Part of a Neanderthal man's skull has been dredged up from the North Sea, in the first confirmed find of its kind.
The Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) or Neandertal was a species of the Homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic period.
Neanderthals were adapted to the cold, as shown by their large braincases, short but robust builds, and large noses - traits selected by nature in cold climates, as observed in modern sub-arctic populations. Their brain sizes have been estimated as larger than modern humans, but their brains may in fact have been approximately the same as those of modern humans. On average, Neanderthal males stood about 1.65m tall (just under 5' 6") and were heavily built, and muscular due to their physical activity. Females were about 1.53 to 1.57m tall (about 5'-5'2").
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. The Mousterian culture is typified by the wide use of the Levallois technique. Mousterian tools were often produced using soft hammer percussion, such as bones, antlers, and wood, rather than hard hammer percussion, using stone. Near the end of the time of the Neanderthals, they created the Chatelperronian tool style, considered more "advanced" than that of the Mousterian. They either invented the Chatelperronian themselves or "borrowed" elements from the incoming modern humans who are thought to have created the Aurignacian.
Did Neanderthals have sex with modern man? MSNBC - November 6, 2009
The Many Mysteries of Neanderthals Live Science - November 6, 2009
Neanderthals wouldn't have eaten their sprouts either PhysOrg - August 12, 2009
Human Stabbed a Neanderthal, Evidence Suggests Live Science - July 21, 2009
Prehistoric cold case shows hints of interspecies homicide PhysOrg - July 21, 2009
Neanderthals Were Few and Poised for Extinction Live Science - July 16, 2009
Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil BBC - June 15, 2009
Part of a Neanderthal man's skull has been dredged up from the North Sea, in the first confirmed find of its kind.
Facts About Neanderthals - Some Humans Ate Them Live Science - May 17, 2009
Three Subgroups of Neanderthals Identified Live Science - April 15, 2009
Neanderthals 'distinct from us' - scientists map genome BBC - February 12, 2009
First draft of Neanderthal genome is unveiled New Scientist - February 12, 2009
Biodiversity Hotspot Enabled Neanderthals To Survive Up Until 24,000 Years Ago In South East Of Spain Science Daily - February 2, 2009
Competition, Not Climate Change, Led To Neanderthal Extinction, Study Shows Science Daily - December 30, 2008
Neanderthal genome already giving up its secrets New Scientist - December 9, 2008
Late Neanderthals and modern human contact in southeastern Iberia PhysOrg - December 9, 2008
Neanderthals Ate Seals and Dolphins BBC - September 23, 2008
DNA-Based Neanderthal Face Unveiled National Geographic - September 17, 2008
Meet Wilma - named for the redheaded Flintstones character the first model of a Neanderthal based in part on ancient DNA evidence.
Childbirth Was Already Difficult For Neanderthals Science Daily - September 9, 2008
Neanderthals beat mammoths, so why not us? MSNBC - September 9, 2008
Neanderthal Brains Grew Like Ours Live Science - September 9, 2008
Neanderthals Grew Fast, but Sexual Maturity Came Late National Geographic - September 9, 2008
'Complexity' of Neanderthal tools BBC - August 26, 2008
Neanderthals Didn't Mate With Modern Humans, Study Says National Geographic - August 12, 2008
Neandertals Had Big Mouths, Gaped Widely National Geographic - May 3, 2008
Neandertals Ate Their Veggies, Tooth Study Shows National Geographic - April 28, 2008
Skull Changes Show Time of Human-Neandertal Split National Geographic - March 17, 2008
Tooth Scan Reveals Neanderthals Traveled More than Thought Live Science - February 10, 2008
The Scariest Thing about Neanderthals Live Science - November 4, 2007
Neanderthals 'were flame-haired' BBC - October 25, 2007
Some Neandertals Were Pale Redheads, DNA Suggests National Geographic - October 25, 2007
Neanderthals Had Same "Language Gene" as Modern Humans National Geographic - October 18, 2007
Neandertals Ranged Much Farther East Than Thought National Geographic - October 2, 2007
Odd Skull Boosts Human, Neandertal Interbreeding Theory National Geographic - August 2, 2007
Neanderthal brain spared schizophrenia News in Science - June 13, 2007
Climate Change, Not Humans, Trounced Neanderthals Live Science - May 5, 2007
A sharp freeze could have dealt the killer blow that finished off our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals BBC - February 21, 2007
Neanderthals Were Cannibals National Geographic - December 5, 2006
Neandertal DNA Partially Mapped, Studies Show National Geographic - November 15, 2006
Modern humans' closest relatives, the Neandertals, broke
off from the family tree about 500,000 years ago ...
