A team of Italian researchers (Sapienza University of Rome, University of Perugia, University of Pisa) and Spanish researchers (IPHES and University of Tarragona) studied the nasal cavity of the Altamura Neanderthal (Puglia, Italy): a skeleton that is uniquely complete, in which the morphological structures of the nose are exceptionally well preserved. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS), has revealed new details about the facial morphology of Neanderthals and their adaptation to cold climates.

Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) had a unique facial morphology, characterised by large eye sockets, topped by powerful brow ridges, a very wide nasal opening and a particular form of protrusion called “mid-facial prognathism”. The Neanderthal nose, in particular, has long been the subject of controversy due to its “unexpected” structure, which contrasts with that usually found in populations of our species adapted to cold climates.

We do know, however, that other morphological characteristics of Neanderthals, including their body proportions, reflect an overall adaptation to the climatic conditions of the late Pleistocene in Europe, which were repeatedly very harsh, until their extinction some 40,000 years ago.

In the past, researchers attempted to explain this 'paradox' by identifying possible internal nasal structures peculiar to Neanderthals. However, these explanations were based on the examination of remains that were often fragmentary and always incomplete. The internal bone structures of the nose are generally not preserved in archaeological and palaeontological finds due to their fragility.

The new article published in PNAS, authored by Costantino Buzi (now a researcher at the University of Perugia and previously at IPHES in Tarragona, where the analytical study was conducted) and colleagues, explores in detail and in its three-dimensional conformation the only nasal cavity known to exist in a Neanderthal, where these structures have been preserved almost intact.

This is the skeleton found in 1993 in a karst cave near Altamura. The find, dated in 2015 to between 130,000 and 172,000 years ago, has been the subject of a series of in-depth studies over the last decade, thanks in part to a PRIN project led by Professor Giorgio Manzi of Sapienza University. The study of the nasal cavity of this extraordinary find was conducted using endoscopic technologies used directly inside the karst system where the skeleton is still located.

‘The context and particular conditions of the Altamura Neanderthal's burial,’ emphasises Giorgio Manzi, paleoanthropologist at the Department of Environmental Biology at Sapienza University, ‘make it the most complete human fossil skeleton (apart from the more recent ones of Homo sapiens) ever discovered. Although it remains trapped in a very complex karst system, the Altamura skeleton continues to provide us with unprecedented information, thanks in part to the innovative technologies we use. It is a find of tremendous interest for the study of Neanderthal evolution and, more generally, for the study of our origins.’

This research has thus made it possible to examine the internal morphology of a Neanderthal's nasal cavity for the first time, ruling out the existence of species-specific internal nasal features. Furthermore, thanks to the endoscopic technology used, the authors were able to create a 3D model of the Altamura skeleton's nose, which will provide a basis for future studies aimed at better assessing the respiratory performance of Neanderthals.

‘In the past,’ adds Antonio Profico, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Pisa, ‘several authors hypothesised the existence of Neanderthal nose characteristics that were considered diagnostic, even in the absence of clear fossil evidence. Altamura has finally provided evidence of the absence of these alleged characteristics: on the other hand, even without these adaptations, the nose of Neanderthals – for whom the Altamura case is the only proxy currently available – shows an efficient model for meeting the high energy requirements of a species adapted to the cold.’

Carlos Lorenzo, from IPHES and Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, fully agrees on this point: ‘Once bioenergetics is taken into account, the paradox of the large nasal opening in Neanderthals is no longer a paradox. This is indeed what one might expect from a species adapted to cold conditions with an “archaic” skull morphology. The nasal structure that we can already see in early Neanderthals such as Altamura, although different from that of Homo sapiens, may have been the ideal morphological solution for air conditioning in a massive body.’

Another important aspect is that the mid-facial prognathism typical of Neanderthals was not directly due to functional aspects of the upper respiratory tract and should be attributed to other evolutionary factors and a series of “cascading” morphological changes, as recently suggested by a general study published in Evolutionary Anthropology (Boggioni et al. 2025).

Costantino Buzi concludes: ‘What we can deduce from observing the nasal cavity of the Altamura Neanderthal is that its functional part does not differ too much from that of modern humans, while the external morphology is completely different. This suggests a reverse causality: the nasal cavity accompanies prognathism only in its anterior part, while it remains substantially unchanged internally. We therefore hypothesise that nasal function did not “shape” mid-facial prognathism, but was instead influenced by it. Other adaptive pressures and morphological constraints acted on the facial morphology of Neanderthals, giving rise to an alternative model to ours, but one that was functional in the harsh climate of the late European Pleistocene.’