ArticleCommunications biology2025
Fossil ribcages of Homo sapiens provide new insights into modern human evolution.
Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rib Cross-Sectional Mineralized Area in Early Pleistocene Hominins: Insights From the Homo antecessor and H. erectus s. l. Fossil Record.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Investigating human lung resilience, its evolutionary history and its relation to COPD.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2026Review
- Ribcage Morphology in Native South American Populations From Different Altitudes: Insights From a Global Comparative Framework.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent research on the Nariokotome Boy's ribcage suggests the slender thorax of modern H. sapiens is a derived condition. However, since digital ribcage reconstructions of fossil H. sapiens are not available yet, it is unknown whether these individuals would have had a primitive or derived thorax. To address this issue, we first reconstructed the ribcages of Nazlet Khater 2, Ohalo II H2, Dolní Věstonice 13, and Ötzi. We used geometric morphometrics to compare them to 59 recent H. sapiens and three other Homo fossils (Nariokotome Boy, Kebara 2, Shanidar 3). Fossil H. sapiens ribcages exhibit the typical globular proportions of recent humans. Additionally, size and shape seem to be climate-dependent: smaller, cylindrical ribcages in warmer and more temperate climates (Nazlet Khater 2, Ohalo II H2) contrasted with larger, broader ribcages in colder climates (Dolní Věstonice 13). The ribcage of Ötzi presented mixed features, something that could have been beneficial for seasonal alpine transhumance. This suggests H. sapiens ribcage morphology encompasses both slender and stockier forms, highlighting that human anatomical variation might be more complex and context-dependent than previously thought.
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Registered trials
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