{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,10]],"date-time":"2026-05-10T23:08:27Z","timestamp":1778454507101,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,2]],"date-time":"2021-09-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1630540800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A number of different approaches are currently available to digitally restore the symmetry of a specimen deformed by taphonomic processes. These tools include mirroring and retrodeformation to approximate the original shape of an object by symmetrisation. Retrodeformation has the potential to return a rather faithful representation of the original shape, but its power is limited by the availability of bilateral landmarks. A recent protocol proposed by Schlager and colleagues (2018) overcomes this issue by using bilateral landmarks and curves as well as semilandmarks. Here we applied this protocol to the Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Steinheim (Germany), the holotype of an abandoned species named Homo steinheimensis. The peculiar morphology of this fossil, associated with the taphonomic deformation of the entire cranium and the lack of a large portion of the right side of the face, has given rise to different hypotheses over its phylogenetic position. The reconstruction presented here sheds new light on the taphonomic origin of some features observed on this crucial specimen and results in a morphology consistent with its attribution to the Neanderthal lineage.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym13091611","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,6]],"date-time":"2021-09-06T23:55:22Z","timestamp":1630972522000},"page":"1611","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Retrodeformation of the Steinheim Cranium: Insights into the Evolution of Neanderthals"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8951-2990","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Costantino","family":"Buzi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"DFG Centre for Advanced Studies \u2018Words, Bones, Genes, Tools\u2019, Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen, R\u00fcmelinstr. 23, 72070 T\u00fcbingen, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2884-7118","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonio","family":"Profico","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"PalaeoHub, Department of Archaeology, University of York, King\u2019s Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK"}]},{"given":"Fabio","family":"Di Vincenzo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Natural History Museum, University of Florence, 50121 Firenze, Italy"},{"name":"Italian Institute of Human Paleontology (Is.I.P.U.), 03012 Anagni, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5998-4794","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Katerina","family":"Harvati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DFG Centre for Advanced Studies \u2018Words, Bones, Genes, Tools\u2019, Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen, R\u00fcmelinstr. 23, 72070 T\u00fcbingen, Germany"},{"name":"Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironments, Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Eberhard Karls University of T\u00fcbingen, R\u00fcmelinstr. 23, 72070 T\u00fcbingen, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7919-4431","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marina","family":"Melchionna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell\u2019Ambiente e delle Risorse, Universit\u00e0 di Napoli Federico II, 80138 Napoli, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4593-8006","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pasquale","family":"Raia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell\u2019Ambiente e delle Risorse, Universit\u00e0 di Napoli Federico II, 80138 Napoli, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8611-1371","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giorgio","family":"Manzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Italian Institute of Human Paleontology (Is.I.P.U.), 03012 Anagni, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Roma, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1016\/0025-5564(77)90101-8","article-title":"The study of shape transformation after D\u2019Arcy Thompson","volume":"34","author":"Bookstein","year":"1977","journal-title":"Math. 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