What did Neanderthals REALLY look like?

Share Button

All non-Africans today may have a roughly equal proportion of Neanderthal DNA, but some of the most visible physical traits appear to have been inherited especially by modern Europeans, and northern Europeans in particular. Here is a list of traits that distinguished Neanderthals from Homo sapiens, but that you could also have inherited if you are of European or Western Eurasian descent.

Occipital bun : a protuberance of the occipital bone (back of the head) that looks like a hair knot. You have it if you can feel a rounded bone just above the back of your neck (same height as the ears).
Low, flat, elongated skull : What matters here is especially the ‘elongated skull’, as opposed to the back of the skull falling almost vertically, like all East Asians, and most Anatolian, Caucasians and Eastern Europeans. Elongated skull are particularly common in Scandinavia, in the British Isles and in Iberia.
Retromolar space posterior to the third molar: i.e. an empty space behind the “wisdom teeth”.
Supraorbital torus : protruding eyebrow bone (including big deep eye cavity between the eye and eyebrow).
Bigger, rounder eyes than average.
Broad, projecting nose : angle of the nose bone going more upward than average (not falling straight like a “Greek nose”).
Bony projections on the sides of the nasal opening : i.e. nose bone making a “triangle” between the nose and cheeks/orbits.
Little or no protruding chin
Larger mental foramen in mandible for facial blood supply : this means that the side jaw and cheek are bigger or better supplied in blood than average. This increased blood supply could result in the cheeks being red (like blushing) when doing physical exercise or when the weather is cold.
Short, bowed shoulder blades : i.e. shoulder bones curving toward the front more than average.
Large round finger tips : typically “flat” and wide finger tips, especially the thumb (e.g. if your thumb is more than 1.5 cm wide).
Rufosity : i.e. having red hair, or brown hair with red pigments, or natural freckles.
Fair skin, hair and eyes : Neanderthals are believed to have had blue or green eyes, as well as fair skin and light hair. Having spent 300,000 years in northern latitudes, five times longer than Homo sapiens, it is only natural that Neanderthals should have developed these adaptive traits first.

Source: Eupedia

Share Button

Add a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.