Man of Néandertal

A man of Néandertal or Néandertalien is a fossil representative of the kind Homo which lived in Europe and Occidental Asia with the Paléolithique means, between approximately 250 000 and 28 000 years before the present. Formerly regarded as a subspecies within the species Homo sapiens , named consequently Homo sapiens neanderthalensis , he from now on is regarded by the majority of the authors as a named independent Espèce Homo neanderthalensis .

He is at the origin of a rich person material culture called Moustérien, as well as first esthetic and spiritual concerns (burials). After a difficult recognition, the man of Néandertal suffered a long time from a negative judgment compared to the Homo sapiens . He is still regarded in the popular imagery as a simiesque, rough, ugly and delayed being. He is in fact more robust than Homo sapiens and its Cerveau is slightly bulkier on average. Progress of the prehistoric Archeology and of the Paléoanthropologie since the Années 1960 put at the day a being of a great cultural richness. Many points are still to elucidate, in particular concerning the causes of its extinction.

History of the découverte^,

The “valley of the new man”

The name of “Néandertalien” is related to that of Neandertal , a small valley located on the territories of the two cities Erkrath and Mettmann, between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal (Germany). In the month of August 1856, within the framework of the exploitation of a career, workmen emptied a small cavity of this valley, the cave of Feldhofer. They discovered there bones and a fragment of cranium which they gave to Johann Carl Fuhlrott, teacher of Elberfeld, impassioned natural history.

By a fortunate coincidence, the Neandertal toponym means “valley of the new man”. The name of Neander had been given to this valley ( in German) in the honor of Joachim Neumann (1650 - 1680), also said Joachim Neander because, according to a family use going back to his grandfather, it was made call by its patronym translated into Greek. This Pasteur and type-setter, author of still popular religious canticles in German Protestantism, liked to seek his inspiration in this valley, formerly idyllic.

As at the time the name of the valley “Neanderthal was still written”, the man who had been discovered there accepted the Latin name of Homo neanderthalensis ; when a spelling reform of the German had swept “H” " superflus" , the rules of the nomenclature prohibited to reconsider the Latin forms and one always writes Homo neanderthalensis . The orthography French E most correct and most current, proposed by Henri Vallois in 1952, is Homme of Néandertal , even if one finds sometimes Homme of Néanderthal , Homme of Neandertal or Homme of Neanderthal . The form “Neanderthal” is still very widespread in English, inducing a pronunciation in contradiction with the original German name.

A difficult recognition

Fuhlrott quickly included/understood the interest of discovered and went to the site to try in vain to discover other bones or vestiges which would have been associated to them. It had realized that they were old bones but especially incredibly primitive, corresponding to a new man, of a “natural conformation up to now unknown” ^,.

The Man of Néandertal is indeed the first fossil man distinct from Homo sapiens which was discovered. The idea even as a species of man distinct from ours existed in the past (and disappeared) was particularly difficult besides to admit. One will remember for example that Charles Darwin will publish the Origin of the species by the natural selection only in 1859 and that it will explicitly widen his theory with the man only in 1871 in the Filiation of the man and the selection related to the sex .

In fact, the discovered bones with Neandertal are not the first vestiges of Néandertaliens discovered: a cranium of child already had been put at the day by PC Schmerling with Engis (Belgium) in 1830, then a cranium of adult had been found with Gibraltar in the site of Forbe' S Quarry in 1848. If the first were a cranium of young individual on whom the features characteristic of Néandertaliens were less obvious, the second should have resulted in recognizing the existence of fossil mankind. Undoubtedly it was too early, as the difficulties prove it besides to make admit that the bones collected with Neandertal corresponded well to a fossil man.

In spite of important differences with the modern bones of men, Fuhlrott recognizes in its lucky finds of the human bones and subjects them to Hermann Schaaffhausen for a complementary examination. This last reports its first in 1857. It estimates that the bones go back to one period former to the Celtes and the Germains, and are those of an individual pertaining to the one of the wild races of the North-West of the Europe about which speak the Latin authors. All the researchers do not accept this interpretation: for some, the bones belonged to a kind different from ours, undoubtedly nearer to the Singe, for others they return to an individual pathological or struck idiom. Some evoke even a cossack having deserted the Russian armies in 1814.

But little by little the discoveries will multiply, initially those of Homo sapiens fossil associated with vestiges lithic and disappeared animals (whose Homme of Cro-Magnon in 1868), then others Homo neanderthalensis , still places from there in the Sédiment S, complete and having same anatomical specificities: among most spectacular, it is necessary to quote the two skeletons of the Grotte of Spy in 1886 then the burial of the Man of Vault-with-Saint in 1908. They contributed definitively to make accept the existence of a new species of human by the scientific community.

The scientific name Homo neanderthalensis was proposed in 1864 by William King, professor in Queen' S College of Galway in Ireland and former student of Charles Lyell. In 1866, Ernst Haeckel proposed the surprising name of Homo stupidus , which was not retained under the terms of the rules of nomenclature giving priority to former name. The partisans of fastening to a subspecies if not should have spoken about Homo sapiens stupidus !

The first studies (and reconstitutions which resulted from this) gave of the Man of Néandertal a deformed image, accentuating the primitive features, even simiesques. It is the case of the study of the Man of Vault-with-Saint published by Marcellin Boule in 1911: even if it is about a very complete study which will refer during many years, it introduces a Man of arched Néandertal, the Spinal column curved (as in the gorillas) and the semi-bent lower extremities. It will take many years for the scientific community to correct this perception influenced by not very scientific a priori .

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or Homo neanderthalensis ?

The phylogenetic position exact of the man of Néandertal still causes many debates: some consider that it represents a subspecies within the species Homo sapiens and thus name it Homo sapiens neanderthalensis while others consider that it represents a independent Espèce and name it Homo neanderthalensis . It is not a question of a simple problem of classification, it is also a question of knowing if the Man of Néandertal represents a parallel and extinct line (independent species) or if he could contribute partly to the genetic inheritance of the current man. Two subspecies can cross and to have a fertile descent, but two different species cannot it.

During its identification, the assumption of a distinct species was privileged. But in the Years 1960, all the Hominidés except for the Australopithèque S were gathered in the kind Homo . Néandertaliens were then regarded as a subspecies of Homo sapiens . This assumption was then supported by many specialists, like the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky or the biologist Ernst Mayr which declared that “never more than only one species of man did not exist at the same time”. Today, the idea of distinct species is again proposed, in particular thanks to the contributions of the Génétique.

Indeed, the multiple paleoanthropologic studies carried out on the bones do not make it possible to come to a conclusion clearly about the classification of the man of Néandertal. Recent compared analyzes of DNA mitochondrial extracts from bones of Néandertaliens, of Homo sapiens old and presumedly intermediate forms would indicate a separate advance of the lines human and néandertalienne during 500 000 ans^,; they would be thus well two different species. The common ancestor of the Man of Néandertal and Homo sapiens would be thus probably a Homo erectus which lived 500 000 years earlier.

The question is not solved, the difficulty being of reconciling two concepts of Espèce (biological and paleontological) whose unicity is disputed. The possibility for these two representatives of the kind Homo of having a descent fertilizes would be an irrefutable proof, but there still the indices are contradictory. No element made it possible to establish the possibility of crossings, even partial, between Néandertaliens and the ancestors of the modern man which were contemporary for him. The analyzes of DNA of the men of Néandertal discovered formerly and recently let think that modern Néandertaliens and sapiens did not exchange any of their genes at the time of their coexistence (around 30.000 years before our era). It acts for the moment of partial results, bearing on the genes which could be compared, namely 370 basic pairs out of 600; until the study is complete, an exchange of genes cannot be completely excluded.

In Africa and with the the Middle East, a coexistence of both Taxon S lasting more 10 000 years is probable. In Europe, this coexistence lasted only a little more 5 000 years.

A skeleton of child found in context Gravettien with Lagar Velho in the Valley of Lapedo, in the center of the Portugal, would carry characteristics of the two species. This child of approximately four years was buried in an intentional burial, there is 25 000 years. He is thus posterior only of a few thousands of years to the last remainders clearly ascribable to Néandertaliens, going back to approximately 30 000 years before our era. However, the hybrid character of this child is very discussed and difficult to establish: the characters derived from both let us tax are marked at the youthful individuals than in the adults and the individual variability of the children of the time is absolutely unknown.

Lastly, analysis published in 2006 ^, of a sequence of DNA mitochondrial of the root of a molar of a child néandertalien going back to - 100 000 years, setting at the day in the Cave of Scladina to Sclayn (Belgium), comes in support of the thesis making from Néandertal a different species d'Homo sapiens. The sequence of DNA MT of this tooth presents a long distance compared to the other known sequences of Néandertaliens, which at the time shows the great genetic diversity of the species. This diversity seems to be strongly then reduced as show it the analyzes made on the sequences known between - 29 000 and - 42 000 years, at the time or Néandertal cohabits with l'Homo sapiens. This tendency comes in support of the thesis from the demographic decline from leading Néandertal over this long period, by a phenomenon of bottleneck of the population, with the progressive disappearance of certain genotypes, and thus with the genetic impoverishment of the species then to its disappearance. Remain to be seen what could cause this evolution (see below Extinction of Néandertaliens).

In 2006, a program of Séquençage of the DNA of the man of Néandertal was launched by the the Max Planck Institute in collaboration with the company 454 Life Sciences manufacturing sequencers of genes to high banc. This will make it possible to know the extent of the family ties with the modern man and to evaluate the interfecondity of the man of Néandertal and the modern man. A million pairs of bases of nuclear DNA were already analyzed

History and distribution of Néandertaliens

The man of Néandertal is a representative of the kind Homo of which the appearance and the evolution are related to the European continent , even if of Néandertaliens emigrated thereafter with the the Middle East, on the current territories of the Iraq, the Syria and Israel, like in Central Asia (Techik-Tach, in Ouzbékistan) and in Siberia.

In 2007, the geographical distribution of Néandertaliens was specified: their expansion was pushed back of 2000 km towards the east compared to the site of Techik-Tach, Eastern known hitherto. Osseous fragments of the Okladnikov cave, in the Altaï, hitherto badly referred, were allotted to of Néandertaliens after an genetic analysis of their DNA mitochondrial by the Institute max Planck of anthropology évolutionnaire of Leipzig. According to the researchers, the DNA mitochondrial of Néandertaliens of the Altaï was besides closer to that of Néandertaliens of the Scladina cave, in Belgium, than of that of the Ouzbékistan, suggesting several waves of migrations and settlements of the area. The team of the geneticist Svante Pääbo suggested that the presence of Néandertaliens in Altaï made possible an Eastern extension, in Mongolia even in China.

The evolution which leads to the appearance of Homo neanderthalensis , sometimes called “neandertalisation”, is a slow and progressive process. It undoubtedly has like origin of the human groups isolated in Europe, which it is about Homo erectus , of Homo georgicus or of Homo antecessor . It can be followed since various fossils, sometimes qualified “anténéandertaliens” or, better, the “preone” until Néandertaliens recent.

; The pre-Néandertaliens old

the first stage corresponds to fossils generally allotted to Homo heidelbergensis : it is the case of the Homme of Tautavel (- 400 000 years), found in the Corbières in France, of the mandible of Mauer (- 600 000 years), found close to Heidelberg in Germany, or to cranium of Petralona (Greece).

; The pre-Néandertaliens recent

the second phase is marked by the fossils of Swanscombe (England), of Steinheim (Germany) or Sima of los Huesos to Atapuerca (Spain).

; Néandertaliens old

the oldest fossils unquestionably néandertaliens has ages ranging between - 250.000 and - 110 000 years. Among them, one can quote cranium of Biache-Saint-Vaast (Pas-de-Calais), the remainders of the Chair (Charente), the mandible of Montmaurin (Haute-Garonne), craniums of Saccopastore in Italy or the many remainders of Krapina in Croatia.

; Néandertaliens traditional

Néandertaliens most typical, from which the characters derived are marked, has ages ranging between - 100 000 years and - 28 000 years, goes back to their disappearance.

Among the traditional fossils of Néandertaliens, in addition to the vestiges of Néandertal even (approx. 42.000 years), it is necessary to mention the skeletons of Vault-with-Saint, of the Moustier, Ferrassie, Quina, Saint-Césaire in the South-west of France or of Spy in Belgium to only quote most complete.

The known Néandertaliens last were in particular discovered with the Portugal, in Spain (Zafarraya, -30 000 ans^,), in Croatia (Vindija, - 32 000 ans^,) and in the North-West of the the Caucasus (Mezmaiskaya, - 29 000 years). All these dates are however to consider with precaution, of the successive revaluations tending to age them.

The research led of 1999 to 2005 in the Grotte of Gorham to Gibraltar suggests that Néandertaliens there lived until - 28.000 years, even - 24.000 years ^,. They lengthily would thus have cohabited with the anatomically modern Hommes, present in the area since 32.000 years. These results however are strongly criticized, for example by Joao Zilhao, of the Bristol-board university.

Physical characteristics

Skeleton

Néandertaliens are of stoutness often very massive and robust: 90 kg and 1,65 m on average for the males and 70 kg and 1,55 m for the females (of the individuals would have reached 1,90 m). The whole of their structure and their muscular fasteners let suppose a great physical force.

Néandertaliens present some antiquated characters, inherited their predecessor (characters plésiomorphes), as well as advanced characters (characters apomorphes). The advanced characters can be divided with the Homo sapiens (characters synapomorphes) or be specific derived characters (characters autapomorphes). Only the latter make it possible to identify the species during the examination of a fossil.

the characters plésiomorphes of Néandertaliens are:

the presence of an osseous thickening above the orbits (known as know-orbital Pad);
a reducing face;
the absence of Chin.

the characters synapomorphes of Néandertaliens are:

a bulky brain (their average cranial capacity is slightly higher (1 500 cm ³) with that of human modern);
of the molars of reduced size, as at Homo sapiens .

the characters autapomorphes of Néandertaliens are:

a lengthened face, of particular form;
of the high and round orbits;
a vast nasal cavity;
a dental arch and a advanced nose;
of the knobs in withdrawal;
the presence of a space separating the teeth from the bottom of the rising branch of the mandible, known as “space retro-molar”;
a cranium with the camber in posterior sight (whereas the cranium of all the other Hominides presents a pentagonal profile);
a occipital Os forming a kind of chignon and presenting a pit in its center, known as pit known-iniaque.

The features specific to Néandertaliens were often presented like cold adaptations. That is true partly and the short and robust members of Néandertaliens find analogues modern in the populations living in the areas close to the pole. But the climate is not enough to explain this evolution and of the ecological factors such as the insulation of the population and weak genetic mixing related to the glacial projections also had to intervene.

Pigmentation and color of the hair

The Rousseur of Néandertaliens was evoked following various studies but they seem to be scientific on-interpretations of results on behalf of the media. At the human ones, redness is related to a change of the gene ( melanocortin-1 receptor ) which controls the production of mélanine. In 2000, a study showed that this change had been able to exist for 100.000 years. Some concluded from it that it could be appeared at Néandertaliens which would have transmitted it to the modern men, which moderate the authors.

In October 2007, an article of the review Science has the results of a study carrying on the fossil extraction of DNA of two specimens néandertaliens, one discovered in Italy (Monti Lessini), the other in Spain (El Sidrón 1252). The authors amplified and sequence a fragment of the gene MC 1R and highlighted at the two individuals an unknown change at the modern man. However, it is impossible to determine if this change were present on both Allèle S and thus if it assigned to the Phénotype individuals in question. For the authors, the presence of these changes makes it possible to estimate that a percent approximately of Néandertaliens had a reduced pigmentation resulting in a clear skin and russet-red hair. Whereas this proportion is very limited, certain media reported that Néandertaliens were russet-red ^,.

Paleopathology

The osseous remainders of Néandertaliens, both in Europe and in Occidental Asia, introduce sometimes anomalies which inform about the internal injuries which have occurred of their alive and sometimes persons in charge of their death. These anomalies can be classified in four principal categories:

traumatic Pathology

Néandertaliens seem to have frequently suffered from Fracture S, in particular on the level of the coast S (Shanidar IV, “old man” of Vault-with-Saint), of the Fémur (Ferrassie 1), of the fibula (Ferrassie 2 and Tabun 1), of the Spinal column (Kébara 2) and of the cranium (Shanidar I, Krapina, Šaľa 1). These fractures are often resoldered and do not show or few signs of infection, which suggests that the individuals were dealt with during their period of disability.

In relation to fractures, other traces of traumatisms were announced on many skeletons of Néandertaliens. They seem related to perforating wounds, as at Shanidar III whose Poumon was certainly perforated by a wound between coasts 8 and 9. It can be a question of an intentional attack or an accident of hunting, but the individual survived his wound during a few weeks before being killed by the fall of a rock block in the cave of Shanidar. Other traumatisms correspond to blows carried to the head (Shanidar I and IV, Krapina), all consolidés.^,

Articular pathology

The Arthrite is particularly widespread at Néandertaliens oldest. It relates to in a specific way the articulations like the ankles (Shanidar III), the spinal column and the hips (“old man” of Chapelle-aux-Saints^,), the arms (Quina 5, Krapina, Feldhofer), the knees, the fingers and the toes. The whole in close relationship with the degenerative articular diseases (Arthrose), which can go from the degeneration normal, related to wear, until the restriction of the movements, painful and handicapping, and with the deformation. It is what one observes to differing degree on the skeletons of Shanidar (I-IV).

Dental pathology

The Hypoplasie of the dental enamel is the indicator of a Stress which has occurred during the development of the Dent S. the striations and the grooves of enamel reflect the periods of food shortage, the traumatisms or the diseases. A study of 669 dental crowns of Néandertaliens showed signs of Hypoplasie more or less pronounced on 75% of them. The food deficiencies were the main cause, being able to go until involving the loss of the teeth. The teeth belonging to the oldest skeletons presented a whole a hypoplasy, particularly clear at the “old man” of Vault-with-Saint and individual 1 of Ferrassie.

Infectious pathology

One finds occasionally on skeletons of Néandertaliens of the secondary osseous lesions related to an infection of soft fabrics of the vicinity. Shanidar I present of the manifest traces of degenerative lesions just as Ferrassie 1, where the lesions on the two femurs, the tibiae and the fibules indicate a systemic infection or perhaps a Cancer.

Langage^,

The physical capacity for the articulated language of Néandertaliens was discussed a long time. In 1983, a Os hyoïde néandertalien very similar to that of the modern man was discovered with Kébara (Israel). The bone hyoïde is a small bone which maintains the base of the language and which is essential to elocution.

Even by disregarding this weighty argument, of many researchers consider that the complexity of the tools Moustérien allotted to the Man of Néandertal is an indirect evidence of its cognitive capacities, including a form of articulated language.

According to a recent study of the bone hyoïde of Kébara, the larynx of Néandertaliens would have been shorter than that of the modern men. The average tone emitted by Néandertaliens would thus have been higher and acuter than at Homo sapiens , contrary to the growls simiesques that allots the popular imagery to them.

A study published in 2007 and bearing on the analysis of the DNA coming from the remainders of two Néandertaliens discovered in El Sidrón (Spain) would have made it possible to detect there the same version of the gene ( forkhead box P2 ) that presents at the modern men. That could plead in favor of the aptitude of Néandertaliens for the language since it is estimated that this gene plays a big role in the development of the parts of the brain related to the control of the articulated language.

Culture and techniques

After regardbeing regarded a long time as an antiquated being and still near to the animality, including with part of the scientific community, the Man of Néandertal starts to seem a being equipped with intellectual abilities and cultural traditions.

Tools and drive out

Burials

If it is possible that Homo heidelbergensis , one of the probable ancestors of the Man of Néandertal, adopted a particular behavior with respect to its deaths with Atapuerca, the first true known burials are néandertaliennes. Oldest go back to approximately - 100.000 years and were put at the day in the Middle East. They multiply then and one finds some in France (Vault-with-Saint, Ferrassie, Quina, Moustier, Saint-Césaire), in Belgium (Spy), in Israel (Kébara, Amud), with the Iraqi Kurdistan (Shanidar), in Ouzbékistan (Teshik-Tash). In certain cases, they include/understand funerary deposits (tools lithic, fragments of fauna).

One of the burials of Shanidar contained Néandertalien buried under a large flagstone. A great quantity of pollens of plants with flowers was present around the body ^,. These pollens were regarded a long time as the proof of the deposit of many flowers during the hiding. This interpretation is called today in question, of the phenomena post-dépositionnels or the action of rodents having been able to contribute to the accumulation of pollens.

These burials often comprise intentional pits and are practically always associated with habitats. It is not very probable that they had only one functional role simply intended to get rid of a skin, even if their interpretation in term of religiosity is prone to discussion.

Worship of the bear

In certain sites such as Regourdou in the Dordogne, of accumulations of craniums of Ours which seemed laid out intentionally were interpreted like the result of a “worship of the bear”.

In Regourdou, a skeleton of Brown bear rested under a flagstone monolith of a weight of 850 kg, in a not very deep pit. In the vicinity, the body of Néandertalien was lying on the left side, the head towards north, in fetal position. The cranium missed, but there remained the mandible. The absence of cranium was also observed in the case of the burial néandertalienne of Kébara. According to E. Bonifay, they were a true tomb made up of a pit paved, empierrée and covered of sand and ashes of hearth ^,.

The existence of the Worship of the bear, evoked recently by the writer Jean Mr. Auel, is disputed today by certain scientists. The craniums of bear are extremely resistant and can be moved by natural phenomena until acquiring positions evoking a voluntary organization but makes some only due randomly.

Cannibalism

Birth of art

With the Paléolithique means also appear the first esthetic demonstrations of concerns or symbolic systems:

collection of fossils or rare minerals;
use of Ocre (even if in certain cases of the functional uses can be evoked);
engraving of features, lines or simple geometrical signs on bones or pierres^,) or adopted modern cultural features (engraved burials, signs). The thesis of the key role of the arrival of the Homo sapiens in Europe and that of a correlation between the biological evolution and the cultural evolution explaining the greatest development of the Homo sapiens by its biological evolution are some thus called in question.

Extinction of Néandertaliens

Néandertaliens disappeared there is approximately: 29000 years. Their disappearance is still partly unexplained and caused many assumptions (^,^,), sometimes utilizing of the mathematical models or economic more or less strange. The archaeological data show that there was not a massive extinction but on the contrary a progressive disappearance.

The disappearance of Néandertaliens seems to coincide with the arrival of groups of anatomically modern Hommes having left the the Middle East for the Europe, there is approximately: 40000 years, undoubtedly with the favor of a moderate climatic episode of the last glaciation. These modern men, sometimes called “Men of Cro-Magnon”, are carrying a new culture material, called Aurignacien and characterized by the generalization of laminar and lamellate cutting up, the manufacture of animal hard matter tools (in particular of the points of sagaies in bone). The men of Aurignacien are also the authors of oldest works of the parietal Art and movable of Europe.

It is probable that the Men of Néandertal and the Men modern cohabited during a few millenia, even if no proof of interaction were not established.

Here some of the assumptions suggested to explain the disappearance of Néandertaliens:

Abandoned or not very probable assumptions

One does not quote even any more the following explanation which the modern man would be quite simply the downward one of the man of Néandertal. This theory was however, less than one half-century, still defended here with passion by Camille Arambourg, member of the Institute and director of the Institute of Paleontology of the Natural history museum of Paris, with the eyes of which those which did not recognize the obviousness of this solution obeyed obviously obscure considerations metaphysics: “The naive one and pitiful human vanity refuses to admit that the “king of creation” has as an ancestor Néanderthalien, so near still to the animality, in which one would like to endeavor to see “an extinct” branch or even “degenerated”, without relationship with l'Homo sapiens. ” (La Genesis of Humanité, P.U.F., 6th edition, 4th quarter 1961, Paris). Other assumptions still have some partisans:

physical Elimination of Néandertaliens by the modern men, conflicts violent one on the zones of contact and reduction of the territories néandertaliens: assumption called in question by the archaeological data. There are indeed no traces of violent deaths or traces of cohabitation prolonged on the same territory.

Disappearance of Néandertaliens related on arrival of the modern men and the territorial competition for the exploitation of the resources: not very probable assumption insofar as the two groups were not to occupy the whole of the European territory and where Néandertaliens had a better knowledge of the European territory and its resources that the new arrivals.

Disappearance related to the difficulties of adaptation of Néandertaliens vis-a-vis an environmental change (disappearance of game, modifications climatic, etc): assumption contradicted by the long story of Néandertaliens (close to 200 000 years) and their capacities of adaptation to fluctuating climatic conditions, difficult to test.