Neanderthal Fossil range: Pleistocene
H. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period neanderthalensis La Chapelle aux Saints.
Conservation status
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Primates Family: Hominidae Genus: Homo Species: H. The conservation status of a Species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species remaining extant either in the present day or the near future Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands A primate is a member of the biological order Primates ( Latin: "prime first rank" the group that contains Lemurs the Aye-aye Homo is the Genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives neanderthalensis
Binomial name
†Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864
Synonyms
Palaeoanthropus neanderthalensis H. William King (1809-1886 an Anglo-Irish geologist at Queen's College Galway was the first (in 1864 to propose that the bones found in Neanderthal Germany In Scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different Scientific names used for a single Taxon. s. neanderthalensis

The Neanderthal (IPA: /niːˈændərθɔːl/, also with /neɪ-/, and /-tɑːl/), or Neandertal, was a species of the Homo genus (Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens neanderthalensis)^[1] which inhabited Europe and parts of western and central Asia. Homo is the Genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives Central Asia 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 Pakistan in the south The first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350-500 thousand years ago. ^[2] By 130,000 years ago, complete Neanderthal characteristics had appeared and by 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals disappeared from Asia, although they did not reach extinction in Europe until 30,000 years ago. No Neanderthal skeletons of younger dating have been found, though it has been suggested that Neanderthals survived longer in Southern Iberia. ^[3][4] Neanderthal may have coexisted with modern humans up to 15,000 years after Homo sapiens had migrated into Europe. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus ^[5][6][7] It is believed that the population of Neanderthals was never much more than 10,000 individuals. ^[8]

Neanderthals had many adaptations to a cold climate: short, robust builds, and rather large noses — traits selected by nature in cold climates. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of Anatomically a nose is a protuberance in Vertebrates that houses the Nostrils or nares which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of Their cranial capacity was larger than modern humans, indicating that their brains may have been larger. Cranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the Cranium (also called the braincase or brainpan of those Vertebrates who have both a cranium and The brain size is related to a mutation in the microcephalin gene, which is also seen in the Homo sapiens genetic pool. In biology mutations are changes to the Nucleotide sequence of the Genetic material of an organism Microcephalin ( MCPH1) is one of six Genes causing primary Microcephaly ( when non-functional Mutations exist in the ^[9][10][11] On average, the height of Neanderthals was comparable to contemporaneous homo sapiens. Neanderthal males stood about 165–68 cm tall (about 5'5") and were heavily built with robust bone structure. Females stood about 152–56 cm tall (about 5'1"). ^[12]

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. A stone tool is in the most general sense any Tool made of stone. The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly Flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis The Mousterian culture is typified by the wide use of the Levallois technique. The Levallois technique is a name given by Archaeologists to a distinctive type of flint knapping developed by humans during the Palaeolithic period 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. In Geology, rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of Minerals and/or Mineraloids The Earth's outer solid layer the ‘ Lithosphere Near the end of the time of the Neanderthals, they created the Châtelperronian tool style, considered more advanced than that of the Mousterian. Châtelperronian was the earliest industry of the Upper Palaeolithic in central and south western France, extending also into Northern Spain. They either invented the Châtelperronian themselves or borrowed elements from the incoming modern humans who are thought to have created the Aurignacian. Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia.

Etymology and classification

Type Specimen, Neanderthal 1.

The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 12 km (7. 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 Düssel is a small right Tributary of the River Rhine in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW is the westernmost and - in terms of population and economic output - the 5 mi) west of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. Düsseldorf (ˈdʏsəldɔɐf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Neanderthal is now spelled two ways: the old spelling of the German word Thal, meaning "valley or dale", was changed to Tal in 1901, but the former spelling is often retained in English and always in scientific names, while the modern spelling is used in German while referring to the valley itself. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. In Geology, a valley (also called a vale, dale, glen or strath and near or in Appalachia, a draw) is English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

The Neander Valley was named after theologian Joachim Neander, who lived nearby in Düsseldorf in the late seventeenth century. The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf Joachim Neander (Neumann ( 1650 - May 31 1680) was a German Reformed ( Calvinist) Church teacher Theologian Düsseldorf (ˈdʏsəldɔɐf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In turn, Neanderthals were named after "Neander Valley", where the first Neanderthal remains were found. The term Neanderthal Man was coined in 1863 by Anglo-Irish geologist William King. " Anglo-Irish " was a term used historically to describe a privileged Social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the A geologist is a contributor to the Science of Geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system William King (1809-1886 an Anglo-Irish geologist at Queen's College Galway was the first (in 1864 to propose that the bones found in Neanderthal Germany

The original German pronunciation (regardless of spelling) is with the sound /t/. (See German phonology. German phonology describes the Phonology of Standard German. Since German is a Pluricentric language, there are a number of different pronunciations ) In English the term is commonly anglicised to /θ/ (th as in thin), though scientists frequently use /t/. "Neander" is a classicized form of the common German surname Neumann.

