News Anthropology

Neandertal babies had stocky chests like their parents

Our evolutionary relatives may have inherited short, deep rib cages from their ancestors

Neandertal partial skeleton

Digital reconstructions indicate that Neandertal babies and young children, represented here by the partial skeleton of a roughly 2.5-year-old individual found in France in 1961, already had stocky chests typical of adult Neandertals.

Leo Fyllnet/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Neandertal babies had chests shaped like short, deep barrels and spines that curved inward more than those of humans, a build that until now was known only for Neandertal adults, researchers say.