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An international team of scientists has completed the first 3D virtual reconstruction of a Neanderthal rib cage.
Researchers from Spanish, Israeli and American universities have digitized fossils of a 60,000-year-old male skeleton to create a 3D model of his chest.
The results, detailed in an article published by the journal Nature Communications, highlight the main differences between the banal image of a curled up "caveman" and the Homo Neanderthalensis.
Having emerged 400,000 years ago in what is now western Europe and Southwest and Central Asia, hunter-gatherers have survived several ice ages before their Extinguish about 40,000 years ago.
"Neanderthals are intimately related to us, with complex cultural adaptations very similar to those of modern humans, but their physical form is very different from us," said Patricia Kramer, co-author of the study at the University of Toronto. University of Washington, in a statement. "Understanding their adaptations allows us to better understand our own path of evolution."
Years of research have clarified certain elements of archaic man. However, the structure of their thorax is still debated: the part of the body containing the rib cage and the upper part of the spine.
"The shape of the thorax is essential to understand the movements of Neanderthals in their environment, as it informs us about their breathing and their balance," said lead author of the study, Asier Gomez-Olivencia, Fellow Ikerbasque of the University of the Basque Country.
For their thorax model, scientists used direct observations of the Kebara 2 skeleton, discovered in 1983 in Kebara Cave in the Carmel Range in northern Israel, as well as medical CT scans of vertebrae, ribs and bones of the pelvis.
Despite his missing skull, the remains of the young adult man are considered to be one of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons, which would be between 59,000 and 64,000 years old.
From there, the team made what it describes as an honest citizen with greater lung capacity and a spine straighter than people today.
"The differences between a human Neanderthal thorax and a modern human thorax are striking," according to Markus Bastir, principal investigator at the Virtual Anthropology Laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History of Spain.
For starters, the Neanderthal spine is located deeper inside the thorax, which is wider in its lower part. According to the group, this form suggests a larger diaphragm and therefore a greater lung capacity.
What this means for the way Kebara 2 has lived is "ripe for future research," said Kramer.
Nearly two years ago, the same research team created a virtual reconstruction of the Kebara 2 spine.
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