For some time, professionals debated whether Neanderthals should be classified as Homo neanderthalensis or as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the latter placing Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens. In Zoology, as in other branches of Biology, subspecies is the Taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a Species. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus Recent genetic simulations suggested that 5% of human DNA can only be accounted for by assuming a substantial contribution of Neanderthaler to the European gene pool of up to 25%. ^[13] Additionally, morphological studies using latest techniques support that Homo neanderthalensis is a separate species and not a subspecies. ^[14] Some scientists, for example University of Michigan Professor Milford Wolpoff, claim that fossil evidence suggests that the two species interbred. The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research Milford H Wolpoff (born 1942 to Ruth (Silver and Ben Wolpoff Chicago) is a Paleoanthropologist, and since 1977, a professor of Anthropology FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. In Biology, hybrid has two meanings The first meaning is the result of interbreeding between two animals or plants of different taxa. This would support the argument that the two were the same biological species. In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. Others, for example University of Cambridge Professor Paul Mellars, say "no evidence has been found of cultural interaction"^[15] and evidence from mitochondrial DNA studies have been interpreted as evidence that Neanderthals were not a subspecies of H. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological Evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct Species sapiens. ^[16]

Discovery

Location of Neander Valley, Germany. 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 highlighted area is the modern federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW is the westernmost and - in terms of population and economic output - the )

Neanderthal skulls were first discovered in Engis, Belgium (1829) and in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar (1848), both prior to the "original" discovery in a limestone quarry of the Neander Valley in Erkrath near Düsseldorf in August, 1856, three years before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published. Craniometry is the technique of measuring the Bones of the Skull. Engis is a Walloon Municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The 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 Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar Limestone is a Sedimentary rock composed largely of the Mineral Calcite ( Calcium carbonate: CaCO3 The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf Erkrath is a town in the district of Mettmann, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Geography Erkrath is situated on the Düssel Düsseldorf (ˈdʏsəldɔɐf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in Scientific literature and arguably the ^[17]

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. In biology a type is that which fixes a name to a Taxon. Depending on the nomenclature code which is applied to the organism in question a type may be a specimen Feldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40 ky old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte in August 1856 The femur is the thigh bone In Humans, it is the longest, most voluminous and strongest Bone. The pelvis (pl pelvises or pelves) or pelvic girdle is the irregular bony structure located at the base of the spine (properly known In Anatomy, the scapula, omo, or shoulder blade, is the Bone that connects the Humerus (arm bone with the Clavicle (collar The workers who recovered this material originally thought it to be the remains of a bear. They gave the material to amateur naturalist Johann Carl Fuhlrott, who turned the fossils over to anatomist Hermann Schaaffhausen. Johann Carl Fuhlrott was born December 31 1803 in Leinefelde, Germany, and died October 17 1877 in Elberfeld Hermann Schaaffhausen ( 1816 - 1893) was a Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bonn. The discovery was jointly announced in 1857.

The original Neanderthal discovery is now considered the beginning of paleoanthropology. Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of Paleontology and Physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in Fossil hominid These and other discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from ancient Europeans who had played an important role in modern human origins. Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological Evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct Species The bones of over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.

Notable fossils

• La Ferrassie 1: A fossilized skull discovered in La Ferrassie, France by R. La Ferrassie 1 is a fossilized skull of the species Homo neanderthalensis. 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 Period. The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. One of the nine remains had an amputated arm. This is significant due to the fact that it shows that stone tools were present in that era. Also, another Neanderthal had been buried with flowers, showing that some type of burial ceremony may have occurred.
• La Chappelle-aux-Saints 1: Called the Old Man, a fossilized skull discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints, 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: A fossilized skull, discovered in 1909, at the archeological site in Peyzac-le-Moustier, Dordogne, France. Le Moustier is an Archeological site consisting of two Rock shelters 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: Initial Neanderthal specimen found during an archaeology dig in August 1856. Feldhofer 1, Neanderthal 1 is the common name for the initial 40 ky old Neanderthal specimen found in Kleine Feldhofer Grotte 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.
• Kebara 2

Anatomy

Compared to modern humans, Neanderthals were similar in height but with more robust bodies, and had distinct morphological features, especially of the cranium, which gradually accumulated more derived aspects, particularly in certain relatively isolated geographic regions. Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the Anatomy of Organisms It is closely related to Evolutionary biology and Phylogeny Evidence suggests that they were much stronger than modern humans;^[18] their relatively robust stature is thought to be an adaptation to the cold climate of Europe during the Pleistocene epoch. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period

A 2007 study confirmed that some Neanderthals had red hair and pale skin color; however, the mutation in the MC1R gene arose independently of the mutation which causes a similar pigmentation pattern in modern humans. Human skin color can range from almost black (due to very high concentrations of the dark brown pigment melanin to nearly colorless (appearing reddish white due to the Blood The melanocortin 1 receptor (also known as melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor or Mc1r) is one of the key Proteins in regulating hair and skin color ^[19][20]

Distinguishing physical traits

Neanderthal cranial anatomy.

