Newly Analyzed Neanderthal Skull challenges Long-Held Beliefs About Their Noses
ROME – A remarkably well-preserved Neanderthal skull discovered in Italy is prompting scientists to reconsider a long-standing theory about the purpose of their famously large noses. New analysis of the skull, nicknamed “Altamura,” suggests Neanderthal noses weren’t primarily adapted to warm frigid air, but may have evolved to efficiently regulate temperature and humidity for their larger bodies, and represent a trait shared with earlier Homo species.
for decades, the prominent nose of Neanderthals has been widely believed to be a key adaptation to the cold climates they inhabited during the Pleistocene epoch. However, the detailed examination of the Altamura skull’s internal nasal cavity revealed that it lacks some of the features previously considered unique to Neanderthals. This finding indicates greater variation within the species then previously understood and casts doubt on the singular “cold-adaptation” clarification.
The skull, discovered in 1993 in a cave near Altamura, Italy, is one of the best-preserved Neanderthal skulls ever found. Researchers where able to reconstruct the internal structures of the nose using micro-computed tomography. ”In that two of the three previously proposed unique features of the Neanderthal nasal cavity do not appear to be present in this specimen,” explained Todd Rae, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Sussex who was not involved in the study, in an email to Live Science. Rae added that the lack of these traits “shows that there is variation in the species that was not previously known.”
lead researcher Fabio Buzi acknowledges Neanderthals likely exhibited intraspecies variability, but cautions that evidence remains limited, as Altamura is currently the only specimen providing data on internal nasal structures.
Further complicating the cold-adaptation theory, Rae points out that large noses were common among earlier Homo species and remain prevalent in most modern Homo sapiens populations. ”All earlier species of Homo have wide noses,” Rae saeid, “and most Homo sapiens have a wide nose - only northern European/Arctic people don’t, a vanishingly small proportion of the species.”
Instead, researchers now propose the Neanderthal nose may have been crucial for conditioning air to support the metabolic demands of their significant physiques. Buzi suggests numerous environmental pressures and physical constraints likely shaped the Neanderthal face, “resulting in a model option to ours, yet perfectly functional for the harsh climate of the European late Pleistocene.”
