Neanderthal 1
Neandertal 1 (also Neanderthal 1, rare field Hofer 1) is the scientific name for the type specimen ( holotype ) of the biological species Homo neanderthalensis. The fossil was mid-August 1856 in a putative Neandertal valley portion of Düsseldorf in the low mountainous land, 13 kilometers east of Dusseldorf discovered in 1864 and first described in a scientific journal with the species names are still valid today. However, it was not the first evidence of this kind, which had been discovered; Rather, the significance of previous findings was initially not recognized and therefore not assigned a separate species name for these observations.
The fossil is preserved in the Rheinische Landesmuseum Bonn since 1877. Since 2000, the fossil of a second individual of the same locality is safe as determined Neanderthals, named Neanderthal 2
Discovery
Already for the early 16th century, the mining of limestone is covered in the Neander Valley, from the mid-19th century, he was on an industrial scale. In August 1856 two Italian workers extended the entrance to the little cave Hofer field by eliminating the incorporated in this limestone cave sintered and therefore rock-hard clay. When removing this sediment filling the workers came in two feet ( 60 cm) depth on fossil bones, which were first thrown unnoticed with mud and debris into the valley. There they were the owner of the quarry, Wilhelm Becker Hoff, on which she thought was the remains of a cave bear. Becker Hoff and co-owner of the quarry, Friedrich Wilhelm Pieper, left 16 more bone fragments from the rubble collect and Elberfeld teachers and fossil collector Johann Carl Fuhlrott passed: a skullcap with a fragment of the left temporal bone, a fragment of the right scapula, a right clavicle, both upper arm bone (the right intact ), a complete right spoke, fragments of a right and left ulna, five ribs, a nearly complete left half of the pelvis and both femurs completely preserved.
Fuhlrott recognized his own admission According right away that the remains could be attributed to a man who, however, significantly differed from modern man. Without Fuhlrott approval following notice already appeared under the date of September 4, 1856 in Elberfeld newspaper and in Barmer citizens sheet:
" In the neighboring Neanderthale, the so-called rock, is a surprising discovery has been made in recent days. With the disappearance of the limestone, which can be certainly not complaining from a picturesque standpoint enough, you came [in] a cave, which had been filled by Thonschlamm over the centuries. In the outward rooms of this Thons was found a human skeleton, which undoubtedly gone ignored and lost, if not fortunately Dr. Fuhlrott of Elberfeld had secured and examined the Fund. After examination of this skeleton, including the skull, the human beings belong to the race of the flat heads, which still live in the American West, of which have been found in recent years, several skulls on the upper Danube in Siegmaringen. Maybe wearing this Fund to discuss the issue at: have listened grazing Whether this framework a central European Urvolke or merely a ( with Attila? ) Horde ".
Through this reporting were two Bonn professors of anatomy, Hermann Schaaffhausen and August Franz Joseph Karl Mayer, attentive to this discovery, made themselves known to Fuhlrott and asked him to send us the bone. Fuhlrott they brought in the following winter personally to Bonn, where they were first taken from Schaaffhausen inspected. Six months later, on June 2, 1857 Schaaffhausen Fuhlrott and presented to the members of the Natural History Society of Prussian Rhineland and Westphalen the results of their investigations, which describes the primatologist and paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall follows:
" It Fuhlrott summarized the history of discovery of these fossils, which was based on a careful survey of the workers who had excavated the finds. He stressed the age of the bone, which was occupied by both the thickness of the overlying strata they [ ... ] as well as by the strong mineralization and dendrite formation on the surface, which were also found on the bones of the extinct giant cave bears. The description and interpretation of the find was Schaaffhausen task. "
Schaaffhausen described in detail the unusually massive bone structure of the find, and noted in particular the shape of the cranial vault out - especially the low, sloping forehead and the bony ridges above the eyes:
" He kept these characteristics rather than natural for the result of disease or abnormal development. They reminded him of the great apes. Nevertheless, this was not an ape, and if his features were not pathological, they were possibly the age of the discoveries attributed. [ ... ] Although his search for specimens that were similar to the Neanderthals, was unsuccessful, he came to the conclusion that the bones belonged to a representative of a Native American tribe that had lived in Germany before the arrival of the ancestors of modern man. "
Schaaffhausen published his findings in 1858 in the Archives of anatomy, physiology and scientific medicine, Fuhlrott published a year later, a treatise on Human Remains from a grotto of Düsseldorf valley in the association journal of the Natural History Society of Prussian Rhineland and Westphalen. In this treatise, he also discussed the anatomical conditions and mentioned initially reluctant (even taking into account their embedding in glacial Lehmeinwehungen ) that these bones probably "come from prehistoric times, probably from the Diluvialperiode and therefore one least belongs to a urtypischen individual of our race. "(p. 136 ) Following his remarks on the geology of the locality but he suspected then further provided that" in these bone antediluviane [ before the flood resulting ], ie in the form of fossil human remains. " (P. 145)
