Neanderthal

Neanderthals
H. neanderthalensis La Ferrassie 1 H. neanderthalensis La Ferrassie 1
Conservation status
Prehistoric
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: H. neanderthalensis
Binomial name
†Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864
Neanderthal range Neanderthal range
Synonyms
Palaeoanthropus neanderthalensis H. s. neanderthalensis

Neanderthal or Neandertal is an extinct species (Homo neanderthalensis) of the Homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 250,000 years ago until as recent as 30,000 years ago. At that point, they disappeared from the fossil record, being replaced by modern Homo sapiens. Neanderthal and Neadertal are optional spellings, but Neanderthal is more common in English and in scientific literature.

There is ongoing debate over whether '"Neanderthal" should be classified as a separate species, Homo neanderthalensis, or as a subspecies of H. sapiens, labeled as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. The classification as a subspecies was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but today many list them as separate species (Smithsonian 2007b).

Fossils of Neanderthals were first found in the 18th century prior to Charles Darwin's publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, with discoveries at Engis, Belgium in 1829, at Forbes Quarry, Gibraltar in 1848, and most notably a discovery in 1856 in Neander Valley in Germany, which was published in 1857. However, earlier findings were widely misinterpreted as skeletons of modern humans with deformaties or disease (Gould 1990). The new species H. neanderthalensis was recognized in 1864.

Mayr (2001) claims that Neanderthals arose from Homo erectus: "There is little doubt that . . . the western populations of H. erectus eventually gave rise to the Neanderthals."

The issue of whether or how much Neanderthals contributed to the modern human genome is unsettled and remains vigorously debated (Kreger 2005). Krings et al. (1997) concluded from genetic studies that Neanderthals did not contribute genetic material to modern humans. One of the participants of this study concluded: "These results [based on mitochondrial DNA extracted from Neanderthal bone] indicate that Neanderthals did not contribute mitochondrial DNA to modern humans… Neanderthals are not our ancestors" (PSU 1997). On the other hand, Kreger (2005) noted that the issue "is not as cut and dry" as is oftentimes claimed and it seems "highly unlikely that the Neanderthals contributed absolutely nothing to the modern genome."

Equally unsettled is why the Neanderthals dissappeared. Kreger (2005) notes that more argument is focused on Neaderthals by academia of paleoanthropology than any other species.

Overview

Location of Neander Valley, Germany. (The highlighted areas are the modern federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.)

The August day in 1856 when a fossil was discovered in a limestone quarry in Germany is heralded as the beginning of paleoanthropology as a scientific discipline (Kreger 2005). This discovery of a skullcap and partial skeleton in a cave in the Neander Valley (near Dusseldorf) signaled the first recognized fossil human form (Smithsonian 2007b). In reality, it was not the first discovery of Neanderthal fossils, as skulls were discovered in Engis, Belgium in 1829 and Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar in 1848. However, these earlier discoveries were not recognized as belonging to archaic forms.

The type specimen, dubbed Neanderthal 1, consisted of a skull cap, two femora, three bones from the right arm, two from the left arm, part of the left ilium, fragments of a scapula, and ribs. The workers who recovered this material originally thought it to be the remains of a bear. They gave the material to amateur naturalist Johann Karl Fuhlrott, who turned the fossils over to anatomist Hermann Schaffhausen. The discovery was jointly announced in 1857. In 1864, a new species was recognized: Homo neanderthalensis.

Type Specimen, Neanderthal 1

These and subsequent discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from ancient Europeans who had played an important role in modern human origins. The bones of over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.

The term Neanderthal Man was coined by Irish anatomist William King, who first named the species in 1863 at a meeting of the British Association, and put it into print in the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1864 (Kreger 2005). The Neanderthal or "Neander Valley" itself was named after theologian Joachim Neander, who lived there in the late seventeenth century.

"Neanderthal" is now spelled two ways. The spelling of the German word Thal, meaning "valley or dale," was changed to Tal in the early 20th century, but the former spelling is often retained in English and always in scientific names, while the modern spelling is used in German. The original German pronunciation (regardless of spelling) is with the sound /t/. When used in English, the term is usually anglicised to /θ/ (as in thin), though speakers more familiar with German use /t/.

