Neanderthal Children Were Large, Sturdy

Discovery News 'blogs ^ | Tuesday, October 19, 2010 | Jennifer Viegas

[SunkenCiv]

The remains of this infant -- a lower jaw and teeth unearthed in a Belgian cave -- are the youngest Neanderthal ever found in northwest Europe, according to a study that will appear in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Since the remains of two adults were also previously discovered in the cave, the fossil collection may represent a Neanderthal family.

If the trio said "cheese" for a family portrait, their smiles would have been hard to miss, since Neanderthal front teeth were larger than those for modern humans.

When the infant died, "he already possessed Neanderthal characteristics, notably a strong mandibular corpus (toothy part of the lower jaw)," lead author Isabelle Crevecoeur told Discovery News.

Crevecoeur is a director of anthropological research at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.

She and her colleagues analyzed the Neanderthal child's remains, found at Spy Cave in Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, Belgium. The cave is part of a rock shelter located close to a small river, the Orneau.

"Its location on the bottom of the cliff that overhangs the valley was probably really advantageous with a clear view of the valley," Crevecoeur said.

Neanderthals started to use the cave around 44,000 years ago. The newly discovered infant, however, lived there about 33,000 years ago, suggesting Neanderthal groups persisted in this area over the millennia.

"Belgium has a long-standing Neanderthal history," she explained. "The country has the highest concentration of Neanderthal remains. The first Neanderthal specimen ever found was in Belgium during the 19th century."

The oldest DNA sequence of a Neanderthal also comes from Belgium.

[SunkenCiv]

Teeth from the newly discovered Neanderthal infant appear in this photo. [Isabelle Crevecoeur]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Antiquity Journal  & archive  Archaeologica  Archaeology  Archaeology Channel  BAR  Bronze Age Forum  Discover  Dogpile  Eurekalert  Google  LiveScience  Mirabilis.ca  Nat Geographic  PhysOrg  Science Daily  Science News  Texas AM  Yahoo  Excerpt, or Link only?	To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·

[JRandomFreeper]

I'll take two. 3 if they can help move the piano.

/johnny

[SIDENET]

Neanderthal Children Were Large, Sturdy

Still are.

Ya'll been to a Walmart lately?

[SunkenCiv]

Modern humans emerged far earlier than previously thought (China)
Washington University in St. Louis | October 25, 2010 | Unknown
Posted on 10/25/2010 2:06:23 PM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2614326/posts

[Tax-chick]

Neanderthal Children Were Large, Sturdy

So are mine. However, that looks like 12 teeth to me. Frank is 17 months old and has 10 teeth, and he's a very early teether for our family. James didn't have a tooth at all until 15 months.

A lot of kids could die before they ever got a tooth. "Neanderthal kids who lived until age 2 were large, sturdy" seems more likely ... the small, weakly ones died.

[mountn man]

I'm not sure about the children but...

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

v

[utherdoul]

Its a testemant to our ancient ancestors how completely the old race has been erased. Personally I think they were dumb enough to start it and we were smart enough and adaptable enough to win it. Have to wonder what the Second Men will look like.

[CurlyBill]

[Rocky]

Michael Moore?

[martin_fierro]

Neanderthal Children Were Large, Sturdy

Well, duh.

[Verginius Rufus]

The article begs the question--did Neanderthals have cheese?

They probably didn't have any domesticated animals to milk.

I thought the Neander Valley was in Germany.

[holyscroller]

Is that Jabba the Hut? Sure is ugly as sin.

[mylife]

Who knew "Baby Ogg" wasn't petite?

[Grizzled Bear]

The article begs the question--did Neanderthals have cheese?

No, but they had moose.

[One Name]

The first dairymen were a hardy bunch; imagine gang-tackling a fresh yak. The invention of rope was likely critical to early successful efforts. Slowly, these wild hairy horned beasts became smaller Scottish Highland-like animals. Corrals and stanchions became the avant-garde technology. Grain farming finally reduced the bovines to where they would willingly come in and get felt up for a meal.

Any cheese that happened before that was purely accidental. I managed to make everything from yogurt to cottage cheese incidentally in buckets I was carting home (fresh cow bloody milk and penicillin milk from treated cows) from a dairy I used to work at (to feed my hogs). Some buckets would be pink, some blue, some green in all manner of semi-cheese consistency.

The hogs didn’t mind and ate it all, mixed with corn, etc.

It was like a window into ancient europe.

[redhead]

"Michael Moore?"

Jerrold Nadler(D) NY

[gleeaikin]

I don’t think the first dairy men used yaks. They probably started with goats, and then wild cattle. Sunken Civ recently posted an interesting article concerning the likelihood that milk drinking dairy herders migrated into central Europe around 8 or 9,000 year ago. With the superior nutrition provided by lactose tolerance and milk, they superceeded the previous inhabitants.

You may also have encountered some posts about the likelihood that we have from 1 to 4% Neanderthal genetic material in our bloodlines. My big boned, red headed warrior husband seemed like a good candidate for 4%. In my case, I have molars so large that the university dental clinic had a hard time locating a metal ring large enough to hold down the rubber dam they wanted to surround the tooth with. Also my roots seem very long compared to others I have seen.

[afraidfortherepublic]

[aruanan]

They all look like the product of miscegenation with aliens, space aliens. Could have been the Irish whiskey, though.