A disabled Neanderthal 50,000 years ago should have been helped by others to avoid predators and survive to age 40, according to a new analysis published in the journal PLoS ONE.
“More than loss of forearm, limp and other injuries, his deafness would have made him easy prey to the ubiquitous carnivores of his environment and depended on other members of his social group to survive,” Erik Trinkaus, coauthor of the study and professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington in St. Louis.
Known as Shanidar 1, the remains of this Neanderthal were discovered in 1957 during excavations at Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan by Ralph Solecki, an American archaeologist and emeritus professor at Columbia University.
Previous studies of the Shanidar skull 1 and other skeletal remains had noted its multiple injuries. He suffered a severe blow to the side of the face, fractures and eventual amputation of the right arm by the elbow, injuries to the right leg, as well as a systematic degenerative condition.
In a new analysis of the remains, Trinkaus and Sébastien Villotte of the French National Center for Scientific Research confirm that the bone growths in the auditory channels of Shanidar 1 would have also produced a profound hearing loss. In addition to his other weaknesses, this sensory deprivation would have made him highly vulnerable in his Pleistocene context.
As the coauthors point out, survival as hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene presented numerous challenges, and all these difficulties would have been markedly pronounced with sensory impairment. Like other Neanderthals who have stood out for surviving with various injuries and limited use of arms, Shanidar 1 probably required significant social support to attain old age.
“The weaknesses of Shanidar 1, and especially its hearing loss, reinforce the basic humanity of these archaic, highly maligned humans, the Neanderthals,” said Trinkaus.
Source: http://bit.ly/2ldmjWO
