Neanderthals

Conservation status: Fossil

|- | style="text-align:center;" |
Reconstruction of a Neanderthaler
shown in the Neandertal museum
in Mettmann |- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background: pink;" | Scientific classification |- style="text-align:center;" |

|- valign=top |Kingdom:||Animalia |- valign=top |Phylum:||Chordata |- valign=top |Subphylum:||Vertebrata |- valign=top |Class:||Mammalia |- valign=top |Order:||Primates |- valign=top |Family:||Hominidae |- valign=top |Genus:||Homo |- valign=top |Species:||H. neanderthalensis |} |- style="text-align:center;" ! style="background: pink;" | Binomial name |- style="text-align:center;" |Homo neanderthalensis
King, 1864 |}

The Neandertal¹ or Neanderthal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis⁴) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago.

The first Neanderthal fossils were found in August, 1856, three years before Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. The fossils were found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf in the Neanderthal, Germany. The type specimen, dubbed Neanderthal 1 , consisted of a skull cap. Other material found were two femora, the three right arm bones, two of the left arm bones, part of the left ilium, and fragments of a scapula and ribs.

Recovered by workers who thought the remains may have been that of a bear, gave the material to amateur naturalist Johann Karl Fuhlrott . Fuhlrott turned the fossils over to anatomist Hermann Schaaffhausen and in 1857 the discovery was jointly announced. The discovery is marked as the beginning of paleoanthropology.In the 1850’s, the prospect of an extinct human species was almost inconceivable. However, the fact that “Origins” was published in 1859 and other important fossil discoveries ultimately led to the idea that remains were of ancient Europeans and played an important role in modern human origins. The term “Neanderthal Man” was coined in 1863 by Irish anatomist William King. Over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.

Neanderthals were cold adapted, evidenced by their larger brains, short but robust builds and large nose. These traits are generally selected for in cold climates, a trend observed in modern sub arctic populations. Their brains were roughly 10 percent larger than those of modern humans. On average, Neanderthals stood about 1.65m tall (just under 5' 6") and were very well-muscled, comparable to modern weight-lifters.

Their characteristic style of stone tools is called the Mousterian Culture (middle paleolithic), after another prominent archaeological site.

Contents

1 Physical Traits 2 Tools 3 Neanderthals in popular culture 4 Notes 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

Physical Traits

In general, Neanderthals are anatomically known for their unique cranial features as well as their greater size compared to modern humans. Much of their size is understood to have played a large role in Neanderthals survival, an adaptation to the harsh, cold climate of Northern Europe during the Pleistocene epoch.

• Cranial
  • Suprainiac Fossa (depression)
  • Occipital "Bun"
  • Mid-Facial prognathicism
  • Globe-shaped skull (from rear)
  • Low, flat, elongated cranium
  • Supraorbital Torus (brow ridge)
  • 1200-1700cc capacity (slightly greater than that of Homo sapiens)

• Post-Cranial
  • Considerably muscular
  • Slightly curved, longer bones

Tools

Neanderthal (Middle Paleolithic) archeological sites show both a smaller and a less flexible toolkit than in the Upper Paleolithic sites, occupied by modern humans, that replaced them. There is little evidence that Neanderthals used antlers, shell, or other bone materials to make tools. Their burials are less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans, though much has been made of the Neanderthals' burial of their dead5. In some cases, Neanderthal burials include grave goods such as bison and aurochs bones, tools, and the pigment ochre. Also, while they had weapons, they did not have spears or other projectile weapons; these were first used by Homo sapiens.³

Neanderthals performed a sophisticated set of tasks normally associated with humans alone. For example, they constructed complex shelters, controlled fire, and skinned animals. Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with four holes in the diatonic scale deliberately bored into it. This flute was found near a Mousterian Era fireplace used by Neanderthals, but its significance is still a matter of dispute.

Neanderthals in popular culture

Popular literature has tended to greatly exaggerate the ape-like gait and related characteristics of the Neanderthals. It has been determined that some of the earliest specimens found in fact suffered from severe arthritis. The Neanderthals were fully bipedal and had a slightly larger average brain capacity than that of a typical modern human (though the brain structure was organised somewhat differently).

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. Counterbalancing this are sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding and Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series or the more serious treatment by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén. Science fiction has depicted Neanderthals brought into the present via time travel, most notably in The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov.

Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead places a small Neanderthal population in Europe as the source of the battles recorded in Beowulf.

In the Riverworld series, Philip José Farmer introduces an interesting Neanderthal character, named Kazz.

Robert Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy imagines contact with an alternate world where Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens, became the dominant species. The first book in this series, Hominids , won the Hugo Award in 2003.

Notes

1. The name Neanderthal is now spelled two ways. The spelling of the German word Thal, meaning "valley", was changed to Tal in the early 20th century, but the former spelling is used in English and in scientific names, while the modern spelling is used in German. In any case, the correct pronunciation is with a "t" sound (or hard "th" sound) and not a soft "th" sound, if one were to try to pronounce it as a German word. Many people use the more English pronunciation with a soft "th" sound instead, just as other German words that enter the English language are usually pronounced using normal English pronunciation.
2. The theory that Neanderthals lacked complex language was widespread until 1983, when a Neanderthal hyoid bone was found at the Kebara Cave in Israel. The bone that was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans. The hyoid is a small bone that holds the root of the tongue in place, and its presence seems to imply some ability to speak. Many people believe that even without the hyoid bone evidence, it is obvious that a tool case as advanced as the Mousterian Era, attributed to Neanderthals, could not have been developed without cognitive skills encompassing some form of spoken language.
3. Though it is true that Neanderthals did not typically use spears as projectiles, they certainly did have spears in the sense of a long wooden shaft with an arrow head firmly attached to it. There is good evidence that they not only made spears, but also routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. Many of these tools were incredibly sharp. Some had a cutting edge sharper than a surgeon's scalpel. The Neanderthal tool case was known as the Mousterian Era (middle paleolithic) tool case. It consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and the incipience of a crude bone industry.
4. There is professional debate whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter of which places Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens. It is generally accepted that both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens evolved from earlier "Archaic" Homo sapiens, but the classification of Neanderthals becomes an issue depending on when in the timeline these modern humans are considered a separate species from these "Archaic" forms. This complication is introduced because the "Archaic" forms are a chronospecies.
5. The interpretation of the Shandiar IV burials as including flowers (and therefore being a form of ritual burial) (Solecki 1975) has been questioned (Sommer 1999).

See also

• Evolution of Homo sapiens
• Almas
• Physical anthropology
• Caveman
• Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger's discovery of a Neanderthal near Krapina

External links

• BBC article: Neanderthals 'mated with modern humans' http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_323000/323657.stm
• BBC article: Neanderthals had hand like ours http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2884801.stm
• Neanderthals and Modern Humans http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/
• Comparing Neanderthals and modern humans, & facial reconstructions http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/staff/zolli/CAP/comparingNeand.htm
• http://www.neanderthal.de/index_en.htm -the Museum in Mettman in the Neandertal
• Krapina Man http://www.krapina.com/neandertals/index_en.htm

References

• C. David Kreger 6/30/00 Homo Neanderthalensis http://www.modernhumanorigins.com/neanderthalensis.html retrieved 12/26/2004
• Dennis O'Neil 12/6/04 Evolution of Modern Humans Neandertals http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/neandertal.htm retrieved 12/26/2004
• Solecki, R. S. (1975) Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in N. Iraq Science 190 (28) 880
• Sommer, J.D. (1999) The Shanidar IV 'Flower Burial': A Reevaluation of Neanderthal Burial Ritual, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 9 127-129.