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A new study suggests that Neanderthals commonly suffered from “swimmer's ear” or “surfer’s ear” - dense bony growths that protrude into the ear canal. This is usually caused by a habitual exposure to cold water or chilly air, and scientists believe its prevalence demonstrates that Neanderthals liked to fish and gather sea resources.
The Prevalence of Swimmer’s Ear in Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans
The article on the study in PLOS ONE , explains that while swimmer’s ear, which is technically known as External Auditory Exostoses (EAE), has been noted previously in the remains of modern humans and Neanderthals from the Pleistocene epoch, no one has truly examined them in-depth.
Erik Trinkaus of Washington University, and his French colleagues on the report, Mathilde Samsel and Sébastien Villotte from the University of Bordeaux, came to their conclusion after studying the well-preserved ear canals in the remains of 77 ancient humans, including Neanderthals and early modern humans, from the Middle to Late Pleistocene epoch of western Eurasia.
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While the frequency of the pathology in modern humans remains similar, they found the condition was exceptionally common in Neanderthals. Almost half of the 23 Neanderthals that were studied exhibited mild to severe exostoses – that’s at least twice the frequency seen in almost any other population studied.
Presence of EAE (“swimmer’s ear”) in early modern humans (top) and Neanderthals (bottom). ( Trinkaus, Samsel & Villotte )
If They Weren’t Playing Water Sports, What were the Neanderthals Up To?
These days, EAE is usually associated with water sports and aquatic activities such as diving, surfing, and kayaking. As Trinkaus and colleagues note in their paper “the most frequently observed irritant is cold water, in the context of cold water sports or foraging.”
And the researchers have opted for that second explanation – exploiting the sea’s resources. They write their findings “indicate a higher frequency of aquatic resource exploitation among both groups of humans than is suggested by the archeological record. In particular, it reinforces the foraging abilities and resource diversity of the Neandertals.”
But as Science Daily points out, they also note “the geographic distribution of exostoses seen in Neanderthals does not exhibit a definitive correlation with proximity to ancient water sources nor to cooler climates as would be expected. The authors propose that multiple factors were probably involved in this high abundance of exostoses, probably including environmental factors as well as genetic predispositions.”
The La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal skull, with the external auditory exostoses ("swimmer's ear" growths) in the left canal indicated. ( Erik Trinkaus )
So, it seems like with many of the questions related to anthropology, what we see here is a mixture of nature and genetics creating an outcome. The researchers also recognize this in their paper :
"It remains likely that the high level of external auditory exostosis among the Neanderthals [..] is due in part to the exploitation of aquatic resources. However, the Neanderthal frequency is at the upper limits of recent human population values and is matched only by those who experienced cold water maritime climates. It is therefore likely that, as with eastern Eurasian later archaic humans, multiple factors were involved in their abundance of external auditory exostosis."
Another Prehistoric Case of Surfer’s Ear
Last December another report surfaced regarding the prevalence of surfer’s ear in a prehistoric population. At that time researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute found that the search for sea treasure, in the form of precious pearls, caused Pre-Columbian divers to suffer from EAE too.
As study lead author, Nicole Smith-Guzmán said regarding that find:
“We think it more likely that diving in the cold waters of the Gulf caused these cases of surfer's ear. Silvery mother-of-pearl ornaments, and orange and purple ones from two large 'thorny' oysters in the Spondylus genus were common in burials and comprised an important trade item in the region. Some of these shells wash up on beaches, but by the time Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and other Spanish explorers arrived, their chronicles tell us that expert divers were trained from childhood to dive down to four fathoms to retrieve pearl oysters of desirable large size.”
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- Schizophrenia Emerged After Humans Diverged from Neanderthals
- Improving Our First Line of Defense: Neanderthal Genes
Catching of pearls, Bern Physiologus (9th century manuscript describing pearl diving).
It does make you wonder, if the EAE prevalence is related to natural factors, perhaps the Neanderthals were up to more than just fishing…but either way, as Trinkaus has stated , Neanderthals were certainly more skilled than many people have given them credit for. He said that his study:
“reinforces a number of arguments and sources of data to argue for a level of adaptability and flexibility and capability among the Neanderthals, which has been denied them by some people in the field. You have to be able to have a certain minimal level of technology, you need to be able to know when the fish are going to be coming up the rivers or going along the coast—it's a fairly elaborate process.”
Other Neanderthal Health Issues
Of course, EAE isn’t the only health issue Neanderthals had to deal with. And some previous studies have even found that some of the health problems we see today were passed down by Neanderthals who mated with Homo sapiens .
For example, a study in 2016 suggests that Neanderthal genes play a role in the presence of all sorts of health issues - immunological, dermatological, neurological, psychiatric and reproductive diseases. It has also been found that the Neanderthal genes that help with blood coagulation in modern humans also make us more susceptible to allergies .
Neanderthal genes have been connected to many health issues in modern humans, this image shows some of them. ( Deborah Brewington/Vanderbilt University )
How Neanderthals are linked to surfing?
Exostosis is a disease characterised by bone formation in ear canals. It appears as a result of hypothermia of the inner ear, that's why it usually affects surfers - people who spend hours in the water. The unofficial name of exostosis derived from this fact and the name is "surfer's ear".
