Why are you, dear, looking askance, bowing your head low …
An international team of scientists from Russia, the United States, Germany and France analyzed two of the best-preserved skeletons of Neanderthal babies. One of them was found in the Mezmayskaya cave in Russia, the other in the Le Moustier cave in France. Based on this, it was possible to obtain the most accurate data on the differences between Neanderthals and modern humans. It turned out that Neanderthals differed from humans by their larger build, heat exchange, and also the structure of the inner ear, which is why they moved and oriented in space differently …
Neanderthals are the first to deliberately bury the dead. The skeleton of a newborn Neanderthal man from the Mezmay cave was found in 1993. The age of the burial, in which he was found, is estimated at 60-70 thousand years, and the age of the baby himself at the time of death is 1-2 weeks.
The skeleton from Le Moustier was found in 1914, but then lost. In the scientific literature, it was believed that this find disappeared during the First World War. In 1996, the French researcher Bruno Morey, during an inventory of funds, identified the bones of a Neanderthal infant in the collection of the National Museum of Prehistory in Les Eyzies de Tayac-Sireuil. The age of this skeleton is estimated at about 40 thousand years. This baby died when he was four months old.
The analysis showed that the features of the body structure of Neanderthals appear already by the time of birth. So, they had a wider body and massive bones. “The more massive, long bones of the Neanderthal skeleton indicate that they had much more powerful muscle mass and other heat transfer,” said one of the authors of the project. These features helped the Neanderthals survive in the colder climate of the last Ice Age than today.
The skull of the Neanderthal had a lower cranial cover, a protruding occipital bone, an oblique frontal bone, and a strongly protruding facial part of the skull. These differences were also evident already in infancy.
In addition, at birth, the structure of the inner ear, in which the vestibular apparatus is located, in Neanderthals was not the same as in modern humans. Because of this, anthropologists believe, Neanderthals moved and orientated themselves in the surrounding space a little differently than modern people, but how exactly is not yet said. Because they themselves do not yet know …
Recall that the latest data indicate that the Neanderthal on the historical scale was significantly ahead of the Sapiens for a long time. They had acquired many skills and abilities earlier, they had their own rituals, their own dishes, their own "technologies" of cooking and hunting, a social order. In addition, they were the first to start building structures. Nevertheless, about 25-30 thousand years ago, they "left the race" - died out …
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