COLD ADAPTATION, HETEROCHRONY, AND NEANDERTHALS

Since the writings of Clark Howell and Carleton Goon, the distinctive craniofacial and postcranial morphology of Neandertals has been associ ated with the frigid glacial climates of Pleistocene Europe. Direct as sociations between Ice-Age climate and Neandertal form have been propo sed: Large noses and large paranasal sinuses, big brains, and robust, muscular bodies with barrel chests and foreshortened limbs may have be en thermal adaptations to harsh glacial conditions, especially in homi nids that perhaps lacked the technological sophistication to shield th emselves from the cold. Indirect associations between Gold climate and Neandertal morphology have also been advanced: Midfacial prognathism, dolichocephaly, occipital bunning, and other characteristics may have been the consequences of genetic drift in small populations of forage rs isolated from the rest of the world by Alpine and continental ice s heets. Either way, when we think of Neandertals we think of primitive humans that endured the climatic and ecological hardships of cold peri glacial Europe. Accordingly, it makes sense to think their morphology should reflect this in some important way.