Transcript ecture 20 (3-30-11)

Neandertals: Late archaic Homo sapiens
How to classify?
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Distribution defined by Neandertal sites
Southern Europe and Middle East
Note: not in Africa
DNA samples
Neandertals:
• Lived from c. 130,000 – c. 30,000 yBP
• Shared Europe with modern H. sapiens for c. 15,000
yrs.
• Height: 4.9 - 5.6 ft.
• Weight: 110 - 143 lb.
• Reduced tooth size
• Decreased skeletal robusticity
• Increase in brain size (to a mean of 1,445 cc)
• Amud, Israel site: individual with brain of 1,740 cc
• 55,000 – 40,000 yBP
• Differ from modern humans in skull and extremities
Skull differences
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Evidence of a large nose
Adaptive?
More surface area to warm and
humidify inhaled air?
Is this Neandertal reconstruction accurate?
Milford Wolpoff
Boule’s
reconstruction
1909
Signature characteristic
Information from Shanidar, Iraq site
45,000 yBP
Neandertal stone implements
The Neandertal Genome
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Reported in journal: Science, May 2010
Three bone fragments provided DNA samples
Vindija Cave site, Croatia (close to Shanidar Cave)
Each from a different female.
Dates: 38,000 ybp and 44,000 ybp
> 4 billion nucleotides sequenced
Compared to the genome of five contemporary
humans
• South Africa (San), West Africa (Yoruba) , China
(Han), New Guinea (Papuan), and France (European).
Relationship of Neandertals to present-day humans
• Neandertals were genetically closer to nonAfricans than to Africans.
• Of the five individuals compared, non-Africans
had 1-4% Neandertal DNA
• None of the two Africans had Neandertal
DNA.
• This is not exactly compatible with a rigid
interpretation of the Out-of-Africa model
• An enigma! Neandertal DNA was in the individuals
from China and Papua, New Guinea as well as
Europe.
• Therefore, Chinese and Papuans are as closely
related to Neandertals as Europeans.
• Yet, Neandertal fossils have never been found in
either eastern Asia or New Guinea.
• Therefore, interbreeding must have taken place in
the Middle-East region before modern humans
expanded their range into these other areas.
• None of the three Neandertals had genetic markers
of modern humans.
• Gene flow was unidirectional: from Neandertals into
modern humans.
• The general pattern of colonization between closely
related populations:
• Gene flow is almost always takes place from the
resident population into the colonizing population,
not the reverse.
• Resident population: Neandertals
• Colonizing population: anatomically modern humans
Artifacts of teeth and ivory
Dated at 45,000 yBP
From a site in France
Neandertal?