Pathology and the posture of the La Chapelle‐aux‐Saints Neandertal

Abstract

The depiction of the Neandertals as incompletely erect was based primarily on Boule's (1911, 1912a, 1913) analysis of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 partial skeleton. The inaccurate aspects of Boule's postural reconstruction were corrected during the 1950s. However, it has come to be believed, following Straus and Cave (1957), that Boule's errors of reconstruction were due to the diseased condition of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 remains, rather than to Boule's misinterpretation of morphology. The abnormalities on the La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 postcranium include: lower cervical, upper thoracic, and lower thoracic intervertebral degenerative joint disease (DJD), a distal fracture of a mid-thoracic rib, extensive DJD of the left hip, DJD of the right fifth proximal interphalangeal articulation, bilateral humeral head eburnation, and minor exostosis formation on the right humerus, ulna, and radius. These were associated with extensive alveolar inflammation including apical abscesses and antemortem tooth loss, some temporomandibular DJD, bilateral auditory exostoses, and minimal occipital condyle DJD. None of these abnormalities significantly affected Boule's Neandertal postural reconstruction, and a review of his analysis indicates that early twentieth century interpretations of skeletal morphology (primarily of the cranium, cervical vertebrae, lumbar and sacral vertebrae, proximal femora and tibiae, posterior tarsals, and hallucial tarsometatarsal joint), combined with Boule's evolutionary preconceptions, were responsible for his mistaken view of Neandertal posture.

Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment

“…When possible, these assessments were combined with skeletal indicators, including pubic symphysis and auricular surface metamorphosis, femoral diaphyseal histomorphology, costal cartilage ossification, proximal femoral trabecular changes, and sacral body ventral ossification, but not suture closure. In specimens of late archaic and early modern humans, for which it has been possible to assess multiple age-at-death indicators by using recent human standards (28,39,40,43,49,(63)(64)(65)(66), there is consistent agreement across the age indicators within the two categories used here. The few specimens which are likely younger but could belong in either group (La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1, Dolní Vestonice 3, La Ferrassie 2, Pavlov 1, Predmostí 3) have been conservatively assigned to the older age group; making them younger than 40 y would increase the differences between the fossil and recent human mortality distributions.…”

“…Yet, there were decreases or stasis in the incidence of both forms of lesions among both Middle Paleolithic and earlier Upper Paleolithic modern humans relative to the late archaic humans (33,35,37,38). This paleopathological shift is not likely to reflect differential survival, given the survival of individuals with serious developmental and degenerative abnormalities in both groups (6,37,(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45).…”

“…None of the individuals with preserved remains sustained and healed a lower limb injury or deformity that would have prevented locomotion; the oldest known such injury (54) is early Holocene in age. Even those individuals, who sustained serious developmental or traumatic deformities of the lower limbs (6,37,44,45,49) or developed advanced posttraumatic osteoarthritis of primary weight-bearing articulations (39,40), continued to be mobile. Under these conditions, it is likely that older individuals with reduced mobility were left behind, to die and have their remains consumed by the ubiquitous carnivores on the landscape.…”

The lumbar spine in Neanderthals shows natural kyphosis

“…Neanderthal fossils are quite common compared to those of earlier forms of Homo, because of the Neanderthal rites of intentional burial. However, due to the aeriferous components of the vertebrae bodies the lumbar spine is rarely preserved [5,12]. Only in two specimens, termed Kebara 2 and Shanidar 3, the lumbar spine is fully preserved [2,3,9].…”

Comparative analysis of dentognathic pathologies in the Dmanisi mandibles

“…The specimens from Sima del Elefante (estimated to 1.3 MA) and Sima de los Huesos (0.3 MA) display a wide diversity of pathologies such as alveolar lytic lesions, hypercementosis and dental calculus (Martinon-Torres et al 2011), as well as periodontal disease, periapical infections, and even osteitis ). The Broken Hill maxillary dentition (0.3-0.125 MA) displays hypercementosis, multiple lesions of cariogenic origin, periodontal disease, and possible effects of hyposalivation (Koritzer and St Hoyme 1979;Puech et al 1980;Bartsiokas and Day 1993;Lacy 2014b).In mid-to-late Pleistocene hominins such as the Neanderthals, dental pathologies are comparatively well documented (Smith 1976;Trinkaus 1978;Trinkaus 1985;Frayer and Russell 1987;Lalueza et al 1993;Tillier et al 1995;Skinner 1996;Trinkaus et al 2000;Lebel and Trinkaus 2002;Guatelli-Steinberg et al 2004;Walker et al 2011;Topić et al 2012;Lozano et al 2013;Lacy 2014a). A wide range of pathological features has been reported, from developmental defects such as linear enamel hypoplasia, to antemortem tooth loss, and in-vivo effects such as interproximal grooves reflecting the habitual use of toothpicks.…”