Fossils of Homo neanderthalensis

Grade 8E.D’Alessandro

General Information

Lived 200,000-28,000 years ago in the middle and Upper Paleolithic

Lived in Europe, Southwest and Central Asia Existed along side Homo sapiens (us) for

30,000-50,000 years Lived and adapted for cold weather

environments Had short and stocky bodies

◦ -helped conserve heat Had larger brain, robust bones, muscular, large

face, angled cheek bones, and wide noses Made tools, used fire, built shelters, made

clothing, were skilled hunters, ate plants, buried the dead, and sometimes made symbolic objects

Debated topic whether Neanderthals had language

Finds: Shanidar 1

• Shanidar Cave, Iraq discovered in the 1950’s

• Skeletons 70,000-40,000 years old• Site contained 9 Neanderthal

skeletons deliberately buried• One was partially blind, one-

armed, and crippled when died • Suggests Neanderthal society

cared for elderly and injured • Estimated to have lived until 35-

45 years of age• Soil samples taken near burials

have pollen from flowers• Evidence that they cherished

the dead or beliefs in an afterlife?

Finds: The Old Man

• La-Chapelle-Aux-Saints, France discovered in 1908

• A nearly complete skeleton 60,000 years old

• Was a very old man when died• Had a healed broken rib, severe

arthritis of his hip, lower neck, back, and shoulder, and lost most of his molars

• Had to have been taken care of• Possible that group had to grind

food down for him

Finds: La Ferrassie

• La Ferrassie Cave, France discovered in 1909

• Total of eight intentionally buried skeletons 70,000-50,000 years • Adult male, adult female, and six

children• Had worn teeth, low, sloping

forehead, and large nasal opening• Male skeleton showed that teeth

may have been used for more than just chewing, but for holding objects also

• The adult male and female skeletons showed sexual dimorphism in Neanderthals

What Happen to Neanderthals?

• Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens lived at the same time, but the Neanderthals died out while the Homo sapiens lived on and prospered

• Did competition with Homo sapiens cause the extinction?

• Did Climate change?• Did Neanderthals mate with

Homo sapiens and the gene pools inter mixed?

• The answers are unknown and debated by scientists