Recently scientists examined skulls of ancient Hominidaes and concluded that Neanderthals suffered from this illness often. How come human ancestors had such a peculiar disease?
It is known that Neanderthals avoided the coldness and of course, they didn&rsquot surf. One of the hypothesis states that our ancestors were freezing during the haunting for aquatic habitats. But it is doubtful too: all researches show that fish was the smallest part of Neanderthal's diet. There is another curious detail: other human ancestors suffered from this illness rarely.
So maybe it might be connected to the genetic mutation? This theory has been unsuccessful too! After meticulous analysis of skulls, it was discovered that mountain inhabitants did not suffer from this malady at all: mainly, the coastal population was exposed to the exostosis. On the one hand, the connection with water is established. On the other, it is still unclear how exactly the water affected Neanderthals.
Half of Neanderthal Population Suffered from Surfer’s Ear! - History
David Noel
[email protected]>
Ben Franklin Centre for Theoretical Research
PO Box 27, Subiaco, WA 6008, Australia.
What happened to the Neanderthals?
From a combination of old and new evidence, it appears that at last we have a satisfactory answer to the age-old question of 'What Happened to the Neanderthals?'. If the current reasoning is correct, their descendants are still with us, and we call them the Basques.
This theory therefore simultaneously answers a second age-old question, 'What is the Origin of the Basques'?
Robert J Sawyer has recently published his book "Hominids" [2], a fictional account of an interaction between Sapiens humans and Neanderthals, but drawing on the latest scientific research about Neanderthals.
This research included studies of DNA extracted from bones of Neanderthal remains. The account mentions five months of painstaking work to extract a 379-nucleotide fragment from the control region of the Neanderthal's mitochondrial DNA, followed by use of a polymerase chain reaction to reproduce millions of copies of the recovered DNA.
This was carefully sequenced and then a check made of the corresponding mitochondrial DNA from 1,600 modern humans: Native Canadians, Polynesians. Australians, Africans, Asians, and Europeans. Every one of those 1,600 people had at least 371 nucleotides out of those 379 the same the maximum deviation was just 8 nucleotides.
But the Neanderthal DNA had an average of only 352 nucleotides in common with the modern specimens it deviated by 27 nucleotides. It was concluded that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals must have diverged from each other between 550,000 and 690,000 years ago for their DNA to be so different.
In contrast, all modern humans probably shared a common ancestor 150,000 or 200,000 years in the past. It was concluded that Neanderthals were probably a fully separate species from modern humans, not just a subspecies: Homo neanderthalensis, not Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.
Looking now at the evidence for the theory that the Basques are descended principally from Neanderthals, everything suddenly falls into place, and the supposition becomes almost self-evident.
Location: The 'home country' of the Neanderthals is well known to have been western Europe. One source says that they "dominated this area for at least a quarter of a million years". Many of the best Neanderthal specimens have originated from the Iberian Peninsular. The Basque Country, lying on the western side of the Pyrenees and on the border between Spain and France, fits in neatly with this location.
Some Neanderthal sites. Note concentration in the Basque area. From [12]
The Basques are well-known to have distinctive body characteristics. Kurlansky says "Ample evidence exists that the Basques are a physically distinct group. There is a Basque type with a long straight nose, thick eyebrows, strong chin, and long earlobes" [1].
Basque skulls tend to be built on a different pattern. In the early 1880s, a researcher reported "Someone gave me a Basque body and I dissected it, and I assert that the head was not built like that of other men" [1].
These qualitative differences are indicative, but quantitative evidence, with presence or absence of features, or items being present in different numbers, has greater weight in deciding whether specimens belong to the same or different species. Powerful quantitative evidence comes from a consideration of blood factors.
Human blood is classified according to various parameters, the most important of which are ABO and Rhesus characteristics. In ABO, blood may contain the 'A' factor (giving A-group blood), the 'B' factor (B-group), both 'A' and 'B' (AB blood), or neither (O blood). The A and B factors act as antigens, and if blood containing one or both of them is transferred to a person whose blood does not already contain them, and therefore has the corresponding antibody, adverse reactions occur. Group O blood contains neither antigen but has both antibodies, and can typically be transferred without reaction to any recipient.
Some 55% of Basques have Group O blood, one of the highest percentages in the world [3].
Blood Groups. From [11]
Even stronger evidence comes from the Rhesus factor, discovered only in 1940. The blood of most humans (and, apparently, all other primates [6]) contains this factor, and is called Rhesus-positive or Rh+ blood. Blood lacking this factor is called Rhesus-negative.
The Basques are well-known to have the highest percentage (around 33%) of Rhesus-negative blood of any human population [2], and so are regarded as the original source of this factor. In the United States, some 15% of the 'European' population are Rh-negative, while the percentage in the 'Asian' and 'Black' population is much less than this.
Possession of Rh-negative blood can be a major disadvantage for a human population. A Rh-negative woman who conceives a Rh-positive child with a Rh-positive man will typically bear her first child without special problems. However, because of intermingling of fluids between mother and foetus, the first pregnancy builds up antibodies to Rh+ blood in the woman which typically attack the blood of her subsequent Rh+ children, causing them to miscarry, be stillborn, or die shortly after birth (infant haemolytic disease [6]). This phenomenon is unknown elsewhere in nature, although it can occur with artificial crosses between species, as in mule production [6].
