This is a list of Neanderthal fossils.
Remains of more than 300 European Neanderthals have been found. This is a list of the most notable.
Name | Age | Cranial capacity (cm3) | Year discovered |
Country | Discovered by | Now located at | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ehringsdorf skull | 150k–120k | 1450 [1] | 1908–1925 | Germany | Archäologischen Landesmuseums Thüringen | ||
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Engis 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1829 | Belgium | Philippe-Charles Schmerling | University of Liège |
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Gibraltar 1 | 40k | 1200 [1] | 1848 | Gibraltar | Edmund Flint | Natural History Museum, London |
|
Gibraltar 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1926 | Gibraltar | Dorothy Garrod | Natural History Museum, London |
Krijn | 100-40 ka | (Not a full skull) | 2001 | Netherlands | Luc Anthonis | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden | |
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La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 | 60k | 1600 [1] | 1908 | France | L. Bardon, A. Bouyssonie and J. Bouyssonie | |
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La Ferrassie 1 | 70k–50k | 1641 [1] | 1909 | France | Louis Capitan and Denis Peyrony | Musée de l'Homme |
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Neanderthal 1 | 40k | 1452 [1] | 1856 | Germany | Kleine Feldhofer Grotte | Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn |
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Saccopastore 1 | 250k | 1200 [2] | 1929 | Italy | ||
Saccopastore 2 | 250k | 1300 [3] | 1935 | Italy | Alberto Blanc and Henri Breuil | ||
Altamura Man | 170k | 1993 | Italy |
As of 2017, this list of Southwest Asian Neanderthals may be considered essentially complete.
Present-day country (country of discovery) | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turkey | Karain | Four teeth | 1 | — | Senyürek (1949) [4] [5] | |
Lebanon | Ksâr 'Akil | K2: Teeth and partial maxilla | 1 | — | Ewing (1963) [7] | Ewing lost this specimen while transferring Ksar Akil material from Boston College to Fordham University. [8] |
Lebanon | El Masloukh | Upper second molar [9] | (1) | — | ? | Neanderthal attribution is stratigraphic, not morphological. [10] |
Israel | Kebara | KMH1: 7-9 mo. old partial skel.
KMH2: Post-cranial adult ♂ Various fragments KMH3: Milk tooth (m1-r)
[11] |
21 + (10) | 64-59 [14] [15] | KMH1: Smith et al. (1977)
[16]
KMH2:
Arensburg et al. (1985)
[17] |
Neanderthal attribution uncertain in KMH18-23, 25, 29, and 31 [11] [13] |
West Bank ( Mandatory Palestine) | Shuqba | S-D1: Tooth and cranial frags. [9] | 1 | — | Keith (1931) [18] | |
Israel ( Mandatory Palestine) | Tabun | T C1: Nearly complete adult ♀ T C2: Toothed mandible missing I1 (♂) Various fragments T E1: Right femur shaft (♂?) |
15 | ≈170-90 | McCown (1936) McCown and Keith (1939) |
T C1: Neanderthal attribution is not universally accepted.
[22]
As of 1975, the whereabouts of T BC2, B3, and BC6 are unknown. [9]: 146 |
Israel | Ein Qashish | (EQH-2: Third molar)
EQH-3: Adult lower limbs |
1 + (1) [23] | 70-60 [23] | Been et al. (2017) [23] | Discovered in 2013, these were the first diagnostically Neanderthal remains in Southwest Asia not found in a cave.
[23]
EQH-2: 70% posterior probability that Neanderthal attribution is correct. [23] |
Israel | Shovakh | (Tooth, M(3)-l [24] [Note 1]) | (1) | — |
S. Binford (1966)
[25] |
"[A]lthough within archaic and modern human ranges of variation, this complex occlusal morphology may suggest that it is more likely to have derived from a Neandertal than an early modern human". (Trinkaus 1987) [24] |
Israel | Amud |
A1: Adult full skeleton ♂
A2: Maxillary fragment A7: 10-mo.-old partial skel. |
3 [Note 2] [26] | 61-53 [26] | A1: Suzuki et al. (1970)
[27]
A7: Rak et al. (1994) [28] |
|
Syria | Dederiyeh | D1: 19-30-month-old full skel.
