A New Examination of Childbirth-Related Pelvic Anatomy in Neandertal Females.

TL;DRAbstract

Morphological differences between Neandertal and recent human pelves have been explained as relating to birth, though there are few recognizably female pelvic remains in the Neandertal record. Birth hypotheses depend on the most complete Neandertal pelvis, a male unlikely to be informative about birth, or the most complete female partial pelvis, which has been reconstructed differently based on different assumptions. The aim of this project is to systematically compare the female pelvic morphology of Neandertals and a large cold adapted sample of recent humans to assess how differences in birth-related pelvic anatomy might affect the birth process. This study tests the null hypothesis that there are no significant morphological differences between these samples. Based on two reliably sexually dimorphic pelvic features in Neandertals, seven female Neandertal individuals were identified. This sample was used to develop a suite of 30 measurements that could be taken on at least two female

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