Response to Comment on "The growth pattern of Neandertals, reconstructed from a juvenile skeleton from El Sidrón (Spain)"

Antonio Rosas; Luis Ríos; Almudena Estalrrich; Helen Liversidge; Antonio García-Tabernero; Rosa Huguet; Hugo Cardoso; Markus Bastir; Carles Lalueza-Fox; Marco de la Rasilla; Christopher Dean

doi:10.1126/science.aar3820

Response to Comment on "The growth pattern of Neandertals, reconstructed from a juvenile skeleton from El Sidrón (Spain)"

Science. 2018 Mar 9;359(6380):eaar3820. doi: 10.1126/science.aar3820.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Paleoanthropology Group, Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, 28006 Madrid, Spain. [email protected].
² Paleoanthropology Group, Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
³ Department of Physical Anthropology, Aranzadi Society of Sciences, 20014 Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
⁴ Department of Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany.
⁵ Institute of Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AD, UK.
⁶ Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES)-Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Campus Sescelades (Edifici W3), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
⁷ Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada.
⁸ Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
⁹ Área de Prehistoria Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Oviedo, 33011 Oviedo, Spain.
¹⁰ Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

PMID: 29590013
DOI: 10.1126/science.aar3820

Abstract

The comment by DeSilva challenges our suggestion that brain growth of the El Sidrón J1 Neandertal was still incomplete at 7.7 years of age. Evidence suggests that endocranial volume is likely to represent less than 90% adult size at El Sidrón as well as Neandertal male plus Krapina samples, in line with further evidence from endocranial surface histology and dural sinus groove size.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Brain
Fossils*
Hominidae
Humans
Male
Neanderthals*
Skeleton
Spain