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CT scans show Neanderthal brains had different shape from ours
Nov 10, 2010, 9:40 GMT
Leipzig, Germany - Neanderthal people had brains with a different interior structure to ours, experts in Germany say Tuesday in a scientific study based on a computer tomography scan.
Previously scientists had guessed that Neanderthal intelligence matched that of Homo sapiens because both have the same brain size.
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany now suggests the two species may not have thought alike.
The team led by Jean-Jaques Hublin of the institute presented the findings in this week's issue of the journal Current Biology.
The interior structure which develops early in life in the Homo sapiens brain is more important to human intelligence than brain size. The fossil remains of a Neanderthal baby found in 1914 in France indicate the brain did not develop the same setup.
Hublin said the findings might explain the archaeological record which suggests Neanderthals and Homo sapiens did not behave alike. The species are differentiated by several genes that have an effect on brain development.
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