Neandertal

This paper, which was published in 2008, predicted that modern lineages from outside sub-Saharan Africa would have a small admixture of Neanderthal genes (up to 4%, as it turns out, from recent analyses of the Neanderthal genome) from contact with gracile Levantine Neanderthals, but would have almost none from more robust cold-weather Neanderthals to the north. The discovery that non-African lineages have some Neanderthal genes is not nearly as surprising, given the existence of fossils that show some hybridization, as the fact that all those lineages apparently have similar low amounts of Neanderthal genes. This suggests that the genes entered modern genomes after the root population of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) had left Africa around 70,000 years ago, but before it had split into separate Eurasiatic and Australian branches, during the brief period when AMHs were still limited to the relatively warm Middle East.
What’s even more surprising is that the descendants of branches that expanded northwards after the initial contact with Neanderthals did not continue to accumulate their genes to a significant degree, since some of those branches continued to have contact with our archaic cousins tens of thousands of years after AMH populations, which stayed around the Indian Ocean. That should have been plenty of time for Caucasians, for example, to acquire a much larger dose of Neanderthal genes. But Europeans have only a little more Neanderthal inheritance than do Polynesians, Australian Aborigines, or American Indians.
What could have prevented northern Moderns from adding significantly to their Neanderthal inheritance once they began encountering cold-weather Neanderthals rather than warm-weather ones?
The answer probably lies in the difference between the bones of Levantine Neanderthals, which are fairly gracile, and their cold-weather cousins, which are much more robust. They are so different that the two Neanderthal populations should probably be divided into two races or even sub-species: a Middle-Eastern one adapted to temperate conditions and the other to "hyper-arctic" conditions involving severe wind chill factors.
If the osteological and other analyses detailed in this paper are correct, then the northern Neanderthal population must have had more extreme thermoregulatory adaptations than the southern one, which would have been adapted to almost the same range of temperatures as the even more gracile AMHs coming out of Africa. Just as the similarity between the thermo-regulatory controls of southern Neanderthals and AMHs could explain why they could occasionally hybridize, the different biological approaches to temperature of AMHs and northern Neanderthals could explain why there is so little evidence that they cross-bred.
I hypothesized that the only way for AMHs and cold-weather Neanderthals to maintain such different thermoregulatory adaptations would have been for each population to have its own conservative sexual preferences. AMH preferences would have maintained whole-body cooling systems based on sweat and bald bodies, which could only be insulated against glacial conditions with seamed clothing, while northern Neanderthal preferences ensured that each new generation was equipped with bodies that grew winter insulation in the form of sub-cutaneous fat and fur, which would have required the addition of nothing more than draped clothing. The fact that AMHs and northern Neanderthals were so invested in such contrasting thermoregulatory solutions would have locked them into preferences that prevented much hybridization and the survival of many hybrids.
But the corresponding fact that neither AMHs nor the Levantine Neanderthals they encountered before 60,000 years ago were invested in biological adaptations to extreme cold - with their incompatible sets of sexual cues - would have opened the path to limited cross-breeding in the Middle East, just as the latest genetic results have demonstrated.

The late persistence in Southern Iberia of a Neandertal-associated Middle Paleolithic is supported by the archeological stratigraphy and the radiocarbon and luminescence dating of three newly excavated localities in the Mula basin of Murcia (Spain). At Cueva Antón, Mousterian layer I-k can be no more than 37,100 years-old. At La Boja, the basal Aurignacian can be no less than 36,500 years-old. The regional Middle-to-Upper aleolithic transition process is thereby bounded to the first half of the 37th millennium Before Present, in agreement with evidence from Andalusia, Gibraltar and Portugal. This chronology represents a lag of minimally 3000 years with the rest of Europe, where that transition and the associated process of Neandertal/modern human admixture took place between 40,000 and 42,000 years ago. The lag implies the presence of an effective barrier to migration and diffusion across the Ebro river depression, which, based on available paleoenvironmental indicators, would at that time have represented a major biogeographical divide. In addition, (a) the Phlegraean Fields caldera explosion, which occurred 39,850 years ago, would have stalled the Neandertal/modern human admixture front because of the population sink it generated in Central and Eastern Europe, and (b) the long period of ameliorated climate that came soon after (Greenland Interstadial 8, during which forests underwent a marked expansion in Iberian regions south of 40°N) would have enhanced the “Ebro Frontier” effect. These findings have two broader paleoanthropological implications: firstly, that, below the Ebro, the archeological record made prior to 37,000 years ago must be attributed, in all its aspects and components, to the Neandertals (or their ancestors); secondly, that modern human emergence is best seen as an uneven, punctuated process during which long-lasting barriers to gene flow and cultural diffusion could have existed across rather short distances, with attendant consequences for ancient genetics and models of human population history.

