Academic staff

Journal articles

• Ham E, Underdown SJ, Houldcroft CJ, 'The relative roles of maternal survival and inter-personal violence as selection pressures on the persistence of Neanderthal hypercoagulability alleles in modern Europeans'
  Annals of Human Biology (2019)
  ISSN: 0301-4460 eISSN: 1464-5033
  Abstract

  Background. Simoni et al (2016) reported variation in the frequency of Neanderthal alleles found in modern humans and argued that they may have provided an evolutionary advantage. One such allele is SNP rs3917862, associated with hypercoagulability. rs3917862 can be deleterious but can also help prevent blood loss. We investigated two possible selective pressure hypotheses for rs3917862 surviving to higher frequencies: deaths from interpersonal violent trauma and childbirth. Results. Mortality data from modern hunter-gatherers models the living conditions and causes of death of humans and Neanderthals at the point of admixture. National census data indicates a positive correlation between presence of rs3917862 and decreased maternal mortality ratios. When maternal mortality ratio is modelled using GDP, births attended by skilled assistants and the presence of rs3917862, women are 0.1% more likely to die in childbirth in populations lacking rs3917862. Deaths due to violence show no correlation with rs3917862. Conclusion. These findings challenge the idea that Neanderthal admixture has negatively impacted the overall health of modern humans. Maternal survival may have acted as a selective pressure for the persistence of hypercoagulability alleles in modern Europeans. Understanding the role of hypercoagulability in childbirth, and the role of rs3917862, could help to reduce maternal mortality ratios.
  

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• Pimenoff VP, Houldcroft CH, Rifkin RF, Underdown SJ, 'The Role of aDNA in Understanding the Co-Evolutionary Patterns of Human Sexually Transmitted Infections'
  Genes (2018)
  ISSN: 2073-4425
  Abstract Analysis of pathogen genome data sequenced from clinical and historical samples has made it possible to perform phylogenetic analyses of sexually transmitted infections on a global scale; and to estimate the diversity, distribution and co-evolutionary host-relationships of these pathogens, providing insights into pathogen emergence and disease prevention. Deep-sequenced pathogen genomes from clinical studies, and ancient samples, yield estimates of within-host and between-host evolutionary rates and provide data on changes in pathogen genomic stability and evolutionary responses. Here we examine three groups of pathogens transmitted mainly through sexual contact between modern humans to provide insight into ancient human behavior and history with their pathogens. Exploring ancient pathogen genomic divergence and the ancient viral-host parallel evolutionary histories will help us to reconstruct the origin of present-day geographical distribution and diversity of clinical pathogen infections, and will hopefully allow us foresee possible environmentally induced pathogen evolutionary responses. Lastly, we emphasize that ancient pathogen DNA research should be combined with modern clinical pathogen data, and be equitable and provide advantages for all researchers worldwide e.g. through shared data.
• Underdown, SJ Kumar, K Houldcroft, CJ, 'Network analysis of the hominin origin of Herpes Simplex virus 2 from fossil data'
  Virus Evolution 3 (2) (2017)
  ISSN: 2057-1577
  Abstract Herpes simplex virus 2 is a human herpesvirus found worldwide that causes genital lesions and more rarely causes encephalitis. This pathogen is most common in Africa, and particularly in central and east Africa, an area of particular significance for the evolution of modern humans. Unlike HSV1, HSV2 has not simply co-speciated with humans from their last common ancestor with primates. HSV2 jumped the species barrier between 1.4 and 3 MYA, most likely through intermediate but unknown hominin species. In this paper, we use probability-based network analysis to determine the most probable transmission path between intermediate hosts of HSV2, from the ancestors of chimpanzees to the ancestors of modern humans, using paleo-environmental data on the distribution of African tropical rainforest over the last 3 million years and data on the age and distribution of fossil species of hominin present in Africa between 1.4 and 3 MYA. Our model identifies Paranthropus boisei as the most likely intermediate host of HSV2, while Homo habilis may also have played a role in the initial transmission of HSV2 from the ancestors of chimpanzees to P. boisei. Website 
• Veldhuis D, Underdown S, 'Human Biology of Migration'
  Annals of Human Biology 44 (5) (2017) pp.393-396
  ISSN: 0301-4460 eISSN: 1464-5033
  Website 
• Houldcroft CJ, Ramond J, Rifkind RF, Underdown SJ, 'Migrating microbes: What pathogens can tell us about population movements and human evolution'
  Annals of Human Biology 44 (5) (2017) pp.397-407
  ISSN: 0301-4460 eISSN: 1464-5033
  Abstract The biology of human migration can be observed from our co-evolutionary relationship with infectious diseases. While many pathogens are brief, unpleasant visitors to our bodies, others have the ability to become life-long human passengers. The story of a pathogen’s genetic code may therefore provide insight into the history of its human host. The evolution and distribution of disease in Africa is of particular interest, because of the deep history of human evolution in Africa, the presence of a variety of non-human primates, and tropical reservoirs of emerging infectious diseases.
  Here, we explore which pathogens leave traces in the archaeological record, and whether there are realistic prospects that these pathogens can be recovered from sub-Saharan African archaeological contexts. We then present three stories of germs on a journey. The first is the story of HIV’s spread on the back of colonialism and the railway networks over the last 150 years. The second involves the spread of Schistosoma mansoni, a parasite which shares its history with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the origins of fresh-water fishing. Finally, we discuss the tantalising hints of hominin migration and interaction found in the genome of human herpes simplex virus 2.
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• Houldcroft C, Underdown S, 'Neanderthal genomics suggests a Pleistocene time frame for the first epidemiologic transition'
  American Journal of Physical Anthropology 160 (3) (2016) pp.379-388
  ISSN: 0002-9483 eISSN: 1096-8644
  Abstract

