Neanderthals: Sensible, Decent Homebodies; and My Ancestors

A long time ago, some folks were — apparently — living happily in the Rhône River Valley.

Whether or not they were happy there, we’ve found evidence that they stayed near what we call the Grotte Mandrin for 50,000 years. And that they somehow managed to keep newcomers from disturbing their solitude: and isolation.

Idyllic as that may seem, keeping themselves free from what my culture called miscegenation may explain why Neanderthals aren’t part of today’s world. Not as identifiable individuals, at any rate.

• Neanderthals: Finding a New Page From Their Story
  • Recognizing the Homo Neanderthalensis Type Specimen: Eventually
  • The Vanished Neanderthals: Still an Enigma
  • Living Happily in the Middle Rhône River Valley
  • Many Questions, Still Finding Answers
• Point, Counterpoint, Neanderthals, the Campbells, and Me
  • European, Yes; Biased, Yes; “Anglo-Teutonic”, No
  • Familiarity, Forensic Reconstructions, and Another Piece of the Puzzle
• Muscles, Mammals, and Much More Left to Learn

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Neanderthals: Finding a New Page From Their Story

“Ancient DNA Reveals Neanderthal Group Was Isolated for 50,000 Years“
Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine (September 12, 2024)

“In 2015, archaeologists discovered the remains of a Neanderthal in a cave in southern France. They nicknamed him ‘Thorin’ after a dwarf character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

“For the last nine years, researchers have been painstakingly excavating Thorin’s teeth and bones at the site, called Grotte Mandrin. Now, a new analysis of Thorin’s ancient DNA suggests he belonged to a previously unknown lineage of Neanderthals that was isolated for 50,000 years, despite the fact that other members of their species were close by….”

These days, everybody looks a bit like me: more-or-less pointy chin; around 171 centimeters or 159 centimeters tall for men or women, respectively. That’s five foot seven or three inches.

We’re very aware of individual and regional differences, but I figure that’s because we’re very social creatures: which makes being able to tell who’s who very important.

We didn’t know about, or remember, the folks we call Neanderthals until the mid-1800s. That’s when two researchers studied and described parts of a skull, legs, arms, and torso of someone who’d died about 40,000 years back.

The bones had been in a cave that’s not there any more. They showed up during quarrying operations in the Neandertal Valley, east of Dusseldorf.

These weren’t the first Neanderthal remains found, but they were the first that were studied by folks who realized what — who — they were looking at.¹

Recognizing the Homo Neanderthalensis Type Specimen: Eventually

The quarry’s owners figured the bones were from a cave bear, but the researchers saw that they were human.

Or, rather, human — but different.

The top of this individual’s skull strongly suggested that the missing face wasn’t nearly as delicate as the current model’s.

Good news, the bones and papers describing what we now call Neanderthal 1 didn’t get lost.

Not-so-good news, biological sciences in Germany were mostly filtered through the ideals of Rudolf Virchow, a very smart chap who recognized evolution as a threat to his political preferences.

He had a point. One of the basic ideas of evolution is that an organism’s ancestors affect how the organism looks and lives.

Since Virchow thought that a person’s skills should matter more than the person’s ancestors, he stuck the ‘elitism’ label on evolution. He was also a socialist, didn’t believe in germ theory, was a staunch anti-Darwinist, and I’m not going to try discussing 19th century politics this week.

I don’t know why Virchow turned the Neanderthal bones over to an anatomist and eye specialist who apparently was also:

“…a resolute supporter of the Christian belief of creation in its traditionalist form….”
(“Lag Eden im Neandertal? Auf der Suche nach dem frühen Menschen” / “Was Eden in the Neandertal? In search of early humans”, Martin Kuckenberg (1997) via Wikipedia)

I didn’t find much about August Franz Josef Karl Mayer, the “resolute supporter”, and didn’t spend all that much time looking.

The first two researchers who looked at Neanderthal 1’s remains decided that he had been like us, but different, was solidly built, and had lived a very long time ago.

That wasn’t what Virchow and Mayer wanted to be true. So for a long time, Neanderthal 1 was — according to smart people — a Russian Cossack. A Cossack, poor fellow, who had suffered from rickets before dying in the Neandertal Valley.

In fairness, other smart people who looked at Neanderthal 1 weren’t dedicated to making evidence fit their preferences.²

The Vanished Neanderthals: Still an Enigma

Now let’s look — briefly — at what these researchers said about the Neanderthal they nicknamed “Thorin”.

“Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction”
Ludovic Slimak, Tharsika Vimala, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Laure Metz, Clément Zanolli, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Marine Frouin, Lee J. Arnold, Martina Demuro, Thibaut Devièse, Daniel Comeskey, Michael Buckley, Hubert Camus, Xavier Muth, Jason E. Lewis, Hervé Bocherens, Pascale Yvorra, Christophe Tenailleau, Benjamin Duployer, Hélène Coqueugniot, Olivier Dutour, Thomas Higham, Martin Sikora; Cell Genomics (September 11, 2024)

“Summary
“Neanderthal genomes have been recovered from sites across Eurasia, painting an increasingly complex picture of their populations’ structure that mostly indicates that late European Neanderthals belonged to a single metapopulation with no significant evidence of population structure. … These dentognathic fossils, including a rare example of distomolars, are associated with a rich archeological record of Neanderthal final technological traditions in this region ∼50-42 thousand years ago. Thorin’s genome reveals a relatively early divergence of ∼105 ka with other late Neanderthals. Thorin belonged to a population with a small group size that showed no genetic introgression with other known late European Neanderthals, revealing some 50 ka of genetic isolation of his lineage despite them living in neighboring regions. These results have important implications for resolving competing hypotheses about causes of the disappearance of the Neanderthals.…”
(emphasis mine)

Something I liked in summary was their using “disappearance” instead of “extinction” to describe the Neanderthals’ current status.

It’s a real puzzle, since Neanderthals had endured for something like 400,000 years, living in Europe and as far east as the Altai Mountains. Then, about 40,000 years ago, they went off the radar.

Make that almost off the radar. Folks whose recentish ancestors weren’t living in Sub-Saharan Africa have between 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA in their gene pool.

Odds are that, since my (recent) ancestral homelands are scattered across northwestern Europe, around 4% of my DNA is good old Neanderthal coding. Probably.

I’ve had my DNA tested, but that analysis focused on solving an issue for another family member: not satisfying my genealogical curiosity.

Folks who look a bit like me, early/anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, or just plain “humans”, showed up some 300,000 years ago.

We’re still unsure about exactly when we left Africa. But it’s a near-certainty that we lost little or no time before spreading out.

Rubbing elbows with Neanderthals and other folks who’d left humanity’s homeland earlier helps explain how we’re preserving their genes.³

But it doesn’t explain why the Neanderthals stopped being part of the mix. Or how Thorin’s people ended up with none of our DNA.

Living Happily in the Middle Rhône River Valley

Ludovic Slimak and the other scientists haven’t, I think, given us the final word on what happened to the Neanderthals. But I think they’ve uncovered an important clue.

Neanderthals, at least those living near the Mandrin Cave in the middle Rhône River Valley, may have felt that their home was the best place anyone could imagine.

They may have been right. But that, and having the happy valley to themselves, may also help explain why Neanderthals aren’t part of today’s ethic mix.

That Smithsonian Magazine article summarized what this month’s “Neanderthal” study said about Thorin and his community:

“…To learn more about Thorin, scientists used a fragment of a root from one of his fossilized molars. This sample allowed them to generate a whole-genome sequence, which revealed evidence of recent inbreeding.…”

“…Thorin belonged to a small group of Neanderthals who lived between 42,000 and 50,000 years ago. He seems to have lived at the more recent end of that window, but his DNA is similar to a much older group that diverged from the main Neanderthal population around 105,000 years ago. After separating from other Neanderthals, the evidence suggests that group remained isolated for the next 50,000 years.

“This discovery raises new questions. Why was this group cut off from other Neanderthals? And did their separation ultimately contribute to the species’ extinction some 40,000 years ago?…”
“Ancient DNA Reveals Neanderthal Group Was Isolated for 50,000 Years“
Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine (September 12, 2024) (emphasis mine)

Many Questions, Still Finding Answers

Mandrin Cave, Grotte Mandrin, is named after Louis Mandrin, by the way: a French Robin Hood analog.

The cave is at a strategic spot, and has a beautiful view. It was used by alternating sets of Neanderthals and folks who look like us long before French tax collectors got rich by adding personal fees to the official taxes-due figures. And that’s yet again another topic.

“…The isolated Neanderthals were apparently content to stay in one place. Homo sapiens, meanwhile, were interacting and sharing knowledge.