The scenario so far then is this. Around 600,000 years ago, in southern Europe, a species of man separated off from the ancestral line, and we call this species Homo neanderthalensis, the 'N-people'. The blood of this species contained none of the factors A, B, or Rh.
Much later, possibly around 200,000 years ago in Africa, the main human line had picked up the A, B, and Rh factors (possibly from other primates, the Rhesus factor is named after the Rhesus monkey or macaque), and by then could be classed as Homo sapiens, the 'S-people'.
In competition between related species or races, antibodies in their blood are a powerful genetic advantage for those who possess them when competing against those who don't. History has many examples of European settlers who quite unintentionally won out against native populations because the latter had no antibodies against diseases such as measles which the Europeans brought with them.
In the present scenario, a woman of the N-people (Basque, Rh-) who partnered with a man of the S-people (non-Basque, Rh+) would be likely to bear no more than a single child of the partnership. 'Mixed marriages' in humans are not usually genetically disadvantageous, but in this case they would be. The effect would be a continuing reduction in the N-people population as 'mixed' couples produced only a single child, half the nominal population-maintenance rate.
There are other physical characteristics of humans which are typically associated with Rh-negative blood, but which in the present scenario would be regarded as belonging to the N-people. These include early maturity, large head and eyes, high IQ [6], or an extra vertebra (a 'tail bone' -- called a 'cauda'), lower than normal body temperature, lower than normal blood pressure, and higher mental analytical abilities [5].
Another highly distinguishing feature of the Basques is their language, which is related to no other on earth. According to [3], its ancestor was "spoken in western Europe before (possibly long before) the ancestors of all other modern western European languages". This source states that the most strenuous efforts at finding other relatives for Basque have been complete failures.
People have unsuccessfully tried to connect Basque with Berber, Egyptian and other African languages, with Iberian, Pictish, Etruscan, Minoan, Sumerian, the Finno-Ugric languages, the Caucasian languages, the Semitic languages, with almost all the languages of Africa and Asia, living and dead, and even with languages of the Pacific and of North America. Basque absolutely cannot be shown to be related to any other language at all [3].
The structure of the Basque language is also very distinctive, it is said to contain only nouns, verbs, and suffixes. The language strongly defines the Basque people [8]. In the Basque Language, called Euskera, there is no word for Basque. The only word defining a member of the group is Euskaldun, or Euskera speaker. The land is called Euskal Herria -- the land of Euskera speakers.
In the present scenario, Basque is the descendant of a spoken language originated by the N-people, independently of (and possibly at a much earlier time than) the languages of the S-people.
In an interesting study, Philip Lieberman [7] has looked at the mouth cavities and other presumed speech production features of Neanderthal fossils. According to his evaluation, Neanderthal people would have had difficulty in pronouncing the vowel 'ee'. This vowel is missing from normal Basque pronunciation [9].
If the present scenario is valid, then the Basques, mostly stemming from the N-people, would of course be somewhat distinct genetically. In [3] the question is asked, "Are the Basques genetically different from other Europeans?" , with the answer, "Apparently, yes. Recently the geneticist Luiga Luca Cavalli-Sforza has completed a gene map of the peoples of Europe, and he finds the Basques to be strikingly different from their neighbours. The genetic boundary between Basques and non-Basques is very sharp on the Spanish side. On the French side, the boundary is more diffuse: it shades off gradually toward the Garonne in the north. These findings are entirely in agreement with what we know of the history of the Basque language".
The social relationships of the Basques with the rest of the world have been quite unusual for a distinctive human group. While always protecting their unique and separate identity, they have also always striven to interact, cooperate with, and sometimes lead the rest of the world.
Kurlansky points out the remarkable contributions the Basques have made to world history [1]. They were the explorers who connected Europe to the other continents in the Age of Exploration, in trade they were among the first capitalists, experimenting with tariff-free international trade and monopoly breaking, and in the industrial revolution they became leading shipbuilders, steelmakers, and manufacturers.
At the same time, the Basques have always been regarded as 'different', and so inevitably subjected to discriminatory treatment and (sometimes savage) persecution, as in the Franco years [3]. In my book 'Matrix Thinking' [4] I have examined the underlying forces driving interactions between human groups, using the term SIOS, and the way groups recognize and act on differences between those inside and outside their own group.
Genetic differences are one of the most powerful recognition signals in this process, and so it cannot be unexpected that the Basques have suffered in this way. Nowadays such events are regarded in a very negative light, as pointlessly discriminatory. In the Basque case there is some rare justification for this -- a non-Basque man pairing with a Basque women might have expected to have only one child of the marriage, before recent medical procedures got round the Rhesus-negative problem.