Neanderthals share 99.5 percent of their genetic makeup.
Neanderthal DNA secrets unlocked BBC - November 15, 2006
A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some long-standing mysteries
surrounding our closest evolutionary relatives: the Neanderthals.
Neandertals, Modern Humans Interbred, Bone Study Suggests National Geographic - October 30, 2006
Neanderthal Gene Study Reveals Early Split With Humans National Geographic - October 28, 2006
Neanderthals' 'last rock refuge' BBC - September 13, 2006
... may have lived in Gorham's Cave on Gibraltar up to 24,000 years ago.
Neanderthal yields nuclear DNA BBC - May 16, 2006
Fossils fill gap in human lineage BBC - April 13, 2006
Fossil hunters have found remains of a probable direct ancestor of humans that lived more than four million years ago. The specimens of this ancient creature are helping bridge a long gap during a crucial phase of human evolution.
Early hominid from the Caucasus may have 'cared for elderly' BBC - April 2005
Flesh on bones of 'first ape-man' BBC- April 2005
Experts are a step closer to answering whether
an ancient skull from Africa belonged to a possible
human ancestor or was closer to apes,
Oldest Fossil Protein Sequenced From Neanderthal Science Daily - April 2005
Neandertal Advance: First Fully Jointed Skeleton Built National Geographic - March 2005
Age of ancient humans reassessed BBC - February 2005
Two skulls originally found in 1967 have been shown to be about 195,000
years old, making them the oldest modern human remains known to science
The icy truth behind Neanderthals BBC - February 2005
In 1848, a strange skull was discovered on the military outpost of Gibraltar.
It was undoubtedly human, but also had some of the heavy features
of an ape - distinct brow ridges, and a forward projecting face
The Mysterious end of Essex Man Guardian - January 2005
Archaeologists now believe two groups of early humans fought for dominance in ancient Britain - and the axe-wielders won.
Amazing hominid haul in Ethiopia BBC - January 2005
Fossil hunters unearthed remains of at least nine primitive
hominids that are between 4.5 million and 4.3 million years old.
Skull fuels Homo erectus debate Story 1 - BBC - July 2004
Was pre-human a failed experiment? Story 2 - MSNBC - July 2004
A tiny pre-human who lived more than 900,00 years ago
in what is now Kenya, may have been a 'short experiment'
in evolution that never quite made it.
Neanderthals were 'adults by 15' BBC - April 2004
Early human marks are 'symbols' BBC - March 2004
A series of parallel lines engraved in an animal bone between 1.4 and 1.2 million
years ago may be the earliest example of human symbolic behavior.
A New Branch Of Primitive Humans Reported Found In Ethiopia Space Daily - March 2004
Late Neanderthals 'more like us' BBC - December 2003
Neanderthals 'had hands like ours' BBC - March 2003
Computer reconstructions of fossilised bones show their
hands had almost the same manual dexterity as ours.
Neanderthals not at all related to modern humans March 2003 - ABC News
Did Neandertals Lack Smarts to Survive? National Geographic - March 2003
March 28, 2000 - AP
Modern humans are not descended from Neanderthals but co-existed with them about 40,000 years ago, scientists said Tuesday. An analysis of DNA extracted from the ribs of a 29,000 year-old Neanderthal infant buried in a cave in southern Russia showed it was too distinct to be related to humans.
"There wasn't much, if any mixture, between Neanderthals and modern humans," William Goodwin, of the University of Glasgow, told Reuters. "Though they co-existed we can't find any evidence of genetic material being passed from Neanderthals to modern humans," he added. The study, reported in the science journal Nature, also supports the "Out of Africa" theory of modern human evolution -- that modern humans evolved from a common ancestor in Africa and spread across the world around 100,000 years ago.
