From DNA to the Fossil Record, Here’s Why We Have a Good Idea of What Neanderthals Looked Like
Our popular culture view of what Neanderthals might have looked like hasn’t changed for decades. They’re shorter, stockier, and they don’t have a chin. But how do we know? How did we establish this view of Neanderthal appearance?
According to experts, the fossil record tells us the majority of what we know, along with some help from DNA evidence. But there’s still a lot that we don’t know about how it would have all come together.
Read More: Neanderthal vs Homo Sapiens: How Are Neanderthals Different From Humans?
What We Can Learn From the Fossil Record
So far, researchers have uncovered hundreds of Neanderthal skeletons from all over the world, according to the Australian Museum. They’ve found infant skeletons up to those considered elderly, around 40 years old. There are also around 25 skeletons from which researchers can recover DNA. This, says April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria, is how we’re able to paint a picture of what these extinct early humans would have looked like.
“The majority of what we know about what Neanderthals look like comes from their actual skeletal remains,” says Nowell. We’re able to extrapolate from what we know about human and primate anatomy what Neanderthals would have looked like from their skeletal remains.
This can also help discern how their height, skull structure, and other features might have been different from those of modern humans. Still, it’s harder to know from their skeletal remains how they might have carried their weight as well as their skin and eye color.
How Are Neanderthals Different From Modern Humans?
“Neanderthals were shorter and stockier on average than modern humans from the same time period,” says Nowell. They were likely around 5 ft 5 in tall, compared with early modern humans, who were probably closer to 6 ft, much taller than one would expect, according to the Austra.lian Museum.
Humans actually got shorter with the introduction of agriculture.
Neanderthal limbs would have also been shorter on average. Their bones show robust muscle markings, suggesting that they were very active. Their legs appear slightly more bowed than those of humans due to differences in muscle attachment sites, according to a study in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Additionally, says Nowell, Neanderthals were barrel-chested and broader across, with larger hip joints. Some experts suggest that they were built this way because they lived in Europe during colder periods and ice ages.
“They were built for retaining heat,” Nowell says.
What the Genome Tells Us About Differences in How the Neanderthal Face Forms
As high-quality Neanderthal genomes have been uncovered, researchers have also been able to look at Neanderthal genome sequences from this perspective, says Hannah Long, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh. Her recent study, published in the journal Development, compared the genomes of modern humans to those of three high-quality Neanderthal genomes.
Humans and Neanderthals share approximately 20,000 genes, but Long and her team observed differences in how genes are expressed in the non-coding regions of the genome.
“We know that there are a number of genes which play an important role in how the face forms,” says Long. How the genes get switched on or off at certain times impacts the differences in our faces, as well as other differences in the way that they would have looked.
Researchers can discern which genomic regions influence specific facial traits in human disease, specifically in patients with Pierre Robin Syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by a small lower jaw, breathing problems, and cleft palate, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Deletions and mutations near the gene SOX9 appear to cause the differences.
These switches were more frequent in the Neanderthal genome, indicating a broader lower jaw, and they also have a molar gap that humans don’t have. Modern humans also have a chin where Neanderthals don’t.
The combination of skeletal remains and DNA tells us that if you were to compare the DNA of Homo neanderthalensis to that of a Homo sapiens, they’d be largely the same, but the visual differences are still easy to see. Basically, if you saw a Neanderthal walking down the street, according to experts, you’d definitely know the difference.
Read More: Early Neanderthals and Classic Neanderthals Likely Experienced a Genetic Bottleneck 110,000 Years Ago
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