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

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. Nothing is known about the shape of soft parts such as eyes, ears, and lips of Neanderthals. ^[21]

• Cranial
  • Suprainiac fossa, a groove above the inion
  • Occipital bun, a protuberance of the occipital bone which looks like a hair knot ^[22]
  • Projecting mid-face
  • Low, flat, elongated skull
  • A flat basicranium[17][18]^[23]
  • Supraorbital torus, a prominent, trabecular (spongy) browridge
  • 1200-1750 cm³ skull capacity (10% greater than modern human average)
  • Lack of a protruding chin (mental protuberance; although later specimens possess a slight protuberance)
  • Crest on the mastoid process behind the ear opening
  • 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
  • Broad, projecting nose
• Sub-cranial
  • Considerably more robust
  • Large round finger tips
  • Barrel-shaped rib cage
  • Large kneecaps
  • Long collar bones
  • Short, bowed shoulder blades
  • Thick, bowed shaft of the thigh bones
  • Short shinbones and calf bones
  • Long, gracile pelvic pubis (superior pubic ramus)
  • Bowed Femur

Language

See also: Origin of language

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 inion is the most prominent projection of the Occipital bone at the lower rear part of the Skull. 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 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 The supraorbital ridge or brow ridge refer to a bony ridge located above the eye sockets of all Primates In Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man the The Mastoid process is a conical prominence projecting from the undersurface of the Mastoid portion of the temporal bone. "Cuspid" redirects here For the heart valves see Bicuspid valve and Tricuspid valve. 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 For more uses of the word labyrinth, see Labyrinth (disambiguation The labyrinth is a System of fluid passages in the The mental foramen is one of two holes ("foramina" located on the anterior surface of the Mandible. Anatomically a nose is a protuberance in Vertebrates that houses the Nostrils or nares which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the 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 The human rib cage, also known as the thoracic cage, is a bony and cartilaginous structure which surrounds the thoracic (chest cavity and supports the pectoral In Anatomy, the scapula, omo, or shoulder blade, is the Bone that connects the Humerus (arm bone with the Clavicle (collar The origin of language ( glottogony) is a topic that has attracted considerable speculation throughout human history A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them The hyoid bone ( lingual bone) (Latin os hyoideum) is a Bone in the Neck, and is the only bone in the human skeleton not articulated to any Kebara Cave ( Hebrew: מערת כבארה Me'arat Kebbara, Arabic: مغارة الكبارة Mugharat al-Kabara) is an Israeli The hyoid is a small bone which 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 possible. The tongue is the large bundle of Skeletal muscles on the floor of the Mouth that manipulates Food for chewing and swallowing (deglutition The larynx (plural larynges) colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the Neck of Mammals involved in protection of the The presence of this bone implies that speech was anatomically possible. The bone which was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans. ^[24]

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. Homo heidelbergensis ("Heidelberg Man" is an Extinct Species of the Genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor They were probably able to differentiate between many different sounds. ^[25]

Neurological evidence for potential speech in neanderthalensis exists in the form of the hypoglossal canal. The hypoglossal canal is a bony canal in the Occipital bone of the Skull. The canal of neanderthalensis is the same size or larger than in modern humans, which are significantly larger than the canal of australopithecines and modern chimpanzees. The term australopithecine refers to two very closely related genera within the Hominina subtribe of the Hominini tribe. Chimpanzee (often shortened to chimp) is the common name for the two extant Species of Apes in the Genus Pan. The canal carries the hypoglossal nerve, which controls the muscles of the tongue. This indicates that neanderthalensis had vocal capabilities similar to modern humans. ^[26] 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. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley 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. ^[27]

Another anatomical difference between Neanderthals and Modern humans is their lack of a mental protuberance (the point at the tip of the chin). The 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 This may be relevant to speech as the mentalis muscle, one of the muscles which move the lower lip, is attached to the tip of the chin. While some Neanderthal individuals do possess a mental protuberance, their chins never show the inverted T-shape of modern humans. ^[28] 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 FOXP2 gene as modern humans. FOXP2 (" forkhead box P2" is a Gene that is implicated in the development of language skills, including grammatical competence This gene is known to play a role in human language. ^[29]

Steven Mithen (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 language and music into two separate modes of cognition. Steve Mithen is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. In the History of music, prehistoric music (previously called primitive music) is all Music produced in preliterate cultures ( Prehistory A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. ^[30]

Tools

Neanderthal Hunter, (American Mus. Nat. Hist. ).