“‘They were happy in their valley and did not need to move, while Homo sapiens all the time they want to explore, to see what is there after this river, after this mountain,’ [Ludovic] Slimak tells CNN’s Katie Hunt. ‘[We have] this need, this need to move, and this need to build a social network.’”
“Ancient DNA Reveals Neanderthal Group Was Isolated for 50,000 Years“
Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine (September 12, 2024) (emphasis mine)

We’ve been studying molecular biology and tracking DNA codes for less than a century. Applying that knowledge to studies of evolution didn’t take off until the last few decades.

We have, however, been keeping track of genetically isolated groups for quite some time: like the Spanish Habsburgs.

That family’s habit of marrying close relatives kept their wealth intact, but it also ensured that whatever genetic problems they had also stayed in the family.

There have been lively debates over just how the shrinking Spanish Habsburg gene pool correlates with their heritage of epilepsy, insanity, and early death. The last of them, Charlies II of Spain, somehow managed to not die for 38 years. And that’s yet another topic.

Getting back to the Mandrin Cave Neanderthals, they’re just one community. We don’t know whether their habit of keeping to themselves was typical Neanderthal behavior, or if we’re looking at a prehistoric Hapsburg scenario.

This recent research does, however, suggest that at least some Neanderthal communities were careful about letting outsiders move in.

On the other hand, we know that Neanderthal DNA is in today’s gene pool. So even if most Neanderthals were “happy in their valley”, and kept newcomers out, a few twitchy individuals kept heading for the horizon, becoming some of our long-forgotten ancestors.⁴

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Point, Counterpoint, Neanderthals, the Campbells, and Me

Neanderthals would have a time blending into a crowd today.

And so would I, if I tried mingling with locals in, say, Kyoto.

Neanderthals weren’t all that tall, about 165 centimeters or 153 centimeters for men or women, respectively: five foot five inches or five foot even.

But they weren’t nearly as delicate-featured and spindly as we are.

Muscle attachment points on their bones, and genetic analysis, tell us that your average Neanderthal was almost ridiculously strong. By our standards.

But don’t let that, and their heavy features, fool you.

They had big brains. Bigger than ours.

We’d know a lot more about Neanderthal brains — and behavior — if they were part of today’s population.

As it is, we’re limited to informed speculation, taking our knowledge of the current model’s brain architecture as a starting point.

The last I checked, researchers were still considering the Neanderthals’ different head shape; and speculating about how good they were at being social, tech-savvy and artistic.⁵

Confirming or refuting those speculations will be tricky. At least until we develop new analytic tools. And finally get over the notion that looking English, German, French, or whatever, correlates positively with being smart.

Maybe Neanderthals really weren’t all that bright, and didn’t have a refined sense of touch; but were really good at seeing and smelling.

Or maybe Neanderthals didn’t perceive the world quite the way most of us do: and were at least as smart. Smart in different ways, maybe, but smart.

Smarter? Could be. I’m willing to consider the idea: since no matter how strong and smart folks are, if they don’t keep having kids who grow up and have more kids — it won’t be long before they’re gone.

European, Yes; Biased, Yes; “Anglo-Teutonic”, No

I’ll admit to having a bias.

My recent ancestors include those ‘other’ Norwegians: the short, black-haired ones. Like the Sámi peoples, except that we didn’t get listed. Or maybe we did, under “folklore”.

Then there’s the other side of the family. Not all that long ago, an Irishman came sniffing around the daughter of a decent American family. Asked about the suitor’s lineage, one of my ancestors replied, “he doesn’t have family. He’s Irish.” The kids got married anyway, and a couple generations later I came along.

I’m also descended from the clan Campbell. My father showed me a group photo from a few generations back — and sure enough, they all had the clan’s cam beul: a “crooked” or “wry” mouth.⁶

I don’t have a cam beul, and neither did my father; possibly thanks to that Irishman’s genetic influence. But I don’t see myself as more ‘human’, or less, because I don’t look like part of the clan.

With my family background, it’s a small wonder I’ve got biases, of a sort, against seeing folks who are clearly not from the ‘proper’ families as not — proper. Or maybe not even quite really ‘people’. Not like the proper people are.

Turning that around, I don’t immediately assume that someone whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower are automatically jerks. No great virtue: the assumption just doesn’t make sense to me.

Familiarity, Forensic Reconstructions, and Another Piece of the Puzzle

Another point, admittedly an unscientific one, is that recent reconstructions of Neanderthal features — using forensic reconstruction techniques — have a familiar look to them.

I’ve never seen anyone who looks quite like that reconstruction (right) of an old Neanderthal man.

But I have known old-timers, first-generation immigrants from northern Europe, who looked a little like him. It’s mostly the nose.

