The Atapuerca individuals seem to have crossed some kind of growth-related Rubicon. Intriguingly, major abnormalities from the growth disturbance that afflicted one of the Atapuerca youngsters likely required the child to receive extensive care from adults, in Bromage's view. Neandertals, which lived from about 135,000 to 30,000 years ago, also exhibited a modern human life-history pattern, presumably retained from ancestors such as those at Atapuerca, Bromage says. If the new findings indeed come from an earlier Homo species, they challenge the assumption that prolonged individual development can serve as a distinguishing trait of modern humanity, the New York researcher asserts. Much remains unknown about the pattern and rate of growth in ancient human ancestors, according to Howell.
Spanish fossils enter human ancestry fray.
Neandertals take big step back in time. Madrid Spain From Science News, Vol.