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35-633: The Narmada Valley became a fossil attraction in the early 19th century following the discovery of a dinosaur, Titanosaurus . Discovery of stone tools prompted a search for early human fossils, but over a century of research was in vain. The discovery of the Narmada Human is remarked as the moment that "brought the Narmada Valley back into palaeoanthropological focus." The fossil had been variously reclassified as archaic Homo sapiens , evolved Homo erectus , Homo heidelbergensis , and also dubiously as

70-467: A dinosaur, Titanosaurus . Since then, many fossils of invertebrates and vertebrates have been discovered. The search for prehistoric human remains in the region was inspired by the discovery of a Stone Age hand axe by C.A. Hacket that was reported in 1873. In October 1982, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) assigned Arun Sonakia to explore Hoshangabad district . On 5 December, Sonakia found

105-552: A distinct species, Homo narmadensis . Additional fossils described since 1997 have suggested more relatedness to archaic H. sapiens . The Narmada Valley is one of the earliest and richest fossil sites India. The first fossils were discovered by British Army Captain William Henry Sleeman in 1828. Sleeman found two backbones ( caudal vertebrae ) from the Lameta Formation at Jabalpur that were later identified as those of

140-480: A skull cup (calvaria) lying on the surface of an alluvial soil on the northern bank of Narmada River, near Hathnora village. The fossil was among several other fossils of horse, pig and Stegodon , and various stone tools. After careful analysis of the skull cup as part of a prehistoric human, the discovery was officially announced by the government on 21–22 July 1983, and through the newsletter of GSI. In 1984, N. G. K. Murthy, Director of GSI Southern Region, presented

175-436: A term that is sufficiently descriptive without the historical baggage of nomenclature that comes from ascribing this specimen to Asian H. erectus . Sankhyan used to support Kennedy's assignment of the Narmada Human as archaic H. sapiens . However, his analysis in his doctoral thesis led him to realise that Athreya's classification is the most likely conclusion, as he remarked: "both the metric and nonmetric comparisons show that

210-503: Is a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaurs , first described by Richard Lydekker in 1877. It is known from the Maastrichtian ( Upper Cretaceous ) Lameta Formation of India . Titanosaurus , literally meaning 'titanic lizard', was named after the mythological Titans . Titanosaurus was the first Indian dinosaur to be named and properly described, having been recorded for the first time in 1877. The type species, T. indicus ,

245-707: Is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that concentrates on publishing the highest quality papers covering all aspects of human evolution. JHE was established in 1972 and is published by Elsevier . The Editors-in-Chief are Andrea B. Taylor ( Touro University California, USA ) and Mark W. Grabowski ( Liverpool John Moores University, England ). The central focus of JHE is aimed jointly at paleoanthropological work, covering human and primate fossils, and at comparative studies of living species, including both morphological and molecular evidence. These include descriptions of new discoveries, analyses and interpretations of new and previously described material, and assessments of

280-401: Is about 1,000 cc, with mostly towards the lower range up to 800 cc; while early H. sapiens have the brain size ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 cc. Some features of the Narmada Human are not shared with any other human species. A sagittal crest with a furrow on top of the skull, a large outer ear hole, and extended temporal bones are not known in other species. Sonakia held the view that

315-430: Is attached... [Its] cranial capacity... would fall around 1,200 cc... [It] bears a number of similarities to skulls of Asian Homo erectus , hence an affinity of "Narmada Man" to Homo erectus is suggested. Kennedy added a cautionary note that the fossil was an undetermined species of human ("hominid calvarium of Homo sp. indet.). In 1988, Sonakia invited Kennedy to further examine the fossil kept at Nagpur. Reanalysis by

350-493: Is distinguished by a square cross-section, the lack of a trough on the underside and elongated proportions. These features are also found in other titanosaurs, although not found in India – the latter, however, was insufficient reason for Upchurch & Wilson not to speak of a nomen dubium . The holotype vertebrae of T. blanfordi were also missing for years and were rediscovered in 2012 by Dhananjay Mohabey and Subhasis Sengupta at

385-524: Is why no official inventory number of the GSI had been assigned to it. Part of the fossils that Lydekker assigned to the type specimen of T. indicus , that formed a series of syntypes , was a 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long femur that had been excavated at the same location in 1871 or 1872 by Henry Benedict Medlicott - specimen GSI K22/754. In 1933 this was reassigned by Charles Alfred Matley and Friedrich von Huene to Antarctosaurus septentrionalis , which

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420-518: The East India Company army. He was one among many explorations for fossils initially carried out by army personnel, medical doctors and priests who chanced upon them just by being “ fairly literate and mobile at the time ”. He stumbled across the vertebrae on Bara Simla Hill near a British Army gun carriage workshop while searching for petrified wood. Sleeman, employed by the Bengal Army , regarded