Classic Neanderthal fossils have been found over a large area, from northern Germany in the north, to Israel and Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy in the south and from England in the west to Uzbekistan in the east. This area probably was not occupied all at the same time; the northern border of their range especially 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 that they occupied, since Middle-Palaeolithic looking artifacts have been found even further north, up to 60° on the Russian plain (Pavlov et al. 2004)

In Siberia, Middle Paleolithic populations are evidenced only in the southern portions. Teeth from Okladniko and Denisova caves have been attributed to Neanderthals (Goebel 1999). The transition to the Upper Paleolithic coincides with the appearance of modern Homo sapiens in Siberia. Early Upper Paleolithic sites in southern Siberia, found below 55 degrees latitude and dated from 42,000 to 30,000 B.P. (Before Present) correspond to the Malokheta interstade, a relatively warm interval in the mid-Upper Pleistocene (Goebel 1999).

Bischoff et al. (2003) report that the first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350,000 years ago. By 130,000 years ago, full blown Neanderthal characteristics were present. Neanderthals became extinct in Europe approximately 30,000 years ago. There is recently discovered fossil and stone-tool evidence that suggests Neanderthals may have still been in existence 24,000 years ago, at which time they they disappeared from the fossil record and were replaced in Europe by modern Homo sapiens (Rincon 2006, Mcilroy 2006, Klein 2003, Smithsonian 2007b, 2007c).

There are a diversity of views on the disappearance of Neanderthals, including those related to rapid extinction, gradual extinction, and assimilation.

Neanderthal brain sizes have been estimated to be larger than modern humans, although such estimates have not been adjusted for their more robust builds. On average, Neanderthal males stood about 1.65 m tall (just under 5' 5") and were heavily built with robust bone structure. Females were about 1.53 to 1.57 m tall (about 5'–5'2").

Neanderthals made finer tools than earlier humans and are considered the first humans known to bury their dead and to have symbolic ritual (Smithsonian 2007c). This practice of intential burial is one reason given for the finding of so many Neanderthal fossils, including skeletons (Smithsonian 2007c).

Classification

For many years, professionals have vigorously debated about whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

The original reconstruction of Neanderthal anatomy was flawed and excerbated the distinction between Neanderthals and humans (Smithsonian 2007b, 2007c). Based on a nearly complete skeleton of an elderly male found in France, the reconstuction showed bent knees and a slouching gait (Smithsonian 2007b, 2007). This image, which led to a standard and lingering view of crude cavemen, was mistaken, as Neanderthals apparently walked fully upright without a slouch or bent knees (Smithsonian 2007c). They also had a large cranial capacity estimated at 1500cc, which is slighty larger on average than modern humans, and were culturally sophisticated in terms of tool making, symbolic ritual, and burying their dead.

As a result of anatomical similarities and cultural aspects, it was popular through the 1970s and 1980s to consider Homo neanderthalensis as a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

However, there were also many differences between Neanderthals and modern populations. They had a low forehead, double-arched brow ridge, larger nasal area, projecting cheek region, weak chin, space behind the third molar, heavily-built bones, broad scapula, short lower leg and arm bones relative to the upper bones, and so forth (Smithsonian 2007c). Based on these findings, many scientists concluded that the Neaderthals were a different species than H. sapiens.

Recent evidence from mitochondrial DNA studies have been interpreted as evidence that Neanderthals were not a subspecies of H. sapiens (Hodges 2000). Some scientists, for example Milford Wolpoff, argue that fossil evidence suggests that the two species interbred, and hence were the same biological species. Others, for example Cambridge Professor Paul Mellars, say "no evidence has been found of cultural interaction" (AFP 2005).

Anatomy

File:Neanderthall cranial anatomy.JPG

Neanderthal cranial anatomy

Comparison of crania, sapiens (left) and neanderthalensis (right)

Neanderthals had a compact body of short stature. Males averaged 1.7 m (5ft 5 in) tall and and an estimated 84 kg (185 lb.) and females averaged 1.5 m (5 ft) tall and an estimated 80 kg (176lb) (Smithsonian 2007c). Neanderthals also had a large cranial capacity estimated at 1500cc, which is slighty larger on average than modern humans (1350 to 1450cc range).

