Morphology of the inner structures of the facial skeleton in Homo neanderthalensis and the case-study of the Neanderthal from Altamura (Bari, Italy)

The PhD project has the aim to provide an accurate anatomical characterization of the facial regions (with a focus on the para-nasal areas) in the fossil human species Homo neanderthalensis, whose peculiar facial morphology is the topic of unresolved hypothesis on adaptation to climate and/or phylogenetic factors. Both can be at the origin of the variability of Neanderthals and can be taken into consideration, more in general, for the human populations from the Middle and Upper Pleistocene of Europe, thus from around 800 to 11 thousand years ago (ka). In this timespan, it can be seen a differential development of a set of cranial features which was resumed by J.J. Hublin and colleagues with the ‘accretion model’. In this scenario, a Neanderthal specimen from Italy, known as the ‘Altamura Man’ and discovered in 1993 in the Lamalunga karstic system in Apulia (southern Italy), represents a crucial subject of study, because its unique state of preservation and its antiquity, comprised between 172 and 130 ka. The nearly complete skeleton is still preserved in situ because of several factors, among which its exceptional completeness and thus has been the subject of a study of virtual paleoanthropology aimed at the reconstruction and observation of facial structures often damaged or completely absent in the fossil record.