455-578: The Records of the Geological Survey of India in 1984 which described the specimen as Homo erectus narmadensis . In 1985, Sonakia sought the help of french palaeontologist Henry de Lumley , with whom he made further descriptions in two articles simultaneously published in January issue of L'Anthropologie. The fossil was again identified as H. erectus . Kenneth A. R. Kennedy of Cornell University conveyed

490-524: The GSI and Cornell teams were jointly published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 1991, which concluded the identity as Homo sapiens. The Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) organised an archaeological exploration of the central Narmada valley between 1983 and 1992, resulting in the discoveries of many animal remains, stone tools and new human fossil. The collarbone ( clavicle ) among animal bones collected from Hathnora fossil site

525-508: The Narmada Human could not be H. erectus , but instead could be loosely identified as H. heidelbergensis , as she noted: Narmada [Human] shows affinities with anatomically modern Africans and Europeans as well as most Middle Pleistocene H. heidelbergensis specimens, and could be classified as such... If only the subjective criteria of brain size and "transitional" morphology are used, it could be classified as H. heidelbergensis ... [or] it can simply be referred to as "Middle Pleistocene Homo "

560-407: The Narmada Human is most closely related to extinct humans such as H. heidelbergensis or H. neanderthalensis than H. erectus . It represents a different species that met evolutionary dead-end in India, fitting into the out of Africa theory of modern human origin . Titanosaurus Titanosaurus ( / t aɪ ˌ t æ n ə ˈ s ɔːr ə s / ; lit.   ' titanic lizard ' )

595-527: The Narmada Human shares most features with other Asian H. erectus . The presence of a small mastoid process , narrow post-orbital constriction , large and thick cranial vault, and a distinct bone called torus angularis are the major and common features of Asian H. erectus. However, the Narmada Human has features that are more related to H. sapiens . The most important is its brain size , which falls between 1,155 and 1,421 cc, with an approximate average of 1,200 cc. The average brain size of Asian H. erectus

630-531: The Narmada Human was a transitional group of H. erectus that links African and Asian populations. He wrote in 1998: The discovery of Indian Homo erectus bridges the gap between African H. erectus in the west and Chinese [Peking Man] and Javan H. erectus [Java Man] in the east and south east respectively. There is a general consensus of opinion that Afro-Asian H. erectus ranges in age from Lower Pleistocene to Middle Pleistocene. Indian H. erectus falls within this range. According to Cameron, Patnaik and Sahni,

665-749: The Narmada calvarium has a generalized mosaic of primitive, shared, and unique morphological features, but cladistically it is closer to H. heidelbergensis ." David W. Cameron of the Australian National University, with Rajeev Patnaik and Ashok Sahni of the Punjab University, found that the Narmada Human fits well with the features of the Steinheim skull in Germany, which is either H. heidelbergensis or H. neanderthalensis . As originally identified,

700-532: The bones as curiosities. He gave two vertebral pieces to surgeon G. G. Spilsbury, who had a practice in Japalpur and who also excavated a bone himself. Spilsbury sent the fossils in 1832 to the antiquarian James Prinsep in Calcutta , who realised that they were fossilised bones and then sent them back to Sleeman. In 1862, Thomas Oldman , the first director of the newly established Geological Survey of India, transferred

735-487: The calvaria shares some anatomical features with Asian Homo erectus specimens, it exhibits a broader suite of morphological and mensural characteristics suggesting affinities with early Homo sapiens fossils. However, Sonakia was not entire convinced and adhered to the H. erectus classification. In 2007, Sheela Athreya of the Texas A&;M University College Station revised the systematic identification and concluded that

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770-434: The classification as an evolved H. erectus . Kennedy was the first to be critical of this assignment, and argued that it could be an archaic H. sapiens . Reporting his analysis (with Sonakia, John Chiment, and K.K. Verma) in 1991, he stated: Results of the most recent study, which includes morphometric and comparative investigations, lead to the conclusion that "Narmada Man" is appropriately identified as Homo sapiens . While

805-584: The collections had been carried out for generations. He therefore started the Study of Late Cretaceous Tetrapod fossils from Lameta Formation project with support from the University of Michigan , with one of the main goals of locating lost specimens. In this context, he and Subhasis Sengupta recovered one of the holotype vertebra on 25 April 2012. It turned out to be in a batch of fossils that had been left behind by Lydekker in 1878 that had been lost up until then, which

840-480: The discovery of parts of a thigh bone ( femur ) and arm bone ( humerus ) at Netankheri village that was reported in Current Science in 2012. Sonakia established from the first skull cup that the individual was an adult male, and originally gave the name Narmada Man to match those of other asian H. erectus , like Peking Man and Java Man , and was popularised as such. When he reassessed the fossil with Lumley, it