Neanderthals also differed from modern humans in that they had a low forehead, double-arched brow ridge, larger nasal area, projecting cheek region, weak chin, obvious space behind the third molar, heavily-built bones, broad scapula, short lower leg and arm bones relative to the upper portions, occasional bowing of the limb bones, the hip joint rotated outward, a long and thin pubic bone, and large joint surfaces of the toes and long bones (Smithsonian 2007c).

The following is a list of physical traits that 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. Nothing is known about the skin color, the hair, or the shape of soft parts such as eyes, ears, and lips of Neanderthals (Carey 2005).

Neanderthal physical traits

Cranial	Sub-cranial
Suprainiac fossa, a groove above the inion	Considerably more robust
Occipital bun, a protuberance of the occipital bone that looks like a hair knot	Large round finger tips
Projecting mid-face	Barrel-shaped rib cage
Low, flat, elongated skull	Large kneecaps
A flat basic cranium	Long collar bones
Supraorbital torus, a prominent, trabecular (spongy) browridge	Short, bowed shoulder blades
1200-1750 cm³ skull capacity (10% greater than modern human average)	Thick, bowed shaft of the thigh bones
Lack of a protruding chin (mental protuberance; although later specimens possess a slight protuberance)	Short shinbones and calf bones
Crest on the mastoid process behind the ear opening	Long, gracile pelvic pubis (superior pubic ramus)
No groove on canine teeth
A retromolar space posterior to the third molar
Bony projections on the sides of the nasal opening
Distinctive shape of the bony labyrinth in the ear
Larger mental foramen in mandible for facial blood supply
A broad, projecting nose

Neanderthals appear to have had many adaptations to a cold climate, such as large braincase, short but robust builds, and large noses.

Language

The issue of whether Neanderthals had a complex language are unsettled, but there are morphological suggestions that such was possible.

The idea that Neanderthals lacked complex language was widespread, despite concerns about the accuracy of reconstructions of the Neanderthal vocal tract, until 1983, when a Neanderthal hyoid bone was found at the Kebara Cave in Israel. The hyoid is a small bone that connects the musculature of the tongue and the larynx, and by bracing these structures against each other, allows a wider range of tongue and laryngeal movements than would otherwise be the case. Therefore, it seems to imply the presence of anatomical conditions for speech to occur. The bone that was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans (Arensburg et al. 1989).

Furthermore, the morphology of the outer and middle ear of Neanderthal ancestors, Homo heidelbergensis, found in Spain, suggests they had an auditory sensitivity similar to modern humans and very different from chimpanzees. Therefore, they were not only able to produce a wide range of sounds, they were also able to differentiate between these sounds (Martinez et al. 2004).

Aside from the morphological evidence above, neurological evidence for potential speech in neanderthalensis exists in the form of the hypoglossal canal. The canal of neanderthalensis is the same size or larger than in modern humans, which are significantly larger than the canal of modern chimpanzees and australopithecines. The canal carries the hypoglossal nerve, which supplies the muscles of the tongue with motor coordination. Researchers indicate that this evidence suggests that neanderthalensis had vocal capabilities similar to, or possibly exceeding that of, modern humans (Kay et al. 1998). However, a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, 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 (living) non-human primates and fossilized australopithecines that have equal or larger hypoglossal canal.

Many people believe that even without the hyoid bone evidence, tools as advanced as those of the Mousterian Era, attributed to Neanderthals, could not have been developed without cognitive skills encompassing some form of spoken language.

