The
Neanderthal , or ), also spelled
Neandertal, is an extinct member of the
HomoHomo is the genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old, evolving from Australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis...
genus that is known from
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
specimenIn biology, a specimen is an individual animal, part of an animal, plant, part of a plant, or microorganism used as a representative to study the properties of the whole population of that species or subspecies...
s found in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and parts of western and
central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. Neanderthals are either classified as a
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is 1) a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or 2) a taxonomic unit, a taxon in that rank...
of
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
s (
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
(
Homo neanderthalensis). The first proto-Neanderthal
traitsA trait is a distinct variant of a phenotypic character of an organism that may be inherited, environmentally determined or somewhere in between. For example, eye color is a character or abstraction of an attribute, while blue, brown and hazel are traits.- Definition :A trait may be any single...
appeared in Europe as early as 600,000–350,000 years ago. Proto-Neanderthal traits are occasionally grouped to another
pheneticIn biology, phenetics, also known as numerical taxonomy or taximetrics, is an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relation....
'species',
Homo heidelbergensisHomo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of the genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and Homo sapiens. The best evidence found for these hominin date between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. H...
, or a migrant form,
Homo rhodesiensisHomo rhodesiensis is a possible hominin species described from the fossil Rhodesian Man. Other morphologically-comparable remains have been found from the same, or earlier, time period in southern Africa , East Africa and North Africa...
. By 130,000 years ago, complete Neanderthal characteristics had appeared. These characteristics then disappeared in Asia by 50,000 years ago and in Europe by 30,000 years ago. The youngest Neanderthal finds include Hyaena Den (UK), considered older than 30,000 years ago, while the Vindija (Croatia) Neanderthals have been re-dated to between 32,000 and 33,000 years ago. No definite specimens younger than 30,000 years ago have been found; however, evidence of fire by Neanderthals at
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
indicate that they may have survived there until 24,000 years ago.
Modern humanThe term Cro-Magnon refers to one of the main types of early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. Current dating of Cro-Magnon bones point to more recent date 17,000 years. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years...
skeletal remains with 'Neanderthal traits' were found in Lagar Velho (Portugal), dated to 24,500 years ago and controversially interpreted as indications of extensively admixed populations.
Neanderthal
stone toolA stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made partially, or entirely out of stone. Although stone-tool-dependent cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist....
s provide further evidence for their presence where skeletal remains have not been found. The last traces of Mousterian culture, a type of stone tools associated with Neanderthals, were found in
Gorham's CaveGorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals.Gorham's Cave is located on the south side of the Rock of Gibraltar. When first inhabited, it would have been approximately five kilometers from the sea, but due to...
on the remote south-facing coast of Gibraltar. Other
tool cultureIn addition to its usual meaning in social science, in archaeology, the term culture is also used in reference to several related concepts unique to the discipline.-Archaeological culture:...
s sometimes associated with Neanderthal include
ChâtelperronianChâtelperronian was the earliest industry of the Upper Palaeolithic in central and south western France, extending also into Northern Spain. It derives its name from the site of la Grotte des Fées, in Châtelperron, Allier, France....
,
AurignacianThe Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia. It begins around 40,000 to 36,000 years ago, and lasts until 28,000 to 26,000 years ago. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France...
, and
Gravettianthumb|right|Burins similar to these are characteristic diagnostic artifacts typical of the digs attributed to the Gravettian culture.The Gravettian toolmaking culture was a specific archaeological industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic era prevalent before the last glacial epoch...
, with the latter extending to 22,000 years ago, the last indication of Neanderthal presence.
Neanderthal
cranial capacityCranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cc...
is often thought to have been as large or larger than modern humans, indicating that their brain size may have been the same or greater. In 2008, a group of scientists made a study using three-dimensional computer-assisted reconstructions of Neanderthal infants based on fossils found in Russia and Syria that shows that they had brains as large as ours at birth and larger than ours as adults. On average, the height of Neanderthals was comparable to contemporaneous
Homo sapiens. Neanderthal males stood about and were heavily built with robust bone structure. They were much stronger, having particularly strong arms and hands. Females stood about . They were almost exclusively carnivorous and
apex predatorApex predators is a predator that has virtually no predators of its own, residing at the top of its food chain...
s.
Etymology and pronunciation
The Neanderthal is named after the Neandertal valley, originally spelled
Neanderthal, which is located about east of
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...
. The spelling of the
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
word
Thal ("valley"), was changed to
Tal in 1901, and the spelling of the valley was also changed accordingly to
Neandertal. The former spelling is however often retained in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
for the hominid. The spelling with
th is in addition always used in scientific names throughout the world. In German, the modern spelling with
t is however otherwise used in referring both to the hominid and the valley.
The valley was named after the theologian
Joachim NeanderJoachim Neander was a German Reformed Church teacher, theologian and hymn writer whose most famous hymn, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation is generally regarded as one of the greatest hymns of praise of the Christian church and, since being translated into...
, who lived nearby in
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...
in the late 17th century. "Neander" is a classicized form of the common German surname Neumann. In turn, the hominid was named after the valley, where the first Neanderthal remains were found. The term
Neanderthal Man was coined in 1863 by the
Anglo-IrishAnglo-Irish was a term used historically to describe a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until 1871, or to a lesser...
geologistFor other uses, see Geologist .A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth and terrestrial planets...
William KingWilliam King , an Anglo-Irish geologist at Queen's College Galway was the first to propose that the bones found in Neanderthal, Germany in 1856 were not of human origin, but of a distinct species: Homo neanderthalensis...
.
The
German pronunciationThis article is about the phonology of the German language based on the standard dialect. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants .Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different...
(regardless of spelling) is with the sound /t/. American English speakers commonly pronounce it as /θ/ (
th as in
thin), but American scientists usually use /t/. British English speakers usually pronounce it as /t/ followed by a long
a as in
tar.
Classification
For some time, scientists have debated whether Neanderthals should be classified as
Homo neanderthalensis or as
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a
subspeciesSubspecies in biological classification, is 1) a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, or 2) a taxonomic unit, a taxon in that rank...
of
Homo sapiens. Some morphological studies support that
Homo neanderthalensis is a separate species and not a subspecies. Others, for example
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
Professor
Paul MellarsPaul Anthony Mellars is Professor of Pre-History and Human Evolution in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.- Academic career:...
, say "no evidence has been found of cultural interaction" and evidence from
mitochondrial DNAMitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within cells that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use...
studies have been interpreted as evidence Neanderthals were not a subspecies of
H. sapiens. The current state of sequence analysis of the Neanderthal genome suggest there was no recent genetic exchange between Neanderthals and humans, previous results which showed some similarities have now been conclusively shown as contamination and improper phylogenetic assumptions. Consequently,
Homo neanderthalensis at present appears to be the correct nomenclature.
Neanderthals evolved from African apes along a path similar to humans. Sometime between 5 and 10 million years ago a common ancestral species between chimps and humans lived in Africa. The ancestor evolved along a path that might include
Ardipithecus kadabba,
Ardipithicus ramidus,
Australopithecus anamensisAustralopithecus anamensis is a fossil species of Australopithecus. The first fossilized specimen of the species, though not recognized as such at the time, was a single arm bone found in Pliocene strata in the Kanapoi region of East Lake Turkana by a Harvard University research team in 1965...
,
Australopithecus afarensisAustralopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. It is thought that A. afarensis was ancestral to both the genus Australopithecus and the genus Homo, which includes the...
,
Homo habilisHomo habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2.5 million to at least 1.6 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene period. The discovery and description of this species is credited to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who found fossils in Tanzania, East...
,
Homo ergasterHomo ergaster is an extinct hominid species that lived in eastern and southern Africa beginning about 1.9 million years ago during the late Pliocene epoch. Long-standing debate about the classification of H. ergaster has categorised it as a subspecies of Homo erectus, a separate species of African...
(or
Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of the genus Homo, which originated in Africa and spread as far as China and Java. Depending on the definition of the species, it is considered to be either a direct ancestor of modern humans, or a separate species which co-existed with the distinct Homo...
). The last common ancestor between anatomically modern
Homo sapiens and Neanderthals appears to be an African variant of
Homo heidelbergensis known as
Homo rhodesiensisHomo rhodesiensis is a possible hominin species described from the fossil Rhodesian Man. Other morphologically-comparable remains have been found from the same, or earlier, time period in southern Africa , East Africa and North Africa...
, named after a Archaic
Homo sapiens, Broken hill 1 (Kabwe 1) discovered in the territory of
RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia. Although it had features of a charter colony the territory's treaties and...
in 1921.
