Posted on 09/05/2002 7:24:37 AM PDT by blam
Wednesday, 4 September, 2002, 18:32 GMT 19:32 UK
Neanderthal skeleton rediscovered
Neanderthals became extinct more than 20,000 years ago
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
The beautifully preserved and extremely rare skeleton of a newborn Neanderthal, thought to have been lost to science for almost 90 years, has been rediscovered. It could lead to new insights into the evolution of modern humans and our relationship with our extinct cousins.
Anthropologists during the first half of the 20th Century were not interested in juvenile specimens
Bruno Maureille The fossil is of a baby Neanderthal that was just four months old when it died.
It is called Le Moustier 2 after its discovery in 1914 in an exposed cliff near Le Moustier in the Dordogne, southwest France.
A few years after it was found, the fossil vanished.
Some scientists believed it had been taken to a Paris museum.
One of the best Neanderthal specimens known to science
But in 1996, the fossil remains of a newborn Neanderthal were discovered among the archives of the National Museum of Pre-history in Les Eyzies in the Dordogne.
Modern dating techniques suggest that it is about 40,000 years old.
Writing in the journal Nature, Bruno Maureille of the University of Bordeaux in Talence confirms that the Dordogne skeleton is that of Le Moustier 2.
In addition, other bones from a newborn Neanderthal at another museum in France have been found to be from the same skeleton.
Reunited with its missing bones, Le Moustier 2 only lacks shoulder blades and its pubic bone, making it one of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons ever found.
"Complete skeletons are very rare," Dr Maureille told the BBC. "When you are in front of a complete juvenile skeleton you are able to discuss the growth and development of specific morphological traits and this is very interesting."
He added: "One of the reasons that explain why this skeleton was forgotten was a consequence of the fact that anthropologists during the first half of the 20th Century were not interested in juvenile specimens."
"In fact the only evidence for an invasion of Basqueland dates from thousands upon thousands of years ago when Cro-Magnon? people first arrived in Europe and superseded the Neanderthals. Could this have been when the Basques first arrrived in Europe? The archeological evidence is shaky and it is difficult to assume there was never an invasion just because evidence for one has not yet been found. But so far the evidence is fairly clear, and even if the arrival of the Basques is postponed it is now quite certain that they arrived before the Indo-Europeans and thus that they are the oldest surviving people in Europe.
CD
They play bagpipes don't they?
I lived among them in Nevada and they seemed pretty normal, except for their obsession with sheep! {ggg}.
I am, and I am proud!
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I for one demand that this child receive a proper burial, rather than be studied by scientists!
Irish engineers?
*shudder*
No offense, for engineers you need Germans at best, or at worst, Brits and Japanese.
Thanks for the Link!
very nice painting
Thanks for the ping, but -- being wildly subjective -- this isn't "newsy" enough to justify a general ping to the list.
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer'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] |
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