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April 19, 2023
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Homo antecessor: The state of the art eighteen years later

Publicated to:QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL. 433 22-31 - 2017-03-17 433(), DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.03.049

Authors: Bermudez-de-Castro, Jose-Maria; Martinon-Torres, Maria; Martin-Frances, Laura; Modesto-Mata, Mario; Martinez-de-Pinillos, Marina; Garcia, Cecilia; Carbonell, Eudald

Affiliations

Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) - Author
Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Lab Human Evolut, Beijing 100044, Peoples R China - Author
Ctr Nacl Invest Evoluc Humana CENIEH, Paseo Sierra de Atapuerca 3, Burgos 09002, Spain - Author
Inst Catala Paleoecol Humana Evolucio Social IPHE, Marcelli Domingo S-N, Tarragona 43007, Spain - Author
Instituto Catalán de Paleoecología Humana y Evolución Social , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Chinese Academy of Sciences - Author
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Abstract

It is eighteen years since the human fossils recovered from the TD6 level of the Gran Dolina cave site, in Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, northern Spain) were assigned to a new hominin species, Homo antecessor. This review summarizes the main results obtained from the study of these fossils during this period. The increase of the African and Eurasian fossil record, as well as the application of new methodological approaches, has led to competing interpretations about its hypothetical phylogenetic position and possible evolutionary scenarios. At present, we can argue that this species is defined by a unique mosaic of primitive traits for the Homo clade, a certain number of derived features present in modern humans, a significant suite of derived features shared with Neandertals and their ancestors in the European Middle Pleistocene (in particular with the Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos hominins), and some derived features shared with the Chinese Middle Pleistocene hominins. From this evidence, we suggest that a speciation event could have occurred in Africa/Western Eurasia, originating a new Homo clade. Homo antecessor, most probably dated to the MIS 21, could be a side branch of this clade placed at the westernmost region of the Eurasian continent.

Keywords

atapuerca burgosdental remainsfoot remainsgran dolinahominin dispersalhomo antecessorhuman-evolutionmiddle-pleistocenepaleomagnetic agepleistocene site sierrasierra de atapuercaGeometric morphometric-analysisGran dolinaHomo antecessorHuman evolutionSierra de atapuerca

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2017, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Earth-Surface Processes.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.06 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 17.81 (source consulted: Dimensions Aug 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-08-03, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 42
  • Scopus: 60

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-08-03:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 163.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 173 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 82.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 10 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 76 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on Wikipedia: 5 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 2 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: China.