Neanderthal Tool Maker.

Neanderthal and Middle Paleolithic archaeological sites show a smaller and different toolkit than those which have been found in Upper Paleolithic sites, which were perhaps occupied by modern humans which superseded them. The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa 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 (Mousterian) tools most often consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and spears. Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly Flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis 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 A handaxe is a bifacial Lower and Middle Paleolithic core Tool. This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation. 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. ^[31]

Also, while they had weapons, whether they had implements which were used as projectile weapons is controversial. A weapon is a Tool used either in Hunting, or attack or defence in Combat for the purpose of subduing enemy personnel or to destroy enemy weapons A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch They had spears, made of long wooden shafts with spearheads firmly attached, but they are thought by some to have been thrusting spears. This is an article about a particle accelerator For uses of spear, see Spear or Spear (disambiguation. ^[32] Still, a Levallois 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. The Levallois technique is a name given by Archaeologists to a distinctive type of flint knapping developed by humans during the Palaeolithic period ^[33] Moreover, a number of 400,000 year old wooden projectile spears were found at Schöningen in northern Germany. Schöningen is a city of 13000 inhabitants (2005 in the district of Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, Germany. These are thought to have been made by the Neanderthal's ancestors, Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. Homo erectus ( Latin: "upright man" is an extinct species of the genus Homo, believed to have been the first hominin Homo heidelbergensis ("Heidelberg Man" is an Extinct Species of the Genus Homo which may be the direct ancestor 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 Maori - modern Homo sapiens, who also rarely threw objects, but used spears and clubs instead. ^[34]

Although much has been made of the Neanderthal's burial of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground The interpretation of the Shanidar IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of ritual burial,^[35] has been questioned. The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. A flower, also known as a bloom or Blossom, is the reproductive structure found in Flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also A ritual is a set of actions often thought to have Symbolic value the performance of which is usually prescribed by a Religion or by the Traditions ^[36] 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 goods, such as bison and aurochs bones, tools, and the pigment ochre. Grave goods, in Archaeology and Anthropology, are the items buried along with the body The wisent (ˈviːzənt or European bison ( Bison bonasus) is a Bison Species and the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe The aurochs or urus ( Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its Extinction in 1627 For the drug referred to as "pigment" see Black tar heroin. Ochre or Ocher (pronounced /'əʊkə(r/ from the Greek ὠχρός yellow is a Color, usually described as golden - Yellow

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. Fire is the heat and light energy released during a Chemical reaction, in particular a combustion reaction. A trap excavated at La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey gives testament to their intelligence and success as hunters ^[37]. La Cotte de St Brelade is a Paleolithic site of early habitation in St Brelade, Jersey. The Bailiwick of Jersey ( Jèrriais: Jèrri) is a British Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy, France.

Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with holes which may have been deliberately bored into it. The femur is the thigh bone In Humans, it is the longest, most voluminous and strongest Bone. This bone was found in western Slovenia in 1995, near a Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Some paleoanthropologists have hypothesized that it was a flute, while others believe it was created by accident through the chomping action of another bear. See: Divje Babe.

Habitat and range

Sites where typical Neanderthal fossils have been found.

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. Places where their remains are known include Portugal, France and Spain, as well as Britain ^[38], Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Greece^[39] and Israel. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics.

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 in the west to Uzbekistan in the east. Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( Uzbek: O‘zbekiston Respublikasi or Ўзбекистон Республикаси is a doubly 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. ^[40] Recent evidence has extended the Neanderthal range by about 1,250 miles (2,010 km) east into southern Siberia's Altay Mountains. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving The Altai Mountains (Алтай Altay; Алтай 阿尔泰山脉 are a Mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, ^[41][42]

Cannibalism or Ritual defleshing?