Homo rhodesiensis arose in Africa an estimated 0.7 to 1 million years ago. The earliest estimates for
Homo rhodesiensis reaching Europe are approximately 800 thousand years ago when a type of human referred to as
Homo antecessorHomo antecessor is an extinct hominin and a potential distinct species dating from 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago, that was discovered by Eudald Carbonell, J. L. Arsuaga and J. M. Bermúdez de Castro. H. antecessor is one of the earliest known hominins in Europe. Many anthropologists believe that H...
or
Homo cepranensisHomo cepranensis is a proposed name for a hominin species discovered in 1994 known from only one skull cap. The fossil was discovered by archeologist Italo Biddittu and was nick-named "Ceprano Man" after a nearby town in the province of Frosinone, 89 kilometers Southeast of Rome, Italy .The age of...
. These two human types maybe forerunners to European
Homo heidelbergensis, however stone tools dating from 1.2 to 1.56 million years ago of an unknown creator have been discovered in Southwestern Europe. The evidence at the Sima de los Huesos (in the Atapuerca cave system on the Iberia peninsula) suggest that
Homo heidelbergensis was already in Europe by 600,000 years ago. The molecular phylogenetics suggest that
Homo rhodesiensis and
Homo heidelbergensis continued to intermix until 350,000 years ago, after which they were separate species and sometime within the last 200,000 years
Homo heidelbergensis evolved into
Homo neanderthalensis, the classic Neanderthal man.
Discovery
Neanderthal skullsCraniometry is the technique of measuring the bones of the skull.It is distinct from phrenology, the study of personality and character, and physiognomy, the study of facial features...
were first discovered in
EngisEngis is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. On January 1 2006 Engis had a total population of 5,686. The total area is 27.74 km² which gives a population density of 205 inhabitants per km²....
,
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
(1829) by Philippe-Charles Schmerling and in Forbes' Quarry,
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
(1848), both prior to the "original" discovery in a
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
quarry of the
Neander ValleyThe Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley belongs to the area of the towns Erkrath and Mettmann...
in
ErkrathErkrath is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany- Geography :Erkrath is situated on the Düssel river, directly east of Düsseldorf and west of Wuppertal, close to the famous Neandertal....
near
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...
in August, 1856, three years before
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
's
On the Origin of Species was published.
The type specimen, dubbed
Neanderthal 1Feldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40 ky old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in August 1856. It represents the beginning of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline....
, consisted of a skull cap, two
femoraThe femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs...
, three bones from the right arm, two from the left arm, part of the left
iliumIn human anatomy, the pelvis is the part of the trunk inferioposterior to the abdomen in the transition area between the trunk and the lower limbs...
, fragments of a
scapulaIn anatomy, the scapula, omo , or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
, and ribs. The workers who recovered this material originally thought it to be the remains of a
bearBears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
. They gave the material to amateur naturalist
Johann Carl FuhlrottProf. Dr. Johann Carl Fuhlrott was born December 31 1803 in Leinefelde, Germany, and died October 17 1877 in Elberfeld, . He is famous for the discovery of the Neanderthal 1, a Neanderthal specimen found during an archaeology dig in August 1856. His parents were the innkeeper Johannes Philipp...
, who turned the fossils over to anatomist
Hermann SchaaffhausenHermann Schaaffhausen studied medicine in University of Berlin and received his doctor degree in 1839, and became a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bonn. Schaaffhausen is credited with identifying the remains of Neanderthal 1...
. The discovery was jointly announced in 1857.
The original Neanderthal discovery is now considered the beginning of
paleoanthropologyPaleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-Nineteenth century:...
. These and other discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from ancient
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
ans who had played an important role in modern
human originsHuman evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens as a distinct species from other hominids, great apes and placental mammals...
. The bones of over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.
Key dates
- 1829: Neanderthal skulls were discovered in Engis
Engis is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. On January 1 2006 Engis had a total population of 5,686. The total area is 27.74 km² which gives a population density of 205 inhabitants per km²....
, BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
.
- 1848: Skull of an ancient human was found in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
. Its significance was not realised at the time.
- 1856: Johann Karl Fuhlrott first recognised the fossil called “Neanderthal man”, discovered in Neanderthal
The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley belongs to the area of the towns Erkrath and Mettmann...
, a valley near MettmannMettmann is a Rhenish town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district...
in what is now North Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia is the westernmost and—in terms of population and economic output—the largest Federal State of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km²...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
.
- 1880: The mandible of a Neanderthal child was found in a secure context and associated with cultural debris, including hearths, Mousterian tools, and bones of extinct animals.
- 1886: two nearly perfect skeletons of a man and woman were found at Spy, Belgium
Spy is a village in the municipality of Jemeppe-sur-Sambre near Namur, Belgium.Here in 1886, in Betche aux Roches cavern, Maximin Lohest and Marcel de Puydt found two nearly perfect skeletons at the depth of 16 ft., with numerous implements of the Mousterian type.-See also:* Grotte de Spy...
at the depth of 16 ft. with numerous Mousterian-type implements.
- 1899: Hundreds of Neanderthal bones were described in stratigraphic position in association with cultural remains and extinct animal bones.
- 1908: A nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in association with Mousterian
Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age....
tools and bones of extinct animals.
- 1953–1957: Ralph Solecki
General InfoRalph Stefan Solecki is an American archaeologist. He was born in New York City, New York in 1917. He is a former member of the faculty at Columbia University , and his best-known excavations were at the Neanderthal site at Shanidar Cave in Iraq...
uncovered nine Neanderthal skeletons in ShanidarThe cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
Cave in northern Iraq.
- 1975: Erik Trinkaus
Erik Trinkaus, PhD, is a prominent paleoanthropologist and expert on Neanderthal biology and human evolution. Trinkaus researches the evolution of the species Homo sapiens and recent human diversity, focusing on the paleoanthropology and emergence of late archaic and early modern humans, and the...
’s study of Neanderthal feet confirmed that they walked like modern humans.
- 1987: Thermoluminescence
Thermoluminescence is a form of luminescence when absorbed light is re-emitted on heating.Some mineral substances such as fluorite store energy when exposed to ultraviolet or other ionising radiation...
results from Israeli fossils date Neanderthals at KebaraKebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, some 10km north-east of Caesarea...
to 60,000 BP and humans at QafzehThe Jebel Qafzeh remains or Qafzeh-Skhul early modern humans were discovered at the paleoanthropological site Qafzeh near Mount Precipice south of Nazareth, Israel. Since 1933, 12 significant fossilised human skeletons have been found at the main rock shelter and nearby Skhul cave...
to 90,000 BP. These dates were confirmed by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dates for Qafzeh (90,000 BP) and Es SkhulEs Skhul is a cave site situated c. 20 kilometers south of the city of Haifa, Israel, and c. 3 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The prehistoric site, was first excavated by Dorothy Garrod in the summer of 1928...
(80,000 BP).
- 1991: ESR dates showed that the Tabun Neanderthal
The Tabun Cave is an excavated cave located at Mount Carmel, Israel, which was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages . In the course of this period of time, deposits of sand, silt and clay of up to 25 meters accumulated in the cave...
was contemporaneous with modern humans from Skhul and Qafzeh.
- 1997: Matthias Krings et al. are the first to amplify Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) using a specimen from Feldhofer grotto in the Neander valley.
- 2000: Igor Ovchinnikov, Kirsten Liden, William Goodman et al. retrieved DNA from a Late Neanderthal (29,000 BP) infant from Mezmaikaya Cave in the Caucasus.
- 2005: The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network....
launched a project to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome.
- 2006: The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology announced that it planned to work with Connecticut-based 454 Life Sciences
454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, is a biotechnology company based in Branford, Connecticut specializing in high-throughput DNA sequencing using a novel massively parallel sequencing-by-synthesis approach...
to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome.
- 2009: The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology announced that the "first draft" of a complete Neanderthal genome is completed.
Specimens
- La Ferrassie 1
La Ferrassie 1 is a fossilized skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis. It was discovered in La Ferrassie, France by R. Capitan in 1909.It is estimated to be 70,000 years old....
: A fossilized skull discovered in La Ferrassie, France by R. Capitan in 1909. It is estimated to be 70,000 years old. Its characteristics include a large occipital bun, low-vaulted cranium and heavily worn teeth.
- Shanidar 1: Found in the Zagros Mountains in northern Iraq; a total of nine skeletons found believed to have lived in the Middle Paleolithic
The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...
. One of the nine remains was missing part of its right arm; theorized to have been broken off or amputatedAmputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for such problems...
. The find is also significant because it shows that stone tools were present among this tribe's culture. One was buried with flowers, showing that some type of burial ceremony may have occurred.
- La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is a partial skeleton of the species Homo neanderthalensis. It was discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908...
