The Monte Circeo 1 (Guattari) skull, detail.
Neandertals are the best known of the ancient humans, the only kind of ancient person in most people's imaginations.
I've worked so much on Neandertals because for some questions they're the only group for whom we have a hope of testing hypotheses. It just happens that we've found more of their bones than any other humans from their era -- a lot more in some cases. The skeletal evidence has emerged over more than 150 years, and today we can add the tremendous and growing store of genetic information from ancient DNA. Put these sources of evidence together, and Neandertals are providing the richest and most interesting scientific problems in paleoanthropology today.
Studying these people has given me a great appreciation of Neandertal lives. They faced and overcame challenges that few people living today can imagine.
You can keep up with my posts on Neandertals by checking on the page with all posts tagged "Neandertals" or its RSS feed.
Recent posts about Neandertals:
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Human variation in learning and cognition is wide. Does it encompass Neandertals?
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Neandertal genetic information requires us to reinterpret traditional morphological groupings
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Neandertals in western Europe have a recent mtDNA ancestor, pointing to the dynamics within their population.
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The intellectual legacy of a hoax and its effect on our view of Neandertals as ancestors
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A discovery of red ochre use by ancient Europeans before 250,000 years ago
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The long bones of the Atapuerca people double our information about early human statures
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A study of the glenoid fossa finds a pattern across the genus Homo, and similarities between a Vindija specimen and more recent humans
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We're quantifying the amount of Neandertal ancestry in whole genome data from living people.
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A guide to features that distinguish the skulls of Neandertals
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Weidenreich's introduction to the Sinanthropus cranial monograph illuminates some issues I'm facing with ancient genomes.
