4/ When comparing the morphological variation of late Neanderthals with that of Krapina (~120.000 years ago, Croatia) and Sima de los Huesos (~430.000 years ago, Spain) individuals, we expected that these populations (confined in time and space) would be much less variable. Surprise, they were not!

1/ Did you know that the shape of the semicircular canals has a strong phylogenetic signal and that it can be used to assess genetic distances among species? This is why used it as a proxy to assess the variation of the Neanderthal clade at different times and evolutionary stages!

New research on the inner ear morphology of Neanderthals and their ancestors challenges the widely accepted theory that Neanderthals originated after an evolutionary event that implied the loss of part of their genetic diversity 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...