Researchers believe a fossil discovered in a cave in Spain is that of a child with Down syndrome who lived more than 146,000 years ago. (Science Advances)
A fossilized ear bone provides evidence that a Neanderthal child with Down syndrome lived at least 6 years and was cared for by others.
The remains of the girl, whom investigators named Tina, were discovered in Cova Negra, a cave in Valencia, Spain.
TO study Published this week in the journal Science Advances, it details how an analysis of Tina’s ear bone reveals that the girl who lived at least 146,000 years ago had a congenital pathology in the inner ear associated with Down syndrome that would have caused severe hearing loss and vertigo.
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Although people with Down syndrome now live well into adulthood, the study notes that other examples of people with the chromosomal disorder in prehistoric times have had very short life spans.
“It is therefore remarkable that the individual represented by fossil CN-46700 lived at least 6 years, which far exceeds the usual life expectancy of children with Down syndrome in the prehistoric population,” the study authors concluded. “It is reasonable to think that the long survival of individual CN-46700 could only have occurred because it received continuous care and attention during that time.”
The remains were originally excavated in 1989, but the new fragments were only recently found. Researchers built a three-dimensional model to analyze it.
Based on their findings, the researchers said the child would likely have needed more care than a mother could provide alone, suggesting other members of the child’s social group also helped.
“What was not known until now was any case of an individual who had received help, even if he could not return the favour, which would demonstrate the existence of true altruism among Neanderthals. That is precisely what the discovery of ‘Tina’ means,” says Mercedes Conde, a professor at the University of Alcalá (Spain) who led the study.
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