A great many myths surround the reconstruction of the Neanderthal vocal tract and the quality of Neanderthal speech. The popular view that the Neanderthals had a high larynx and therefore could not have produced the range of vowels supposedly essential for human speech is based on a disputed reconstruction of the vocal tract from the available fossil evidence, and a debatable interpretation of the acoustic characteristics of the reconstructed vocal tract. A larynx position as low as that found for modern female humans may have been present in adult male Neanderthals. Furthermore, the vocal tract is a plastic thing, and larynx movement is possible in many mammals. Finally, the suggestion that the vowels /i, a, u/ are essential for human language (and that if Neanderthals lacked them, they could not have evolved a human-like language) ignores the absence of one of these vowels in very many human languages, and the occurrence of "vertical vowel systems" which lack both /i/ and /u/.

More doubtful suggestions about Neanderthal speech suggest that it would have been nasalised either because i) the tongue was high in the throat (for which there is no universally accepted evidence), or ii) because the Neanderthals had large nasal cavities. Nasalisation depends on neither of these things, but on whether or not the soft palate is lowered during speech. Nasalisation is therefore controllable, and we have no idea whether Neanderthal speech was nasalised or not. Comments on the lower intelligibility of nasalised speech ignore the fact that many varieties of English habitually have nasalised vowels, particularly low vowels, with no apparent effect on intelligibility.

One anatomical difference between Neanderthals and humans that deserves consideration regarding human speech is the mental tubercle on the mandible (the point at the tip of the chin), which is the attachment point for the depressor labii inferioris muscle and the mentalis muscle. These two muscles provide fine motor control of the lower lip, and are essential in controlled speech. The mental tubercle is pronounced in humans and is absent in Neanderthals, suggesting that they has a more gross motor control of the lower lip. More work needs to be done on this topic.

Tools, burial, and other cultural aspects

File:Neandertal.jpg

Neanderthal Tool Maker

Neanderthal (Middle Paleolithic) archaeological sites show a smaller and different toolkit than those that have been found in Upper Paleolithic sites, which were perhaps occupied by modern humans that superseded them. Fossil evidence indicating who may have made the tools found in Early Upper Paleolithic sites is still missing.

The characteristic style of stone tools in the Middle Paleolithic is called the Mousterian culture, after a prominent archaeological site where the tools were first found. They often used the Levallois technique. Mousterian tools 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. Near the end of the time of the Neanderthals, they created the Châtelperronian tool style, considered more advanced than that of the Mousterian. They either invented the Châtelperronian themselves or borrowed elements from the incoming modern humans who are thought to have created the Aurignacian style.

The Mousterian flake and simple biface industry that characterizes the Middle Paleolithic, wherever found with human remains, is found with Neanderthals, and wherever Aurignacian is found with remains, it is found with modern humans (West 1996).

There is little evidence that Neanderthals used antlers, shell, or other bone materials to make tools; their bone industry was relatively simple. However, there is good evidence that they routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. The Neanderthal (Mousterian) tool kits consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and spears. Many of these tools were very sharp. There is also good evidence that they used a lot of wood, objects that are unlikely to have been preserved until today (Henig 2000).

Middle Paleolithic industries in Siberia (dated to 70,000 to 40,000 years ago) are distinctly Levallois and Mousterian, reduction technologies are uniform, and assemblages consist of scrapers, denticulates, notches, knives, and retouched Levallois flakes and points, and there is no evidence of bone, antler or ivory technology, or of art or personal adornment (Goebel 1999).

While Neanderthals had weapons, none have yet been found that were used as projectile weapons. They had spears, in the sense of a long wooden shaft with a spearhead firmly attached to it, but these were not spears specifically crafted for flight (perhaps better described as a javelin). However, a number of 400,000 year old wooden projectile spears were found at Schöningen in northern Germany. These are thought to have been made by the Neanderthal's ancestors, Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. 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 Maoris—modern Homo sapiens, who also rarely threw objects, but used spears and clubs instead (Schwimmer 1961)

Although much has been made of the Neanderthal's burial of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. The interpretation of the Shanidar IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of ritual burial (Solecki 1975), has been questioned (Sommer 1999). On the other hand, five of the six flower pollens found with fossil Shanidar IV are known to have had 'traditional' medical uses, even among relatively recent 'modern' populations. In some cases Neanderthal burials include grave goods, such as bison and auroch bones, tools, and the pigment ochre.

