This week at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Amanda Gutiérrez Carbajal defended the first doctoral thesis on paleoproteomics in Atapuerca. The thesis was supervised by María Martinón Torres, director of CENIEH; Elena Santos, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Tomás Marquès, from the Instituto de Biología Evolutiva (IBE) in Barcelona.
To carry out this doctoral thesis, entitled "Evolutionary study of the lineage of cave bears in the Sierra de Atapuerca from the paleoproteome of dental enamel", Amanda Gutiérrez received financial support from the Fundación Atapuerca and the Fundación-REALE, as well as the European project PUSHH.

Her thesis explores the evolution of cave-dwelling ursids through the study of proteins preserved in their dental enamel. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that integrated molecular biology and paleontology, Amanda Gutiérrez investigated the evolutionary relationships between cave bears and some modern species of ursids.

The use of advanced paleoproteomics techniques has enabled the identification of key proteins in the formation of enamel and single amino acid polymorphisms, some of them described for the first time, which made it possible to make detailed phylogenetic inferences.

Thanks to the exceptional fossil record in the Sierra de Atapuerca and other sites in southwestern Europe, this research offers, from a proteomic perspective, a deeper insight into how this lineage evolved during the Pleistocene, enriching our understanding of the interaction between evolution and the environment in extinct species.

The jury, chaired by José María Bermúdez de Castro Risueño, principal investigator of the Atapuerca project, and also made up of Cristina Eugenia Valdiosera Morales, of the Universidad de Burgos; Samantha Brown, of the CENIEH; Aurora María Grandal D' Anglade, of the Universidad de la Coruña, and Esther Lizano González, of the IBE de Barcelona, unanimously awarded the new Universidad de Burgos doctor the mark of 'cum laude'.