Neanderthal Children May Have Matured Slowly

Neanderthal Children May Have Matured Slowly

MADRID, SPAIN—Live Science reports that the paleoanthropology group at Spain’s National Museum of Natural Sciences studied the rate of Neanderthal development by analyzing the nearly complete skeleton of a young male Neanderthal discovered at the site of El Sidrón. The scientists estimated the boy’s age at 7.7 years old at the time of death, some 49,000 years ago, based upon the growth layers in his teeth. They also noted that the boy’s skull was still growing when he died. “We think this Neanderthal boy’s brain was still growing in volume,” said Antonio Rosas. The team estimated that the boy’s brain was about 87.5 percent of the size of the brain of a fully grown Neanderthal adult. In contrast, Rosas said modern humans of the same age have brains about 95 percent of the size of an adult’s brain. The team of researchers also noted that some veterbrae in modern human children have fused between the ages of four and six, but those same bones had not yet fused in the Neanderthal boy’s remains. The study suggests that, overall, Neanderthals shared a common pattern of growth with modern humans, which may have been inherited from a common ancestor. For more, go to “A Traditional Neanderthal Home.”