Two Neanderthal Pelvises Suggest the Anatomical Oddball Is Actually the Modern Human Male
Researchers from Tel Aviv University suggest that the modern human male pelvis is the evolutionary anomaly, rather than the Neanderthal pelvis. By comparing fossilized remains to modern humans, the study argues that Neanderthal pelvic structure is actually the retained ancestral form.
Why it matters
This study challenges long-held anthropological assumptions about human evolution and the anatomical development of the male pelvis.
For most of a century, the Neanderthal pelvis has been the anatomical puzzle. It is wide, its pubic bone is long and thin, and generations of researchers have tried to explain what that shape was for. Cold adaptation. Big babies. A different gait.A team led by Tel Aviv University now argues that everyone was looking at the wrong bone.Comparing two of the most complete Neanderthal male pelvises ever recovered against 63 modern male and 28 modern female pelvises, the researchers found that the Neanderthal males resembled modern human women more closely than modern human men across most measurements and proportions.
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