: Called the Old Man, a fossilized skull discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints La Chapelle-aux-Saints is a commune in the department of Corrèze in central France.-First discovery of a Neanderthal tomb:The La Chapelle-aux-Saints cave, bordering the Sourdoire valley, revealed many archeological artifacts belonging to the late Mousterian culture, including the first ever...
, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908. Characteristics include a low vaulted cranium and large browridge typical of Neanderthals. Estimated to be about 60,000 years old, the specimen was severely arthritic and had lost all his teeth, with evidence of healing. For him to have lived on would have required that someone process his food for him, one of the earliest examples of Neanderthal altruism (similar to Shanidar I.)
- Le Moustier
Le Moustier is an archeological site consisting of two rock shelters in Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne, France. It is known for a fossilized skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis that was discovered in 1909. The Mousterian tool culture is named after Le Moustier.The Le Moustier skull is...
: A fossilized skull, discovered in 1909, at the archaeological site in Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne, France. The Mousterian tool culture is named after Le Moustier. The skull, estimated to be less than 45,000 years old, includes a large nasal cavity and a somewhat less developed brow ridge and occipital bun as might be expected in a juvenile.
- Neanderthal 1
Feldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40 ky old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in August 1856. It represents the beginning of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline....
: Initial Neanderthal specimen found during an archaeological dig in August 1856. Discovered in a limestone quarry at the Feldhofer grotto in Neanderthal, Germany. The find consisted of a skull cap, two femora, the three right arm bones, two of the left arm bones, ilium, and fragments of a scapula and ribs.
Chronology
Bones with Neanderthal traits in chronological order.
Mixed with H. heidelbergensis traits
- > 350 Sima de los Huesos c. 500:350 hh/hn
- 350–200 thousand years ago: Pontnewydd 225 thousand years ago.
- 200–135: Atapuerca, Vértesszöllos, Ehringsdorf, Casal de'Pazzi, Biache, La Chaise, Montmaurin, Prince, Lazaret, Fontéchevade
Typical H. neanderthalensis traits
- 135–45: Krapina
Krapina is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje county with a population of 4,647 and a total municipality population of 12,950...
, Saccopastore, Malarnaud, Altamura, Gánovce, Denisova, Okladnikov Altai, Pech de l'Azé, Tabun 120k ÷ 100±5, QafzehThe Jebel Qafzeh remains or Qafzeh-Skhul early modern humans were discovered at the paleoanthropological site Qafzeh near Mount Precipice south of Nazareth, Israel. Since 1933, 12 significant fossilised human skeletons have been found at the main rock shelter and nearby Skhul cave...
9 100, Shanidar 1 to 9The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
80–60, La Ferrassie 1La Ferrassie 1 is a fossilized skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis. It was discovered in La Ferrassie, France by R. Capitan in 1909.It is estimated to be 70,000 years old....
70, KebaraKebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, some 10km north-east of Caesarea...
60, Régourdou, Mt. Circeo, Combe Grenal, ErdÉrd is an urban county in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary.-History:The area has been inhabited since ancient times. Archaeological findings indicate that prehistoric men lived here 50,000 years ago.Érd itself was first mentioned in documents in 1243...
50, La Chapelle-aux Saints 1 60, Amud, Teshik-TashTeshik-Tash is an archaeological site in Uzbekistan in central Asia, and the easternmost site to contain remains of the Neanderthal people. The inhabitants were "Transition Neanderthals" rather than "Classic Neanderthals." The site includes the remains of a Neanderthal child in association with...
, .
- 45–35: Le Moustier
Le Moustier is an archeological site consisting of two rock shelters in Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne, France. It is known for a fossilized skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis that was discovered in 1909. The Mousterian tool culture is named after Le Moustier.The Le Moustier skull is...
45, FeldhoferFeldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40 ky old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in August 1856. It represents the beginning of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline....
42, La Quina, l'Horus, Hortus, Kulna, Šipka, Saint Césaire, Bacho Kiro, El Castillo, Bñnolas, Arcy-sur-CureArcy-sur-Cure is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne in north-central France.The caves of Arcy-sur-Cure just south of the commune, hold the second-oldest cave paintings known, after those of Chauvet Cave.-Demographics:...
.
- < 35: Chătelperron, Pestera cu Oase
Peştera cu Oase is a system of 12 karstic galleries and chambers located N. 45° 01’; E. 21° 50’ in south-western Romania, where the oldest early modern human remains in Europe have been discovered....
35k, Figueria Brava, MladečMladeč is a village and municipality in Olomouc District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 761...
31k, Zafaraya 30, Vogelherd 3?, Pestera Muierii 30k (n/s), Vindija 32,400 ± 800 14C B.P. (Vi-208 31,390 ± 220, Vi-207 32,400 ± 1,800 14C B.P.) , Velika Pećina, Lagar Velho 24.5.
Habitat and range
Early Neanderthals lived in the Last Glacial age for a span of about 100,000 years. Because of the damaging effects which the glacial period had on the Neanderthal sites, not much is known about the early species. Countries where their remains are known include
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
,
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
,
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
,
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
,
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Classic Neanderthal fossils have been found over a large area, from northern Germany to Israel and Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy in the south and from England and Portugal in the west to
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
in the east. This area probably was not occupied all at the same time; the northern border of their range in particular would have contracted frequently with the onset of cold periods. On the other hand, the northern border of their range as represented by fossils may not be the real northern border of the area they occupied, since Middle-Palaeolithic looking artifacts have been found even further north, up to 60° on the Russian plain. Recent evidence has extended the Neanderthal range by about east into southern
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
's
Altay MountainsThe Altai Mountains are a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the Turkic peoples' birthplace...
.
Anatomy
Neanderthals were generally only shorter than modern humans, contrary to a common view of them as "very short" or "just over 5 feet". Based on 45 long bones from (at most) 14 males and 7 females, Neanderthal males averaged and females tall. Compared to Europeans some 20,000 years ago, it is nearly identical, perhaps slightly taller. Considering the body build of Neanderthals, new body weight estimates show they are only slightly above the cm/weight or the
body mass indexThe body mass index , or Quetelet index, is a controversial statistical measurement which compares a person's weight and height. Though it does not actually measure the percentage of body fat, it may be a useful tool to estimate a healthy body weight based on how tall a person is...
of modern Americans or Canadians.
Neanderthals had more robust build and distinctive
morphologicalComparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:Two major concepts of comparative anatomy are:...
features, especially of the
craniumThe skull is a bony structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
, which gradually accumulated more derived aspects, particularly in certain relatively isolated geographic regions. Evidence suggests they were much stronger than modern humans; their relatively robust stature is thought to be an adaptation to the cold climate of Europe during the
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epoch.
A 2007 study suggested some Neanderthals may have had red hair and
pale skin colorHuman skin color can range from almost black to nearly colorless in different people. Skin color is determined primarily by the amount and type of melanin, the pigment in the skin. Variation in skin color is largely due to genetics...
.
Distinguishing physical traits
The magnitude of
autapomorphicIn cladistics, an autapomorphy is a derived trait that is unique to a given terminal group. That is, it is found only in one member of a clade, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to the group .An autapomorphy is not present in the closest relative of...
traits in specimens differ in time. In the latest specimens, autapomorphy is fuzzy. The following is a list of physical traits which distinguish Neanderthals from modern humans; however, not all of them can be used to distinguish specific Neanderthal populations, from various geographic areas or periods of evolution, from other extinct humans. Also, many of these traits occasionally manifest in modern humans, particularly among certain ethnic groups traced to Neanderthal habitat ranges. Nothing is certain (from unearthed bones) about the shape of soft parts such as eyes, ears, and lips of Neanderthals.
When comparing traits to worldwide average present day human traits in Neanderthal specimens, the following traits are distinguished. The magnitude on particular trait changes with 300,000 years timeline. The large number of classic Neanderthal traits is significant because
extreme examples of
Homo sapiens may sometimes show one or more of these traits, but not most or all of them.
- Cranial
- Suprainiac fossa, a groove above the inion
The inion is the most prominent projection of the occipital bone at the posterioinferior part of the skull. The ligamentum nuchae and trapezius muscle attach to it....
- Occipital bun
Occipital bun is a morphological term used to describe a prominent bulge, or projection, of the occipital bone at the back of the skull. The term is most often used in connection with scientific descriptions of classic Neanderthal crania...
