Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36964200›Full record

ArticleCommunications biology2023

Virtual excavation and analysis of the early Neanderthal cranium from Altamura (Italy).

Antonio Profico, Costantino Buzi, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Marco Boggioni, Andrea Borsato, Giovanni Boschian, Damiano Marchi, Mario Micheli, Jacopo Moggi Cecchi, Marco Samadelli and 3 more

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In one paragraph

Article in Communications biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The first preserved nasal cavity in the human fossil record: The Neanderthal from Altamura.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Antonio ProficoDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Italy.
Costantino BuziDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-8951-2990
Fabio Di VincenzoDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Italy.
Marco BoggioniSchool of Paleoanthropology, University of Perugia, Perugia, 06123, Italy.
Andrea BorsatoSchool of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-3858-4462
Giovanni BoschianDepartment of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, 56126, Italy.
Damiano MarchiDepartment of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, 56126, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-6331-8783
Mario MicheliDepartment of Humanities, Roma Tre University, Rome, 00185, Italy.
Jacopo Moggi CecchiDepartment of Biology, University of Florence, Florence, 50122, Italy.
Marco SamadelliInstitute for Mummy Studies, EURAC Research, Bolzano, 39100, Italy.
Mary Anne TafuriDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Italy.
Juan Luis ArsuagaCentro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, 28029, Spain.
Giorgio ManziDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, 00185, Italy. giorgio.manzi@uniroma1.it.ORCID 0000-0002-8611-1371

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Complete Neanderthal skeletons are almost unique findings. A very well-preserved specimen of this kind was discovered in 1993 in the deepest recesses of a karstic system near the town of Altamura in Southern Italy. We present here a detailed description of the cranium, after we virtually extracted it from the surrounding stalagmites and stalactites. The morphology of the Altamura cranium fits within the Neanderthal variability, though it retains features occurring in more archaic European samples. Some of these features were never observed in Homo neanderthalensis, i.e. in fossil specimens dated between 300 and 40 ka. Considering the U-Th age we previously obtained (>130 ka), the morphology of Altamura suggests that the archaic traits it retains may have been originated by geographic isolation of the early Neanderthal populations from Southern Italy.

Indexed as

HominidaeNeanderthalsAnimalsFossilsItalySkull

Identifiers

PMID36964200
PMCPMC10039001

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.