Carbon and nitrogen isotopic abundances of fossil bone collagen reflect those of the average diet, and they can be preserved for tens of thousands of years under favourable conditions. Spy Neandertals offer a favourable case for the use of the isotopic approach to reconstruct their diet and ecology. The collagen preservation in Late Pleistocene Belgium caves is extremely good. The new radiocarbon dates obtained on Neandertal and faunal specimens from Spy allow relevant comparison between contemporaneous organisms, from Spy or nearby caves, such as Scladina and Goyet. Comparisons of prey selection patterns based on isotopic results were made between Spy Neandertals and animal predators, such as hyaenas and cave lions. Prey selection of Spy Neandertals was oriented on megafauna, such as woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceros, while hyaenas were more opportunistic and cave lions more oriented on reindeer. The results obtained on Spy Neandertals
were compared with those obtained on other Belgian Neandertals (Scladina, Engis), other European Neandertals (Saint-Césaire,
Les Pradelles), and with those of early Holocene hunter-gatherers from Belgium. The focus of late Neandertals from Spy on megafauna was also visible on the late Neandertal from Saint-Césaire. The carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures of Spy Neandertals are not found in any analysed Holocene modern humans from Belgium.

This paper extends an earlier proposal in Rock Art Research (2008, Vol. 25, No. 1 (May), pp. 101–116) that the Neanderthal lineage adapted to cold climates by acquiring one or more forms of biological insulation. It also adjusts parallel proposals concerning Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) population dynamics. Topics covered include:
• A refined wording of the insulation hypothesis.
• An explanation of why Neanderthal cranial and neck robusticity may have evolved independently from that of the lower body, suggesting why such robusticity may not be incompatible with the insulation hypothesis.
• Explanations of why the functionally hairless bodies of cold-weather Inuits, Fuegians and Tasmanians may not be strong counter-arguments against the fur component of the insulation hypothesis.
• A second insulation hypothesis, this time concerning Holocene Tasmanian women, whose adaptations to apnea diving and long-distance swimming in cold water may provide a partial explanation for the disappearance of bone tools and a change of diet in Tasmania before 3500 BP.
• Proposals for why Neanderthals and Early Moderns may have had different motivations for making coverings, including clothing.
• Fossil and lithic evidence supporting the previous article’s contention that a wave of genes derived largely from African Moderns spread from Asia into Europe during the IUP, creating a western Eurasian population with only modest admixtures of indigenous archaic populations. This involves evidence for an association between the earliest Aurignacian, Bohunician and Bachokirian behavioural packages and certain late Middle Palaeolithic and IUP Asian sites.
• An argument that the changing morphology of Europeans during the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic can not be explained by anything as simple as in-situ evolution from robusticity to gracile traits, since the process on the bulbous chins of Moderns throughout the world shows that our lineage actually acquired a bony process during its period of overall gracilisation — a process which first appears in early African Moderns, before becoming generalised.
• A discussion of the relevance of the ulcer-creating bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, to the contention that Middle Palaeolithic European Robusts (Neanderthals) account for a large part of the legacy of modern Europeans.
• Most importantly, a review of evidence that Neanderthals collected seeds and starchy plant storage organs, which contained their greatest energy potential during the autumn and winter. This provides a partial explanation for how Neanderthals could have built up a seasonal sub-cutaneous fat layer for insulation before the advent of weather-tight clothing.

Call for Papers

40 years of Casal de' Pazzi: The site within the Pleistocene archaeo-palaeontological framework between 400.000 and 40.000 years BP - Current knowledge and new research perspectives

March, 30th – April, 1st 2022

On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the discovery of the archaeo-palaeontological site of Casal de' Pazzi, Roma Culture, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and the Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma will jointly hold a multidisciplinary and international conference from March, 30 to April, 1 2022 to take stock of the current knowledge and research perspectives on the Eurasian Pleistocene. The conference also seeks to revamp the studies and possible future developments of the site-museum of Casal de' Pazzi, La Polledrara di Cecanibbio and beyond.

The conference consists of four thematic sessions:
1.    Casal de’ Pazzi 40 years after its discovery: research history and perspectives
2.    The world at the time of Neanderthals: an overview of the Eurasian Pleistocene sites
3.    New research frontiers in Pleistocene studies: theories, methods and disciplines
4.    Communicating the Pleistocene: experiments and innovation in Italy and around the world

Paper/poster proposals in Italian or English must be submitted by the 15th of February 2022 to the email address 40casaldepazzi@gmail.com.
Acceptance of proposals will be notified by the 21st of February.
Further details can be found in the attached flyer.

