A 6-year-old Neanderthal child had Down syndromeThat’s what a new analysis of an oddly shaped ear bone found in a cave in Spain suggests.
The finding is the first known case of Down syndrome in Neanderthalsour closest human relatives who lived in Eurasia from about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. The fact that the child, nicknamed Tina, survived into early childhood suggests that her Neanderthal group cared for her, providing evidence that Neanderthals engaged in altruistic behavior.
“This child would have required care for at least 6 years, likely requiring other group members to assist the mother in caring for the child,” the researchers wrote in a new study, published Wednesday (June 26) in the journal Scientific progress.
The ear bone was first excavated in 1989 at Cova Negra (Spanish for “Black Cave”) in XÃ tiva, a city in the province of Valencia, in 1989. Other Neanderthal remains in the cave date to between 273,000 and 146,000 years ago. However, the bone – a fragment of a temporal bone – was mixed with animal remains and was only recently identified, the researchers said.
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The team used micro-CT (computed tomography) to scan the bone, allowing them to create a digital 3D model of it.
Tina’s ear bone had an irregular shape consistent with Down syndrome, the team found. It also had other unusual aspects, including a smaller cochlea and abnormalities of the lateral semicircular canal (LSC), the shortest of the three ear canals, which together can cause hearing loss and severe dizziness, according to a rack.
Because people with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21, a genetic test is needed to know for sure whether Tina actually has the condition.
If she did, it was likely that Tina’s condition required care from multiple people in her group, the team said.
It was already known that Neanderthals existed cared for sick members in their social groups. However, all known cared for individuals were adults, so it was unclear whether Neanderthals only cared for those who could help them in return or whether they did it out of altruism.
Given that a 6-year-old girl with a serious genetic condition couldn’t do much to return the favor, it’s likely that Neanderthals helped her out of altruism, the team said.
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“What was not known until now was a case of an individual who had received help even if they could not return the favor, which would prove the existence of true altruism among Neanderthals,” said the study’s lead author. Mercedes Condesays a professor at the University of Alcalá in Spain in a rack. “That’s exactly what the discovery of ‘Tina’ means.”
The discovery also has implications for modern humans.
“The presence of this complex social adaptation in both Neanderthals and our own species suggests a very ancient origin within the genus Homo“, the researchers wrote in the study.
