It is being described as the oldest known case of Down syndrome and it even predates modern humans. Scientists have discovered the fossil of a Neanderthal child with Down syndrome in a cave in the Spanish city of Xàtiva. The fossil, which scientists have failed to identify the gender of, is said to belong to a six-year-old Neanderthal child who lived more than 145,000 years ago.
The fossil, which has been nicknamed “Tina,” was excavated in 1989, but its significance was not recognized until recently. When it was discovered, the fossil was found to have preserved the complete inner-ear anatomy—a fragment of one of the two temporal bones, the right one—that help form the sides and base of the skull, protecting the brain and surrounding the ear canal.
Only recently did scientists notice that Tina’s combination of inner-ear abnormalities is known only in people with Down syndrome. "The pathology which this individual suffered resulted in highly disabling symptoms, including, at the very least, complete deafness, severe vertigo attacks, and an inability to maintain balance," said paleoanthropologist Mercedes Conde-Valverde of the University of Alcalá in Spain.
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Among other pathologies, there were abnormalities in the semicircular canals—three small tubes that govern balance and sense head position—and a reduction in the size of the cochlea, the part of the inner ear involved in hearing.
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According to the scientists, what is also remarkable is that a Neanderthal child with Down’s syndrome survived till the age of six due to care given by the community and not the mother alone.
"Given these symptoms, it is highly unlikely that the mother alone could have provided all the necessary care while also attending to her own needs. Therefore, for Tina to have survived for at least six years, the group must have continuously assisted the mother, either by relieving her in the care of the child, helping with her daily tasks, or both," Conde-Valverde said.
Neanderthals were more robustly built than Homo sapiens and had larger brows and lived from about 430,000 years ago to roughly 40,000 years ago. Previous research has shown that Neanderthals were intelligent and created art, pigments, symbolic objects, and perhaps a spoken language, as well as utilizing complex group hunting methods.
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