Neanderthals hunted large animals, such as the mammoth. Stone-tipped wooden spears were used for hunting and stone knives were used for butchering the animals. They are also believed to have gathered wild plants like their ancestors, Homo erectus. Homo erectus ( Latin: "upright man" is an extinct species of the genus Homo, believed to have been the first hominin However, they are believed to have practiced ritual defleshing. This hypothesis has been represented after researchers found marks on Neanderthal bones similar to the bones of a dead deer eaten 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 France, Krapina in Croatia and Grotta Guattari in Italy) have all been cited as bearing cut marks made by stone tools. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. See also List of fossil sites (with link directory List of hominina (hominid fossils (with images Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest ^[43] 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 excarnation mortuary practises have shown that perhaps this was a case of ritual defleshing. In Archaeology and Anthropology the term excarnation refers to the burial practice adopted by some societies of removing the flesh of the dead, leaving

• 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 tooth marks found on the skull and mandible. The Hyaenidae is a Mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family native to both African and Asian continents consists of four
• 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. ^[44]
• 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. ^[45]

The evidence indicating cannibalism would not distinguish Neanderthals from modern Homo sapiens. Ancient and existing Homo sapiens, including the Korowai, are known to have practiced cannibalism and/or mortuary defleshing. This article is about the ethnic group in New Guinea For the Māori cloak see Māori traditional textiles.

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 (Shanidar IV, La Chapelle-aux-Saints ‘Old Man’), the femur (La Ferrassie 1), fibulae (La Ferrassie 2 and Tabun 1), spine (Kebara 2) and skull (Shanidar I, Krapina, Sala 1). The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. La Chapelle-aux-Saints is a commune in the department of Corrèze in central France. Tabun Cave located at Mount Carmel, Israel was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages (half a million to some 40000 years ago Kebara Cave ( Hebrew: מערת כבארה Me'arat Kebbara, Arabic: مغارة الكبارة Mugharat al-Kabara) is an Israeli See also List of fossil sites (with link directory List of hominina (hominid fossils (with images 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. ^[46]

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 III, whose lung was probably punctured by a stab wound to the chest between the 8th and 9th ribs. The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. 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 cave. The cave site of Shanidar is located in the Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan in Iraq. 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). Osteoarthritis ( OA, also known as degenerative Arthritis, degenerative joint disease) is a clinical syndrome in which low-grade inflammation

Hypoplastic disease

Dental enamel hypoplasia 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. Hypoplasia is underdevelopment or incomplete development of a tissue or organ A study of 669 Neanderthal dental crowns showed that 75% of individuals suffered some degree of hypoplasia and the 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).

Reconstruction of a NeanderthaI child from Gibraltar (Anthropological Institute, University of Zürich). Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar

The fate of the Neanderthals

Possible theories for the fate of Neanderthals include the following:

1. Neanderthals evolved to a separate species which became extinct (see Neanderthal extinction hypotheses) and were replaced by early modern humans traveling from Africa. Ever since their discovery both the Neanderthals ' place in the human family tree and their relation to modern Europeans have been hotly debated ^[47]
2. Neanderthals was a contemporary subspecies which incidentally bred with Homo sapiens and disappeared through absorption (see Neanderthal interaction with Cro-Magnons)
3. Neanderthals never split from Homo sapiens and most of their populations transformed into anatomically modern humans between 50-30 kya (see Multiregional origin of modern humans). Around 28000 years ago typhological Neanderthal traits cease to exist In paleoanthropology, the multiregional hypothesis is one of two accounts of the origin of anatomically modern humans Homo sapiens.

According to the oldest view (#1), modern humans (Homo sapiens) began replacing Neanderthals around 45,000 years ago, as the Cro-Magnon people appeared in Europe, pushing populations of Neanderthals into regional pockets, where they held on for thousands of years, such as modern-day Croatia, Iberia, and the Crimean peninsula. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus Cro-Magnon ( French) is one of the main types of Homo sapiens of the European Upper Paleolithic, living approximately 40000 to 10000 years Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra Crimea (kraɪˈmiːə or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Крим Автономна Республіка Крим Avtonomna Respublika Krym; Крым The last known population was located around a cave system on the remote south-facing coast of Gibraltar, from 30,000 to 24,000 years ago. Gorham's Cave is a natural Sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals. Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar

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 Aurignacian 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. Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. 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 kya (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 Neolithic burials into the Aurignacian levels and subsequently all the key Vogelherd fossils are now dated to 3. Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper Palaeolithic located in Europe and southwest Asia. 9–5. 0 thousand years ago instead. ^[48] As for now, the expansion of the first anatomically modern humans into Europe can't be located by diagnostic and well-dated anatomically modern human fossils "west of the Iron Gates of the Danube" before 32 kya. ^[49] Moreover, researchers have recently have found in Pestera Muierii, Romania, remains of European humans from 30 kya 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. ^[50]

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 post-30 kya Eurasian genetic pool. ^[51] 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 Mesolithic. The 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 ^[52]

Modern human findings in Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal of 24,500 years ago, allegedly featuring Neanderthal admixtures, have been published. The Lagar Velho site is a rock-shelter in the Lapedo valley a limestone canyon ca Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. ^[53] 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. ^[54][55]

On the other hand, a mtDNA analysis has shown no evidence for Neanderthal contributions to the gene pool of modern humans. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. ^[56] The authors of the study concede that this does not exclude Neanderthal contributions of other genes. They nevertheless argue that other genetic and morphological data also suggest little or no Neanderthal contribution.