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 that contains holes that may have been deliberately bored into it. This bone was found in western Slovenia in 1995, near a Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Some paleoanthropologists have postulated that it might have been a flute, while some others have expressed that it is natural bone modified by bears.

The fate of the Neanderthals

The Neanderthals began to be displaced around 45,000 years ago by modern humans (Homo sapiens), as the Cro-Magnon people appeared in Europe. Despite this, populations of Neanderthals apparently held on for thousands of years in regional pockets, such as modern-day Croatia and the Iberian and Crimean peninsulas. The last known population lived around a cave system on the remote south facing coast of Gibraltar, from 30,000 to 24,000 years ago.

There is considerable debate about whether Cro-Magnon people accelerated the demise of the Neanderthals. Timing suggests a causal relation between the appearance of Homo sapiens in Europe and the decline of Homo neanderthalensis.

Both the Neanderthals' place in the human family tree and their relation to modern Europeans have been hotly debated ever since their discovery. A common perspective among scientists, based on ongoing DNA research, is that Neanderthal's were a separate branch of the genus Homo, and that modern humans are not descended from them (fitting with the single-origin thesis).

In some areas of the Middle East and the Iberian peninsula, Neanderthals did, in fact, apparently co-exist side by side with populations of anatomically modern Homo sapiens for roughly 10,000 years. There is also evidence that it is in these areas where the last of the Neanderthals died out and that during this period the last remnants of this species had begun to adopt—or perhaps independently innovate—some aspects of the Châtelperronian (Upper Paleolithic) tool case, which is usually exclusively associated with anatomically modern Homo sapiens.

There are various scenarios for the extinction of Neanderthals.

Extinction scenarios

Rapid extinction

Jared Diamond has suggested a scenario of violent conflict, comparable to the genocides suffered by indigenous peoples in recent human history.

Another possibility paralleling colonialist history would be a greater susceptibility to pathogens introduced by Cro-Magnon man on the part of the Neanderthals. Although Diamond and others have specifically mentioned Cro-Magnon diseases as a threat to Neanderthals, this aspect of the analogy with the contacts between colonizers and indigenous peoples in recent history can be misleading. The distinction arises because Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals are both believed to have lived a nomadic lifestyle, whereas in those genocides of the colonial era in which differential disease susceptibility was most significant, it resulted from the contact between colonists with a long history of agriculture and nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples. Diamond argues that asymmetry in susceptibility to pathogens is a consequence of the difference in lifestyle, which makes it irrelevant in the context of the analogy in which he invokes it.

On the other hand, many Native Americans before contact with Europeans were not nomadic, but agriculturalists (Mayans, Iroquois, Cherokee), and this still did not protect them from the disease epidemics brought by Europeans (Smallpox). One theory is that because they usually lacked large domesticated animal agriculture, such as cows or pigs in close contact with people, they did not develop resistance to species-jumping diseases like Europeans had. Furthermore, the nomadic Eurasian populations, such as the Mongols did not get wiped out by the diseases of the agriculturalist societies they invaded and took over, like China and eastern Europe.

Gradual extinction

There are also gradulal extinction scenarios to account for the decline of Neanderthal population over the course of some 10,000 years.

The problem with a gradual extinction scenario lies in the resolution of dating methods. There have been claims for young Neanderthal sites, younger than 30,000 years old (Finlayson et al. 2006). Even claims for interstratification of Neanderthal and modern human remains have been advanced (Gravina et al. 2005). So the fact that Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted at least for some time seems certain. However, because of difficulties in calibrating the C14 dates, the duration of this period is uncertain (Mellars 2006).

Assimilation

There have been claims both that Neaderthals assimilated with modern human beings and that they did not assimilate.

It is possible that the Neanderthals, with their small populations, could have been absorbed by the much larger populations of modern Homo sapiens. In November 2006, a paper was published in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in which a team of European researchers suggest that Neanderthals and humans interbred, citing distinct human and Neanderthal features in a 30,000 year-old fossil found in Romania. Co-author Erik Trinkaus from Washington University explains, "Closely related species of mammals freely interbreed, produce fertile viable offspring and blend populations. Extinction through absorption is a common phenomenon" (Hayes 2006).