875-403: The end of the twentieth century; in 2010 Matthew Carrano therefore established a cast based on illustrations Lydekker made in 1877, as a replacement plastotype, with the inventory number NHMUK 40867. However, that turned out to be a bit premature. In the early twenty-first century, Indian paleontologist Dhananjay Mohabey understood that such specimens were lost only because no serious inventory of

910-453: The phylogeny and paleobiology of primate species. In addition to original research papers, space is allocated for the rapid publication of short communications on new discoveries, such as exciting new fossils, as well as lead book reviews, obituaries and review papers of exceptionally high quality. The journal received a 2023 impact factor of 3.656. The journal is abstracted and indexed in: This article about an anthropology journal

945-480: The report in the Records of the Geological Survey of India to the American Anthropological Association , which published it in its September 1985 issue of American Anthropologist . In it, Sonakia gave a more careful description: The hominid fossil specimen, presently designated as "Narmada Man," is represented by a complete right half of the skull cap, to which a part of the left parietal

980-889: The same location as the holotype of T. indicus . Wilson and Upchurch (2003) treated Titanosaurus as a nomen dubium ("dubious name") because they noted that the original Titanosaurus specimens cannot be distinguished from those of related animals. As the type genus of Titanosauria , Titanosaurus at times became a wastebasket taxon for a number of titanosaurs, including those not just from India but also southern Europe , Laos , and South America . Only two among these, however, are currently considered species of Titanosaurus : T. indicus and T. blandfordi , both of which are considered nomina dubia. Other species formerly referred to this genus include: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Journal of Human Evolution The Journal of Human Evolution

1015-781: The technical report to the Birla Archaeological and Cultural Geological Research Institute in Hyderabad. Sonakia displayed the fossil cast at the first "Ancestors exhibit" of the American Museum of Natural History in New York during 6 to 10 April 1984. The exhibit was recorded the next year in the American Museum of Natural History's proceedings Ancestors, the Hard Evidence . The first scientific description by Sonakia appeared in

1050-456: The two fossils, making up specimen GSI IM K27 / 501, the second, smaller vertebra was split off by von Huene in 1929 and assigned to Titanosaurus araukanicus (now Laplatasaurus ). Upchurch & Wilson concluded in their 2003 revision that this assignment was unfounded, although there is indeed no evidence beyond their origin that the two vertebrae have anything to do with each other. The large vertebra, strongly procoel, convex in front,

1085-552: The vertebrae from Japalpur to Calcutta and added them to the collection of the Indian Museum . There, the bones were studied by the Survey's supervisor, Hugh Falconer , who concluded that they were reptilian bones. After Falconer's death, in 1877, Richard Lydekker described the vertebrae as a new species of reptile known as Titanosaurus indicus . The known remains of T. indicus were generally considered to be lost and untraceable by

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1120-737: Was identified a female in her 30s. Kennedy also agreed that the individual was a female. The more gender-accurate name Narmada Human was later adopted. The individual could have lived any time between 50 ka and 160 ka, during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Sonakia had originally estimated the fossil age at around 500 to 600 ka based on the associated fossil. There is no consensus on the exact species identification of Narmada Human. It had been variously described as archaic Homo sapiens , evolved Homo erectus , or Homo heidelbergensis because it exhibits features shared with these human species, along with its own unique features. Sonakia and Lumley firmly held

1155-405: Was moved to the new genus Jainosaurus in 1995. Between 1860 and 1870, geologist William Thomas Blanford had found two sauropod middle caudal vertebrae near Pisdura (one vertebra, GSI 2195, became the type specimen). In 1879, they were named by Lydekker as a second species of Titanosaurus , T. Blanfordi , which according to current rules should be written as Titanosaurus blanfordi . Of

1190-762: Was named in 1877, and the second species, T. blanfordi , was named in 1879. Both species were named by Richard Lydekker . T. indicus and T. blanfordi are 70 million years old. A report in PLOS One published by Dhiman et al. (2023) reported that 92 titanosaur clutches were found in Dhar District , Madhya Pradesh , India . There were 256 eggs in three clutch patterns (viz. circular, combination, linear) that are assignable to six oospecies , which were likely laid by Titanosaurus . The holotype vertebrae of Titanosaurus indicus were discovered during an exploration to Jabalpur in 1828 by Capt William Henry Sleeman of

1225-632: Was not recognised that of humans until careful analysis was done. In 1997, Anek Ram Sankhyan, the ASI senior anthropologist reported the description of a right collarbone in the Journal of Human Evolution , and further explained it in Current Science . In 1998, Sankhyan discovered another collarbone, a left one, along with one lower rib at Hathnora fossil site. He reported the findings in Current Science in 2005 . Another ASI exploration between 2005 and 2010 led to

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