, a protuberance of the occipital boneThe occipital bone, a saucer-shaped membrane bone situated at the back and lower part of the cranium, is trapezoid in shape and curved on itself...
which looks like a hair knot
- Projecting mid-face
- Low, flat, elongated skull
- A flat basicranium
- Supraorbital torus, a prominent, trabecular (spongy) brow ridge
- skull capacity
- Lack of a protruding chin (mental protuberance; although later specimens possess a slight protuberance)
- Crest on the mastoid process
The mastoid process is a conical prominence projecting from the undersurface of the mastoid portion of the temporal bone. It is located just behind the external acoustic meatus, and lateral to the styloid process...
behind the ear opening
- No groove on canine teeth
- A retromolar space
The retromolar space or retromolar gap is a space at the rear of a mandible, between the back of the last molar and the anterior edge of the ascending ramus where it crosses the alveolar margin....
posterior to the third molar
- Bony projections on the sides of the nasal
Nasal may refer to:*Nasal consonant*Nasal vowel*Nose**Nasal bone**Nasal cavity**Nasal hair**Nasal helm*Nasal scale of reptiles...
opening, projecting noseAnatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth....
- Distinctive shape of the bony labyrinth
The labyrinth is a system of fluid passages in the inner ear, including both the cochlea, which is part of the auditory system, and the vestibular system, which provides the sense of balance...
in the ear
- Larger mental foramen
The mental foramen is one of two holes located on the anterior surface of the mandible. It permits passage of the mental nerve and vessels. The mental foramen descends slightly in edentulous individuals.- Variations :...
in mandible for facial blood supply
- Sub-cranial
- Considerably more robust, stronger build
- Long collar bones, wider shoulder
In human anatomy, the shoulder joint comprises the part of the body where the humerus attaches to the scapula. The shoulder refers to the group of structures in the region of the joint....
s
- Barrel-shaped rib cage
The human rib cage, also known as the thoracic cage, is a bony and cartilaginous structure which surrounds the thoracic cavity and supports the pectoral girdle, forming a core portion of the human skeleton. A typical human rib cage consists of 24 ribs, the sternum, costal cartilages, and the 12...
- Short, bowed shoulder blades
In anatomy, the scapula, omo , or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
- Larger round finger
A finger is a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates.Normally humans have five digits, termed phalanges, on each hand . The first digit is the thumb, followed by index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger or pinky...
tips
- Large kneecaps
- Thick, bowed shaft of the thigh bones, bowed femur
The femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs...
- Short shinbones
The tibia, shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates and connects the knee with the ankle bones.The tibia is named for the greek aulos flute, also known as a tibia.-In humans:...
and calf bonesThe fibula or calf bone is a bone located on the lateral side of the tibia, with which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones, and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones...
, shorter torusIn geometry, a torus is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with and not touching the circle. Examples of tori include the surfaces of doughnuts and inner tubes. The solid contained by the surface is known as a toroid...
proportionally longer legŁęg may refer to the following places in Poland:*A former name for the town of Ełk *Łęg, Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Łęg, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Łęg, Łódź Voivodeship...
s
- Long, gracile pelvic pubis
Pubis may refer to:* Pubis * Mons pubis, a padding of fat that protects the pubis bone...
(superior pubic ramusThe superior pubic ramus is a part of the pubic bone which forms a portion of the obturator foramen.It extends from the body to the median plane where it articulates with its fellow of the opposite side...
)
Pathology
Within the west Asian and European record there are five broad groups of pathology or injury noted in Neanderthal skeletons.
Fractures
Neanderthals seemed to suffer a high frequency of fractures, especially common on the ribs (
ShanidarThe cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
IV,
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 is a partial skeleton of the species Homo neanderthalensis. It was discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France by A. and J. Bouyssonie, and L. Bardon in 1908...
‘Old Man’), the femur (La Ferrassie 1), fibulae (La Ferrassie 2 and
TabunThe Tabun Cave is an excavated cave located at Mount Carmel, Israel, which was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages . In the course of this period of time, deposits of sand, silt and clay of up to 25 meters accumulated in the cave...
1), spine (
KebaraKebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, some 10km north-east of Caesarea...
2) and skull (Shanidar I,
KrapinaKrapina is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje county with a population of 4,647 and a total municipality population of 12,950...
,
Sala- Geography :* Sala Municipality - a municipality in Sweden* Sala, Sweden - a city in Sweden, seat of Sala Municipality* Sala municipality - a municipality in Latvia* Sala, Latvia - a village in Latvia, an administrative centre of Sala municipality...
1). These fractures are often healed and show little or no sign of infection, suggesting that injured individuals were cared for during times of incapacitation. The pattern of fractures, along with the absence of throwing weapons, suggests that they may have hunted by leaping onto their prey and stabbing or even wrestling it to the ground.
Trauma
Particularly related to fractures are cases of trauma seen on many skeletons of Neanderthals. These usually take the form of stab wounds, as seen on
Shanidar IIIThe cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
, whose lung was probably punctured by a stab wound to the chest between the 8th and 9th ribs. This may have been an intentional attack or merely a hunting accident; either way the man survived for some weeks after his injury before being killed by a rock fall in the
Shanidar caveThe cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
. Other signs of trauma include blows to the head (Shanidar I and IV, Krapina), all of which seemed to have healed, although traces of the scalp wounds are visible on the surface of the skulls.
Degenerative disease
Arthritis is particularly common in the older Neanderthal population, specifically targeting areas of articulation such as the ankle (Shanidar III), spine and hips (La Chapelle-aux-Saints ‘Old Man’), arms (La Quina 5, Krapina, Feldhofer) knees, fingers and toes. This is closely related to degenerative joint disease, which can range from normal, use-related degeneration to painful, debilitating restriction of movement and deformity and is seen in varying degree in the Shanidar skeletons (I–IV).
Hypoplastic disease
Dental enamel
hypoplasiaHypoplasia is underdevelopment or incomplete development of a tissue or organ. Although the term is not always used precisely, it properly refers to an inadequate or below-normal number of cells. Hypoplasia is similar to aplasia, but less severe. It is technically not the opposite of hyperplasia...
is an indicator of stress during the development of teeth and records in the striations and grooves in the enamel periods of food scarcity, trauma or disease. A study of 669 Neanderthal dental crowns showed that 75% of individuals suffered some degree of hypoplasia and that nutritional deficiencies were the main cause of hypoplasia and eventual tooth loss. All particularly aged skeletons show evidence of hypoplasia and it is especially evident in the Old Man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints and La Ferrassie 1 teeth.
Infection
Evidence of infections on Neanderthal skeletons is usually visible in the form of lesions on the bone, which are created by systematic infection on areas closest to the bone. Shanidar I has evidence of the degenerative lesions as does La Ferrassie 1, whose lesions on both femora, tibiae and fibulae are indicative of a systemic infection or carcinoma (malignant tumour/cancer).
Childhood
Neanderthal children might have grown faster than modern human children. Modern humans have the slowest body growth of any mammal during
childhoodChildhood is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood.-Age definition of a child:...
(the period between infancy and
pubertyPuberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads . In response, the gonads produce a variety of hormones that stimulate the growth, function, or transformation of...
) with lack of growth during this period being made up later in an adolescent
growth spurtPuberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads . In response, the gonads produce a variety of hormones that stimulate the growth, function, or transformation of...
. The possibility that Neanderthal childhood growth was different was first raised in 1928 by the excavators of the
MousterianMousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age....
rock-shelter of a Neanderthal juvenile.
Arthur KeithSir Arthur Keith was a Scottish anatomist and anthropologist, who became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Hunterian Professor and conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London...
in 1931 wrote, "Apparently Neanderthal children assumed the appearances of maturity at an earlier age than modern children." The earliness of body maturation can be inferred from the maturity of a juvenile's fossile remains and estimated age of death. The age at which juveniles die can be indirectly inferred from their
tooth morphology, development and emergenceTooth development or odontogenesis is the complex process by which teeth form from embryonic cells, grow, and erupt into the mouth. Although many diverse species have teeth, non-human tooth development is largely the same as in humans...
. This has been argued to both support and question the existence of a maturation difference between Neanderthals and modern humans. Since 2007 tooth age can be directly calculated using the noninvasive imaging of growth patterns in tooth enamel by means of
x-ray synchrotron microtomographyMicrotomography, like tomography, uses x-rays to create cross-sections of a 3D-object that later can be used to recreate a virtual model without destroying the original model....
. This research supports the existence of a much quicker physical development in Neanderthals than in modern human children. The x-ray synchrotron microtomography study of early
H. sapiens sapiens argues that this difference existed between the two species as far back as 160,000 years before present.
Language
The idea that Neanderthals lacked complex
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
was widespread, despite concerns about the accuracy of reconstructions of the Neanderthal vocal tract, until 1983, when a Neanderthal
hyoid boneThe hyoid bone is a horseshoe shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies at the level of the base of the mandible in the front and the third cervical vertebra behind.It is the only bone in the human skeleton not...
was found at the
Kebara CaveKebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, some 10km north-east of Caesarea...
in Israel. The hyoid is a small bone which connects the musculature of the
tongueThe tongue is a muscle on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing . It is the primary organ of taste, as much of the upper surface of the tongue is covered in papillae and taste buds. A secondary function of the tongue is speech, in which the organ assists...
and the
larynxThe larynx , colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the trachea and sound production...