But again: that’s unscientific, and I won’t insist on it.

I’ve run across criticism of recent Neanderthal reconstructions, pointing out that they involve (some) guesswork and artistic license.⁷

Fair enough. I think recognizing differences between evidence and analysis is a good idea. But I think that accepting evidence, even if it doesn’t fit what the textbooks of my youth said: is also a good idea.

As for the latest study of “Thorin’s” DNA, and the implications it has for our understanding of his community?

I think we’ve found one small piece of a very large puzzle.

It may be an important piece. But we have a great deal more to learn, before we understand that part of humanity’s long story.

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Muscles, Mammals, and Much More Left to Learn

Finally, it’s starting to look like Neanderthals may be the ‘normal’ ones: at least in terms of strength.

“…we looked at genetic variants previous studies had shown to be associated with elite power or sprint athletes. We found that the majority of these power-associated genetic variants were in fact much more common in Neanderthals than in humans today. So it does seem that our theory derived from the study of Neanderthal ecology stands up to provisional genetic scrutiny.
“It is important to note that these results are based on a relatively small number of Neanderthals whose DNA has been read.…”
(“Neanderthals were sprinters rather than distance runners, study surprisingly suggests” (John Stewart, The Conversation, via Phys.org (January 31, 2019)) (emphasis mine)

The current human ratio of slow-and fast-twitch muscles isn’t unique. There’s at least one other mammal that’s like us in that respect: the slow loris.

“…characterization of fiber-type distributions in the muscles of lemurs, galagos, and macaques suggests that a predominance of MHC II (IIa + IId) isoforms (i.e., fast fibers) is common among primates, as well as other terrestrial mammals (SI Appendix, SI Methods and Table S5). Indeed, the slow loris (Nycticebus coucang) is the only other mammal measured to date with a predominance of slow fibers across its skeletal muscles. Thus, we suggest that the high percentage of MHC I fibers in human skeletal muscle is a derived trait within the hominin lineage, rather than a characteristic of African apes or other nonhuman primates in general….”
(“Chimpanzee super strength and human skeletal muscle evolution” ; Matthew C. O’Neill, Brian R. Umberger, Nicholas B. Holowka, Peter J. Reiser; PNAS (June 26, 2017)) (emphasis mine)

That doesn’t mean that we’re slow lorises, or that slow lorises are people.

And, since there is very likely more than genetics involved in how many of which fibers are in our muscles⁸ — as I keep saying, we have a great deal left to learn.

Which is exciting, considering how much we’ve already discovered:

• “Science, Religion, and Saying Goodbye to the 19th Century”
  (May 25, 2024)
• “Evolution and a Gene Expression Code Library”
  (April 20, 2024)
• “Half-Million-Year-Old Structure: Rethinking Cavemen, Origins”
  (March 9, 2024)
• “Ancient Stone Tools: Hello, Fellow Humans?”
  (February 18, 2023)
• “Horses and Humans, Chimps and Muscles”
  (December 31, 2022)

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¹ Neanderthals, a little background:

• Wikipedia
  • Düsseldorf
  • Human
  • Kleine Feldhofer Grotte
  • Neanderthal
  • Neanderthal 1
  • Neandertal (valley)
• “Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction”
  Ludovic Slimak, Tharsika Vimala, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Laure Metz, Clément Zanolli, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Marine Frouin, Lee J. Arnold, Martina Demuro, Thibaut Devièse, Daniel Comeskey, Michael Buckley, Hubert Camus, Xavier Muth, Jason E. Lewis, Hervé Bocherens, Pascale Yvorra, Christophe Tenailleau, Benjamin Duployer, Hélène Coqueugniot, Olivier Dutour, Thomas Higham, Martin Sikora; Cell Genomics (September 11, 2024)

² (Finally) recognizing Neanderthals:

