Neanderthal height?

Question

Neanderthals were typically about 5'5" tall. Does anyone know the height of homo sapiens (or what evolved into homo sapiens) in that time period? I know humans have gotten taller through time due to better nutrition and natural selection, but I was wondering if there has ever been a study projecting how tall a Neanderthal would be if he were given the diet of a modern human.

I'm trying to solve an argument with a friend. He says they were shorter than us, and I agree, but I think they were taller than "us" at the time when they were around.

Answer 1

two very lengthy discussions for you to peruse ... lots of good information at both URLs

Answer 2

Neanderthals were carniverous which is an interesting distinction with us.  They had to endure many injuries and periods of starvation but then again so did our immediate ancestors so I would guess they might average pretty close in height to homo sapiens.   would also guess they could rip apart a H. sapiens in a wrestling match.

Answer 3

I read a recent study that concluded that the average Cro-Magnon (Early Modern Humans, in Europe) were the taller than Modern Americans, by two inches (5'10", compared to 5'8"), while Neanderthals were an average of 5'3"...

Answer 4

There's not a really perfect response to this.  The average for the two species, both sexes combined, is pretty close.  There is thought by many to be a greater sexual dimorphism in Neanderthals, and the average height for males may have been as much as ten centimeters taller than their contemporary Homo sapiens males.

It's difficult to say how a modern diet would have impacted Neanderthal stature.  They're a different species, and while they seem to have had a similar diet as Homo sapiens, it's impossible to predict whether their body would have evolved to accomodate the same changes in diet.  (After all, for instance, shortly after divergence from their common ancestor hominins and other apes would probably have had similar diets, but present-day humans and gorillas do not have compatible diets.)

Too, if their bodies *had* evolved to accomodate changing diet, it's very likely that this would have required certain evolutionary reductions, and there's really no mechanism for predicting those changes -- and how they would have impacted stature.

Answer 5

The height would have been about the same but they would be much heavier muscled and stronger also they would run better for longer I think.