D2: 21-30-month-old full skel. |
17 | — | D1: Akazawa et al. (1993)
[29]
D2: Akazawa et al. (1999) [30] |
|
Iraq | Shanidar | S1: Adult partial skel. ♂ S2: Adult crushed skel. ♂ |
10 | S2, S4: > 100
Others: 60 |
S1:
Stewart (1959)
[31] S2: Stewart (1961)
[32] |
Shanidar 2 and 4 are sometimes not treated as Neanderthals.
All but Shanidar 3 and 10 (and fragments of 5 excavated in 2015-2016) [36] may have been destroyed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [40] |
Iran | Bawa Yawan | Lower left deciduous canine | 1 | ~43,600-~41,500 years ago [41] | Heydari-Guran et al (2021) [41] | |
Iran | Wezmeh | maxillary right premolar tooth | 1 | 70-40 [42] | Zanolli et al. (2019) [42] | |
Iran | Bisitun | Adult radius shaft | 1 | — | Trinkaus and Biglari (2006) [43] | |
Total | 71 + (13) |
Central Asian Neanderthals were found in Uzbekistan and North Asian Neanderthals in Asian Russia.
Country | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Initial descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Uzbekistan | Teshik-Tash | 8-11-yr-old skeleton | 1 | — | Okladnikov (1949) | |
Uzbekistan | Obi-Rakhmat | Subadult skull frag. and teeth | 1 | 74 [44] | Glantz et al. (2008) [45] | |
Asian Russia | Chagyrskaya | Partial mandible | 1 | — | (Announced in Viola 2012) | |
Asian Russia | Okladnikov | Sub-adult humerus and femur | 1 | (Announced in Krause et al. 2007) [46] | mtDNA sampled | |
Asian Russia | Denisova | Altai 1: Toe phalanx♀ D11: Bone fragment | 2 | — | Mednikova (2011)
Brown, et al. (2016) [47] |
Altai 1: Full genome sequenced
[48]
D11: mtDNA sampled |
Total | 6 |
This is a list of Neanderthal fossils.
Remains of more than 300 European Neanderthals have been found. This is a list of the most notable.
Name | Age | Cranial capacity (cm3) | Year discovered |
Country | Discovered by | Now located at | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ehringsdorf skull | 150k–120k | 1450 [1] | 1908–1925 | Germany | Archäologischen Landesmuseums Thüringen | ||
![]() |
Engis 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1829 | Belgium | Philippe-Charles Schmerling | University of Liège |
![]() |
Gibraltar 1 | 40k | 1200 [1] | 1848 | Gibraltar | Edmund Flint | Natural History Museum, London |
|
Gibraltar 2 | Undated | ? (child) | 1926 | Gibraltar | Dorothy Garrod | Natural History Museum, London |
Krijn | 100-40 ka | (Not a full skull) | 2001 | Netherlands | Luc Anthonis | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden | |
![]() |
La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 | 60k | 1600 [1] | 1908 | France | L. Bardon, A. Bouyssonie and J. Bouyssonie | |
![]() |
La Ferrassie 1 | 70k–50k | 1641 [1] | 1909 | France | Louis Capitan and Denis Peyrony | Musée de l'Homme |
![]() |
Neanderthal 1 | 40k | 1452 [1] | 1856 | Germany | Kleine Feldhofer Grotte | Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn |
![]() |
Saccopastore 1 | 250k | 1200 [2] | 1929 | Italy | ||
Saccopastore 2 | 250k | 1300 [3] | 1935 | Italy | Alberto Blanc and Henri Breuil | ||
Altamura Man | 170k | 1993 | Italy |
As of 2017, this list of Southwest Asian Neanderthals may be considered essentially complete.
Present-day country (country of discovery) | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turkey | Karain | Four teeth | 1 | — | Senyürek (1949) [4] [5] | |
Lebanon | Ksâr 'Akil | K2: Teeth and partial maxilla | 1 | — | Ewing (1963) [7] | Ewing lost this specimen while transferring Ksar Akil material from Boston College to Fordham University. [8] |
Lebanon | El Masloukh | Upper second molar [9] | (1) | — | ? | Neanderthal attribution is stratigraphic, not morphological. [10] |
Israel | Kebara | KMH1: 7-9 mo. old partial skel.
