Amud 9 Shown To Be Neanderthal Woman Weighing 60 Kg From The Late Pleistocene

Amud 9 Shown To Be Neanderthal Woman Weighing 60 Kg From The Late Pleistocene

Adrián Pablos, a scientist from the Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), carried out a study published in a PaleoAnthropology, the Paleoanthropology Society’s official journal, which looked at the morphology and anatomy of partial foot recovered over 25 years ago at Amud Cave, Israel.

The woman of the Neandertal Late Pleistocene, with a stature of about 160-166 cm and weight of 60 kg was the one who confirmed the individual Amud 9.

In several excavations carried out at Amud Cave in the 20th century, fossils of at least 15 Neandertals were found. 

A systematic and detailed study of one of these individuals, Amud 9, has found that the fossil possesses the traits usually associated with Neanderthals in the characteristics of the foot, tarsals, metatarsals and phalanges, which differ from those of modern humans, both fossil and recent.

“Most of these traits are related to the typical, exceptional robustness of the postcranial skeleton, that is, from the neck down, observed in the majority of Neandertals,” explains Pablos.

Sex, weight and height

Sex, weight, and height estimates in fossil populations are normally based on the dimensions of the large leg bones. However, in the case of Amud 9, only a fragment of tibia, the talus or ankle bone, one metatarsal or instep bone, and several phalanges are conserved.

As no long leg bones have been found, the researchers applied different mathematical estimates based upon the foot bones, thus obtaining an approximation to important paleobiological parameters.

“Knowing parameters such as the body size and sex of this individual helps us learn a bit more about what the Neandertals were like,” he says.