A reassessment of the presumed Neandertal remains from San Bernardino Cave, Italy Stefano Benazzi a, * , Marco Peresani b , Sahra Talamo a , Qiaomei Fu c, d , Marcello A. Mannino a , Michael P. Richards a, e , Jean-Jacques Hublin a a Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany b Sezione di Preistoria e Antropologia, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Corso Ercole I d’Este 32, Università di Ferrara, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy c Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany d Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China e Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1 Canada article info Article history: Received 7 June 2013 Accepted 23 September 2013 Available online xxx Keywords: Homo neanderthalensis Modern human Root morphometry Ancient DNA Isotope analyses AMS radiocarbon dating abstract In 1986e1987, three human remains were unearthed from macro-unit II of San Bernardino Cave (Berici Hills, Veneto, Italy), a deposit containing a late Mousterian lithic assemblage. The human remains (a distal phalanx, a lower right third molar and a lower right second deciduous incisor) do not show diagnostic morphological features that could be used to determine whether they were from Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens. Despite being of small size, and thus more similar to recent H. sapiens, the specimens were attributed to Neandertals, primarily because they were found in Mousterian layers. We carried out a taxonomic reassessment of the lower right third molar (LRM 3 ; San Bernardino 4) using digital morphometric analysis of the root, ancient DNA analysis, carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses, and direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of dentine collagen. Mitochondrial DNA analysis and root morphology show that the molar belongs to a modern human and not to a Neandertal. Carbon 14 ( 14 C) dating of the molar attributes it to the end of the Middle Ages (1420 e1480 cal AD, 2 sigma). Carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses suggest that the individual in question had a diet similar to that of Medieval Italians. These results show that the molar, as well as the other two human remains, belong to recent H. sapiens and were introduced in the Mousterian levels post- depositionally. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction In 1986e1987, three human remains were unearthed in macro- unit II of San Bernardino Cave (Berici Hills, Veneto, Italy). This late Mousterian deposit has been dated to 28e59 ka BP (thousands of years before present) through radiocarbon and electron spin resonance/U-series dating (Peresani, 2011; see Supplementary Online Material [SOM] for more details about setting, history, and archaeology of San Bernardino Cave; Figs. S1eS6; Table S1). The human remains include a distal hand phalanx (San Bernardino 3), a heavily worn lower right third molar (LRM 3 ; San Bernardino 4), and a lower right second deciduous incisor (Rdi 2 ; San Bernardino 5) (Fig. 1). All of the remains were originally described by Vacca and Alciati (2000) as belonging to Homo neanderthalensis, probably more for their presumed association with Mousterian levels than for their size and morphology, which alone does not exclude them from modern humans. The small size of the elements in question was justified as a peculiarity of Southern (Mediterranean) Nean- dertals, thus supporting previous hypotheses by de Lumley (1973) and more recent bioinformatic models by Fabre et al. (2009), based on data from genetics, demography and palaeoanthropology. The distal phalanx (San Bernardino 3) is extremely gracile, with a narrow apical tuft (Fig. 1). The size of this phalanx (length, tuft and base width) does not find any parallel in the Neandertal sample, and is also very small compared with recent Homo sapiens (Table S2). Even if worn, the San Bernardino 5 Rdi 2 shows a small lingual tuberosity, no evidence of a marginal ridge mesially and minimal development of the distal marginal ridge (Fig. 1). These features are shared with both Neandertals and Upper Paleolithic H. sapiens (Trinkaus et al., 2000). Most importantly, San Bernardino 5 has a small labiolingual breadth, almost two standard deviations from that of Neandertals, but close to the mean computed for recent H. sapiens (Table S3). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: stefano_benazzi@eva.mpg.de (S. Benazzi). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol 0047-2484/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.09.009 Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e6 Please cite this article in press as: Benazzi, S., et al., A reassessment of the presumed Neandertal remains from San Bernardino Cave, Italy, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.09.009