March 10, 2017

Hard gunk stuck in the teeth of fossil Neandertal jaws shows that the prehistoric human beings had a widely varied diet and a sophisticated knowledge of medicinal plants. Scientists analyzing dental calculus (a hard, yellowish substance formed by the buildup of plaque between teeth) from three Neandertal fossils found dramatic differences in diet and evidence that Neandertals likely used some foods as medicine. The scientists’ findings were published in the March 8 issue of the journal Nature.

The teeth of this fossilized Neandertal jaw revealed traces of poplar bark, a source of aspirin. The individual had also consumed Penicillium mold, source of the natural antibiotic penicillin. Credit: © Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC

Neandertals were prehistoric human beings who lived in Europe and central Asia from about 150,000 to 39,000 years ago. They looked quite different from modern humans. Neandertal skulls were huge compared to ours, with a projecting face; no chin; a low, sloping forehead; and a thick browridge (raised strip of bone across the lower forehead). Because Neandertals had such a brutish appearance, people long assumed the these prehistoric humans possessed only a crude and simple culture. However, new evidence shows they were perhaps smarter than we previously thought.

An international team of scientists examined three fossil Neandertal skulls dating from 42,000 to 50,000 years ago. Two of the skulls were from El Sidrón, a cave in Spain, and one was from Spy Cave in Belgium. The teeth of these fossils were coated with thick layers of hardened dental calculus. The scientists knew that this material preserves DNA from microbes and food debris that pass through an individual’s mouth during their lifetime. The dental calculus of the Spy Neandertal contained traces of meat from wooly rhinoceros and wild sheep, while evidence of plant foods was largely absent. In contrast, the two Spanish Neandertal fossils appeared to have survived on a vegetarian diet of edible moss, mushrooms, tree bark, and pine nuts.

Neandertals lived in Europe and Central Asia from about 150,000 to 39,000 years ago. Credit: © Jay H. Matternes

Other evidence showed that the El Sidrón Neandertals probably also used plants for medicine. The scientists recovered DNA from poplar trees in the dental calculus. While not eaten for food, these trees contain salicylic acid, the pain-relieving ingredient in aspirin. Preserved spores of the Penicillium mold, from which the life-saving antibiotic penicillin is produced, were also recovered. The scientists think the Neandertals ate the plant sources for their medicinal properties. One fossil skull showed evidence of a painful tooth infection, and DNA from a microbe known to cause stomach problems was also recovered from the calculus. Aspirin and penicillin would have helped.

Neandertals died out about 39,000 years ago, when physically modern human beings migrated into Europe. However, Neandertals did not disappear completely. Genetic evidence shows at least some Neandertals interbred with modern-looking populations that settled Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Neandertals are extinct, but they remain part of the ancestry of some modern peoples today.

January 29, 2015.

Prehistoric people stand side by side in this reconstruction based on fossils discovered at sites in Europe. The Neandertal man, left, is a kind of archaic human who lived in Europe and central Asia from about 150,000 to 39,000 years ago. Physically modern humans, above right, only appeared in Europe about 40,000 years ago. The two populations may have mixed and interacted with one another in many ways. Although the Neandertals died out, many humans alive today have small amounts of DNA from Neandertals and other archaic human populations. Reconstruction by Elisabeth Daynes of the Daynes Studio, Paris, France. © S. Plailly and E. Daynes, Science Source

An international team of anthropologists (scientists who study humans and their cultures), led by Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University in Israel, have published a description of a 55,000-year-old skull discovered in Manot Cave in western Galilee in the journal Nature. The fossil skull  has a mixture of features from both Neandertals and modern humans. The scientists claim that the skull provides the first fossil evidence from a critical period in human evolutionary history when early humans migrating out of Africa encountered and interbred with Neandertals.

