Neanderthals may not have sported the barrel-chested bodies and hunched posture we see in museums and textbooks, according to a new study. The first 3D virtual reconstruction of a Neanderthal ribcage has revealed that they had straighter spines and a greater lung capacity than modern humans.
Neanderthal ribs connected to the spine more inwardly, which forces the chest cavity out and causes the spine to tilt back. The result is a spinal column that lacks the lumbar curve of modern humans. "I am really curious about how the straightness of the Neandertal lower back, combined with the shape of the ribcage, impacts forces in the lower spine and pelvis," Kramer said. "Modern humans and the other hominins that preserve this region have a lumbar curve but not Neandertals. Why? As a structural engineer and functional morphologist, these questions of shapes connected to behaviors fascinate me." The researchers called this difference "striking." This skeletal structure not only provided Neanderthals with more stability, but allowed for a larger diaphragm and more lung capacity.
But it opens up new questions as to why Neanderthals had such a different skeletal structure. Perhaps they needed a larger lung capacity to survive climate change, support their large body masses and support a rugged hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Neanderthal brains were larger "Neanderthal brains contained significantly larger visual cortices. This is corroborated by recent endocast work, which found that Neanderthal occipital lobes are relatively larger than those of AMHs [anatomically modern humans]. In addition, previous suggestions that large Neanderthal brains were associated with their high lean body mass imply that Neanderthal also invested more neural tissue in somatic areas involved in body maintenance and control compared with those of contemporary AMHs.
The most significant difference the study found between humans and neanderthals was how they developed social groups. Neanderthals simply didn't grow socially the way humans did, which indicates that different parts of their brains developed–those more focused on individual survival. And then the big finish–tying this theory for smaller brains into why our human ancestors survived while neanderthals went extinct:
"Whereas AMHs appear to have concentrated neural investment in social adaptations to solve ecological problems, Neanderthals seem to have adopted an alternative strategy that involved enhanced vision coupled with retention of the physical robusticity of H. heidelbergensis, but not superior social cognition. For instance, only in Neanderthals, not AMHs, does body mass, and hence brain volume, increase over time. While the physical response to high latitude conditions adopted by Neanderthals may have been very effective at first, the social response developed by AMHs seems to have eventually won out in the face of the climatic instability that characterized high-latitude Eurasia at this time."
It's interesting to picture neanderthals actually becoming physically stronger and mentally more capable of controlling their bodies and vision as they evolved, but eventually going extinct without humans' evolved social abilities.
=All Neanderthals were autistic
So glad that auties have a low rate of multiplying
Charles Carter
I heard this before
Connor Gray
Nothing was lost.
Ryder Kelly
Clearly someone needs to teach this retard the definition of "Superior" Also, while Neanderthals brains were larger, so was their body size as a whole, so their brain to body size ratio was actually the same as modern humans meaning they were not more intelligent, in fact if anything they were less efficient because they needed more protein to survive. Its likely they all died out during the Ice Age when food became less plentiful
Loners die out quickly in SHTF situations time and time again. Makes perfect sense that Neanderthals would die out from poorer social cohesion.
Zachary Martin
Okay, so by proclaiming "Neanderthals were superior humans but were butchered by out of Africa invaders" you must be assuming four things:
1. Cro-Magnons (ancient Europeans) came from Africa 2. Somehow Neanderthals didn't originally come from Africa despite obviously sharing a common ancestor (otherwise you wouldn't call Cro-Magnons "out of Africa invaders) 3. Somehow these "invaders" outperformed the native inhabitants despite not being adapted to the environment 4. That the out of Africa theory is true
Too many assumptions and not enough evidence, shitty journalism.
Henry Myers
But this is very common in nature, just look at all the invasive species in America that fucking thrive there. Neanderthals could be smarter and stronger as individuals, but their quiet, isolated lifestyles were no match for a horde of united migrants.
Daniel Sullivan
Neanderchad vs virgin comag
Matthew Butler
...
Colton Walker
Fuck off Zig Forums
Colton Williams
So humankind is going backwards, superior genius Neanderthals got wiped out by inferior Sapiens, and now Sapiens-Neanderthal mixed descendants are getting wiped out by stupid Erectus-Sapiens descendants… I guess chimpanzees will eventually wipe them out.
Levi Peterson
niggers out of Africa
Elijah Baker
Ok, name me some sub-Saharan African species that are thriving in Northern Europe. I'll wait…
John Johnson
niggers in africa breed like rabbits. does that make them superior?
Kevin Foster
No becoming trannies and buttfucking each other is superior.
Camden Bell
yor just a white nigger
yor greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat granny looked loke Oprah
Hunter Gomez
Getting out-bred and eaten is not really what I'd consider superior.
Zachary Phillips
I thought it was already known that Neanderthals were generally superior, but that humans bred them out of existence. Europeans and Asians carry the most Neanderthal DNA, while Africans have little to none.
Nicholas Phillips
Neanderthals had men and women doing the same tasks while cromagnon kept their bitches safe as baby factories. Niggers may not be smarter, but they can out-breed us and out-savage us; they won't win many chess matches but they may very well overwhelm us. In the end, winning the race war is all that matters to be superior; just ask the neanderthals.