Language differences are also very powerful SIOS recognition signals, and it is interesting to look at the Basque case. The Basque language, while retaining its own distinct structure, has heavily borrowed words from other languages. Other languages have borrowed very few words from Basque, regarded as an 'inferior' language, and those that have come over often have had an uncomplimentary sense. As an example, Spanish has borrowed 'izquierdo' (meaning left, as in left-handed) from Basque, and words meaning 'left' often have a negative connotation (in English, 'gauche' and 'sinister' are from the French and Latin for 'left').
It has been suggested [5] that the Basques were the original inhabitants of Europe, and the architects of Stonehenge and similar megalithic structures. These constructions apparently used a unique system of measurement based on the number 7 (instead of 10, 12, or 60), representing a separate origin of a mathematical system.
To round out the present scenario, it is suggested that the present world population is a complex hybrid mixture of at least two human species, one classed as Homo neanderthalensis, the other (or others -- if the A and B blood factors originated from separate species) as Homo sapiens. The genes from these species are now so intermixed (as in cultivated roses) as to make the species name indeterminate.
Further genetic analysis, concentrating on the Basques, may reveal more on this. Research should cover both nuclear DNA, controlling sexually-inherited traits such as blood groups, and mitochondrial DNA, passed on unchanged from mother to child. For reasons given above, the N-people mitochondrial DNA may have now been bred out completely from modern world populations.
Perhaps the Human Genome project needs extension to cover the possible mix of origins. It would also be of interest to check whether any known Neanderthal skeletons had an extra vertebra.
There is an extensive website covering recorded Neanderthal fossils [10], and the information there generally supports the suggestion that the species have merged, with later N-people more similar to the S-people than older specimens.
When the article above was first made available on the Web in 2002, nine years, it contained some perhaps controversial suggestions.
Among these suggestions were that the Neanderthals had not become extinct as a result of competition with 'superior' modern humans that instead, Neanderthals had merged with other humans to form a mixed, single modern species (Homo sapiens) and that the Basque people of the western Pyrenees had the largest genetic inheritance from the Neanderthals in their DNA.
The influence of blood groups on human inheritance was looked at, and it was explained that while the nuclear DNA (the main DNA considered in inheritance) of Basques might well have more Neanderthal inheritance than average, their mitichondrial DNA (passed on directly from mother to child) might have had all Neanderthal components bred out.
This was because infant haemolytic disease, where a Rhesus-negative mother mating with a Rhesus-positive man was likely to have only a single child survive, would mitigate against outbreeding Basque women having many descendants.
Nine years on, these suggestions are no longer controversial, and are becoming widely accepted. For example, a recent article [13] says:
People of European descent may be 5% Neanderthal, according to a DNA study that questions whether modern humans left Africa and replaced all other existing hominids.
The researchers agree with recent studies that conclude Neanderthals did not contribute any mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, genetic material that is passed from mothers to children.
An extensive National Geographic article on Neanderthals [14] had some interesting reconstructions of what Neanderthal women are thought have looked like.
Neanderthal and modern European women. From [14]
As well as these published articles, I have received many messages from people with Basque family origins who have recognized themselves or their relatives in the characteristics suggested in the 2002 article. One lady said that the National Geographic reconstruction "could have been a photograph of her mother".
One interesting facet of Neanderthals, not picked up in the 2002 article, is that they are believed to have had reddish hair and light skins [15]. So red hair may be another marker of part-Neanderthal ancestry.
A Neanderthal girl. From [15]
The old concept of Neanderthals being brutish, primitive people has receded in the light of modern studies. Instead, with their powerful, tough physiques and brain size above the modern average, and increasing evidence of cultural and artistic achievement, we may all become quite proud of our Neanderthal inheritance!
[1] Mark Kurlansky. The Basque History of the World. Penguin Books, New York, 2001.
[2] Robert J. Sawyer. Hominids. Tor Books, 2002.
[3] FAQs About Basque and the Basques. www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/larryt/basque.faqs.html.
[4] David Noel. Matrix Thinking.BFC Press, 1997. Chapter 104, Syston Boundaries and SIOS. Also at: www.aoi.com.au/matrix/Mat04.html.
[5] The Rh-negative Factor and 'Reptilian Traits'. www.reptilianagenda.com/research/r110199a.html.
[6] Blood of the Gods. www.geocities.com/ask_lady_lee/rhneg.html.
[7] Philip Lieberman. Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution. W W Norton, 1998.
[8] What is Basque? www.clan-blackstar.com/research/basque.html.
[9] Basque Pronunciation. www.eirelink.com/alanking/collq1.htm#Pronunciation.
[10] Homo neanderthalensis. www.modernhumanorigins.com/neanderthalensis.html.
[11] Blood Groups, Blood Typing and Blood Transfusions. http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/landsteiner/readmore.html.
[12] Boundary of the known Neanderthal world.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/photogalleries/neanderthal/.
[13] Are You Part-Neanderthal? http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/08/23/1722109.htm.
[14] The Other Humans: Neanderthals Revealed. National Geographic, October 2008, pp. 34-59.
[15] Humans Interbred With Neanderthals: analysis. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/07/2892936.htm
Stablemate articles:
David Noel. In: Matrix Thinking. The Substance of Society -- Infocap.
Original version 1.1 on Web 2002 Aug 26
Version 2.0, with Supplement 1, and blood group writeup corrected*, 2011 Jul 25. V. 2.1, comment facility added, 2012 Apr 25.