Fuhlrott and Schaaffhausen ultimately correct interpretation of the findings from the Neandertal was not taken seriously by other scholars of their time. As Fuhlrott 1859 published his treatise in the association journal of the Natural History Society of Prussian Rhineland and Westphalen, the members of the editorial commented his interpretations, for example, with the postscript that they " presented the views can not share. " (P. 153)
Historical Background
1758 was Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae Scripture (p. 20), the term Homo sapiens introduced as the species name for humans, but without a so-called diagnosis, ie without precise description of the species-specific features. When the Dutch physician and naturalist Philippe -Charles Schmerling 1833 a fossil skull and several other bones described from a cave near the Belgian municipality Engis which he contrasts the " Pleistocene " then assigned based on animal fossils and also discovered stone tools, was that in 1829 discovered the first scientific described Neanderthal ( Engis 2), however, misunderstood by colleagues as "modern": There were missing for a criteria for distinguishing fossil species of the genus Homo by Homo sapiens; on the other hand refer colleagues to Genesis, from such a high age could not be determined. Even Thomas Henry Huxley, a supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution, wrote in 1863 the Fund from Engis a " man of low degree of civilization ", and interpreted the finding from the Neandertal as within the range of variation of modern humans lying. Also in 1848 discovered in a limestone quarry Forbes Quarry in Gibraltar, relatively well-preserved skull Gibraltar 1 was recognized old only decades later as tens of thousands and made a now established species Homo neanderthalensis. As Huxley arranged itself nor anthropologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, the increasingly more numerous hominin fossils human "races" as their representatives early on.
The Fund as a bone of contention of the learned
The fossil from the Neander Valley was discovered in 1856, three years before the publication of Darwin's work On the Origin of Species. The scientific debate over the question of whether species were immutable or mutable, however, was broken out much earlier. Thus Hermann Schaaffhausen had 1853 connected in a disquisition about the resistance and transformation of species of the opinion "that the type was not immortal, that they have such as the life of the individual being a beginning, a time of flourishing and decline, only in larger intervals, and that the different types of a different life was meted out " Schaaffhausen had even to the close proximity of various anatomical and physiological features of humans and the " " pointed and found summary: " anthropoid apes., the immutability of the type of most researchers is regarded as a law of nature, has not been proven. "
However, Hermann Schaaffhausen was not of the scientific authorities of the mid 19th century in Germany. Here the biological sciences by Rudolf Virchow was at that time dominated, " the father of modern cell biology and political reasons an opponent evolutionary thought. Virchow advocated socialist ideals. He fought for a society in which no origin, but the skills of the individual should decide on his future. The theory of evolution was an elitism, an inherent preference for a particular 'race', which was incompatible with his ideals for him. "
Marriage Virchow but the bones from the Neander Valley in 1872 came in person, he left them to the Bonn anatomists and eye specialists August Franz Joseph Karl Mayer, who was " a resolute supporter of the Christian belief in creation in its traditional form "; Mayer had missed the first evaluation in the winter 1856/57 due to illness:
Although Mayers 1864 published in the Archives of Anatomy interpretations contradicted the then already known and accepted by all Rickets symptom ( weakened bones ) because the Neanderthals had extremely strong bones. Nevertheless, Virchow largely accepted the anatomical findings Mayers. Virchow described the bone as " strange individual phenomenon " and as " quite individual education " and made so that the characteristics of the discovery of the Neanderthal were for years in German-speaking countries as expression of pathological changes in the skeleton of a modern man.
Not even the accurate assessment of the geologist Charles Lyell did not change, which had in 1863 after a visit Fuhlrott and Neandertals confirmed the great antiquity of the find. In hindsight, the turning point came towards the recognition of the find as not pathologically altered nevertheless already 1863/64, a.
On the one published by the Irish geologist William King in 1864, a detailed description of the physique of the Reputed Fossil Man of the Neanderthal, in which he - in the absence of other opportunities for comparison - the apelike features of the fossil particularly emphasized. At the very end of this essay, in a last word trailing footnote, mentions King that he had given a lecture similar content before the geological section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science last year, now is still more certain that the fossil that he had called at the time "Homo Neanderthalensis ", generally from people is distinguishable ( "generally distinct from man" ). This casual, elected King of the fossil from the Neander Valley name in footnote 27, is now regarded as the definition of the species name in the sense of international rules for zoological nomenclature.
Secondly came the British paleontologist George Busk, who had 1861 Schaaffhausen treatise translated into English in 1863 in the possession of the skull discovered in 1848 from Forbes Quarry in Gibraltar. Due to its similarity to the Fund from the Neandertal scoffed Busk, Professor Mayer himself would hardly suspect " that a rickety Cossack of the campaign of 1814 holed up in the clefts of the rock of Gibraltar " have. However, the recognition of the Neanderthals as a separate, homo sapiens different people form prevailed definitive only once in 1886 in a cave in the Belgian Spy ( part of the municipality Jemeppe -sur -Sambre today ) two almost completely preserved Neanderthal skeletons were found.
