Laser ablation U-series dating results on a human cranial bone fragment from Apidima, on the western cost of the Mani Peninsula, Southern Greece, indicate a minimum age of 160,000 years. The dated cranial fragment belongs to Apidima 2, which preserves the facial skeleton and a large part of the braincase, lacking the occipital bone. The morphology of the preserved regions of the cranium, and especially that of the facial skeleton, indicates that the fossil belongs to the Neanderthal clade. The dating of the fossil at a minimum age of 160,000 years shows that most of the Neanderthal traits were already present in the MIS 6 and perhaps earlier. This makes Apidima 2 the earliest known fossil with a clear Neanderthal facial morphology. Together with the nearby younger Neanderthal specimens from Lakonis and Kalamakia, the Apidima crania are of crucial importance for the evolution of Neanderthals in the area during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. It can be expected that systematic direct dating of the other human fossils from this area will elucidate our understanding of Neanderthal evolution and demise.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 84. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 14 August 2026.
All research outputs
#616,064
of 32,151,140 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Human Evolution
#210
of 2,608 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#9,999
of 353,958 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Human Evolution
#2
of 32 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,151,140 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,608 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 28.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 353,958 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 32 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