KMH2: Post-cranial adult ♂ Various fragments KMH3: Milk tooth (m1-r)
[11] |
21 + (10) | 64-59 [14] [15] | KMH1: Smith et al. (1977)
[16]
KMH2:
Arensburg et al. (1985)
[17] |
Neanderthal attribution uncertain in KMH18-23, 25, 29, and 31 [11] [13] |
West Bank ( Mandatory Palestine) | Shuqba | S-D1: Tooth and cranial frags. [9] | 1 | — | Keith (1931) [18] | |
Israel ( Mandatory Palestine) | Tabun | T C1: Nearly complete adult ♀ T C2: Toothed mandible missing I1 (♂) Various fragments T E1: Right femur shaft (♂?) |
15 | ≈170-90 | McCown (1936) McCown and Keith (1939) |
T C1: Neanderthal attribution is not universally accepted.
[22]
As of 1975, the whereabouts of T BC2, B3, and BC6 are unknown. [9]: 146 |
Israel | Ein Qashish | (EQH-2: Third molar)
EQH-3: Adult lower limbs |
1 + (1) [23] | 70-60 [23] | Been et al. (2017) [23] | Discovered in 2013, these were the first diagnostically Neanderthal remains in Southwest Asia not found in a cave.
[23]
EQH-2: 70% posterior probability that Neanderthal attribution is correct. [23] |
Israel | Shovakh | (Tooth, M(3)-l [24] [Note 1]) | (1) | — |
S. Binford (1966)
[25] |
"[A]lthough within archaic and modern human ranges of variation, this complex occlusal morphology may suggest that it is more likely to have derived from a Neandertal than an early modern human". (Trinkaus 1987) [24] |
Israel | Amud |
A1: Adult full skeleton ♂
A2: Maxillary fragment A7: 10-mo.-old partial skel. |
3 [Note 2] [26] | 61-53 [26] | A1: Suzuki et al. (1970)
[27]
A7: Rak et al. (1994) [28] |
|
Syria | Dederiyeh | D1: 19-30-month-old full skel.
D2: 21-30-month-old full skel. |
17 | — | D1: Akazawa et al. (1993)
[29]
D2: Akazawa et al. (1999) [30] |
|
Iraq | Shanidar | S1: Adult partial skel. ♂ S2: Adult crushed skel. ♂ |
10 | S2, S4: > 100
Others: 60 |
S1:
Stewart (1959)
[31] S2: Stewart (1961)
[32] |
Shanidar 2 and 4 are sometimes not treated as Neanderthals.
All but Shanidar 3 and 10 (and fragments of 5 excavated in 2015-2016) [36] may have been destroyed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [40] |
Iran | Bawa Yawan | Lower left deciduous canine | 1 | ~43,600-~41,500 years ago [41] | Heydari-Guran et al (2021) [41] | |
Iran | Wezmeh | maxillary right premolar tooth | 1 | 70-40 [42] | Zanolli et al. (2019) [42] | |
Iran | Bisitun | Adult radius shaft | 1 | — | Trinkaus and Biglari (2006) [43] | |
Total | 71 + (13) |
Central Asian Neanderthals were found in Uzbekistan and North Asian Neanderthals in Asian Russia.
Country | Site | Principal Neanderthal finds | MNI | Geological age (ka) | Initial descriptions | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Uzbekistan | Teshik-Tash | 8-11-yr-old skeleton | 1 | — | Okladnikov (1949) | |
Uzbekistan | Obi-Rakhmat | Subadult skull frag. and teeth | 1 | 74 [44] | Glantz et al. (2008) [45] | |
Asian Russia | Chagyrskaya | Partial mandible | 1 | — | (Announced in Viola 2012) | |
Asian Russia | Okladnikov | Sub-adult humerus and femur | 1 | (Announced in Krause et al. 2007) [46] | mtDNA sampled | |
Asian Russia | Denisova | Altai 1: Toe phalanx♀ D11: Bone fragment | 2 | — | Mednikova (2011)
Brown, et al. (2016) [47] |
Altai 1: Full genome sequenced
[48]
D11: mtDNA sampled |
Total | 6 |