Neanderthals were a distinct species: Study

A team of US researchers has identified new evidence supporting the growing belief that Neanderthals were a distinct species separate from modern humans and not a subspecies of them.

In an extensive study led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center located in central Brooklyn, New York, the team looked at the entire nasal complex of Neanderthals and involved researchers with diverse academic backgrounds.

The findings show that the Neanderthal nasal complex was not adaptively inferior to that of modern humans and that the Neanderthals' extinction was likely due to competition from modern humans and not an inability of the Neanderthal nose to process a colder and drier climate.

Lead researcher Samuel Marquez, associate professor at SUNY Downstate's Department of Cell Biology, argues that studies of the Neanderthal nose have been approaching this anatomical enigma from the wrong perspective.

"Previous work has compared Neanderthal nasal dimensions to modern human populations such as the Inuit and modern Europeans, whose nasal complexes are adapted to cold and temperate climates," he noted.

However, the current study joins a growing body of evidence that the upper respiratory tracts of this extinct group functioned via a different set of rules as a result of a separate evolutionary history - resulting in a mosaic of features not found among any population of Homo sapiens.

"The strength of this new research lies in its taking the totality of the Neanderthal nasal complex into account rather than looking at a single feature. By looking at the complete morphological pattern, we can conclude that Neanderthals are our close relatives but they are not us," said co-author Jeffrey T. Laitman from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

According to Ian Tattersall from the American Museum of Natural History, this research will stimulate future research demonstrating once and for all that Homo neanderthalensis deserves a distinctive identity of its own.

The study was published in the journal The Anatomical Record.