5. Adjusting to a cold climate

First of all, they weren't tall, but were extremely sturdly-built. They were known to be fat and short with muscular structure. Just like a short but muscular sumo wrestler.

Furthermore, their craniofacial morphology showed more distinctive traits. They had a receding frontal and a long low brain case stretching from front to back. Above their orbit was a highly developed bone ridge called the supraorbital ridge.

Their face showed a trait called Prognathism with a projecting mouth, but with no trace of projected chin called Protuberantia mentalis seen in modern men. Their extraordinarily large button-shaped nose, along with the prognathism formed a gigantic face.

Their face, however, was not the only large feature. As mentioned before, their cranial capacity was quite significant as well. We can easily imagine they were top-heavy compared with their short body.

Why did Neanderthals feature such traits? Anthropologists believed it resulted from adjusting to cold climate.

The European region at the time of the Neanderthals was in the midst of a glacial epoch with thick glaciers covering the earth. The weather was much like the weather of the Himalayas today. Neanderthals developed their distinctive traits in order to adjust to the severely cold climate. As glaciers spread, they also broadened their habitat.

Then, how were their traits adjustable to such cold climate? First of all, their fat and short structure which meant less body surface, made it possible to prevent the heat from escaping and therefore to preserve it inside their body. Secondly, their gigantic nose and large face were also the result of adaptive evolution. By such traits, the cold air that was breathed into the body was warmed by the body temperature before it reached the lung.

It is now thought that Neanderthals had white skin, blond hair and blue eyes, just like the people of Northern Europe today.

Translated by Rie Ishida