After 150,000 Years in a Cave, a Neanderthal Skull Looks Like This

The process of aging and decay is an amazing thing in itself but this Neanderthal man done it in the style of a malt whisky. Its presumed he fell into the cave about 150,000 years ago and starved to death. In time his skull became part of the cave and looks like its adorned with jewel.



The skull was of further use as it has allowed scientist to take the oldest sample of Neanderthal DNA ecer collected.

The scientists were also able to extract DNA from the bone—the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever collected, in fact. The next step is likely sequencing that genetic material, though that is much easier said than done. Because Neanderthal DNA is so similar to that of humans, a single particle of human skin could contaminate the results.
This ancient DNA could yield some answers to how hominids evolved, but it won’t give them up easily.

gizmodo.com...

Happy Days

Purp..

a reply to: purplemer
Wow. Very nice.
The skull, apart from the mineral encrustations looks very well preserved.

a reply to: butcherguy

I thought the mineral encrustations made it look nice.

purp..

a reply to: purplemer

Reminds me of those sugar skulls from Mexico - very attractive and ornamental.

Seeing as the gene sequencing is the most important thing here, it's good that we can extract enough material whilst leaving the remains where they are. Given the unique age, it's also probable that sequencing will reveal something about Neanderthal ancestry that we don't currently know. That's something that always seems to bring exciting news for those who are interested.

Lovely image too.

Some more extensive information here if anyone intrested.

A team of researchers working in Italy has confirmed that Altamura Man was a Neanderthal and dating of pieces of calcite which were on the remains has revealed that the bones are 128,000 to 187,000 years old. In their paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution, the team describes how they extracted a small bone sample and examined it and what they found by doing so.

phys.org...

purp

a reply to: Kandinsky

Thanks for that had to look up sugar skulls never heard of them before.. They are funky looking things..

Ornamental ridge brow…

Too bad we can't read the full article without "credentials" (or twenty bucks).

Overall, the results concur in indicating that it belongs to the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis, with some phenetic peculiarities that appear consistent with a chronology ranging from 172 ± 15 ka to 130.1 ± 1.9 ka. Thus, the skeleton from Altamura represents the most ancient Neanderthal from which endogenous DNA has ever been extracted.

I'll buy that for a dollar.

Nice find...

Kind of a creepy picture.. Hope they can sequence it... And double hope the results are published.

Neanderthal DNA huh? Can we expect to see them walking around again in the near future. It'd be nice if we could somehow extract his last thoughts before he passed, like in the show "Fringe". It would probably go something like this:

"Damn human #ing pushed me, who do they think they are? Now how the hell am I going to get out of here?"

a reply to: Irishhaf

I did read an article not long ago about the possibility of bringing them back to life. Thought provoking stuff.. We would probably put them in a zoo or something..

purp..

a reply to: purplemer

Thanks! We can always count on you for interesting cool stuff.

F&S

a reply to: soficrow

Thank you glad you liked it.

purp

That looks kind of pretty. I wonder if people long ago saw that when they went into the cave. Could you imagine seeing the eye crystals glow when you came in there burning a torch, then see a skull embedded in the wall or floor. Even the bravest of ancient people would have got the hebijeebies from that.

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Irishhaf

I did read an article not long ago about the possibility of bringing them back to life. Thought provoking stuff.. We would probably put them in a zoo or something..

purp..

In the words of Geoff Goldblum's character in Jurassic park 'It's not a case of if we can do it,more a case of should we do it?'

originally posted by: Imagewerx

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: Irishhaf

I did read an article not long ago about the possibility of bringing them back to life. Thought provoking stuff.. We would probably put them in a zoo or something..

purp..

In the words of Geoff Goldblum's character in Jurassic park 'It's not a case of if we can do it,more a case of should we do it?'

It's was done by Asimov...
The Ugly Little Boy
And I would add this...(hoping that the April 1'st date is incidental)
What Did Neanderthals Sound Like?

a reply to: purplemer

It would be extremely cool to study a living neanderthal but for me, compassion wins over curiosity and I think it would be cruel to create one and have it live in captivity.

Very cool thread

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: butcherguy

I thought the mineral encrustations made it look nice.

purp..

The calcite growths are a good thing in that they offer another means of dating the bones.
They don't look bad, I was just commenting on the bare skull condition.

Wow, wonderful find!

I feel sorry for that old soul though; fell into the cave and starved to death in darkness.. maybe broke some bones too?

Poor guy
..lonely and miserable way to go

Thanks for sharing

Not really ON THE SUBJECT but I'm sure y'all will forgive me just this once...www.skullis.com...

a reply to: cavtrooper7

Thank you for reply...Forgiven.. Tis a good and relavant link...

purp