One skeleton that has led some researchers to claim that it shared Neanderthal and Cro-magnon features has been found at Lagar Velho in Portugal. This may suggest the two species may have interbred. The child skeleton does seem to be more robust than what we would expect for modern humans. It is uncertain whether this is in fact a hybrid of the two species, or simply an extreme individual of one or the other, and most researchers think that it represents extreme variation within modern humans.

It is very difficult to prove assimilation as genetic differences between Neanderthals and Cro-magnons were far more minute than the morphological differences between the two species might seem to indicate. Tests comparing Neanderthal and modern human mitochondrial DNA show some dissimilarity.

Krings et. al. (1997) found in genetic studies that Neanderthals and modern humans diverged genetically 500,000 to 600,000 years ago, suggesting that though they may have lived at the same time, Neanderthals did not contribute genetic material to modern humans. Subsequent investigation of a second source of Neanderthal DNA supported these findings.

Kreger (2005) reports that today, most researchers adhere to a view that has the European Neanderthals either interbreeding and being absorbed or having been marginalized by invading Homos sapients until they died out, leaving no genetic legacy. Few believe that Neanderthals evolved into modern Europeans. Kreger notes that the fate of Neanderthals in terms of modern human phylogeny is sitll very much questioned and debated, and "whether they left a large heritage in modern humans or an insignificant one is a question that might not be answered satisfactorily for a long time."

Unable to adapt

Shows the pattern of temperature and ice volume changes associated with recent glacials and interglacials

European populations of neanderthalensis were adapted for a cold environment. One view on their extinction is that they may have had problems adapting to a warming environment. The problem with this idea is that the glacial period of our ice age ended about 10,000 years ago, while the Neanderthals went extinct about 24,000 years ago.

Another possibility has to do with the loss of the Neanderthal's primary hunting territory, forests. It is speculated that their hunting methods (stabbing prey with spears rather than throwing the spears) and less mobility could have placed them at a disadvantage when the forests were replaced by flat lands. It is also suggested they mainly ate meat, and thus were less adaptable. Homo sapiens, which hunted large prey but did not depend on them for survival, may have helped them into extinction this way.

Division of labor

In 2006, anthropologists Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner of the University of Arizona proposed a new explanation for the demise of the Neanderthals (Wade 2006). In an article titled "What's a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Eurasia", Kuhn and Stiner (2006) theorize that Neanderthals did not have a division of labor between the sexes. Both male and female Neanderthals participated in the single main occupation of hunting big game that flourished in Europe in the ice age, like bison, deer, gazelles and wild horses. This contrasted with humans who were better able to use the resources of the environment because of a division of labor with the women going after small game and gathering plant foods. In addition, because big game hunting was so dangerous, this made humans, at least females, more resilient.

Genome

At three billion base pairs, the Neanderthal genome is roughly the size of the human genome and likely shares many identical genes. In July 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal genome over the next two years. It is thought that a comparison of the Neanderthal genome and human genome will expand understanding of Neanderthals as well as the evolution of humans and human brains (Moulson 2006).

Some comparisons have already been done. Two studies of the DNA extracted from the femur of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen found in a cave in Croatia—one involving more than 1 million base pairs and the other 65,000 pairs—yielded 99.5% identical base pairs (Than 2006). The findings also found no evidence that Neanderthals and Humans interbred, finding no mixing of genes 30,000 to 40,000 years ago in Europe.

