![\"Rare](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/neanderthal-baby-growth-patterns-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Illustration comparing a Neanderthal (left) and a modern human (right). Credit- Alice Walczer Baldinazzo<\/p>\nThe remains were found at Sesselfelsgrotte in southeastern Germany during excavations in the 1960s and 1970s. For decades, the specimens remained largely unstudied. Around 20 years ago, researchers confirmed that the fossils belonged to Neanderthals. Since juvenile Neanderthal remains<\/a> are uncommon, the material offered an unusual opportunity to investigate early growth and health in this extinct human species.<\/p>\n A research team examined three juvenile specimens using high-resolution micro-computed tomography, a non-destructive imaging method that reveals internal structures without damaging fragile fossils. One specimen consisted of skeletal remains from a perinate, either a fetus in the final stages of pregnancy or a newborn child. The other two specimens were baby molar teeth from young Neanderthal children.<\/p>\n The scans showed bone tissue patterns associated with rapid growth. Researchers identified woven and plexiform-like bone structures along with primary osteons, features typically found in developing skeletons. The overall bone microstructure closely matched that seen in modern human fetuses<\/a> during the final trimester of pregnancy.<\/p>\n Previous measurements had suggested that the individual died near birth. The new scans support this estimate, placing development at roughly eight to nine months of gestation. According to the researchers, the fossil represents one of the best-preserved examples of Neanderthal growth at this stage of life.<\/p>\n The team also observed differences between parts of the skeleton. Long bones such as the femur and humerus showed more advanced growth than the jaw and frontal bone. Researchers suggest that variations in bone formation processes explain part of this pattern. Faster development in some long bones compared with modern humans is another possibility.<\/p>\n Even so, the broader picture points to strong similarities between Neanderthal and modern human development<\/a>. The evidence suggests that growth before birth followed a largely comparable path, with only limited differences in certain skeletal regions.<\/p>\n The teeth revealed another finding<\/a>. Deep within the dentine, the tissue beneath tooth enamel, the researchers identified areas of poor mineralization known as interglobular dentine. These defects form when normal mineral deposition is interrupted during tooth development.<\/p>\n Such defects are often linked to problems involving mineral metabolism, including vitamin D deficiency, calcium deficiency, or reduced calcium absorption. The researchers did not identify a specific cause in these children, though the abnormalities indicate physiological stress during a sensitive stage of growth.<\/p>\n Because the affected dental tissues formed between late pregnancy and roughly the first two years of life, they preserve a record of conditions experienced during early childhood. The team believes these teeth contain the oldest clear evidence of interglobular dentine yet reported in a Neanderthal population.<\/p>\n The affected specimens are estimated to be around 75,000 years old. If this interpretation proves correct, the findings represent the earliest known evidence of metabolic bone disease in a non-modern human lineage. Future studies using additional imaging and analytical techniques will help determine the origin of these defects and provide a clearer picture of Neanderthal childhood health.<\/p>\n Publication: Miszkiewicz, J. J., Godinho, R. M., Sohler-Snoddy, A. M., Pasda, K., D\u00e9troit, F., Mahoney, P., \u2026 Barbieri, A. (2026). Early development of Neanderthals revealed through virtual microanatomy. Royal Society Open Science,\u00a013(6). doi:10.1098\/rsos.260485<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiny Neanderthal bones and baby teeth recovered from a cave in Germany are helping researchers piece together how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[209762,88465,59,102,7267,209765,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-645397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-archaeology-of-childhood","tag-bioarchaeology","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-neanderthals","tag-osteoarchaeology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Top, bottom, left to right, three-dimensional reconstruction of a Neanderthal child\u2019s tooth and arm bone. A virtual microanatomy tooth slice shows mineralization defects, while bone slices show microanatomical organization. Credit: The University of Queensland<\/p>\n<\/a>Combined images of the inventory of the fetal remains of Sesselfelsgrotte 1, lacking the bones of the vertebral neural arch because precise identification (i.e. which vertebra) is not conclusive. The high fragmentation of the bones also precludes conclusive identification of the laterality of the fibula and of the sequence number of the ribs. Credit: Miszkiewicz et al., Royal Society Open Science (2026)<\/p>\n