Genome

Further information: Neanderthal Genome Project

While previous investigations concentrated on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) — which, due to strictly matrilineal inheritance and subsequent vulnerability to genetic drift, is of limited value to disprove interbreeding — more recent investigations have access to growing strings of deciphered nuclear DNA (nDNA). In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time

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. The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ( German: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie Technology 454 Sequencing is a large-scale parallel Pyrosequencing system capable of sequencing roughly 400-600 megabases of DNA per 10-hour run on the Genome For the sense of "sequencing" used in Electronic music, see the Music sequencer article In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome The Neanderthal genome very likely is roughly the size of the human genome, three-billion base pairs, and probably shares most of its genes. In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome The human genome is the Genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs History See also History of genetics The existence of genes was first suggested by Gregor Mendel (1822-1884 who in the 1860s studied inheritance 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. In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome The human genome is the Genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs ^[57]

DNA researcher Svante Pääbo has tested more than 70 Neanderthal specimens and found only one which had enough DNA to sample. Svante Pääbo (born April 20, 1955) is a Biologist specializing in evolutionary Genetics. Preliminary DNA sequencing from a 38,000-year-old bone fragment of a femur bone found at Vindija cave in Croatia in 1980 shows that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens share about 99. Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between 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 Nature has calculated the species diverged about 516,000 years ago, whereas fossil records show a time of about 400,000 years ago. Nature is a prominent Scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869 From DNA records, scientists hope to falsify or confirm the theory that there was interbreeding between the species. Falsifiability (or "refutability" is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment ^[58] A 2007 study pushes the point of divergence back to around 800,000 years ago. ^[59]

Edward Rubin of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California states that recent genome testing of Neanderthals suggests human and Neanderthal DNA are some 99. Edward M "Eddy" Rubin is a Researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley California and the director of the Department The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( LBNL) is a U Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. In classical genetics the genome of a Diploid Organism including Eukarya refers to a full set of chromosomes or genes in a Gamete, thereby 5 percent to nearly 99. 9 percent identical. ^[60][61]

On November 16, 2006, Science Daily published scientific test results demonstrating that Neanderthals and ancient humans probably did not interbreed. Scientists with the U. S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) sequenced genomic nuclear DNA (nDNA) from a fossilized Neanderthal femur. Their results more precisely indicate a common ancestor about 706,000 years ago, and a complete separation of the ancestors of the species about 376,000 years ago. Their results show that the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals are at least 99. 5% identical, but despite this genetic similarity, and despite the two species having cohabitated the same geographic region for thousands of years, there is no evidence of any significant crossbreeding between the two. Edward Rubin, director of both JGI and Berkeley Lab’s Genomics Division: “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. ”

On the other hand, a 2006 investigation suggested that at least 5% of the genetic material of modern Europeans and West Africans has an archaic origin, due to interbreeding with Neanderthal and a hitherto unknown archaic African population. ^[13] Plagnol and Wall arrived at this result by first calculating a "null model" of genetic characteristics which would fulfill the requirement of descendence from Homo sapiens sapiens in a straight line. Next they compared this model to the current distribution and characteristics of existing genetic polymorphisms, and concluded that this "null model" deviated considerably from what would be expected. Genetic simulations indicated this 5% of DNA not accounted for by the null model corresponds to a substantial contribution to the European gene pool of up to 25%. Future investigation—including a full scale Neanderthal genome project—is expected to cast more light on the subject of genetic polymorphisms to supply more details. In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome Contrary to the investigation of mtDNA, the study of polymorph mutations has the potential to answer the question whether—and to what extent—Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens interbred. ^[62]

A main proponent of the interbreeding hypothesis is Erik Trinkaus of Washington University. Erik Trinkaus, PhD ( December 24, 1948) is a prominent Paleoanthropologist and expert on Neanderthal Biology and human evolution In a 2006 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Trinkaus and his co-authors report a possibility that Neanderthals and humans did interbreed. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United The study claims to settle the extinction controversy; according to researchers, the human and neanderthal populations blended together through sexual reproduction. Trinkaus states, "Extinction through absorption is a common phenomenon. "^[63] and "From my perspective, the replacement vs. continuity debate that raged through the 1990s is now dead". ^[64]