, and by bracing these structures against each other, allows a wider range of tongue and laryngeal movements than would otherwise be possible. The presence of this bone implies that speech was anatomically possible. The bone which was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans.
The morphology of the outer and middle ear of Neanderthal ancestors,
Homo heidelbergensisHomo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of the genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and Homo sapiens. The best evidence found for these hominin date between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. H...
, found in Spain, suggests they had an auditory sensitivity similar to modern humans and very different from chimpanzees. They were probably able to differentiate between many different sounds.
Neurological evidence for potential speech in
neanderthalensis exists in the form of the
hypoglossal canal-Anatomy:It transmits the hypoglossal nerve from its point of entry near the medulla oblongata to its exit from the base of the skull near the jugular foramen. It lies in the epiphyseal junction between the basiocciput and the jugular process of the occipital bone....
. The canal of
neanderthalensis is the same size or larger than in modern humans, which are significantly larger than the canal of
australopithecineThe term australopithecine refers to two very closely related genera within the Hominina subtribe of the Hominini tribe. They appeared in the Pliocene:* Australopithecus, appeared about 4 million years ago;...
s and modern chimpanzees. The canal carries the hypoglossal nerve, which controls the muscles of the tongue. This indicates that
neanderthalensis had vocal capabilities similar to modern humans. A research team from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
, led by David DeGusta, suggests that the size of the hypoglossal canal is not an indicator of speech. His team's research, which shows no correlation between canal size and speech potential, shows there are a number of extant non-human primates and fossilized australopithecines which have equal or larger hypoglossal canal.
Another anatomical difference between Neanderthals and modern humans is their lack of a
mental protuberanceThe symphysis of the external surface of the mandible divides below and encloses a triangular eminence, the mental protuberance, the base of which is depressed in the center but raised on either side to form the mental tubercle....
(the point at the tip of the chin). This may be relevant to speech as the
mentalisThe Mentalis is situated at the tip of the chin. It raises and pushes up the lower lip, causing wrinkling of the chin, as in doubt or displeasure...
muscle contributes to moving the lower lip and is used to voice a
bilabial clickThe bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants found as phonemes only in the Tuu family, in the language of Botswana, in a single word in Hadza, and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia....
. While some Neanderthal individuals do possess a mental protuberance, their chins never show the inverted T-shape of modern humans. In contrast, some Neanderthal individuals show inferior lateral mental tubercles (little bumps at the side of the chin).
A recent extraction of DNA from Neanderthal bones indicates that Neanderthals had the same version of the
FOXP2FOXP2 is a protein which in humans is encoded on the FOXP2 gene. The FOXP2 gene is located on human chromosome 7 , and encodes a transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead domain. FOXP2 is a member of the large FOX family of transcription factors...
gene as modern humans. This gene is known to play a role in human language.
Steven MithenSteve Mithen is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has written a number of books including The Singing Neanderthals and The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science.-See also:...
(2006) proposes that the Neanderthals had an elaborate proto-linguistic system of communication which was more musical than modern human language, and which predated the separation of
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
and
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
into two separate modes of cognition.
Tools
Neanderthal and
Middle PaleolithicThe Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...
archaeological sites show a smaller and different toolkit than those which have been found in
Upper PaleolithicThe Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia...
sites, which were perhaps occupied by modern humans which superseded them. Fossil evidence indicating who may have made the tools found in Early Upper Paleolithic sites is still missing.
Neanderthals are thought to have used tools of the Mousterian class, which were often produced using soft hammer percussion, with hammers made of materials like bones, antlers, and wood, rather than hard hammer percussion, using stone hammers. A result of this is that their bone industry was relatively simple. However, there is good evidence that they routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. Neanderthal (
MousterianMousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age....
) tools most often consisted of sophisticated
stone-flakesIn archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage. The objective piece, or the rock being reduced by the removal of flakes, is known as a core. Once the proper...
, task-specific
hand axeA hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. This kind of axe is typical of the lower Paleolithic and the middle Palaeolithic and is the longest-used tool of human history...
s, and
spearA spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze...
s. Many of these tools were very sharp. There is also good evidence that they used a lot of wood, objects which are unlikely to have been preserved until today.
Also, while they had
weaponA weapon is a tool used to apply force for the purpose of hunting, attack, self-defense, or defense in combat.Weapons can be as simple as a club, or as complex as an intercontinental ballistic missile, and include those that damage individual or group morale.-Prehistoric weapons:Very simple weapon...
s, whether they had implements which were used as
projectileA projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch. Although a thrown baseball could be considered a projectile, the word more often refers to a weapon...
weapons is controversial. They had
spearA spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze...
s, made of long wooden shafts with spearheads firmly attached, but they are thought by some to have been thrusting spears. Still, a
LevalloisThe Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed by humans during the Palaeolithic period.It is named after nineteenth century finds of flint tools in the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris in France...
point embedded in a vertebra shows an angle of impact suggesting that it entered by a "parabolic trajectory" suggesting that it was the tip of a projectile. Moreover, a number of 400,000 year old wooden projectile spears were found at
SchöningenSchöningen is a city of 13,000 inhabitants in the district of Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, Germany. In its current form, it was created in 1974 by joining the municipalities of Esbeck, Hoiersdorf, and Schöningen....
in northern Germany. These are thought to have been made by the Neanderthal's ancestors,
Homo erectusHomo erectus is an extinct species of the genus Homo, which originated in Africa and spread as far as China and Java. Depending on the definition of the species, it is considered to be either a direct ancestor of modern humans, or a separate species which co-existed with the distinct Homo...
or
Homo heidelbergensisHomo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of the genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor of both Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and Homo sapiens. The best evidence found for these hominin date between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. H...
. Generally, projectile weapons are more commonly associated with
H. sapiens. The lack of projectile weaponry is an indication of different sustenance methods, rather than inferior technology or abilities. The situation is identical to that of native New Zealand
MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
— modern
Homo sapiens, who also rarely threw objects, but used spears and clubs instead.
Although much has been made of the Neanderthals'
burialBurial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. The interpretation of the
ShanidarThe cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. It was excavated between 1957-1961 by Ralph Solecki and his team from Columbia University and yielded the first adult Neanderthal skeletons in Iraq, dating between 60-80,000 years BP.The excavated area produced nine...
IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of
ritualA ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers, or dictated purely by logic, chance, necessity, etc..A ritual may be...
burial, has been questioned. On the other hand, five of the six flower pollens found with Shanidar IV are known to have had 'traditional' medical uses, even among relatively recent 'modern' populations. In some cases Neanderthal burials include
grave goodsGrave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods are a type of votive deposit...
, such as
bisonThe wisent , also known as the European bison, is a species of Eurasian bison. It is the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe; a typical wisent is about long and tall, and weighs . It is typically lighter than the related American Bison , and has shorter hair on the neck, head and...
and
aurochsThe aurochs or urus was a type of wild cattle, the ancestor of domestic cattle. It inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
bones, tools, and the
pigmentA pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
ochreOchre or Ocher is term for both a golden-yellow or light yellow brown color and for a form of earth pigment which produces the color. The pigment can also be used to create a reddish tint known as Red ochre. The more rarely used terms Purple ochre and Brown ochre also exist for variant hues...
.
Neanderthals also performed many sophisticated tasks which are normally associated only with humans. For example, it is known that they controlled fire, constructed complex shelters, and skinned animals. A trap excavated at
La Cotte de St BreladeLa Cotte de St Brelade is a Paleolithic site of early habitation in St Brelade, Jersey. Cotte means "cave" in Jèrriais; the cave is also known as Lé Creux ès Fées....
in
JerseyThe Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, Écréhous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs. Together with the bailiwick of Guernsey...
gives testament to their intelligence and success as hunters.
Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear
femurThe femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs...
with holes which may have been deliberately bored into it, known as the Divje Babe flute. This bone was found in western
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
in 1995, near a Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Some paleoanthropologists have hypothesized that it was a musical instrument, while others believe it was created by accident through the chomping action of another bear.
Pendants and other jewelry showing traces of ochre dye and of deliberate grooving have also been found with later finds, particularly in France but whether or not they were created by Neanderthals or traded to them by Cro-Magnons is a matter of controversy.
Cannibalism or ritual defleshing?
