From DNA to the Fossil Record, Here’s Why We Have a Good Idea of What Neanderthals Looked Like

Our popular culture view of what Neanderthals might have looked like hasn’t changed in decades. They are smaller, stockier and have no chin. But how do we know? How did we establish this view of Neanderthal appearance?

According to experts, the fossil record tells us the majority of what we know, with the help of DNA evidence. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about how it all would have played out.

Learn more: Neanderthal vs Homo Sapiens: how are Neanderthals different from humans?

What we can learn from the fossil record

So far, researchers have discovered hundreds of Neanderthal skeletons from around the world, according to the Australian Museum. They found skeletons of infants up to those considered elderly, around 40 years old. There are also about 25 skeletons from which researchers can recover DNA. This is how, explains April Nowell, a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria, we are able to paint a picture of what these early extinct humans would have looked like.

“The majority of what we know about the appearance of Neanderthals comes from their actual skeletal remains,” says Nowell. We are able to extrapolate from what we know about human and primate anatomy what Neanderthals would have looked like from their skeletal remains.

It can also help discern how their size, cranial structure, and other features might have been different from modern humans. Yet it is more difficult to know from their skeletal remains how they could have supported their weight as well as the color of their skin and eyes.

How are Neanderthals different from modern humans?

“Neanderthals were on average smaller and stockier than modern humans of the same period,” says Nowell. They were probably around 5 feet 5 inches tall, compared to early modern humans, who were probably closer to 6 feet tall, much taller than one would expect, according to the Australian Museum.

Humans became smaller with the introduction of agriculture.

Neanderthal limbs would also have been shorter on average. Their bones show robust muscular markings, suggesting they were very active. Their legs appear slightly more curved than those of humans due to differences in muscle attachment sites, according to a study by Journal of Human Evolution.

Additionally, Nowell says, Neanderthals had barrel chests and wider widths, with wider hip joints. Some experts suggest that they were built this way because they lived in Europe during the coldest times and ice ages.

“They were built to retain heat,” says Nowell.

What the genome tells us about differences in Neanderthal face formation

As high-quality Neanderthal genomes have been discovered, researchers have also been able to examine Neanderthal genome sequences from this perspective, says Hannah Long, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh. His recent study, published in the journal Development, compared the genomes of modern humans to those of three high-quality Neanderthal genomes.

Humans and Neanderthals share about 20,000 genes, but Long and his team observed differences in how genes are expressed in noncoding regions of the genome.

“We know that a number of genes play an important role in facial formation,” says Long. How genes are turned on or off at certain times impacts the differences in our faces, as well as other differences in their appearance.

Researchers can discern which genomic regions influence specific facial traits in human diseases, particularly in patients with Pierre Robin syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by a small lower jaw, breathing problems and a cleft palate, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Deletions and mutations close to the SOX9 gene appear to be at the origin of the differences.

These changes were more common in the Neanderthal genome, indicating a wider lower jaw, and they also feature a molar space that humans do not have. Modern humans also have chins, unlike Neanderthals.

The combination of skeletal remains and DNA tells us that if you were to compare the DNA of Homo neanderthalensis to that of a Homo sapiens, they would be largely the same, but the visual differences are still easy to see. Basically, if you saw a Neanderthal walking down the street, experts say, you’d definitely know the difference.

Learn more: Early Neanderthals and classical Neanderthals likely experienced a genetic bottleneck 110,000 years ago

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