Anthropological analyzes
The discussion of the 19th century was devoted to the first question of the extent of the anthropological findings with characteristics of Homo sapiens to reconcile. Already Johann Carl Fuhlrott was noticed unusual massiveness of the bone compared to the people of his presence, and also the well-developed cusps, ridges and ledges that served the approach, it is strong trained muscles. One of the humerus had, according to his observation on a healed injury. William King is also referred in 1864 to the unusual thickness of the skeletal bones and joined a remark to Schaaffhausen, who had also evaluated the strongly rounded shape of the ribs, and thus the chest than for a man quite unusual. However, King was primarily involved with the construction of the preserved skull bones. He described the shape of "stretched oval " as and when about an inch ( inch = 2.54 cm) longer than in a recent British; the width of the skull, however, surpasses barely the width of the modern man. As previously Schaaffhausen, King described the forehead region as unusually flat and fleeing and " overly developed " the bone strips over the eyes as. In the synopsis of deviating from the modern human features, finally, King wrote:
" The skull of the Neanderthal was immediately perceived as uniquely different from all others who are recognized as having the nature of man; and undoubtedly its characteristics have a great resemblance to those of a young chimpanzee. "
Intravital injuries and illnesses
New investigations of the Göttingen pathologist Michael Schultz also dedicated to the health of the Neanderthal holotype. This could indicate that there is a pathological muscle -tendon process was in several cases, also a fracture of the left arm in the area of the elbow joint with resultant deformity of the bone. The deformity resulted in a permanent impairment, as the man of the Neanderthal could not load regularly this arm even after healing of the fracture.
The frontal bone is a healed bone injury that is attributed to the fall on a sharp rock. In addition, Neandertal 1 clearly had a healed a bleeding brain vessel, which is also attributed to an intravital ( carried out during his lifetime ) traumatic exposure.
Neandertal 1 suffered from extensive inflammation of the sinuses. Both frontal sinuses can be seen in the form of a bumpy, covered with small vessel imprints surface symptoms of chronic inflammation. In old age, he also suffered from a serious illness that never could be found at a Neanderthal. It is a metastatic bone -eating process is still unknown cause.
His age at death was determined to be 40 to 42 years.
Post-mortem changes in the skeleton
In 1992, alleged cut marks on the skeletal remains have been published, particularly at the edges of the skull, which would point to a specific funeral rite. Given the rudimentary preservation of the skeleton (16 of 203 bone ) the impact of tooth scarring would also be conceivable by carnivores. Given the superficial and non-scientific recovery of the bone, the question of disarticulation, however, remains difficult to resolve ( resolution of the skeletal association ) by predators.
The excavations in 1997 and 2000
As of 1991, the bones of Neanderthals by an international team of researchers analyzed with modern methods again. For example, yielded a radiocarbon age of 39,900 ± 620 years (BP ); these Neanderthals belonged therefore to the last populations of these human species in Europe. Furthermore, in 1997 mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) succeeded from the humerus of the Neanderthal type specimen to win 1, the first mtDNA sample from a Neanderthal at all. In the publication, this first analysis results were interpreted very cautiously. Nevertheless, it was evidence to suggest that Neanderthals would be genetically far from anatomically modern humans. The title of the issue of the journal Cell was: " Neanderthals were not our ancestors " ( " Neanderthals were not our ancestors "). The decoding of the Neanderthal genome in 2010 relativized this statement.
Also in 1997, succeeded in September in excavations in the Neander Valley, ( ' " 40 6 ° 56 N, " 38' 51 ° 13 O51.2272222222226.9444444444444 ) to reconstruct the exact location of the former "little box Hofer Grotto". Under residues loamy cavity fillings and explosive debris from the limestone mining some stone tools and then a total of 20 more Neanderthal bone fragments were first discovered; until then, no stone tools had been handed down from the cave. In 2000, the excavations continued and discovered another 40 human teeth and bone fragments, including a piece of the temporal and the zygomatic bone, which could be exactly attach to the skull. A bone fragments could be precisely the left femur associated with the knee.
Particular attention was the discovery of a third humerus: Two humerus were already known since 1856. They had thus now been discovered the remains of a second, tender built individual; at least three more bone fragments are also present twice. This referred to as the Neanderthal 2 Fund has been dated to an age of 39 240 ± 670 years (BP ), that is exactly as old as the fossil Neandertal 1 In addition, the recovery of a milk tooth succeeded; this molar was attributed to a juvenile Neanderthal ( the third person ). This milk tooth was stolen in 2004 from a showcase of the Neanderthal Museum in Erkrath, but was later returned there a short time. On the basis of traces of abrasion and already abolished in parts of roots would close in modern man to a life age of the young people 11 to 14 years.
Over the course of the excavations, an archaeological garden was created after their completion, the installation should symbolize the changing history of the place. The small park belongs to the neighboring Neanderthal Museum, which gives a chronological outline of human evolution.