Neanderthals hunted large animals, such as the mammoth. Stone-tipped wooden spears were used for hunting and stone knives and poleaxes were used for butchering the animals or as
weaponA weapon is a tool used to apply force for the purpose of hunting, attack, self-defense, or defense in combat.Weapons can be as simple as a club, or as complex as an intercontinental ballistic missile, and include those that damage individual or group morale.-Prehistoric weapons:Very simple weapon...
s. However, they are believed to have practiced cannibalism, or ritual defleshing. This hypothesis has been represented after researchers found marks on Neanderthal bones similar to the bones of a dead deer butchered by Neanderthals.
Intentional burial and the inclusion of grave goods are the most typical representations of ritual behavior in the Neanderthals and denote a developing ideology. However, another much debated and controversial manifestation of this ritual treatment of the dead comes from the evidence of cut-marks on the bone which has 'historically been viewed' as evidence of ritual defleshing.
Neanderthal bones from various sites (Combe-Grenal and Abri Moula in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
KrapinaKrapina is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje county with a population of 4,647 and a total municipality population of 12,950...
in
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
and Grotta Guattari in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
) have all been cited as bearing cut marks made by stone tools. However, results of technological tests reveal varied causes.
Re-evaluation of these marks using high-powered microscopes, comparisons to contemporary butchered animal remains, and recent ethnographic cases of
excarnationIn archaeology and anthropology the term excarnation refers to the burial practice adopted by some societies of removing the flesh and organs of the dead, leaving only the bones....
mortuary practises have shown that perhaps this was a case of ritual defleshing.
- At Grotta Guattari, the apparently purposefully widened base of the skull (for access to the brains) has been shown to be caused by carnivore action, with hyena
The Hyaenidae is a mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family, native to both African and Asian continents, consists of four living species, the Striped Hyena and Brown Hyena , the Spotted Hyena , and the Aardwolf .-Evolution:Hyenas seem to have originated 26 million years ago from...
tooth marks found on the skull and mandible.
- According to some studies, fragments of bones from Krapina show marks which are similar to those seen on bones from secondary burials at a Michigan ossuary (14th century AD) and are indicative of removing the flesh of a partially decomposed body.
- According to others, the marks on the bones found at Krapina are indicative of defleshing, although whether this was for nutritional or ritual purposes cannot be determined with certainty.
- Analysis of bones from Abri Moula in France does seem to suggest cannibalism was practiced here. Cut-marks are concentrated in places expected in the case of butchery, instead of defleshing. Additionally the treatment of the bones was similar to that of roe deer bones, assumed to be food remains, found in the same shelter.
The evidence indicating cannibalism would not distinguish Neanderthals from modern
Homo sapiens. Ancient and existing
Homo sapiens are known to have practiced cannibalism (e.g. the
KorowaiThe Korowai, also called the Kolufo, are a people of southeastern Papua . Their numbers are very roughly estimated at about 3,000. Until the 1970s, they were unaware of the existence of any people besides themselves and some immediately neighboring villages...
) and/or mortuary defleshing (e.g. the
sky burialSky burial or ritual dissection was once a common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals – especially to birds of prey...
of
TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese people. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average...
).
Grooves in bones are hypothesized to be cuts by Neanderthal tools, not animal teeth. The chances of them being random, as some writers attributing them to animals have proposed, is debated.
Genome
Previous investigations concentrated on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which, owing to strictly matrilineal inheritance and subsequent vulnerability to
genetic driftGenetic drift or allelic drift is the change in the relative frequency with which a gene variant occurs in a population due to random sampling and chance: the alleles in offspring are a random sample of those in the parents, and chance has a role in determining whether a given individual survives...
, is of limited value to disprove interbreeding of Neanderthals with Cro-Magnon people.
In July 2006, the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyThe Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network....
and
454 Life Sciences454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, is a biotechnology company based in Branford, Connecticut specializing in high-throughput DNA sequencing using a novel massively parallel sequencing-by-synthesis approach...
announced that they would be
sequencingIn genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succinctly summarizes much of the atomic-level structure of the sequenced molecule.-DNA sequencing:DNA...
the Neanderthal genome over the next two years. This
genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
is very likely to be roughly the size of the
human genomeThe human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs. Twenty-two of these are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
, three-billion base pairs, and probably shares most of its
genesGênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa. It was divided into the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
. It is thought a comparison will expand understanding of Neanderthals as well as the evolution of humans and human brains.
Svante PääboSvante Pääbo is a biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden and earned his PhD from Uppsala University in 1986. Since 1997, he has been director of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany...
has tested more than 70 Neanderthal specimens and found only one which had enough DNA to sample. Preliminary DNA sequencing from a 38,000-year-old bone fragment of a femur found at Vindija cave,
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
, in 1980 shows that
Homo neanderthalensis and
Homo sapiens share about 99.5% of their DNA. From mtDNA analysis estimates, the two species shared a common ancestor about 500,000 years ago. An article appearing in the journal
NatureNature is a prominent British scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Most scientific journals are now highly specialized, and Nature is among the few journals that still publish original research articles across a wide range of scientific...
has calculated the species diverged about 516,000 years ago, whereas fossil records show a time of about 400,000 years ago. Scientists hope the DNA records will answer the question of whether there was interbreeding among the species. A 2007 study pushes the point of divergence back to around 800,000 years ago.
Edward RubinEdward M. "Eddy" Rubin is a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California and the director of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute....
of the
Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryThe Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus. It is managed and...
in
Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
states that recent genome testing of Neanderthals suggests human and Neanderthal DNA are some 99.5% to nearly 99.9% identical.
On ,
Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryThe Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus. It is managed and...
issued a
press releaseA news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers,...
suggesting that Neanderthals and ancient humans probably did not interbreed. Edward M. Rubin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), sequenced a fraction (0.00002) of genomic
nuclear DNANuclear DNA, nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid , is DNA contained within a nucleus of eukaryotic organisms. In most cases it encodes more of the genome than the mitochondrial DNA and is passed sexually rather than matrilineally. Nuclear DNA is the most common DNA used in forensic examinations....
(nDNA) from a 38,000-year-old Vindia Neanderthal femur bone. They calculated the common ancestor to be about 353,000 years ago, and a complete separation of the ancestors of the species about 188,000 years ago. Their results show the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals are at least 99.5% identical, but despite this genetic similarity, and despite the two species having coexisted in the same geographic region for thousands of years, Rubin and his team did not find any evidence of any significant crossbreeding between the two. Rubin said, "While unable to definitively conclude that interbreeding between the two species of humans did not occur, analysis of the nuclear DNA from the Neanderthal suggests the low likelihood of it having occurred at any appreciable level."
In 2008 Richard E. Green et al. from Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published the full sequence of Neanderthal
mitochondrial DNAMitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within cells that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use...
(mtDNA) and suggested that "Neandertals had a long-term effective population size smaller than that of modern humans." Writing in
Nature about Green et al.'s findings, James Morgan asserted that the mtDNA sequence contained clues that Neanderthals lived in "small and isolated populations, and probably did not interbreed with their human neighbours."
In the same publication, it was disclosed that the previous work at Max Plank Institute that according to Svante Pääbo "Contamination was indeed an issue," and eventually realized that 11% of their sample was modern human DNA. Since then, more of the preparation work is done in clean areas and 4-base pair 'tags' are added to the DNA as soon as it is extracted so the Neanderthal DNA can be identified.
With 3 billion nucleotides sequenced, analysis of about 1/3rd shows that there is no sign of admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals, according to Pääbo. This concurs with the work of Noonan from two years earlier. The variant of
MicrocephalinMicrocephalin is one of six genes causing primary microcephaly when non-functional mutations exist in the homozygous state...
common outside Africa, which was attributed to rapid brain growth in humans and suggested to be of Neanderthal origin, was not found in Neanderthals. Nor was the MAPT variant, a very old variant found primarily in Europeans.
Fate
Possible hypotheses for the fate of Neanderthals include the following:
- Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans, did not interbreed, and became extinct (due to climate change or interaction with humans) and were replaced by early modern humans traveling from Africa. Competition from H. sapiens probably contributed to Neanderthal extinction. Jared Diamond
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and nonfiction author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA...
has suggested a scenario of violent conflict and displacement.
- Neanderthals were a contemporary subspecies which incidentally bred with Homo sapiens and disappeared through absorption.
- Neanderthals never split from Homo sapiens and most of their populations transformed into anatomically modern humans between 50-30 thousand years ago (see Multiregional origin of modern humans).
