New Discovery Shows Neanderthal Theory Fails the Sniff Test
A digital analysis of the perfectly preserved nose bones on a bizarre-looking Neanderthal skull reveals that a long-standing theory about Neanderthal noses doesn’t pass the sniff test.
The skull comes from the “Altamura Man,” one of the most complete and best-preserved Neanderthal skeletons ever found. Speleologists discovered it in 1993 while exploring a cave near the town of Altamura, in southern Italy. Because it is covered in a thick layer of calcite, or “cave popcorn,” Altamura Man has not been removed from the cave, to prevent damage to the bones. This Neanderthal likely died in the exact place the skeleton was found, between 130,000 and 172,000 years ago.
“The general shape of the nasal cavity and nasal aperture in Neanderthals follows a quite constant trend,” study lead author Costantino Buzi, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Perugia, told Live Science in an email. “In general, it starts large but gets larger during their evolution, with very large nasal openings in the last populations of the species.”
One theory for Neanderthals’ large noses is that they had equally large sinuses and an enhanced airway that evolved as adaptations to living in cold, dry environments. Their particular nasal anatomy may have been useful for warming and humidifying the air before it reached their lungs. But all previous studies of Neanderthal nasal anatomy were based on approximations of the delicate bones in the nose cavity, since these bones — the ethmoid, vomer and inferior nasal conchae — were broken or missing in every Neanderthal skull ever found.
Buzi and colleagues have been working on a “virtual paleoanthropology” project to document and digitize Altamura Man without removing the specimen from the cave. Using endoscopic probes, the researchers acquired video from inside the nasal cavity of the skull and created 3D photogrammetric models of Neanderthal nose bones for the first time.
When the researchers analyzed the endoscopic images, they found that Altamura Man’s inner nasal structures were neither unique nor substantially different from those of modern humans. Although the rest of the Neanderthal’s skeleton appeared to be adapted to the cold — with shorter limbs and a stockier build than those of modern humans — his nose was not.
source www.livescience.com
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