• Wikipedia
  • Aryan race (A particular set of folks living in northern Europe who were better than everyone else: according to some of those folks. Pseudoscience, but still appeals to some audiences.)
  • August Franz Josef Karl Mayer (Researcher who studied the Neanderthal 1 remains, after Fuhlrott and Schaaffhausen did their research.)
  • Germ theory of disease (The idea that microorganisms can cause disease. A ‘down’ side is that it encourages washing one’s hands.)
  • German campaign of 1813 (‘Wars of liberation’, defending Germany from Napoleon.)
  • Hermann Schaaffhausen (“This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations….”) (One of two researchers who first studied the Neanderthal 1 remains.)
  • Johann Carl Fuhlrott (One of two researchers who first studied the Neanderthal 1 remains.)
  • Junk science (Fraudulent research: something the other side in a political screaming contest does.)
  • Neanderthal
  • Neanderthal 1 (First Neanderthal specimen identified as being one of a distinct species.)
  • Pseudoscience (Sounds scientific, but isn’t: phrenology, determining someone’s character by measuring the bumps on the subject’s head, is a good — or bad — example.)
  • Rickets (An unpleasant medical condition resulting in weak or soft bones, pain, and trouble sleeping.)
  • Rudolf Virchow (Scientist, prehistorian, writer, editor, resolutely anti-Catholic; apparently believed in the importance of maintaining political purity when doing science.)
  • Type (biology)
    • Type specimen
• “Hominin life history: reconstruction and evolution“
  Shannen L. Robson, Bernard Wood; Review; Journal of Anatomy (2008)

³ People, places, and practices:

• Wikipedia
  • Altai Mountains
  • Early modern human (AKA anatomically modern human)
  • Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
  • Mandrin Cave (French: “Grotte Mandrin”) (“This article needs additional citations for verification….”)
  • Neanderthal
    • Extinction
  • Neanderthal extinction
  • Neanderthal genome project
  • Sub-Saharan Africa

⁴ Miscellanea:

• Wikipedia
  • Charles II of Spain (“El Hechizado” / “the Bewitched”, last of the Spanish Habsburgs: and an example of why inbreeding is a bad idea.)
  • DNA (We’ve learned a lot over the last several decades.)
  • Early expansions of hominins out of Africa (“This article is about spreading theory of early humans before about 200,000 years ago. For migrations of anatomically modern humans, see Recent African origin of modern humans….”
  • Early human migrations (“…They are believed to have begun approximately 2 million years ago with the early expansions out of Africa by Homo erectus….”) (We’ve been on the move for a long time.)
  • Early modern human (AKA anatomically modern human.)
  • Genetics (Gregor Mendel, a 19th century Moravian Augustinian friar, got this science started.)
  • History of molecular biology (Started in the 1930s.)
  • House of Habsburg
    • Habsburg inbreeding and extinction of the male lines
  • Human (The current model.)
  • Human evolution (Yes, evolution: see “Accepting and appreciating the Almighty’s work…”, below.)
  • Human Genome Project (Started in 1990, completed in 2003.)
  • Interbreeding between archaic and modern humans (I don’t like the “interbreeding” term, but it’s technically accurate.)
  • Louis Mandrin (Hero, outlaw, take your pick: executed in 1755.)
  • Neanderthal
  • Neanderthal behavior (“The details about Neanderthal behaviour remain highly controversial….” That’s putting it mildly.)
  • Neanderthal genetics (“This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards….”) (Basically, we’ve been learning a LOT about Neanderthal genetics since 2010.)
  • Recent African origin of modern humans (200,000-300,000 years ago.)
  • Rhône (A major river in France and Switzerland)
• “Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France”
  Ludovic Slimak, Clément Zanolli, Tom Higham , Marine Frouin, Jean-Luc Schwenninger, Lee J Arnold, Martina Demuro, Katerina Douka, Norbert Mercier, Gilles Guérin, Hélène Valladas, Pascale Yvorra, Yves Giraud, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Ludovic Orlando, Jason E Lewis, Xavier Muth, Hubert Camus, Ségolène Vandevelde, Mike Buckley, Carolina Mallol, Chris Stringer, Laure Metz; Science Acvances (February 9, 2022)
• “A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome”
  Richard E. Green, Johannes Krause, Adrian W. Briggs, Tomislav Maricic, Udo Stenzel, Martin Kircher, Nick Patterson, Heng Li, Weiwei Zhai, Markus Hsi-Yang Fritz, Nancy F. Hansen, Eric Y. Durand, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, Jeffrey D. Jensen, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Can Alkan, Kay Prüfer, Matthias Meyer, Hernán A. Burbano, Jeffrey M. Good, Rigo Schultz, Ayinuer Aximu-Petri, Anne Butthof, Barbara Höber, Barbara Höffner, Madlen Siegemund, Antje Weihmann, Chad Nusbaum, Eric S. Lander, Carsten Russ, Nathaniel Novod, Jason Affourtit, Michael Egholm, Christine Verna, Pavao Rudan, Dejana Brajkovic, Željko Kucan, Ivan Gušic, Vladimir B. Doronichev, Liubov V. Golovanova, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Marco de la Rasilla, Javier Fortea, Antonio Rosas, Ralf W. Schmitz, Philip L. F. Johnson, Evan E. Eichler, Daniel Falush, Ewan Birney, James C. Mullikin, Montgomery Slatkin, Rasmus Nielsen, Janet Kelso, Michael Lachmann, David Reich, Svante Pääbo; Science (May 7, 2010) via PMC PubMed Central
• “Mandrin Cave Pushes Earliest Date For Homo sapiens in France to 57,000 Years Ago”
  Ludovic Slimak, Clément Zanolli, Tom Higham, Marine Frouin, Jean-Luc Schwenninger, Lee J. Arnold, Martina Demuro, Katerina Douka, Norbert Mercier, Gilles Guérin, Hélène Valladas, Pascale Yvorra, Yves Giraud, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Ludovic Orlando, Jason E. Lewis, Xavier Muth, Hubert Camus, Ségolène Vandevelde, Mike Buckley, Carolina Mallol, Chris Stringer, Laure Metz; Human Evolution @ UCL (University College London) (February 10, 2022)
• “New research suggests modern humans lived in Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, in Neanderthal territories”
  Vivian Lam, The Conversation (February 9, 2022)
• Accepting and appreciating God’s work, including what we’ve been learning lately, makes sense to me
  • “Science, Religion, and Saying Goodbye to the 19th Century” (May 25, 2024)
    • Darwin, Divinity, and Letter From an English Priest
  • “Ancient Stone Tools: Hello, Fellow Humans?” (February 18, 2023)
    • Accepting This Universe ‘As Is’