V. 2.11, technical adjustments, 2014 Jun 21. (* Corrections thanks to Kenneth McIntyre MD)
V. 2.2, cleanup & BIP, 2019 Apr 15.
Are Negros Closer to Apes Than to Humans?
The negro skull, in addition to having a smaller brain volume and thicker cranial bones than that of the White, is prognathous i.e., the lower face projects forward in the manner of an animal's muzzle. The negro jaw is substantially longer, relative to its width, than the White jaw. A feature of the negro lower jaw is its retention of a vestige of the "simian shelf," a bony region immediately behind the incisors. The simian shelf is a distinguishing characteristic of apes, and it is absent in Whites.
They emit a peculiar offensive body odor similar to apes.
Just as their black skin protected them from the intense African sun, they are inherently lazy in order to prevent over exertion in that intense sun.
The arms and legs of the negro are relatively longer than the European. The humerus is shorter and the forearm longer thereby approximating the ape form.
The eye often has a yellowish scierotic coat over it like that of a gorilla.
The negro has a shorter trunk the cross-section of the chest is more circular than Whites. Similar to an ape.
The pelvis is narrower and longer as it is in an ape.
The negro has a larger and shorter neck akin to that of apes.
The ears are roundish, rather small, standing somewhat high and detached thus approaching the ape form.
The jaw is larger and stronger and protrudes outward which, along with lower retreating forehead, gives a facial angle of 68 to 70 degrees, like an ape, as opposed to a facial angle of 80 to 82 degrees for Europeans.
The three curvatures of the spine are less pronounced in the negro than in the white and thus more characteristic of an ape.
The two bones proper of the nose are occasionally united, as in apes.
Taxonomists and geneticists believe that negros should be classified as different species. In fact, Darwin declared in The Descent of Man that the negros are so distinct that similar differences found in any other animal would warrant their classification as a different species.
References:
Coon, Carleton S. The Origin of Races, 1962, Alfred A. Knopf
Howells, William. Mankind So Far, Doubleday, Garden City, NY
Weisman, Charles A. The Origins of Race and Civilization, 1990
European Neanderthals ate fresh seafood, which may have given their brains a boost
Some Neanderthals really enjoyed their surf and turf rather than mammoth steaks, according to a new study.
The recent excavation of a cave site along Portugal’s coast revealed a wealth of fossilized remains of food, including fish, birds and mammals. It’s estimated that Neanderthals lived in the cave, known as Figueira Brava, between 86,000 and 106,000 years ago.
The discovery sheds light on Neanderthal populations who relied on the sea as a source of food, in addition to hunting and gathering on land — a much different picture than those who were hunting mammoths in bitterly cold climates.
These Neanderthals enjoyed a diverse diet.
From the sea, they could feast on limpet, mussels, clams, brown crabs, spider crabs, sharks, eels, sea breams, mullets, dolphins and seals. Marine birds also included mallards, common scoters (a large sea duck), geese, cormorants, gannets, shags, auks, egrets and loons.
On land, they hunted red deer, goats, horses, tortoises and aurochs, an extinct wild ox. They supplemented with plants like remnants of olive and fig trees as well as pine nuts taken from pine trees.
Neanderthals living in Italy and across the Iberian Peninsula likely would have followed a similar lifestyle with a Mediterranean climate.
The study published Thursday in the journal Science.
In fact, the amount and diversity of marine fossils found in the cave exceeds other more recent sites. This suggests that Neanderthals were comfortable and practiced at catching seafood. Previously, this level of adaptability was only associated with modern humans living in southern Africa at the same time.
“Figueira Brava provides the first record of significant marine resource consumption among Europe’s Neanderthals,” the researchers wrote in the study.
For researchers, it’s another way of narrowing the gap between modern humans and Neanderthals.
Some researchers believe that the introduction of seafood into the diet of early modern humans helped their cognitive development because of Omega-3 fatty acids and other brain-boosting nutrients. That contributed to cultural and technological developments that led them to migrate out of Africa and spread across the globe.
“If this common consumption of marine resources played an important role in the development of cognitive skills, it did so on the entire humanity, including Neanderthals, and not only the African population that spread later,” said João Zilhão, study author and Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies researcher at the University of Barcelona.
In recent years, researchers have uncovered proof that “Neanderthals had a symbolic material culture,” Zilhão said.
Zilhão published a study two years ago about 65,000-year-old cave paintings found in three caves on the Iberian Peninsula that are credited to Neanderthals. This aligns with another discovery of pendants and shells colored with pigments, also thought to be the work of Neanderthals.
“[These findings] support a view on human evolution in which the known fossil variants, such as Neanderthals’ in Europe and its African anatomy contemporaries — more similar to ours — should be understood as remains from our ancestors, not as different higher-lower species,” Zilhão said.
But why has it taken so long to establish that Neanderthals adapted to coastal living? The researchers suggest that it’s because many of the caves they would have used are likely beneath the sea now, due to a rise in sea level over time.