Extinction
According to the
Out of AfricaOut of Africa is a 1985 filmbased loosely on the autobiographical book by Isak Dinesen published in 1937, as well as Dinesen's Shadows on the Grass and other sources...
theory, modern humans (
Homo sapiens) began replacing Neanderthals around 45,000 years ago, as the
Cro-MagnonThe term Cro-Magnon refers to one of the main types of early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. Current dating of Cro-Magnon bones point to more recent date 17,000 years. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years...
people appeared in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, pushing populations of Neanderthals into regional pockets, such as modern-day
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
,
IberiaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
, and the Crimean peninsula, where they held on for thousands of years. The last traces of Mousterian culture (without human specimens) have been found in
Gorham's CaveGorham's Cave is a natural sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals.Gorham's Cave is located on the south side of the Rock of Gibraltar. When first inhabited, it would have been approximately five kilometers from the sea, but due to...
on the remote south-facing coast of
GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
, dated 30,000 to 24,500 years ago.
Proponents of this model believe that modern humans and Neanderthals were separate species that were not interfertile. They cite the following evidence:
- The Neanderthals and modern humans were contemporaneous species. The two species maintained distinct morphologies over hundreds of thousands of years. On a number of occasions the habitats of modern humans and the Neanderthals overlapped. However, despite this overlap, the respective morphologies remained distinct based on the available fossil record.
- For example, remains associated with modern human anatomy have been found at Qafzeh
The Jebel Qafzeh remains or Qafzeh-Skhul early modern humans were discovered at the paleoanthropological site Qafzeh near Mount Precipice south of Nazareth, Israel. Since 1933, 12 significant fossilised human skeletons have been found at the main rock shelter and nearby Skhul cave...
in Israel dating to 90,000 years ago. These remains predate Neanderthal remains such as those at Kebara CaveKebara Cave is an Israeli limestone cave locality of the Wadi Kebara, situated at 60 - 65 metres ASL on the western escarpment of the Carmel Range, some 10km north-east of Caesarea...
, also in Israel, by about 30,000 years. Since Neanderthals appear after modern humans, it is unlikely that these modern humans evolved from the Neanderthals.
- No incontrovertible fossils that demonstrate intermediate characteristics between modern humans and Neanderthals have been found.
- Studies using non-recombinant DNA point to a recent African origin of Europeans. Mitochondrial DNA studies of a Neanderthal specimen revealed modern humans and Neanderthals last shared a common ancestor circa 600 000 years ago.
- Currently all European mtDNA lineages trace back to African lineages. Haplogroup N (mtDNA)
In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup N is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning many continents, the macro-haplogroup N, like its sibling M, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....
, the ancestral haplogroup for all Europeans, is thought to have emerged in East Africa 60–80,000 years ago.
- A study conducted in 2008 of 28,000 year old Cro-Magnon remains found that the mtDNA haplogroup of the specimen was a common haplogroup in contemporary Europeans. The haplogroup differed substantially from known Neanderthal mtDNA sequences.
- A recent statistical simulation found either no or insignificant admixing between modern humans and Neanderthals. Another mtDNA analysis showed no evidence for Neanderthal contributions to the gene pool of modern humans. The authors of the study concede this does not exclude Neanderthal contributions of other genes. They nevertheless argue other genetic and morphological data also suggest little or no Neanderthal contribution.
- The most recent patrilineal ancestor of all living humans (traced via Y-chromosome inheritance), Y-chromosomal Adam
In human genetics, Y-chromosomal Adam is the patrilineal human most recent common ancestor from whom all Y chromosomes in living men are descended...
, is estimated to have lived in Africa 60,000 years ago.
Neanderthals, according to Jordan (2001), appear to have had psychological traits that worked well in their early history but placed them at a long term disadvantage with regards to "modern" humans. They mastered complex tasks such as the making of fire, shelters with post holes, and stone tools. Yet there were many
Cro-MagnonThe term Cro-Magnon refers to one of the main types of early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. Current dating of Cro-Magnon bones point to more recent date 17,000 years. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years...
tools and behaviors the Neanderthals never developed: fish hooks, fish nets, headgear or hats, shoes, sewn clothing, needle-and-thread, and long-distance trade. It is still debated whether Neanderthals had significant art or music.
Other researchers think that the Neanderthals had little sexual division of labor, with Neanderthal women alongside the men hunting big game. Such a lifestyle was not as energy efficient as that of "modern" humans, whose hunter-gatherer lifestyle secured supplemental food of a much greater variety, including plant materials, fish, edible fungi, and small edible animals secured by women, young boys and elderly men, while males in the prime of life could hunt big mammals. Since the Neanderthals were mostly carnivorous and targeting big mammals, a shortage of large mammals meant possible bouts of starvation or malnutrition, which affected
Cro-MagnonThe term Cro-Magnon refers to one of the main types of early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. Current dating of Cro-Magnon bones point to more recent date 17,000 years. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years...
people less. The Neanderthals appear to have never stored food against lean times, and secured it in a haphazard, catch-as-catch-can manner.
Neanderthals appear to have never used boats or rafts, as evidenced by the lack of Neanderthal fossils from North Africa, yet Homo Erectus, their more primitive ancestor, appears to have used rafts or some other sort of boat on occasion. Homo Erectus, or some other hominid, used such craft to reach the island of
FloresFlores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population is estimated to be around 1.5 million , and the largest town is Maumere....
as evidenced by the discovery of
Homo floresiensisHomo floresiensis is a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body and brain and for its survival until relatively recent times. It was named after the Indonesian island of Flores on which the remains were found...
. Flores and some other places Homo Erectus reached have always been surrounded by very deep water, proving the use of watercraft of some sort.
Additionally, Neanderthals evidently had little long term planning when securing food: French caves show almost no salmon bones during Neanderthal occupancy but large numbers during
Cro-MagnonThe term Cro-Magnon refers to one of the main types of early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. Current dating of Cro-Magnon bones point to more recent date 17,000 years. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon like humans are dated to 30,000 radiocarbon years...
occupancy, showing that the Cro Magnons planned for future salmon runs. Neanderthals appear to have had little to no social organization beyond the immediate family unit. Why Neanderthal psychology was different from the "modern" people that they coexisted with for millenia is not known.
Due to the paucity of symbolism that Neanderthal artifacts show, arguably Neanderthal language probably did not deal much with a verbal future tense, again restricting Neanderthal exploitation of resources. Cro-Magnon people appear to have had a much better standard of living than the hardscrabble existence available to Neanderthals. All in all, with better language skills and bigger social groups, and with a better psychological repertoire, Cro-Magnon people, living alongside the Neanderthals on the same land, in general outclassed them in terms of life span, available spare time, physical health, comfort, fewer injuries, quality of life, and food procurement. This set the stage for eventual replacement of the Neanderthal.
Jordan states that a tool tradition called the Chatelperronian argues that Neanderthals were making some attempts at advancement, as the Chatelperronian tools are only associated with Neanderthal remains. It appears that this tradition was connected to social contact with Cro-Magnons of some sort. There were some items of personal decoration found at these sites, but these are inferior to contemporary Cro-Magnon items of personal decoration and arguably were made more by imitation than by a spirit of original creativity. Yet at the same time, Neanderthal stone tools were sometimes finished well enough to show some esthetic sense.
As Jordan notes: "A natural sympathy for the underdog and the disadvantaged lends a sad poignancy to the fate of the Neanderthal folk, however it came about."
Interbreeding hypotheses
It is possible that Neanderthals and "moderns" could in theory have interbred and produced fertile offspring, but that psychological/behavioural differences prevented sexual attraction between these two human types.
It is open to debate if successful interbreeding took place. There is the chance that Neanderthals were different enough from
Homo sapiens that there was little to no sexual contact at all, or if so, that there were no fertile offspring with live offspring being sterile, like mules. If there was successful breeding with fertile offspring, it is possible that the greater numbers of
Homo sapiens simply drowned out the Neanderthal input or that Neanderthal traits were later "weeded out" of the hybrid population by natural or sexual selection.
The validity of such an extensive period of cornered Neanderthal groups is recently questioned. There is no longer certainty regarding the identity of the humans who produced the
AurignacianThe Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia. It begins around 40,000 to 36,000 years ago, and lasts until 28,000 to 26,000 years ago. The name originates from the type site of Aurignac in the Haute Garonne area of France...
culture, even though the presumed westward spread of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) across Europe is still based on the controversial first dates of the Aurignacian. Currently, the oldest European anatomically modern
Homo sapiens is represented by a robust modern human mandible discovered at Pestera cu Oase (south-west Romania), dated to 34–36 thousand years ago. Human skeletal remains from the German site of Vogelherd, so far regarded the best association between anatomically modern
Homo sapiens and Aurignacian culture, were revealed to represent intrusive
NeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
burials into the Aurignacian levels and subsequently all the key Vogelherd fossils are now dated to 3.9–5.0 thousand years ago instead. As for now, the expansion of the first anatomically modern humans into Europe cannot be located by diagnostic and well-dated anatomically modern human fossils "west of the Iron Gates of the Danube" before 32 thousand years ago.
