A NEANDERTHAL THEORY TO SINK YOUR TEETH INTO

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A NEANDERTHAL THEORY TO SINK YOUR TEETH INTO
24 April 2002 - University of Chicago

A tooth study takes a bite out of the idea that modern humans are related to Neanderthals, researchers report today. An extinct branch of humanity, Neanderthals lived in Europe as recently as 30,000 years ago. Whether modern humans, slimmer with slightly smaller brains, are their descendants is hotly debated by paleontologists.

In the journal Nature, international scientists led by Fernando Rozzi of CNRS, a Paris-based research institute, report on their analysis of several hundred fossil front teeth from early humans, Neanderthals and modern humans.

Surprisingly, tooth enamel patterns suggest that Neanderthals grew to adult size by age 15, sooner than mankind's more prehistoric precursors and more similar to the development of apes. The researchers call this an "evolutionary reversal" that points to strong differences between Neanderthals and modern humans.

Modern humans moved into Europe at about the same time Neanderthals started to disappear. Differences in the development of tools, climate changes or even conflicts between the two species have been suggested as reasons for the Neanderthals' disappearance after several hundred thousand years of existence.

"What is really important about this work is that it shows that Neanderthals seem to have followed a completely divergent evolutionary path from modern humans," says anthropologist Katerina Harvati of New York University. It indicates that Neanderthals were a different species entirely, she says.

The study says Neanderthals grew up fast, hunted bigger game and died young. Biologist Jay Kelley of the University of Chicago, an expert on primitive human teeth, injects a note of caution in a Nature commentary. Tooth growth reflects development, he says, but biologists generally look at molars, not front teeth.

Despite their dimwitted caveman reputation, Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans and larger, flatter skulls. Scholars have tried for years to explain why those big brains couldn't help stave off extinction.

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About: University of Chicago
The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller. The land for the new university, in the recently annexed suburb of Hyde Park, was donated by Marshall Field, owner of the Chicago department store that bears his name.

In 1929, Robert Hutchins became the University's fifth president. During his tenure, Hutchins established many of the undergraduate curricular innovations that the University is known for today. These included a curriculum dedicated specifically to interdisciplinary education, comprehensive examinations instead of course grades, courses focused on the study of original documents and classic works, and an emphasis on discussion, rather than lectures.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the University began to add modern buildings to the formerly all-Gothic campus.

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