There is a possibility that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons interbred but left little genetic evidence of that. That is because there is an ongoing debate about whether the hunter-gatherers of the middle stone age started farming when they came in contact with agriculture, or were completely replaced by the farmers moving in from the Middle East. If modern Europeans are mainly descendents of these farming people with little or no genetic input of the hunter gatherers of the middle stone age, then possible interbreeding between them and the Neanderthals would not have had a great effect on the modern gene-pool. ^[65]

Key dates

• 1829: Neanderthal skulls were discovered in Engis, Belgium. Engis is a Walloon Municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The 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
• 1848: Skull of an ancient human was found in Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar. Gorham's Cave is a natural Sea cave in Gibraltar, and is considered to be one of the last known habitations of the Neanderthals. Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar Its significance was not realised at the time.
• 1856: Johann Karl Fuhlrott first recognised the fossil called “Neanderthal man”, discovered in Neanderthal, a valley near Mettmann in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Johann Carl Fuhlrott was born December 31 1803 in Leinefelde, Germany, and died October 17 1877 in Elberfeld The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf Mettmann is a Rhenish Town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW is the westernmost and - in terms of population and economic output - the Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe.
• 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. General Info Ralph Stefan Solecki is an American Archaeologist.
• 1975: Erik Trinkaus’s study of Neanderthal feet confirmed that they walked like modern humans. Erik Trinkaus, PhD ( December 24, 1948) is a prominent Paleoanthropologist and expert on Neanderthal Biology and human evolution
• 1987: Thermoluminescence results from Palestine fossils date Neanderthals at Kebara to 60,000 BP and modern humans at Qafzeh to 90,000 BP. Some mineral substances such as Fluorite store energy when exposed to Ultraviolet or other Ionising radiation. Kebara Cave ( Hebrew: מערת כבארה Me'arat Kebbara, Arabic: مغارة الكبارة Mugharat al-Kabara) is an Israeli These dates were confirmed by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dates for Qafzeh (90,000 BP) and Es Skhul (80,000 BP). Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR or electron spin resonance (ESR Spectroscopy is a technique for studying Chemical species that have one or more unpaired Es Skhul (meaning kids ' is a cave site situated c 20 kilometers south of the Israeli town of Haifa, and c
• 1991: ESR dates showed that the Tabun Neanderthal was contemporaneous with modern humans from Skhul and Qafzeh. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR or electron spin resonance (ESR Spectroscopy is a technique for studying Chemical species that have one or more unpaired Tabun Cave located at Mount Carmel, Israel was occupied intermittently during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic ages (half a million to some 40000 years ago
• 1997 Matthias Krings et al. are the first to amplify Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 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. The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ( German: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
• 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. Technology 454 Sequencing is a large-scale parallel Pyrosequencing system capable of sequencing roughly 400-600 megabases of DNA per 10-hour run on the Genome In July 2006 the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would be sequencing the Neanderthal Genome

Popular culture

Main article: Neanderthals in 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. In popular idiom the word Neanderthal is sometimes used as an insult to suggest that a person combines a deficiency in intelligence and a propensity toward brute force as well as Counterbalancing this are sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals, as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding, Isaac Asimov's The Ugly Little Boy, and Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children 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. The Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies. Sir William Gerald Golding ( 19 September, 1911 – 19 June, 1993) was a British novelist poet and Nobel Prize for Literature Isaac Asimov (c January 2 1920 &ndash April 6 1992 ˈaɪzək ˈæzɪmʌv originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as, was a Russian The Ugly Little Boy is a Science fiction Short story by Isaac Asimov. Jean Marie Auel (dʒiːn mɘˈɹiː aʊl née Untinen (born February 18, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American and Earth's Children is a series of Historical fiction novels written by Jean M 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 Kurtén, in several works including Dance of the Tiger, and British psychologist Stan Gooch in his hybrid-origin theory of humans. Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén (1924 &ndash 1988 was a distinguished Vertebrate Paleontologist. Dance of the Tiger is a short novel published in English in 1980 by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén that deals with the interaction between Neanderthals Stan Gooch (born 1932 in London, England) is a British Psychologist and Paranormal researcher who is probably best known as the proponent The Neanderthal Parallax, a trilogy of science fiction novels dealing with neanderthals, written by Robert J. Sawyer, explores a scenario where neanderthals are seen as a distinct species from humans and survive in a parallel universe version of earth. The Neanderthal Parallax is a trilogy of novels by Robert J Sawyer. Robert J Sawyer is a Canadian Science fiction writer born in Ottawa in 1960 and now resident in Mississauga. 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 all form essentially one story.