Consequently, the exact nature of biological and cultural interactions between Neanderthals and other human groups between 50 and 30 thousand years ago is currently hotly contested. A new proposal resolves the issue by taking the Gravettians rather than the Aurignacians as the anatomically modern humans which contributed to the Eurasian genetic pool after 30 thousand years ago. Correspondingly, the human skull fragment found at the Elbe River bank at Hahnöfersand near Hamburg was once radiocarbon dated to 36,000 years ago and seen as possible evidence for the intermixing of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. It is now dated to the more recent
MesolithicThe Mesolithic or "Middle Stone Age" was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age. The term was introduced by John Lubbock in his work Pre-historic Times, published in 1865. The term was, however, not much used...
.
Modern human findings in Abrigo do Lagar Velho,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
of 24,500 years ago, allegedly featuring Neanderthal admixtures, have been published. However the interpretation of the Portuguese specimen is disputed.
In another study, researchers have recently found in Pestera Muierii, Romania, remains of European humans from 30 thousand years ago who possessed mostly diagnostic "modern" anatomical features, but
also had distinct Neanderthal features not present in ancestral modern humans in Africa, including a large bulge at the back of the skull, a more prominent projection around the elbow joint, and a narrow socket at the shoulder joint. Analysis of one skeleton's shoulder showed that these humans, like Neanderthal, did not have the full capability for throwing spears.
The paleontological analysis of modern human emergence in Europe has been shifting from considerations of the Neanderthals to assessments of the biology and chronology of the earliest modern humans in western Eurasia. This focus, involving morphologically modern humans before 28,000 years ago, shows accumulating evidence that they present a variable mosaic of derived modern human, archaic human, and Neanderthal features. Studies of fossils from the upper levels of the Sima de las Palomas,
MurciaMurcia is a city in south-eastern Spain, capital of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, located along the river Segura. Its current population is 433,850 , ranking seventh in Spain, and the population of the metropolitan area is 743,326, ranking ninth out of the largest metropolitan...
, Spain, dated to 40,000 years ago, establish the late persistence of Neanderthals in Iberia. This reinforces the conclusion that the Neanderthals were not merely swept away by advancing modern humans. In addition, the Palomas Neanderthals variably exhibit a series of modern human features rare or absent in earlier Neanderthals. Either they were evolving on their own towards the modern human pattern, or more likely, they had contact with early modern humans around the
PyreneesThe Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain...
. If the latter, it implies that the persistence of the Middle Paleolithic in Iberia was a matter of choice, and not cultural retardation.
Popular culture
In popular idiom the word neanderthal is sometimes used as an insult, to suggest that a person combines a deficiency of intelligence and an attachment to brute force, as well as perhaps implying the person is old fashioned or attached to outdated ideas, much in the same way as "dinosaur" is also used. Although they are frequently characterized in this manner, research showing Neanderthals were as intelligent as contemporaneous
Homo sapiens, with early stone tool technologies of comparable efficiency, is debunking long-held beliefs.
Counterbalancing this are sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals, as in the novel
The InheritorsThe Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies. It was his personal favorite of all his novels and concerns the extinction of the last remaining tribe of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated newly-evolved Homo...
by
William GoldingSir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
,
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
's
The Ugly Little Boy"The Ugly Little Boy" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the September 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title "Lastborn", and was reprinted under its current title in the 1959 collection Nine Tomorrows. The story deals with a Homo...
, and
Jean M. AuelJean Marie Auel , born Jean Marie Untinen , is an American writer. She is best known for her Earth's Children books, a series of historical fiction novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals...
's
Earth's ChildrenEarth's Children is a series of speculative alternative historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel set circa 25,000 years before present. There are five novels in the series so far and a sixth is in progress. Auel has mentioned in recent interviews that she now believes she will write a...
series, though Auel repeatedly compares Neanderthals to modern humans unfavorably within the series, showing them to be less advanced in nearly every facet of their lives. Instead she gives them access to a 'race memory' and uses it to explain both their cultural richness and eventual stagnation. A more serious treatment is offered by Finnish palaeontologist
Björn KurténBjörn Olof Lennartson Kurtén was a distinguished vertebrate paleontologist. He belonged to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. He was also the author of an acclaimed series of books about modern man's encounter with Neanderthals, such as Dance of the Tiger...
, in several works including
Dance of the TigerDance of the Tiger is a short novel, published in English in 1980, by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén that deals with the interaction between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons...
, and British psychologist
Stan GoochStan Gooch is a British psychologist and paranormal researcher who is probably best known as the proponent of the hybrid-origin theory.-Career:...
in his hybrid-origin theory of humans.
The Neanderthal ParallaxThe Neanderthal Parallax is a trilogy of novels by Robert J. Sawyer. It depicts the effects of the opening of a connection between two alternate Earths: the world familiar to the reader, and another where Neanderthals became the dominant, sentient hominid...
, a trilogy of science fiction novels dealing with Neanderthals, written by
Robert J. SawyerRobert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 18 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and numerous anthologies...
, explores a scenario where neanderthals are seen as a distinct species from humans and survive in a parallel universe version of earth. The novels explore what happens when they, having developed a sophisticated technological culture of their own, open a portal to this version of the earth. The three novels are titled
Hominids,
Humans, and
Hybrids, respectively, and together form essentially one story.
In the
Thursday NextThursday Next is the main protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on July 19 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. , the series comprises five books, in two...
series of novels by
Jasper FfordeJasper Fforde is an English novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written another series, the Nursery Crime Stories series....
, a small population of Neanderthals were re-created in modern Britain by advanced cloning techniques in the later years of the twentieth century. These fictional Neanderthals have equivalent intelligence to normal humans, but have a radically different culture in which aggression and competition are virtually unthinkable.
See also
- Abrigo do Lagar Velho
The Lagar Velho site is a rock-shelter in the Lapedo valley, a limestone canyon ca. 140 km north of Lisbon, in the District of Leiria, central Portugal...
— More about "the Lapedo child"
- Almas: wild man of Mongolia
The Almas, Mongolian for "wild man," is a purported hominid cryptozoological species reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of southern Mongolia. The creature is not currently recognized or cataloged by science...
- Altamura Man
Altamura Man are the 400,000 year old calcified remains of hominid species believed to be Homo heidelbergensis. Altamura Man was discovered in a limestone cave, called grotta di Lamalunga, near the city of Altamura.-External links:*...
- Biological anthropology
- Caveman
A caveman or troglodyte is a popular stock character based upon popular concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans or homininans may have looked and behaved. The archetype of "cavemen" originates with the discovery of Neanderthal remains...
- Homo floresiensis
Homo floresiensis is a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body and brain and for its survival until relatively recent times. It was named after the Indonesian island of Flores on which the remains were found...
- List of fossil sites (with link directory)
- List of human evolution fossils (with images)
- List of Neanderthal sites
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network....
- Neanderthal Museum
Neanderthal Museum is a museum in Mettmann, Germany. At the site of the first Neanderthal man discovery, it features an exhibit on cavemen....
- Pleistocene megafauna
Pleistocene megafauna is the set of species of large animals — mammals, birds and reptiles — that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch and became extinct in a Quaternary extinction event. These species appear to have died off as humans expanded out of Africa and southern Asia,...
External links
- The Way We Are
- Link to picture of the Neanderthal trace near Gediz River in Turkey
- Link to Cross-Eyed stereoview of Neanderthal fossil cast in Chicago Field Museum
- Krapina.com — 'Krapina
Krapina is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje county with a population of 4,647 and a total municipality population of 12,950...
: The World's Largest Neanderthal Finding Site'
- Mousterian Tools of Neanderthals From Europe — World Museum of Man |publisher=BBC News}} |publisher=BBC News}}
- Neanderthal DNA — 'Neanderthal DNA' Includes Neanderthal mtDNA sequences
- UniZH.ch — 'Comparing Neanderthals and modern humans: Neanderthals differ from anatomically modern Homo sapiens in a suite of cranial features' (cranio-facial reconstructions), Institut für Informatik der Universität Zürich}} |title=Neanderthal Find Hints at Longer Era |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/ap/tech/mainD8K43TS81.shtml |publisher=CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. Its current president is Sean McManus who is also head of CBS Sports...
}} |title=Scientists decode Neanderthal genes |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15732243/ |publisher=MSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States and available in both the US and Canada. Its name is a combination of "MSN" and "NBC"....
|accessdate=}}
- 'Bone and Stone' A digitally enhanced single frame philatelic exhibit dedicated to the Neanderthal.
- The Cryptid Zoo 'Neanderthals and Neanderthaloids in Cryptozoology'-modern sightings promoted by the pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
of cryptozoologyCryptozoology refers to the search for animals which are considered to be legendary or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology...