RE: How do we know that Neanderthal skeletons are Neanderthal skeletons?
October 30, 2022 at 11:15 am
(This post was last modified: October 30, 2022 at 11:19 am by Anomalocaris.)
(September 29, 2022 at 9:22 pm)x278 Wrote: How do we know that Neanderthal skeletons are Neanderthal skeletons and not just human skeletons experiencing decomposition? Just asking.
The morphological traits of Neanderthal skeletons don’t just span the whole gamut from virtually indistinguishable to undamaged and undeformed normal HSS skeleton, to skeletons that deviate greatly in apparence from HSS in every part of the body, as one would expect if the what we classify as Neanderthals just reflect random effects of postmortem natural alterations to the shapes of HSS skeletons
Instead the skeletons we discover mostly cluster around a particular set of morphological traits around the skull that lies very far outside the normal range of morphologies of modern or Paleolithic HSS. There is no conceivable postmortem effect that could systematically cause this set of traits to appear in buried skulls. So this is very strong evidence that Neanderthals, when alive, were indeed a very distinct population which have evolved separately from, and have been taking on traits imposed by different evolutionary pressures than those experienced by, HSS for a very long time.