See also

• List of Neanderthal sites
• Neanderthal Genome Project
• Neanderthal extinction hypotheses
• List of fossil sites (with link directory)
• List of primate and hominin fossils (with images)
• Physical anthropology
• Caveman
• Abrigo do Lagar Velho - More about "the Lapedo child"
• Almas: Wild Men of Mongolia

Footnotes

Solecki, Ralph S. A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International "Shanidar. " Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2007. Grolier Online. 25 Nov. 2007 <http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0264140-0>.

References

• Derev’anko, Anatoliy P. 1998 The Paleolithic of Siberia. New Discoveries and Interpretations. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
• C. David Kreger (2000-06-30) Homo Neanderthalensis
• 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. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Events 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the Usurper "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev ) (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. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020057. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. 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". Mladeč (Lautsch is a village 20 km NW of Olomouc in central Moravia, Czech Republic. Nature 435: 332–5. Nature is a prominent Scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869 doi:10.1038/nature03585. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document.   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. (2007). "Current views on Neanderthal speech capabilities: A reply to Boe et al. (2002)". Journal of Phonetics, Volume 35, Issue 4, Pages 552-563.
• Neanderthal DNA Sequencing

External links

• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
• Smithsonian
• Archaelogy Info
• MNSU
• "Humans and Neanderthals interbred": Modern humans contain a little bit of Neanderthal, according to a new theory, because the two interbred and became one species. (Cosmos magazine, November 2006)
• BBC.co.uk - 'Neanderthals "mated with modern humans": A hybrid skeleton showing features of both Neanderthal and early modern humans has been discovered, challenging the theory that our ancestors drove Neanderthals to extinction', BBC (April 21, 1999)

• BBC.co.uk - 'Neanderthals "had hands like ours": The popular image of Neanderthals as clumsy, backward creatures has been dealt another blow', Helen Briggs, BBC (March 27, 2003)

• GeoCities.com - 'The Neanderthal Sites at Veldwezelt-Hezerwater, Belgium'
• Greenwych.ca - 'Neanderthal Flute: Oldest Musical Instrument's 4 Notes Matches 4 of Do, Re, Mi Scale - Evidence of Natural Foundation to Diatonic Scale (oldest known musical instrument), Greenwich Publishing

• Greenwych.ca - 'Chewed or Chipped? Who Made the Neanderthal Flute? Humans or Carnivores?' Bob Fink, Greenwich Publishing (March, 2003)

• IndState.edu - 'Neanderthals: A Cyber Perspective', Kharlena María Ramanan, Indiana State University (1997)
• Krapina.com - 'Krapina: The World's Largest Neanderthal Finding Site'
• Neanderthal.de - 'Neanderthal Museum'
• Neanderthal DNA - 'Neanderthal DNA' Includes Neanderthal mtDNA sequences
• The Cryptid Zoo - 'Neanderthals and Neanderthaloids in Cryptozoology' (modern sightings promoted by the pseudoscience of cryptozoology)
• 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
• WebShots.com - 'IMG_6922 The Neandertal foot prints' (photo of ~25K years old fossilized footprints discovered in 1970 on volcanic layers near Demirkopru Dam Reservoir, Manisa, Turkey)
• interactive database on the archaeology and anthropology of Neanderthals
• Did free trade cause the extinction of Neanderthals?
• Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA can show conflicting phylogenetic histories
• Neanderthal manifactured pitch
• Homo neanderthalensis reconstruction - Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Veldwezelt-Hezerwater is a Palaeolithic archaeological site in Belgium. The 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 In Music theory, a diatonic scale (from the Greek διατονικος, meaning " through tones" also known as the heptatonia prima and Indiana State University ( ISU) is a Public university that is located in Terre Haute Indiana, United States. See also List of fossil sites (with link directory List of hominina (hominid fossils (with images Pseudoscience is defined as a body of knowledge methodology belief or practice that is claimed to be Scientific or made to appear scientific but does not adhere to the Cryptozoology (from Greek κρυπτός kruptos, "hidden" + Zoology; literally "study of hidden animals" is the study of and search The University of Zurich ( German: Universität Zürich) located in the city of Zurich, is the largest University in Switzerland Manisa ( Ottoman Turkish: مانيسا Manisa; Greek: Μαγνησία Latin: Magnesia) is a large city in Turkey 's Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches
• CBS article on latest scientific speculation about Neanderthals in Gibraltar.
• Neanderthal bone gives DNA clues
• Scientists decode Neanderthal genes
• Scientists Build 'Frankenstein' Neanderthal Skeleton
• A NEANDERTHAL'S DNA TALE
• 'Bone and Stone' A digitally enhanced single frame philatelic exhibit dedicated to the Neanderthal.
• How Neanderthal molar teeth grew
• Mousterian Tools of Neanderthals From Europe - World Museum of Man
• 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