First Neanderthal skeleton assembled

Surprising, but apparently no one had put together a complete reconstruction of a Neanderthal skeleton before (at least, not one based on actual fossils). The skeleton now assembled at the American Museum of Natural History in New York will be on public display starting Jan 11; it is a composite, consisting of casts from fossil elements from all around the world.
As the New York Times reports:

Examining the upright skeleton, Dr. [Ian] Tattersall [a tall Homo sapiens] disputed the notion, once current even among some scientists, that Neanderthals may have been so humanlike that if dressed in contemporary clothing, they could have passed unrecognized on the subway. This impression has been characterized in popular cartoon figures of a heavy-browed Neanderthal in a jaunty fedora.

"This definitely is its own species," Dr. Tattersall affirmed, glancing first to the Neanderthal and then to a modern human skeleton next to it. "If people didn't believe that before, by all rights they should now."

And as another lesson on how much what we "know" consists of supposition:

. . . not a single remotely complete skeleton of a Neanderthal has turned up. The many artistic recreations, though commonplace and more lifelike than skeletons, invite scientific criticism as being projections of particular interpretations of Neanderthal appearances and behavior. A less subjective study, scientists say, starts with anatomy — with the skeleton.

Dr. Erik Trinkaus, a Neanderthal specialist (presumably a specialist in Neanderthals, and not a Neanderthal himself -- D.) at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the project, said the skeleton reconstructions were especially important for computer models of Neanderthal biomechanics, the way they stood, walked and ran.

Apparently the plan is to make similar reconstructions of some 20 hominid species.

Posted by David on December 31, 2002 10:11 AM