The internal nasal bones of a well-preserved Neanderthal skull from Altamura, Italy, lack two delicate features long thought to indicate cold-climate respiratory adaptations. Using endoscopes to examine the calcite-preserved skull, researchers found internal nasal anatomy more similar to modern low-latitude humans than to cold-adapted populations. The specimen, dated to roughly 130,000–172,000 years ago, represents an early Neanderthal and may not reflect the full diversity of the species. The study urges caution and points to greater anatomical variability among Neanderthals.
Altamura Neanderthal’s Nose Suggests Less Cold‑Specialized Respiratory Anatomy
The internal nasal bones of a well-preserved Neanderthal skull from Altamura, Italy, lack two delicate features long thought to indicate cold-climate respiratory adaptations. Using endoscopes to examine the calcite-preserved skull, researchers found internal nasal anatomy more similar to modern low-latitude humans than to cold-adapted populations. The specimen, dated to roughly 130,000–172,000 years ago, represents an early Neanderthal and may not reflect the full diversity of the species. The study urges caution and points to greater anatomical variability among Neanderthals.
09:08 AM, 11/20/2025Science
People often imagine Neanderthals braving Ice Age blizzards in heavy furs, hunting mammoths and other large game. Many classic reconstructions link several Neanderthal traits — stocky builds, short limbs and broad noses — to adaptations for cold, dry climates. New research on a remarkably preserved Neanderthal skull from a cave near Altamura, Italy, complicates that tidy story.
The skeleton, discovered in 1993 and dated to about 130,000–172,000 years ago, is coated in calcite, which has helped preserve delicate internal features. Using thin endoscopes threaded into the intact cranial cavity, an international team of researchers examined the internal nasal architecture without removing the fossil from the cave. This noninvasive approach allowed them to inspect details that are normally destroyed or inaccessible in older finds.
The team reports that two fragile bony structures previously proposed as characteristic adaptations for cold-climate breathing were absent in the Altamura individual. Instead, the internal nasal passages more closely resemble those of modern human populations living at low latitudes, which generally lack specialized cold-weather nasal modifications.
“The nasal opening exhibits a structure that is antithetical to that of contemporary human populations from high latitudes, displaying, instead, a shape associated to low-stress climatic conditions,” the authors write in their paper in PNAS.
Important caveats apply. The Altamura specimen represents a relatively early Neanderthal, and the species occupied a wide geographic and temporal range (roughly 450,000–40,000 years ago) across Europe, the Middle East and parts of western Asia during the Pleistocene — a period marked by repeated glacial cycles. Nasal morphology and other anatomical traits may therefore have varied substantially across populations and through time.
Why this matters
This finding challenges the simple assumption that broad Neanderthal noses necessarily housed internal structures specialized for warming and humidifying cold, dry air. It suggests greater anatomical variability within Neanderthals and highlights the value of noninvasive imaging for studying rare fossils. While the study does not overturn the idea that some Neanderthal populations were cold-adapted in other ways, it prompts a more nuanced view of how respiratory anatomy related to local climates.
Future examinations of additional well-preserved specimens using similar techniques will be needed to determine how widespread the Altamura pattern was. For now, the Altamura skull offers a rare window into internal anatomy and a reminder that single specimens can both illuminate and complicate long-held assumptions about our closest evolutionary relatives.