Lower Saxony State Museum

Megalithic monuments in Late Neolithic Europe are often viewed as symbols of shared ancestry. In this study, we analyzed genome-wide data of 203 individuals buried in six megalithic grave complexes associated with the Western Funnel Beaker and Wartberg groups. Despite being considered archaeologically distinct, our results show that the studied individuals from both groups form a genetically homogeneous population. Moreover, we identified first- and second-degree relationships spanning up to 225 km, revealing unexpectedly long-distance ties and sustained intersite and intergroup mobility. The six grave complexes functioned as communal burial grounds and were not exclusively used for close genetic relatives, indicating that social kinship played an important role. Limited evidence for genetic connections to distant European megalithic populations indicates that monumentality spread culturally rather than through biological networks.

The rounded retouched tools that have been singled out in the Micoquian assemblages (‘Keilmessergruppe’)have long been an enigma. Even though their presence was recognised as early as the early 20th century, they received their formal name, the so-called ‘groszaki’, much later. More recently, similar tools have been recorded at the open-air site Pietraszyn 49a, SW Poland. These examples are slightly larger than average. They were made from flakes and a chunk. During production, marginal and invasive retouch and thinning were used. The same technical means were used to produce bifacial tools. These specimens were compared with other tools of this type in Poland, both in metric and morphological terms. On this basis, the tools differed in this respect within and between assemblages. Nevertheless, the repetition of the oval forms suggests that they may be the result ofthe transmission of cultural information.

Here we describe a new genus and species of metriorhynchid crocodylomorph, Enalioetes schroederi gen. et sp. nov., from the lower Valanginian Stadthagen Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of north-western Germany. Enalioetes schroederi is the most complete and well-preserved Cretaceous metriorhynchid skull known to date, preserving most of the cranium and mandible, the atlas-axis complex and the first postaxial cervical vertebra. The specimen was previously attributed to the coeval enigmatic metriorhynchid Enaliosuchus (a nomen dubium) and, more recently, to Cricosaurus. Although the specific epithet schroederi has been used frequently in the literature, it has never been formally established. Herein, we demonstrate that the new taxon is distinct from all known metriorhynchids by a unique combination of characters including several autapomorphies such as: the lack of bulbous dorsolateral expansion in the posterior nasal cavity; mediolateral distance between the orbital canals being approximately 1.5 times the diameter of the orbital canals; lacrimal with dorsoventrally deep anterior process ventral to the preorbital fossa being equal to or greater than the depth of the jugal anterior process and the anterodorsal process of the lacrimal; and ascending processes at atlas intercentrum extending far dorsally to level of neural canal. Enalioetes schroederi contributes to the sparse global record of Cretaceous metriorhynchids and represents one of the stratigraphically youngest occurrences of the group. It can thus help to enhance our understanding of the metriorhynchid diversity during the Cretaceous Period. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5139021C-8E09-4912-BF22-9DDF14A4C895

The knowledge of Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic, ∼192.9–184.2 Ma) plesiosaurs is notoriously insufficient. Although there have been specimens described from different parts of the world, only three of them have been established as diagnosable taxa. Here, we describe two previously unreported lower Pliensbachian plesiosaur occurrences that originate from two sites located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. One of the new occurrences is represented by three cervical and three indeterminable vertebrae from Werther, the other includes two associated pectoral or anterior dorsal vertebrae from Bielefeld. Although highly incomplete, the Werther individual, which derived from the Uptonia jamesoni Zone, is found to represent the only reliably identified early Pliensbachian pliosaurid known to date. Its material is geographically and stratigraphically proximate to the late Pliensbachian pliosaurid Arminisaurus schuberti, found in a clay-pit located in the Bielefeld district of Jöllenbeck. However, even though the Werther plesiosaur and A. schuberti show a broadly similar morphology of the preserved cervical section, a precise identification of the Werther taxon is currently impossible.

Imprecise data produced by commonly applied osteological age‐at‐death estimations profoundly affect all research on age‐dependent mortality in past societies. With uncertain death estimation (UCD), we propose a novel approach to estimating the mortality structure from imprecise data and present a corresponding R package for simple application. Through repeated random sampling of imprecise age‐at‐death ranges, UCD estimates the mortality structure of a given skeletal sample. We demonstrate the applicability of UCD in a proof‐of‐principle study on two samples with known age at death (Bass‐Mercyhurst Collection and Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection). Two case studies of German Neolithic skeletal material illustrate UCD's applicability to archeological samples with dissimilar states of preservation. To comparatively quantify the accuracy of UCD, maximum likelihood estimations, Kaplan–Meier survival estimations, and age‐category mortality profiles were calculated for all four study samples. UCD outperforms similar existing procedures while incorporating the uncertainty inherent in osteological data. The proof‐of‐principle study produced significantly more accurate mortality profiles from UCD than from maximum likelihood estimation and Kaplan–Meier survival estimation. Both archeological case studies indicate UCD's ability to provide meaningful new insight into age‐dependent mortality in past societies. UCD allows for comparative studies into age‐dependent mortality in past societies without requiring a large sample of precise age‐at‐death estimations. UCD provides an opportunity for fast and simple analysis of mortality structures on a large dataset without neglecting the information contained in the raw data, thereby facilitating a critical study of patterns in age‐dependent mortality on a large scale.