  High quality Altai Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes are revealing which regions of archaic hominin DNA have persisted in the modern human genome. A number of these regions are associated with response to infection and immunity, with a suggestion that derived Neanderthal alleles found in modern Europeans and East Asians may be associated with autoimmunity.  As such Neanderthal genomes are an independent line of evidence of which infectious diseases Neanderthals were genetically adapted to. Sympathetically, human genome adaptive introgression is an independent line of evidence of which infectious diseases were important for AMH coming in to Eurasia and interacting with Neanderthals. The Neanderthals and Denisovans present interesting cases of hominin hunter-gatherers adapted to a Eurasian rather than African infectious disease package. Independent sources of DNA-based evidence allow a re-evaluation of the first epidemiologic transition and how infectious disease affected Pleistocene hominins. By combining skeletal, archaeological and genetic evidence from modern humans and extinct Eurasian hominins we question whether the first epidemiologic transition in Eurasia featured a new package of infectious diseases, or a change in the impact of existing pathogens. Coupled with pathogen genomics, this approach supports the view that many infectious diseases are pre-Neolithic, and the list continues to expand. The transfer of pathogens between human populations, including the expansion of pathogens from Africa, may also have played a role in the extinction of the Neanderthals and offers an important mechanism to understand hominin-hominin interactions well back beyond the current limits for aDNA extraction from fossils alone.

  Website 
• Underdown S, Oppenheimer S J, 'Do patterns of covariation between human pelvis shape, stature, and head size alleviate the obstetric dilemma?'
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (3) (2016)
  ISSN: 0027-8424 eISSN: 1091-6490
  Website 
• Underdown S J, 'Fitzroy's fighting Fuegians: comparisons of palaeopathological and ethnographic indications of fighting behaviour in an extinct human population'
  International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 22 (3) (2010) pp.373-378
  ISSN: 1047-482X eISSN: 1099-1212
  Abstract The Selk'nam were an indigenous population of Tierra del Fuego that are now extinct. Contemporary accounts, including those of Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin, attest to their prodigious size and strength. These accounts and others record that the Selk'nam were enthusiastic wrestlers and fought till one or other of the opponents could no longer continue. Presented here is a case of traumatic injury to the ulnae and radii of a Selk'nam male that is concomitant with injuries sustained during such activity and as such would provide intriguing evidence of this practice in the skeletal record of an extinct human population.Website 
• Priston N E C, Underdown S J, 'A simple method for calculating the liklihood crop damage by primates: an epidemiological approach'
  International Journal of Pest Management 55 (1) (2009) pp.51-56
  ISSN: 0967-0874 eISSN: 1366-5863
  Abstract

  Human-wildlife conflict, specifically crop raiding by wildlife, is an increasing concern. Primates are a particular problem across much of Africa and Asia, especially for rural, subsistence farmers living and farming at the forest edge. Most methods designed for sampling and extrapolating from primate crop damage in a subsistence farming context require extensive data collection and involve considerable expenditure of time to complete data analysis. Using a standard epidemiological model, we predict the relative risk of primate crop raiding based on crops grown, their availability within individual farms and patterns of primate selectivity. The model produces an index of relative risk of crop raiding by primates within a geographical region. It rapidly ranks farms according to their vulnerability to crop raiding, with limited need for in-depth data collection. It will therefore allow a more effective deployment of protection methods and more pro-active targeting of resources. This method of modelling primate crop damage can be taught to local communities rapidly and easily. Although not designed to replace existing methods, it can run effectively in conjunction with them.

  Website 
• Underdown S J, 'A potential role for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in neanderthal extinction '
  Medical Hypotheses 71 (1) (2008) pp.4-7
  ISSN: 0306-9877
  Abstract The Neanderthals were a Eurasian human species of the genus Homo that disappeared approximately 30,000 years ago. The cause or causes of their extinction continues to intrigue specialists and non-specialists alike. Here a contributory role for Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) is suggested. TSEs could have infected Neanderthal groups as a result of general cannibalistic activity and brain tissue consumption in particular. Further infection could then have taken place through continued cannibalistic activity or via shared used of infected stone tools. A modern human hunter-gatherer proxy has been developed and applied as a hypothetical model to the Neanderthals. This hypothesis suggests that the impact of TSEs on the Neanderthals could have been dramatic and have played a large part in contributing to the processes of Neanderthal extinction.Website 
• Underdown S, 'A Comparative Approach to Understanding Neanderthal Trauma'
  Periodicum Biologorum 108 (2006) pp.485-493
  ISSN: 0031-5362
  

Conference papers

• Smith S, Underdown S, 'Lifting the Gloomy Curtain of Time Past: Tracing the Identity of the First Cognitively Modern Hominin in Deep History'
  (2019)
  ISBN: 9781912385034
  

Reviews

• Davies R, Underdown S, review of The Neanderthals: a Social Synthesis, in Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16 (2006) pp.145-164ISSN: 0959-7743 eISSN: 1474-0540
  Website 

Other publications

• Davies R, Underdown S, 'Some Observations on the Neanderthals - a Social Synthesis (davies and Underdown Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16.2 (june) 2006, 145-64) - Response'
  Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16 (2006) pp.351-351ISSN: 0959-7743 eISSN: 1474-0540
  
• Underdown S, 'How the Word Hominid Evolved to Include Hominin'
  Nature 444 (2006) pp.680-680ISSN: 0028-0836
  Website