APPENDIX I-II: External Empirical Validation: Dmanisi and the Reticular Trajectory

This appendix explores the morphological and structural variability observed in the Dmanisi dental assemblage through a reticular, non-linear evolutionary framework, based on an independent structural interpretation of the enamel thickness and morphometric results published by Victor Nery et al. (2025). Rather than generating new primary data, the analysis re-evaluates the published dataset to examine patterns traditionally interpreted as taxonomic diversity and considers them instead as expressions of population-level variability within a single, structured evolutionary system. By distinguishing between inherited continuity and projected structural gradients, the study identifies a dominant erectine attractor accompanied by secondary and tertiary approximations toward heidelbergensis and neanderthalensis morphospaces. These patterns are interpreted not as evidence of discrete lineages or multiple coexisting species, but as the result of progressive gracilization and functional reorganization within a stable population background. The results support a reticular model of human evolution in which morphological solutions are recurrently reactivated across different evolutionary contexts rather than transmitted through clean ancestor–descendant chains. The appendix further proposes explicit, falsifiable predictions regarding the dissociation of maxillary and mandibular signals, the inclusion of other early Homo specimens, and the repetition of similar structural patterns in geographically distinct assemblages. Overall, this work provides an external empirical validation of the TBTA (Turn Back To Africa) framework using independently published fossil data and contributes to ongoing discussions challenging strictly linear and taxonomically rigid interpretations of early human evolution.