Well.. this explains a lot.

 

 

 

Neanderthals Matured Faster Than Modern Man

By Patricia Reaney

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Neanderthals may conjure up images of an uncivilized, brutish species but they were surprisingly early developers, researchers said Wednesday.

 

Although Neanderthals disappeared from Europe about 30,000 years ago, scientists at the French research institute CRNS in Paris have uncovered new details about them by studying teeth fossils.

 

 

The findings, reported in the science journal Nature, suggest Neanderthals reached adulthood by the age of 15 -- about three years before early modern humans -- probably ate a high calorie diet and were a distinct species from modern humans.

 

 

"Neanderthals, despite having a large brain, were characterized by a short period of development," said Fernando Ramirez Rozzi.

 

 

Creatures with large brains tend to have a lengthier growth period and take longer to mature, but Ramirez Rozzi and his colleague Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro found that the opposite applied with Neanderthals.

 

 

"Until now the idea was: the longer the growth, the bigger the brain but in Neanderthals this relationship is completely broken," Ramirez Rozzi said in a telephone interview.

 

 

"This difference in growth between Neanderthals and modern humans is, I think, very strong proof of two different species," he added.

 

 

Why they developed so quickly is a puzzle but Ramirez Rossi suspects Neanderthals had a high mortality rate because of the hostile conditions in which they lived and they adapted to this by maturing quickly.

 

 

DENTAL GROWTH AND MATURITY

 

 

Dental growth records contain biological information and give an overall indication of the maturity of a species. Ramirez Rozzi and Bermudez de Castro studied the series of ridges, called perikymata, on teeth fossils.

 

 

They compared teeth fossils from Neanderthals dating from 130,000 to 28,000 years ago, earlier samples dating between 800,000 and 400,000 years and teeth fossils of homo sapiens that were 20,000-8,000 years old.

 

 

"Neanderthals were characterized by having the shortest period of dental growth," said Ramirez Rozzi.

 

 

Whether Neanderthals evolved gradually into modern humans or were displaced or killed off by them is a question still being debated by scientists. Some researchers believe there may have been interbreeding to some degree.

 

 

Neanderthals lived in caves or huts, used fires and tools and ate a variety of animals. They may have been cannibals and could have communicated with speech.

 

 

Jan Kelley, of the University of Illinois in Chicago, said in a commentary in the journal that more studies on teeth fossils are needed to support the conclusions reached by Ramirez Rozzi and Bermudez de Castro.

 

 

"Nonetheless, these authors have opened up what should prove to be a fruitful line of research into both the relationships and the palaeobiology of Neanderthals," Kelley said.

Cool post, Steff. You're getting kind of nerdy aren't you? That's ok, you're in good company.

 

This is probably it in a nutshell:

 

Why they developed so quickly is a puzzle but Ramirez Rossi suspects Neanderthals had a high mortality rate because of the hostile conditions in which they lived and they adapted to this by maturing quickly.

 

Although the faster maturation isn't by itself to give separate species status to Neandertals, rapid onset of maturity is very quickly selected for in populations that experience heavy environmental-based mortality. The strategy is to grow up and contribute your offspring to the population (thus perpetuating your gene line which is what it comes down to in the fitness game) before you are killed in the harsh environment.

 

The manifestation of rapid onset to maturity can happen in the span of a few generations too, it need not be a long-term evolutionary thing. Fisheries biologists have used a faster than expected onset of maturity in fish stocks as a good indicator of overharvest, again because only those individuals that output young early in life before being caught) are successful. if rapid maturation is controlled by heritable genes, each successive generation will exhibit a faster onset maturity.

 

Sorry. I take it back, you're not nearly as nerdy as some of us.