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NEANDERTHAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia
Synonyms:
Homo sapiens neanderthalensis; Neandertal; Neandertal man; Neanderthal; Neanderthal man
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("Neanderthal" is a kind of...):
homo; human; human being; man (any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage)
Holonyms ("Neanderthal" is a member of...):
genus Homo (type genus of the family Hominidae)
Derivation:
Neanderthal; Neanderthalian (relating to or belonging to or resembling Neanderthal man)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance
Example:
aristocratic contempt for the swinish multitude
Synonyms:
boorish; loutish; neandertal; neanderthal; oafish; swinish
Classified under:
Similar:
unrefined ((used of persons and their behavior) not refined; uncouth)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Relating to or belonging to or resembling Neanderthal man
Example:
Neanderthal skull
Synonyms:
Neandertal; Neanderthal; Neanderthalian
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
Neanderthal man (extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia)
Derivation:
Neanderthal (extinct robust human of Middle Paleolithic in Europe and western Asia)
Context examples:
Studying the patterns of Neanderthal ancestry in present-day humans hints at the structure of human communities more than 50,000 years ago.
(Global human genome study reveals our complex evolutionary history, University of Cambridge)
A team of scientists has announced remains of a human girl from about 50 thousand years ago had one Neanderthal parent and one Denisovan parent, two different species of humans, both species now extinct.
(Fossil genome shows hybrid of two extinct species of human, Wikinews)
During their primordial migration out of Africa, ancestors of present-day humans are thought to have interbred with Neanderthals, whose brain characteristics can be inferred from their fossilized skulls.
(“Residual echo” of ancient humans in scans may hold clues to mental disorders, National Institutes of Health)
In a study, an international team of researchers that included the University of Colorado Boulder's Paola Villa, corresponding author of the study and an adjoint curator at the university's Museum of Natural History, reports findings that Neanderthals living in Europe from about 55 to 40 thousand years ago traveled away from their caves to collect resin from pine trees, which they used to glue stone tools to handles made of wood or bone.
(Neanderthals used resin 'glue' for tools, National Science Foundation)
Now, the discovery of small amounts of Neanderthal DNA in west African people is most likely to reflect genetic backflow into Africa from Eurasia.
(Global human genome study reveals our complex evolutionary history, University of Cambridge)
They also reported the mother's DNA was not closely related to that of other Neanderthals found in the cave, suggesting multiple migrations of Neanderthals between Siberia and Europe.
(Fossil genome shows hybrid of two extinct species of human, Wikinews)
It’s been proposed that Neanderthals depended on visual-spatial abilities and toolmaking, for survival, more so than on the social affiliation and group activities that typify the success of modern humans – and that Neanderthal brains evolved to preferentially support these visuospatial functions.
(“Residual echo” of ancient humans in scans may hold clues to mental disorders, National Institutes of Health)
They found evidence that the Neanderthal ancestry of modern humans can be explained by just one major ‘mixing event’, most likely involving several Neanderthal individuals coming into contact with modern humans shortly after the latter had expanded out of Africa.
(Global human genome study reveals our complex evolutionary history, University of Cambridge)
Researchers found the nuclear DNA in this bone fragment was split fairly evenly between both species, while the mitochondrial DNA was Neanderthal; nuclear DNA comes from both parents, while mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother, so they concluded the girl's mother was Neanderthal and her father Denisovan.
(Fossil genome shows hybrid of two extinct species of human, Wikinews)
It is remarkable that patterns of Neanderthal ancestry are so similar in populations around the world today, and may have derived from a single Neanderthal population, said Dr Aylwyn Scally, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.
(Global human genome study reveals our complex evolutionary history, University of Cambridge)
