14 DAY TRIAL // For the past century, there is a general belief that Neanderthals' facial features were an adaptation to extreme temperatures, but a new research focusing on Neanderthal skulls concluded that this theory is very unlikely.
Neanderthals had large cheekbones and wide noses, and it was believed that this development was due to extremely cold periods, and that large sinuses were necessary to warm up the air that was inhaled.
The problem is that not only it has never been proved that Neanderthal sinuses were larger, but modern people, like the Inuits, as well as other mammals living in Arctic regions, have not developed large sinuses, on the contrary, their sinuses are often smaller.
So, a team of researchers led by Dr Todd C. Rae from the Center for Research in Evolutionary Anthropology at Roehampton University in the UK, gathered previously published measurements of X-Rays and new data from three-dimensional computer tomography (CT) scans of nine Neanderthal skulls, all which were dated at over 28,000 years old.
Then they gathered measurements from four Homo sapiens skulls from archaeological sites in Lithuania, which were dated from 300 to 1,500 years old, and compared the two sets of measurements to see how large were exactly the sinuses of Neanderthals were.
The reason for which they did not measure Neanderthal skulls with present-day skulls, and preferred medieval Homo sapiens instead, was that they wanted data from a period before air conditioning and central heating, which could have affected the outcome.
The results showed the Neanderthals did have larger sinuses than Homo sapiens, but face proportions were basically the same, so there is no way that their facial features could have been an adaptation to cold.
So, now that this theory is dismissed, Dr Rae said this “allows us to think about Neanderthals and their lives in new ways.”
He explained that for a long while, people thought of Neanderthals as living on frozen tundra in the last glaciation, but it is far more likely that they lived in temperate refuges, eating fruit, berries and meat.
Another argument in favor of this theory is the fact that if Neanderthals had lived in warmer regions, their populations would have been too isolated and small to even survive the ice age, so it seems that they were temperate creatures.
Neanderthal fossils have been and are still being found throughout Europe and parts of Asia, and recent research has discovered they used sophisticated tools, cooked their food – including grains, vegetables and berries, and they were probably also able to speak.
The paper is published in the Journal of Human Evolution, PhysOrg reports.