Research verifies early Findings
The bones from the Neanderthal infant were very well preserved and came from among the last of the Neanderthals who died out about 30,000 years ago. Exactly what happened to them is a mystery. Various theories suggest they were either killed, lost out to competitors or simply absorbed by modern humans. The research by Goodwin and his Swedish and Russian colleagues is also important because it verifies the findings of the first analysis of Neanderthal DNA in 1997.
That study of DNA taken from the first Neanderthal skeleton found in the Feldhofer Cave in Germany in 1856 supports the theory that modern humans replaced Neanderthals. The DNA sequence from the infant was very similar to the specimen from the Feldhofer Cave -- proving both are genuinely Neanderthals and that there was little diversity among them, according to Goodwin. "If they had been very diverse at the DNA level they could have encompassed modern humans. The fact that these two Neanderthals are closely related and not related to modern humans implies that they don't have the diversity to encompass a modern human gene pool," said Goodwin. DNA comparisons also showed that different ethnic groups do not have any links to Neanderthals. "We compared the amount of difference between the Neanderthal sequence and a group of European, African and Asians. There is no real difference.... That suggests they are not more closely related to either one of those races," said Goodwin. In a commentary on the research in Nature, Matthias Hoss, of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, said the two studies provide the most reliable proof so far of the authenticity of ancient DNA sequences. The similar features of the two samples "argues against the idea that modern Europeans are at least partly of Neanderthal origin," he said.
June 12, 2000 - AP
A new study of 28,000-year-old Neanderthal bones suggests the ancient hominid ate meat - lots of it, and very little else. "Their diet was about 90 percent meat," said Paul B. Pettitt of Oxford University in England. A lifestyle so centered on meat means that the lowbrowed, hairy Neanderthal was able to organize complex hunts that brought down big and dangerous game. "This study suggests that the difference between Neanderthals and modern humans was only a matter of degree," said Erik Trinkaus, a Washington University in St. Louis anthropologist and co-author of the study. "Modern humans were probably more efficient in terms of their organization, but the Neanderthals were very close."
Neanderthal-like hominids first appeared in Europe, probably migrating from Africa, around 300,000 years ago, Pettitt said. The "classic" period of Neanderthal presence in Europe started about 120,000 years ago. By about 28,000 years ago, the Neanderthal was gone from the fossil record, he said.
Modern humans arrived in Europe about 32,000 years ago, about 4,000 years before the Neanderthal disappeared.
Some experts have suggested the more primitive Neanderthal was simply overwhelmed and outhunted by his more sophisticated cousin. Others say the Neanderthal was biologically absorbed by early modern humans and disappeared as a distinct and separate species. Trinkaus said the new study does not settle that debate, but it does show the Neanderthal was not just simple, stupid and brutish. "This study implies a much higher degree of social organization complexity than is frequently attributed to the Neanderthals. They were much more equal to modern humans in many ways."
One big difference, though, was diet. Studies of bones from the early modern humans in Europe suggest they had a more varied diet, eating smaller animals, such as rabbits, and lots of fish - up to 30 percent of their diet. But for the Neanderthal, it was meat, meat and more meat. Europe of 28,000 years ago was enjoying a warm period between two extremes of the ice age, Pettitt said. The plains of Europe were grassy and probably included vast herds of animals, which he calls "lawn mowers." As a result, the Neanderthal hunter preyed on mammoth, horse, deer, woolly rhino and other large animals.
When conditions changed and fewer of these animals were available, the Neanderthal may have had a more difficult time adjusting than did the competing humans who lived on a more varied diet, Pettitt said. The researchers probed the diet of the Neanderthal by measuring the isotopic ratios of nitrogen in skulls and jawbones recovered from a cave in Croatia. "Our bones record the isotope signatures of the foods we have eaten in our lifetimes," co-author Fred H. Smith of Northern Illinois University said in a statement. "By measuring these isotope signatures in fossil bones, we can reconstruct aspects of the diets." Bones formed from a diet rich in meat contain a high ratio of an isotope called nitrogen-15, Trinkaus said. The nitrogen-15 ratio of Neanderthal, he said, was almost like that of an African lion, which means a diet of meat and almost nothing else.
