [2] University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland. ; 1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2] Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tubingen, Tubingen 72070, Germany [3] Max Planck Institute for Science and History, Khalaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25141181" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A key event in human evolution is the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia between 60 and 40 thousand years (kyr) before present (bp), replacing all other forms of hominins. Owing to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations remain largely enigmatic. Here we describe a partial calvaria, recently discovered at Manot Cave (Western Galilee, Israel) and dated to 54.7 +/- 5.5 kyr bp (arithmetic mean +/- 2 standard deviations) by uranium-thorium dating, that sheds light on this crucial event. The overall shape and discrete morphological features of the Manot 1 calvaria demonstrate that this partial skull is unequivocally modern. It is similar in shape to recent African skulls as well as to European skulls from the Upper Palaeolithic period, but different from most other early anatomically modern humans in the Levant. This suggests that the Manot people could be closely related to the first modern humans who later successfully colonized Europe. Thus, the anatomical features used to support the 'assimilation model' in Europe might not have been inherited from European Neanderthals, but rather from earlier Levantine populations. Moreover, at present, Manot 1 is the only modern human specimen to provide evidence that during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic interface, both modern humans and Neanderthals contemporaneously inhabited the southern Levant, close in time to the likely interbreeding event with Neanderthals.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hershkovitz, Israel -- Marder, Ofer -- Ayalon, Avner -- Bar-Matthews, Miryam -- Yasur, Gal -- Boaretto, Elisabetta -- Caracuta, Valentina -- Alex, Bridget -- Frumkin, Amos -- Goder-Goldberger, Mae -- Gunz, Philipp -- Holloway, Ralph L -- Latimer, Bruce -- Lavi, Ron -- Matthews, Alan -- Slon, Viviane -- Mayer, Daniella Bar-Yosef -- Berna, Francesco -- Bar-Oz, Guy -- Yeshurun, Reuven -- May, Hila -- Hans, Mark G -- Weber, Gerhard W -- Barzilai, Omry -- England -- Nature. 2015 Apr 9;520(7546):216-9. doi: 10.1038/nature14134. Epub 2015 Jan 28.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] The Dan David Laboratory for the Search and Study of Modern Humans, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel [2] The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Archaeology Division, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel. ; Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel. ; Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. ; 1] Max Planck Society-Weizmann Institute Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel [2] Department of Anthropology and Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. ; Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York 10027, USA. ; 1] Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA [2] Department of Orthodontics, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA. ; 8 Dan Street, Modi'in 7173161, Israel. ; Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. ; The Dan David Laboratory for the Search and Study of Modern Humans, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada. ; Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel. ; 1] The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and National Research Center, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel [2] Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, PO Box 39040, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. ; Department of Orthodontics, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA. ; 1] Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12-14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria [2] The Core Facility for Micro-Computed Tomography, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 12-14, A-1090, Vienna, Austria. ; Israel Antiquities Authority, PO Box 586, Jerusalem 91004, Israel.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25629628" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