NEANDERTHAL LA FERRASSIE FOSSILS

Comments: The Neanderthal skeleton known as La Ferrassie 1 was discovered by R. Capitan and D. Peyrony on September 17, 1909. The La Ferrassie rock shelter in Les Ezyies, Dordogne France yielded Neanderthal skeletons from eight individuals, including adults, children, infants, and two fetuses, all of which had been purposely buried in the shelter.

The La Ferrassie 1 skeleton is of an adult male exhibiting many classic Neanderthal traits including a prominent supraorbital torus (brow bone), a low-vaulted cranium with sloped forehead, a large nasal opening and a well-developed occipital bun (a swelling of bone at the back of the skull on the occipital bone). When discovered, all the teeth were preserved in place and exhibited heavy wear indicating that this was an individual mature in years. A fascinating characteristic was identified in the analysis of the remains from La Ferrassie. Unlike normal flat wear on the surface of the incisors, the La Ferrassie individuals had a beveled wear pattern towards the lip of the incisors. One theory as to the reason for this is that this was a result of habitual use of the teeth as a tool for holding something in place. A potential interesting aspect of Neanderthal culture.

The La Ferrassie find remains one of the most valuable and important fossil discoveries of primitive humans. This site produced the remains of an adult male and an adult female, providing documentation of sexual dimorphism (differences in size between males and females) in Neanderthals. Furthermore, the presence of juvenile and infant individuals gave paleoanthropologists the ability to reconstruct the developmental stages of Homo neanderthalensis.

The remains from La Ferrassie revolutionized our understanding of Neanderthals and rendered inaccurate our previous beliefs that Neanderthals were stooped, brutish ape-men. This misconception goes back to a previous discovery of the first Neanderthal skeleton at La Chapelle-aux-Saints. Not known at the time, that skeleton was from an extreme elderly Neanderthal male that was severely hunched over from bone degradation as a result of his old age, not as a trait of Homo neanderthalensis as was then believed. The postcranial bones (skeleton) associated with La Ferrassie 1 provided us with invaluable proof that the posture and gait of Neanderthals was nearly identical to modern humans. Today, the skeleton of La Ferrassie 1 is considered the "classic" example of Neanderthal anatomy.

Recent dating analysis of the La Ferrassie shelter indicates that the skeletons may be as old as 70,000 years.