May 1999 - AP
You are what you eat. A corollary of that adage - hominids of 3 million years ago were what they ate - has provided paleontologists insight into the diet of our early relatives. Surprisingly, meat or grass may have been on the menu.
Analyzing carbon atoms locked up in tooth enamel, two researchers challenge the widely held belief that Australopithecus africanus-- an upright, walking pre-human hominid that lived in southern Africa-- ate little more than fruits and leaves.
This does raise the possibility that the consumption of high-quality animal foods arose significantly before Homo or the earliest stone tools,² says Matt Sponheimer, an anthropology graduate student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "For whatever reason, they are doing something different than what we anticipated." Sponheimer and Julia Lee-Thorp of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, report their findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
The research looks at four A. africanus fossil skeletons unearthed from South Africa. Living about 3 million years ago, A. africanus may be a direct ancestor of modern humans. What we're trying to do is imbue these cold bones with some life," Sponheimer says. There aren't many clues to deduce the lifestyles of early hominids. How can one figure out the food of creatures that didn't leave behind pots, food wrappers or recipes?
Toothy Interpretations:
The shape of A. africanus teeth offered the first clues. Large and blunt with thick enamel, they look ideal for crushing nuts and chewing fruit as opposed to the sharp incisors one would want to rip into meat. The first stone tools, which would help in eating meat, didn't appear until about half a million years later. "You'd basically be crushing the food. The teeth are just not designed for eating meat, says Peter Ungar, an anthropologist at the University of Arkansas who doubts the early hominids ate much meat. It's like imagining pounding a steak with a hammer as opposed to slicing it with a knife."
Anthropologists have also found microscopic scratches and pits on A. africanus molars, possibly caused by chewing on tiny abrasive particles found in many fruit and leaves. The wear patterns are very similar to those food on the teeth of modern-day chimpanzees and orangutans, both primarily fruit eaters. Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp took a new approach, looking at the chemical composition of the tooth enamel. Unlike fossils, where minerals replace all the original organic material in the bones, the hard, durable enamel remains almost unchanged through millions of years.
Looking for Heavy Carbon:
After chipping about two milligrams of enamel with a diamond-tipped dental drill, the researchers analyzed the samples for the isotope carbon-13, which contains one extra neutron in the nucleus compared to the usual form of carbon. Grasses and related plants known as sedges use a different form of photosynthesis that is more likely to absorb carbon dioxide with the heavier carbon-13. Thus, grasses and sedges contain more carbon-13 atoms than other plants. Animals that eat grasses and sedges likewise have higher carbon-13 levels than those eating fruits and other plants. What Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp found was that the teeth of A. africanus had an in-between amount carbon-13 ‹ more than the fruit eaters,less than the grass eaters. Which meant not only they're eating fruits, they're eating a lot of grasses, or animals eating grasses. The lower carbon-13 levels could also come from eating certain types of insects.
What was it about Australopithecus that made it eat these different kinds of foods? That's the most interesting part of this.
Sponheimer suggests the changing diet may reflect a move down from the trees in the forests to grassy plains. Ungar of the University of Arkansas agrees the study offers new suggestions of hominid diet, but discounts the suggestion that meat could explain the lower carbon-13 levels. Studies of other isotopes in the tooth enamel could provide more clues. "What's great about this study is that it shows we can now get at these issues," comments Kaye Reed, a research associate at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.
Tasty Grass Reed points out that if A. africanus ate grass, it doesn't mean it was grazing in fields. "We have this block in our heads, oh my God, they couldn't be eating grass, she says. You picture someone munching out there like a cow." Roots or seeds of some grasslike plants could have been quite tasty. They could have been eating parts of grass, Reed says. Why not? We're not just talking what you grow on your lawn. Take good care of your teeth. In 3 million years, an anthropologist might be using them to figure out what you ate for dinner.
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