Following the last Neanderthals: Mammal tracks in Late Pleistocene coastal dunes of Gibraltar

Gibraltar National Museum ^ | February 12, 2019 | admin

[SunkenCiv]

The prestigious international journal Quaternary Science Reviews has just published a paper which has involved the participation of Gibraltarian scientists from the Gibraltar National Museum alongside colleagues from Spain, Portugal and Japan. The results which have been published come from an area of the Catalan Bay Sand Dune.

This work started ten years ago, when the first dates using the OSL method were obtained. It is then that the first traces of footprints left by vertebrates were found. In subsequent years the successive natural collapse of sand has revealed further material and has permitted a detailed study including new dates.

The sand sheets in the rampant dunes above Catalan Bay are a relic of the last glaciation, when sea level was up to 120 metres below present levels and a greatfield of dunes extended eastwards from the base of the Rock. The identified footprints correspond to species which are known, from fossil material, to have inhabited Gibraltar. The identified footprints correspond to Red Deer, Ibex, Aurochs, Leopard and Straight-tusked Elephant. In addition the scientists have found the footprint of a young human (106-126 cm in height), possibly Neanderthal, which dates to around 29 thousand years ago. It would coincide with late Neanderthal dates from Gorham's Cave.

If confirmed to be Neanderthal, these dunes would become only the second site in the world with footprints attributed to these humans,the other beingVartopCave in Romania. These findings add further international importance to the Gibraltar Pleistocene heritage, declared of World Heritage Value in 2016.

[SunkenCiv]

full title, "Following the last Neanderthals: Mammal tracks in Late Pleistocene coastal dunes of Gibraltar (S Iberian Peninsula)."

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.01.013

[SunkenCiv]

[Berlin_Freeper]

Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye
https://youtu.be/9UzAl9PqGDM

[SunkenCiv]

I'll have to try that on the newer hardware, at first I thought it was the Mary Hopkins song.

Paul McCartney - Goodbye - LyricsN

[mountainlion]

Not to worry, 23 and me has determined that they found Neanderthal in all of us but getting past the second cousins in a bit iffy.

[libertylover]

when sea level was up to 120 metres below present levels

But, but, but ... now they say that Global Warming and sea levels rising only started when evil capitalists started using oil.

[SunkenCiv]

:^) If I had the choice between having an evil capitalist or an evil socialist as a next door neighbor, I'd choose the former, but if the latter moved in, I'd probably take some risk and make sure the house was soon for sale again.

[SunkenCiv]

Not everything is as always it seems, heh heh... sometimes there are woodpile problems... also, second cousins have at least one great-grandparent in common, thirds have at least one great-great-grandparent in common, and there are already sixteen of those. By 4th-greats, there are 64, and only 46 chromosome halves among them. Even in situations with no half-sibling generations, it's not unlikely that things could fall out.

My Ancestry DNA showed no DNA in common between my parents, but they are both descended from three sisters (one on dad's, two on mom's), of course it's quite a few hops skips and jumps (nearly 400 years).

[SunkenCiv]

Things to do with your raw DNA file:

What does it mean to have Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA? - Genetics Home Reference - NIH
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/dtcgenetictesting/neanderthaldna

additional analysis (some free)
https://medium.com/genome-link/product-or-service-you-can-upload-your-dna-data-to-get-additional-analysis-including-free-ones-bd330e1f2af7

[SunkenCiv]

Possible Neanderthal rock engraving in Gorham’s Cave
Past Horizons | September 3, 2014 | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Posted on 12/09/2014 5:04:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3235551/posts

[gleeaikin]

Is it possible to get DNA from cremains?

[SunkenCiv]

I suspect it depends a lot on how hot the cremation was. To render bones and teeth to ash/dust requires a temperature generally only achieveable in a crematorium (north of 1400° F), or occasionally by a pyroclastic flow. Even at the death assemblage in the dock area of Herculaneum, bones and teeth broke nice a clean, but were not incinerated.