Gómez Robles, AidaBermúdez de Castro, José MaríaArsuaga Ferreras, Juan LuisCarbonell i Roura, EudaldPolly, P. David2023-06-192023-06-192013-11-050027-842410.1073/pnas.1302653110https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/34443A central problem in paleoanthropology is the identity of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans ([N-MH]LCA). Recently developed analytical techniques now allow this problem to be addressed using a probabilistic morphological framework. This study provides a quantitative reconstruction of the expected dental morphology of the [N-MH]LCA and an assessment of whether known fossil species are compatible with this ancestral position. We show that no known fossil species is a suitable candidate for being the [N-MH]LCA and that all late Early and Middle Pleistocene taxa from Europe have Neanderthal dental affinities, pointing to the existence of a European clade originated around 1 Ma. These results are incongruent with younger molecular divergence estimates and suggest at least one of the following must be true: (i) European fossils and the [N-MH]LCA selectively retained primitive dental traits; (ii) molecular estimates of the divergence between Neanderthals and modern humans are underestimated; or (iii) phenotypic divergence and speciation between both species were decoupled such that phenotypic differentiation, at least in dental morphology, predated speciation.engAtribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Españahttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/journal articlehttps://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302653110https://www.pnas.org/content/110/45/18196open access569.89(4)PhylogenyNode reconstructionGeometric morphometricsMorphospaceEuropean Pleistocene.Paleontología2416 Paleontología