Earlier this year, a separate analysis of clam shells and volcanic rocks from an Italian cave shows that Neanderthals collected shells and pumice from beaches. And due to specific indicators on some of the shells, the researchers also believe Neanderthals waded and dove into the ocean to retrieve shells, meaning they may have been able to swim.
There was evidence that the shells were shaped by stones to make them thin, sharp and resilient. The shells were dated to between 90,000 to 100,000 years ago. This is before the arrival of modern humans in the Western Europe region.
This aligns with evidence from another study suggesting that some Neanderthals suffered from “surfer’s ear,” based on bony growths found on the ears belonging to a few Neanderthal skeletons.
Neanderthals commonly suffered from ‘swimmer’s ear’
External auditory exostoses are dense bony growths that protrude into the ear canal. In modern humans, this condition is commonly called “swimmer’s ear” and is known to be correlated with habitual exposure to cold water or chilly air, though there is also a potential genetic predisposition for the condition.
Such exostoses have been noted in ancient humans, but little research has examined how the condition might inform our understanding of past human lifestyles.
In this study, Trinkaus and colleagues examined well-preserved ear canals in the remains of 77 ancient humans, including Neanderthals and early modern humans from the Middle to Late Pleistocene Epoch of western Eurasia.
While the early modern human samples exhibited similar frequencies of exostoses to modern human samples, the condition was exceptionally common in Neanderthals. Approximately half of the 23 Neanderthal remains examined exhibited mild to severe exostoses, at least twice the frequency seen in almost any other population studied.
The authors suggest that the most likely explanation for this pattern is that these Neanderthals spent a significant amount of time collecting resources in aquatic settings. However, the geographic distribution of exostoses seen in Neanderthals does not exhibit a definitive correlation with proximity to ancient water sources nor to cooler climates as would be expected.
The authors propose that multiple factors were probably involved in this high abundance of exostoses, probably including environmental factors as well as genetic predispositions.
Trinkaus adds: “An exceptionally high frequency of external auditory exostoses (bony growths in the ear canal “swimmer’s ear”) among the Neandertals, and a more modest level among high latitude earlier Upper Paleolithic modern humans, indicate a higher frequency of aquatic resource exploitation among both groups of humans than is suggested by the archeological record. In particular, it reinforces the foraging abilities and resource diversity of the Neandertals.”
11 Rh Negative Blood Type Personality Traits
Although your blood type doesn’t drive your personality, people with certain blood types do tend to have certain personality traits that are not found in others. There are four blood types and a protein, called the Rh factor, which provide these influences.
If you do not have this protein, then you have Rh negative blood. More people are Rh positive than Rh negative, so it is considered an uncommon blood type.
You may also notice these personality traits apply to you at some level.
List of Rh Negative Blood Type Personality Traits
1. You prefer facts over opinions.
People who have Rh Negative blood tend to prefer facts over opinions when speaking with others or conducting research. They form opinions based on the facts that are available to them, willing to keep an open mind about their decisions if new information comes to life. People who are Rh Negative tend to clash with those who treat opinions as fact because their goal is to seek out authentic truth, not a perceived reality.
2. You feel separate from others.
People who have Rh negative personality traits often feel like they live on their own island, even if they are surrounded by people. When they are with others, they feel like they stand out. Many people with this blood type tend to pursue creative careers that seek out facts to further human knowledge. You’ll find many Rh negative individuals in scientific careers, engineering, and even astronomy.
3. You struggle to form friendships.
People who have Rh negative blood often find it difficult to form relationships. They seek out friendships based on their interactions with others, often “testing” to see if authentic conversation is a priority. Lying about one’s own life story is a big turnoff to people with these personality traits. For that reason, people with this blood type often seek out others with the same personality traits to find friendships. Most say they have 1-3 good friends.
4. You are the smartest person you know.
People with Rh Negative blood are ridiculously intelligent. Their intelligence often comes across as being rude, arrogant, or cocky to others who don’t understand them. Compared to other personality profiles, Rh negative individuals tend to have the highest IQ levels, excel in school, and do well following entrepreneurial ventures.
5. You experience unusual encounters.
Perhaps the most unique thing about being in this group of people is the fact that others see people with Rh negative personality traits as being intensely trustworthy. They sense their quest to always have truth, which means they are willing to come up to someone as a stranger to discuss events from their life. Someone with these Rh negative traits will encounter at least one person per day who wants to share a personal story or offer a personal observation.
6. You experience unusual events.
People with Rh negative personality traits will often experience something that is self-described as being strange or unexplained. There are a wide range of options in this category. Some people have vivid dreams that feel like an alternative form of reality. Others might feel like they were abducted by aliens, the government, or someone they knew. Some people even believe they have mental traits that set themselves apart from the general population. Although some may create self-fulfilling prophecies from these events, there is a unique ability here where future events can sometimes be accurately predicted.
7. You experience the emotions of others.
People with Rh negative personality traits have a high emotional IQ, in addition to their overall higher intelligence. When they encounter other people, they can sense and experience their emotional state. These personality traits even make it possible to experience perceived emotions, like the impact of warfare when reading an article online that talks about a current conflict. It can be so strong in some people that it can cause them to become physically ill.