⁵ Brawn, brains, and categories:

• Wikipedia
  • Cerebellum
  • Ethnicity (One way we categorize ourselves.)
  • History of neuroscience
  • Historical race concepts
  • Human brain (“…The brain is not fully understood, and research is ongoing….”)
  • Neanderthal
  • Neanderthal behavior (Again, “…details … remain highly controversial….”)
  • Occipital lobe
  • Parietal lobe
  • Race (A human categorization idea that got traction in the 16th century.)
  • Scientific racism (Pseudoscientific, actually, but probably still popular in a few niche communities.)
  • Species (A debatable, and debated, idea.)
  • Taxonomy (biology) (Useful categorization, and periodically re-categorized.)
  • Temporal lobe
• “Humans: Origins of Humankind“
  Evolution, PBS

⁶ Legacies:

• Wikipedia
  • Campbell (surname)
  • Dwarf (folklore) (In Old Norse, “dvergr”.)
    • Etymology
  • Nordic folklore (Just like folklore in the rest of northwestern Europe, except for how it’s different.)
  • Norwegians (Thankfully, this word may still be used in polite society.)
  • Sámi peoples (Scandinavians, formerly called Lapps or Laplanders)
• Knowing, and accepting, the family’s past
  • “Half-Million-Year-Old Structure: Rethinking Cavemen, Origins” (March 9, 2024)
    • Cavemen, Labels, and Me
  • “Ammonites, Dinosaurs, and Us” (May 19, 2017)
    • Dvergar
  • “Earliest Life: Maybe” (March 10, 2017)
    • Xuchang Skulls (“…Things, and people, change. Old family photos of my Campbell forebears….”)

⁷ Putting faces on our past:

• Wikipedia
  • Forensic facial reconstruction (Somewhat subjective, and controversial: but we’re learning.)
  • Neanderthal
• “The reconstruction of a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman’s face makes her look quite friendly – there’s a problem with that”
  Stephen Khan, The Conversation (May 8, 2024)

⁸ Mainly muscles:

• Wikipedia
  • Muscle contraction
  • Neanderthal
    • Build
  • Skeletal muscle
    • Fiber types
      • Twitch speed
        • Type distribution
  • Slow loris
• “Neanderthals were sprinters rather than distance runners, study surprisingly suggests”
  John Stewart, The Conversation, via Phys.org (January 31, 2019)
• “Chimpanzee super strength and human skeletal muscle evolution”
  Matthew C. O’Neill, Brian R. Umberger, Nicholas B. Holowka, Susan G. Larson, Peter J. Reiser; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Volume 114, Issue 28 (July 2017)
• “Chimps’ strength secrets explained”
  Paul Rincon, BBC News (June 26, 2017)
• The malu malu and me
  • “Horses and Humans, Chimps and Muscles” (December 31, 2022)
    • Twitchy Chimps
    • And Finally, Malu Malu: the Slow Loris