Key dates

• 1829: Neanderthal skulls were discovered in Engis, Belgium.
• 1848: Skull of an ancient human was found in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar. Its significance was not realized at the time.
• 1856: Johann Karl Fuhlrott first recognized the fossil called “Neanderthal man”, discovered in Neanderthal, a valley in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
• 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.
• 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 tools and bones of extinct animals.
• 1953-1957: Ralph Solecki uncovered nine Neanderthal skeletons in Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq.
• 1975: Erik Trinkaus’s study of Neanderthal feet confirmed that they walked like modern humans.
• 1987: New thermoluminescence tests on Palestine fossils date Neanderthals at Kebara Cave to 60,000 BP and modern humans at Qafzeh to 90,000 BP. These dates were confirmed by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dates for Qafzeh (90,000 BP) and Es Skhul (80,000 BP).
• 1991: New ESR dates showed that the Tabun Neanderthal (Israel) was contemporaneous with modern humans from Skhul and Qafzeh.
• 1997 Matthias Krings et al. are the first to amplify Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA using a specimen from Feldhofer grotto in the Neander valley. Their work is published in the journal Cell.
• 2000: Igor Ovchinnikov, Kirsten Liden, William Goodman et al. retrieved DNA from a Late Neanderthal (29,000 BP) infant from Mezmaikaya Cave in the Caucausus.
• 2005: The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 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 to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome.

See also

• Human evolution
• Homo erectus

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Serre et al. (2004). No evidence of Neandertal mtDNA contribution to early modern humans. PLoS Biology 2 (3): 313–7. PMID 15024415.
• http://www.ufoarea.com/evolution_bones.html

• Gould, S. J. 1990. Men of the Thirty-third Division. Natural History April, 1990: 12,14,16-18, 20, 22-24.
• Kreger, C. D. 2005. Homo neanderthalensis: Introduction. Archaeology.info. Retrieved March 5, 2007.
• Krings, M., A. Stone, R. W. Schmitz, H. Krainitzki, M. Stoneking, and S. Pääbo. 1997. Neandertal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans. Cell 90(1): 19-30.

• Levy, S. 2006. Clashing with titans. BioScience 56(4): 295.
• Mayr, E. 2001. What evolution is. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465044255.
• Novaresio, P. 1996. The Explorers. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 155670495X.
• Pennsylvania State University (PSU). 1997. DNA shows neandertals were not our ancestors. Penn State News. Retrieved February 20, 2007.

• Sawyer, G. J., and B. Maley. 2005. Neanderthal Reconstructed. Anat. Rec. (New Anat.) 283B: 23-31.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 2007a. Homo erectus. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 2007b. Homo neanderthalensis. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 2007c. The Origin of the Genus Homo. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 4, 2007.

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ref>R. S. Solecki (1975). Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in northern Iraq. Science 190 (28): 880.</ref>

 and "From my perspective, the replacement vs. continuity debate that raged through the 1990s is now dead".

ref>R. S. Solecki (1975). Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in northern Iraq. Science 190 (28): 880.</ref>

• Derev’anko, Anatoliy P. 1998 The Paleolithic of Siberia. New Discoveries and Interpretations. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
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• Dennis O'Neil (2004-12-06) Evolution of Modern Humans Neandertals retrieved 12/26/2004
• Fink, Bob (1997) The Neanderthal Flute... (Greenwich, Canada) ISBN 0-912424-12-5
• Hickmann, Kilmer, Eichmann (ed.) (2003) Studies in Music Archaeology III International Study Group on Music Archaeology's 2000 symposium. ISBN 3-89646-640-2
• Serre et al. (2004). No evidence of Neandertal mtDNA contribution to early modern humans. PLoS Biology 2 (3): 313–7. PMID 15024415.
• Eva M. Wild, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Walter Kutschera, Peter Steier, Erik Trinkaus & Wolfgang Wanek (05 2005). Direct dating of Early Upper Palaeolithic human remains from Mladeč. Nature 435: 332–5. link for Nature subscribers
• Boë, Louis-Jean, Jean-Louis Heim, Kiyoshi Honda and Shinji Maeda. (2002) "The potential Neandertal vowel space was as large as that of modern humans." Journal of Phonetics, Volume 30, Issue 3, July 2002, Pages 465-484
• Lieberman, Philip. (in press, Sep 2006). "Current views on Neanderthal speech capabilities: A reply to Boe et al. (2002)" Journal of Phonetics.

• Neanderthal DNA Sequencing

External links

• 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
• Homo neanderthalensis reconstruction - Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.
• Mousterian Tools of Neanderthals From Europe - World Museum of Man

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