8. You have high levels of intuition.
These personality traits also help people be able to sense the truth in others, even if that person is attempting to masquerade as something or someone else. Games which involve lying, such as poker, are seen as easy for people with these personality traits when they have learned to listen to their intuition. For some, this specific trait is so strong that they can predict when they’ll win the lottery, know when to hit when playing Blackjack, or anticipate an accident while driving because they feel something is coming.
9. You have one major phobia.
People who have the Rh negative personality traits tend to be easily frightened. This happens because they are constantly going through every possible scenario which may happen during common daily events. This often leads to one major phobia developing, with a fear of heights and a fear of flying the two most common. Anything that puts life out of their own personal control becomes something that could become a minor or major phobia one day.
10. You struggle with mental illness.
It is not unusual for people with Rh negative personality traits to frequently struggle with mental illness. Depression is quite common within this population group. Many individuals can find a family history of mental illness that includes at least one person from their immediate relatives, such as a mother, father, or sibling. It is not unusual for at least one person from their extended family to have suffered a major mental illness episode, such as a schizophrenia diagnosis.
11. You are comfortable in isolation.
Some people like to say that humans were meant to be social creatures. With Rh negative personality traits, people tend to prefer isolation more than they do companionship. Most people with this personality trait will form a deep bond with a spouse, lighter bonds with certain friends, and then brush off random acquaintences. They are just as comfortable being alone, finding things to do, as they are spending time with the people they trust the most. You will not find people with these personality traits attending social events or going to new places with the goal of seeking out new relationships. They believe that a relationship will form if the circumstances of life direct them to do so.
These Rh negative personality traits are an overview of what someone may experience. You may relate to just one of these traits or being able to point to each one of them and say that describes you. It is important to remember that this group of traits is one of the most unique found in humanity. Whether you believe in fate, destiny, or scientific fact, your views of this world help to create a diverse environment where everyone benefits.
Author Biography
Keith Miller has over 25 years experience as a CEO and serial entrepreneur. As an entreprenuer, he has founded several multi-million dollar companies. As a writer, Keith's work has been mentioned in CIO Magazine, Workable, BizTech, and The Charlotte Observer. If you have any questions about the content of this blog post, then please send our content editing team a message here.
Cave find shows Neanderthals collected seafood, scientists say
Neanderthals made extensive use of coastal environments, munching on fish, crabs and mussels, researchers have found, in the latest study to reveal similarities between modern humans and our big-browed cousins.
Until now, many Neanderthal sites had shown only small-scale use of marine resources for example, scattered shells. But now archaeologists have excavated a cave on the coast of Portugal and discovered a huge, structured deposit of remains, including from mussels and limpets, dating to between 106,000 and 86,000 years ago.
Researchers say the discovery shows that Neanderthals systematically collected seafood: in some layers the density of shells was as high as 370kg per cubic metre. They say this is exciting because the use of marine resources on such a scale and in such a way had previously been thought to be a trait of anatomically modern humans.
The cave on the coast of Portugal that was found to contain evidence of Neanderthals’ use of food from the sea. Photograph: Zilhao et al./Science
Prof João Zilhão, of the University of Barcelona, a co-author of the report, said the discovery added to a growing body of research suggesting modern humans and Neanderthals were very similar.
“I feel myself uncomfortable with the comparison between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, because the bottom line is Neanderthals were Homo sapiens too,” he said. “Not only was there extensive interbreeding, and such interbreeding was the norm and not the exception, but also in every single aspect of cognition and behaviour for which we have archaeological evidence, Neanderthals pass the sapiens test with outstanding marks.”
The findings chime with recent evidence that Neanderthals had “surfers’ ear” and may have dived to collect shells for use as tools. Previous finds in Spain have shown they decorated seashells and were producing rock art 65,000 years ago.
“Forget about this Hollywood-like image of the Neanderthal as this half-naked primitive that roamed the steppe tundra of northern Europe hunting for mammoths and other megafauna with poor and inefficient weapons,” said Zilhão. “The real Neanderthal is the Neanderthal who is in southern Europe.”
The discovery appears to throws cold water on the idea that the marine-rich diet of modern humans, high in fatty acids, helped them to outcompete Neanderthals as a result of better cognition.
“If [marine foods] were important to modern humans, then they were important for Neanderthals as well – or perhaps they did not have the importance people have been attributing to them,” said Zilhão, noting that in any case few modern humans were living by the coast.
Writing in the journal Science, researchers reveal how the newly excavated site, which was about 2km or less from the coast when occupied by Neanderthals, contained a plethora of stone tools, roasted plant matter and remains from horses and deer, as well as from eels, sharks, seals, crabs and waterfowl, suggesting a diverse diet.
Shells found in the cave, the largest of which is 5cm across. Photograph: Zilhao et al./Science
Zilhão said the find also shed some light on Neanderthal fishing practices, noting that they must have had baskets or bags. “You cannot walk 2,000m with a catch of 10 or 20 kilos of shells in your hands,” he said, adding that the Neanderthal population also probably understood that shellfish collected at the wrong time could be toxic.
The team say the dearth of other huge shell deposits in Europe could be down to a lack of preservation: shellfish could not be transported far from the coast, and hence many such deposits in northern Europe would have been destroyed as polar ice caps advanced, while elsewhere they may have been submerged as the sea rose to today’s levels.
