ESPEYB15 15 Editor’s Choice Neanderthal's’ child growth (1 abstracts)
15.17 The growth pattern of Neandertals, reconstructed from a juvenile skeleton from El Sidrón (Spain)
Rosas A , Ríos L , Estalrrich A , Liversidge H , García-Tabernero A , Huguet R , Cardoso H , Bastir M , Lalueza-Fox C & de la Rasilla M
To read the full abstract: Science 2017;357:1282-1287
This Neanderthal boy died 49,000 years ago from an unknown cause at a dental age of 7.7 years. Most of his bones agreed with this estimation. The authors claim that his general pattern of growth was like that of modern humans, except that the atlas and mid-thoracic vertebrae matured later and remained at the 5-6-year stage of development. However, by modern standards, he was a short and sturdy individual with a height of 111 cm (-2.7 SDS by CDC2000 reference), and weight 26 kg (70th centile). Based on his cranial bones, his brain volume was only ~88% of the average adult Neanderthal’s, which would be underdeveloped if he were one of us: a 7-year-old modern human’s brain is 95% of an adult’s. Also, the spine had not yet fully fused, something that happens to human children at around age 5 or 6 years old; thereafter the vertebrae grow concentrically like carpal bones. There’s evidence from earlier studies that Neanderthals ate nuts and fungus as part of a mostly vegetarian diet and that they used plants that acted like natural painkillers. The authors discuss that “Clarifying differences and similarities in growth patterns between extinct humans, especially Neandertals, and modern humans helps us better define our own phylogenetic history”.
Volume 15
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ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology
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