M3#1198

3D model related to the publication: On Roth's "human fossil" from Baradero, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina: morphological and genetic analysis

Lumila P. Menéndez, Idalia G. López Cruz and Thomas Schmelzle

The present 3D Dataset contains the 3D model analyzed in the publication : On Roth’s “human fossil” from Baradero, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina: morphological and genetic analysis. The “human fossil” from Baradero, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, is a collection of skeleton parts first recovered by Swiss paleontologist Santiago Roth and further studied by anthropologist Rudolf Martin. By the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century it was considered as one of the oldest human skeletons from the southern cone. We studied the cranial anatomy and contextualized the ancient individual remains. We discuss the context of the finding, conducted an osteobiographical assessment and performed a 3D virtual reconstruction of the skull, using micro-CT-scans on selected skull fragments and the mandible. This was followed by the extraction of bone tissue and teeth samples for radiocarbon and genetic analyses, which brought only limited results due to poor preservation and possible contamination. We estimate that the individual from Baradero is a middle-aged adult male. We conclude that the revision of foundational collections with current methodological tools brings new insights and clarifies long held assumptions on the significance of samples that were recovered when archaeology was not yet professionalized.