The stretch of Portuguese coast where the new find was made is perhaps the only location locally where such deposits could have been preserved, they say. South Africa, by contrast, experienced an uplift of the land, meaning many such deposits have been preserved.
Dr Matthew Pope, a Neanderthal researcher at the UCL Institute of Archaeology who was not involved in the study, said its findings were significant.
“We have increasingly recognised the sophistication of Neanderthal behaviour, but one thing that continued to mark out the behavioural evolution of modern humans in Africa was the appearance of systematic collection of marine resources, and this marked a difference between the two populations,” he said. “Evidence like this is important in showing Neanderthal populations had the capability for systematic exploitation of marine resources.”
Bacterial Pneumonia
One common cause of pneumonia is bacterial infection. Bacterial pneumonia usually causes a cough that produces mucus from your lungs (sputum). Anyone can be infected, but some people stand a greater risk, including those who:
- suffer from a viral infection,
- have another respiratory disease, or
- are recovering from surgery.
Antibiotics are highly effective in treating bacterial pneumonia, so long as the bacteria are not resistant to the antibiotics. Most people see improvement within two to three days after beginning antibiotic treatment but some cases last longer, even with IV antibiotics.
Bacterial pneumonias, except for tuberculosis, are not very contagious. They can occur from bacteria normally found in your nose or throat which then spread to the lungs for a variety of reasons.
What Is Walking Pneumonia?
Though not a medical term, many people use this phrase to describe a mild form of pneumonia. One third of those who contract Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) bacteria develop this milder variation. Viruses can cause it, too. Walking pneumonia lung infections occur most often in crowded settings such as schools, military barracks, nursing homes, and hospitals.
Discussion and Summary
Recent isotopic studies on Neanderthals (7–10, 44) suggest that they were heavily dependent on meat from herbivorous terrestrial mammals, whereas Upper Paleolithic humans had a much broader resource base, including regular access to fowling and aquatic resources (44). However, isotopic analyses on Neanderthal bones from coastal environments should also be performed to test this contrast further (45). Grayson and Delpech (5) showed that Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans did not show significant differences in hunting and butchering behavior in the material studied. Similarly, we have observed that the human occupation levels at Gorham's Cave, first occupied by Neanderthals and then by Upper Paleolithic humans, do not show obvious differences in faunal composition (40). Marine mammals are present in occupation levels associated with Neanderthals at both Vanguard and Gorham's Caves and occur in Upper Paleolithic human occupation levels in Gorham's (38).
Marine mammal exploitation has also been documented in South African Middle Stone Age (MSA) people. Recent publications have shown that at Pinnacle Point (on the south coast of South Africa), they included marine resources in their diet ≈164 ka ago (±12 ka (46). The earliest previous evidence for human use of marine resources and coastal habitats was dated to 125 ka ago in Eritrea (47, 48). Klein et al. (49) claim to find similarities between MSA people and the opportunistic behavior of hyenas in their tendency to patrol the coast year-round, in contrast to Late Stone Age (LSA) groups that focused their coastal visits. Klein et al. (49) also suggested that MSA Africans could have been behaviorally similar to their European Neanderthal contemporaries (50), whereas effective use of coastal resources was a property of LSA people (after 50 ka). We have distinguished in Gibraltar focused coastal visits by Neanderthals repeated during particular times, possibly seasonal. It should be noted that studied LSA sites in South Africa are largely after 20 ka (51, 52) and recent studies suggest that the MSA survived in places until ≈28 ka (53). This means that the MSA/LSA transition in South Africa may be comparable with the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition in southwestern Europe (1, 49) and that the LSA focused exploitation of marine resources in South Africa therefore probably postdates that by the Mediterranean Neanderthals.
Vanguard Cave shows that Neanderthals were not only systematically exploiting terrestrial mammals but also marine mollusks, pinnipeds, and cetaceans. Their distribution through the stratigraphy suggests that securing marine mammals was not an accidental or isolated practice, but a focused behavior possibly repeated seasonally or over longer periods. Furthermore, at several Gibraltar Middle Paleolithic sites, coastal wildfowl and seabirds (e.g., the Great Auk Pinguinus impennis), were also likely to have been exploited by Neanderthals (40, 54–56). Significantly, the range of species exploited and the age distribution pattern of the prey strongly indicate that the coastal exploitation of resources by Neanderthals was not a sporadic and isolated occurrence but one that required a knowledge of the life history of prey and its seasonality. Other Middle Paleolithic sites from Portugal (57) and the South of Spain (58, 59) have yielded remains of mollusks, cetaceans, or marine birds. Although evidence of a human role for these marine remains may not be as clear and repetitive as in Gibraltar, their presence should also be considered as reinforcing this behavior in Neanderthals.
This indicates that a wider geographical and ecological range of Neanderthal and Upper Paleolithic human sites will need to be sampled before definitive conclusions can be reached about the extent of behavioral differences between these closely related human groups. Marine resource exploitation provides higher territorial stability (40, 47), and this might have facilitated a late survival of Neanderthals in the South of the Iberian Peninsula (1).