Bone fragments of large anadromous salmon in the Middle Palaeolithic archaeological layers of Kudaro 3 cave (Caucasus) suggested fish consumption by archaic Hominins, such as Neandertals. However, large carnivores such as Asiatic cave bears (Ursus kudarensis) and cave lions (Panthera spelaea) were also found in the cave and could have been responsible for such an accumulation. The diet of these carnivores was evaluated using carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes in faunal bone collagen. The results suggest that anadromous fish were neither part of the diet of either cave bear (vegetarian) or cave lion (predators of herbivores from arid areas) and therefore provide indirect support to the idea that Middle Palaeolithic Hominins, probably Neandertals, were able to consume fish when it was available.

Chapter 5 Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J Ethel Allué, Francesc Burjachs, Ana Garcıa, Juan Manuel López-Garcıa, Maria Benna`sar, Florent Rivals, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Isabel Expósito and Jordi Martinell ...

Le récolement des collections du Musée national de Préhistoire a permis, lors du travail sur la faune découverte au cours des fouilles de F. Bordes à Combe-Grenal, site de référence, l'identification d'un nouveau fossile humain, Combe-Grenal 31. Il provient de la couche 60 ...

Chapter 5 Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J Ethel Allué, Francesc Burjachs, Ana Garcıa, Juan Manuel López-Garcıa, Maria Benna`sar, Florent Rivals, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Isabel Expósito and Jordi Martinell ...

Chapter 5 Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J Ethel Allué, Francesc Burjachs, Ana Garcıa, Juan Manuel López-Garcıa, Maria Benna`sar, Florent Rivals, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Isabel Expósito and Jordi Martinell ...

International Science Times reports that a Harvard Medical School professor, George Church, has reconstructed Neanderthal DNA and is looking for "an adventurous female human" to be the surrogate mother for a hybrid human-Neanderthal embryo.
Professor Church responded to media reports about a surrogate Neanderthal birth by saying they are based on "misunderstandings" of an interview in the German magazine Der Spiegel. He told Reuters news that the hoopla was a sign of "scientific illiteracy": "We really should get the public of the entire world to be able to detect the difference between a fact and a complete fantasy that has been created by the Internet,"
All well and good: The public doesn't understand science and the media boosts sales by exaggerating and hyping.
Or is it all so simple? Maybe Professor Church is not looking for an adventurous female (at least not for his genetic project) and is only interested in advancing discussion of climate change, disease, and space exploration. What I'm curious about is the way he characterized the last topic, space exploration, as "getting off the planet."

ABSTRACT On the basis of comparisons between the relative thickness of the walls of Neanderthal limb bones to those of the average modern human and the observation that bone mass increases as modern individuals add weight, this thought-piece proposes redefinitions of the appearance of cold-weather Neanderthals based on two biological adaptations to glacial climate. It suggests related biological and technological mechanisms for explaining the paucity of genetic or fossil evidence for extensive hybridisation between both early and recent Homo sapiens sapiens ('Moderns'), on the one hand, and northern and western 'classic' Neanderthals, on the other. Its 'insulation hypothesis' includes an explanation of why a population resulting from an admixture of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans may have been constrained to the Levant between at least c. 120–92 ka bp (H. sapiens sapiens at Skhul and Qafzeh) and c. 45 ka (H. sapiens sapiens at Geula). It goes on to propose reasons for the replacement of the classic Neanderthal suite of features after H. sapiens sapiens and at least some Neanderthals began showing modern behavioural adaptations and encountered one another as Moderns spread into or developed in western Eurasia during the initial Upper Paleolithic.

The article presents first and preliminary results of an ​experimental study conducted as a part of the multidisciplinary exploration of the Middle Paleolithic complexes in Chagyrskaya Cave in 2017. Research program included physical simulation of mineral raw material knapping and stone tools production, as well as experiments on manufacturing bone tools and using the resulting bone replicas for processing organic and non-organic materials available to the inhabitants of Chagyrskaya Cave. The experiments on processing stone tools by retouchers made of long bones of large mammals have made it possible to identify the sequence traces of utilization and compare the results with the tools from the archaeological assemblage of Chagyrskaya Cave. This data forms the basis for the further experimental trace analysis of the Middle Paleolithic complexes from the Altai Mountains.

Chapter 5 Neanderthal Landscapes and Their Home Environment: Flora and Fauna Records from Level J Ethel Allué, Francesc Burjachs, Ana Garcıa, Juan Manuel López-Garcıa, Maria Benna`sar, Florent Rivals, Hugues-Alexandre Blain, Isabel Expósito and Jordi Martinell ...