fossils of homo neanderthalensis grade 8 e.d’alessandro
Post on 05-Jan-2016
216 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
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
top related