Neandertals were a physically distinct group of archaic humans who lived in Europe and Central Asia from about 150,000 to 39,000 years ago. Unlike modern people, Neandertals had a long skull, thick skull bones, and a large face with thick browridges. Modern humans differ from archaic humans by the presence of a chin, a vertical forehead, a lack of browridges, and a smaller, less-protruding face compared with Neandertals. Anthropologists believe that physically modern humans originated in Africa and began to migrate into the Levant region (the area around the Mediterranean Sea) and beyond around 60,000 years ago. Fossil evidence shows that Neandertals also lived in the Levant when modern human beings appeared in the region. In the 1980’s, anthropologists found a complete Neandertal skeleton dating to about 60,000 years ago at Kebara, Israel, not far from Manot Cave.

The Manot skull is incomplete, missing the facial portion. However, scientists can tell from the shape of the skull and the thinner bone it is made up of that it is physically modern. Several features of the skull, however, such as a bulge at the back of the cranium (the bones that enclose the brain), called an occipital bun, are characteristic of Neandertal skulls. The scientists claim that the Manot skull demonstrates a “mosaic” of Neandertal and modern traits that likely came about from interbreeding between the two populations. They believe that the Levant may have been an important point where physically modern people moving from Africa met and interbred with Neandertals, who died out after about 35,000 years ago. Such interaction may explain the small percentage of Neandertal DNA that scientists have found persists in human populations living in Europe and Asia today.

Other World Book articles:

• Anthropology (2010-A Behind the Headline report)
• Prehistoric peoples

December 17, 2013

Strong evidence that Neandertals were the first humans to intentionally bury their dead has come from an analysis of fossil bones excavated at a cave in France. The findings suggest that the Neandertals, long thought of as brutish cave dwellers who lacked the cultural sophistication of physically modern humans, had funeral customs that indicate complex symbolic behavior.

The Neandertals were an early human population who lived in Ice Age Europe and central Asia from about 150,000 to 35,000 years ago. They had distinct physical features, including a large, protruding face, massive browridges, and low foreheads. Most Neandertals also lacked a chin. Today, many scientists classify Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals) as an extinct, early subspecies of Homo sapiens, the species of modern people. Over the past century, archaeologists have interpreted several Neandertal sites as grave sites. This suggests the Neandertals were the first to practice burial as a funeral custom, a cultural practice that others consider unique to physically modern humans. Other archaeologists disputed the evidence for Neandertal burials, suggesting that excavators had misconstrued the evidence from cave sites, where concentrations of bones may result from the activity of predators.

Neandertals lived in Europe and Central Asia from about 150,000 to 35,000 years ago. (© Jay H. Matternes)

Beginning in 1999, William Rendu, a paleontologist at the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS) in New York City, led an international team of archaeologists, geologists and anthropologists to re-examine hundreds of Neandertal skeletal remains from a cave called La Chapelle-aux-Saints. This 50,000-year-old site in southwestern France was originally excavated between 1905 and 1908.  The team searched surrounding caves and discovered additional remains, including the bones of two Neandertal children and one adult. Hundreds of animals bones, including those from reindeer and bison, were also studied, as was the geology of the cave complex.

Rendu’s team reported that the Neandertal bones showed no sign of erosion or evidence they had been disturbed or chewed by animals. This suggests the bones were buried soon after death. In contrast, the animal bones at the cave site showed signs of butchery, a great deal of erosion, and other damage. Most of the Neandertal bones were found in a depression that could not have been a natural formation in the cave floor. The scientists concluded that the evidence shows the remains were intentionally buried.

Today, all human societies have various traditions, rituals, rites, and ceremonies that are performed after a person dies. Anthropologists observe that funeral customs, including burial, are deeply rooted in a people’s cultural heritage and beliefs about death. Unfortunately, Neandertal sites usually do not preserve any evidence of other funeral customs. However, archaeologists must now reassess evidence from other Neandertal sites that may show evidence of ritual or symbolic behavior that many experts originally considered beyond the capabilities of these intriguing prehistoric humans.

Additional World Book articles:

• Anthropology (2010) (A Back in Time article)
• Anthropology (2009) (A Back in Time article)
• Anthropology (1989) (A Back in Time article)
• Anthropology (1958) (A Back in Time article)
• Anthropology (1933) (A Back in Time article)