Krijn

North Sea

Krijn

51.680277777778 3.3527777777778Coordinates: 51 ° 40 ′ 49 ″ N , 3 ° 21 ′ 10 ″ O Krijn (from Quirin , also Zeeland Ridges Neanderthals ) is the namegiven by Dutch scientists to a Neanderthal man from whom a skull fragment in the North Sea off the coast of Zeeuws Vlaanderen was found in the province of Zeeland . It is the first remains of a Neanderthal man to be discovered on the territory of the Netherlands.

discovery

The find comes from a sandbank area known as Zeeuwse Banken or Middeldiep and belonging to the Zeeland Ridges about 15 km off the coast of Zeeland. In 2001, the hobby paleontologist Luc Anthonis discovered the fragment in the waste of a mussel fisherman .

publication

The fossil was presented to the public on June 15, 2009 by Ronald Plasterk , the Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science, at a press conference at the Imperial Museum of Antiquities in Leiden . The Natural History Museum in London and the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden also paid attention to the discovery. The detailed research results were published in the Journal of Human Evolution .

analysis

The fossil is a fragment of the skull of the Neanderthal man called Krijn. Experts estimate the age of the bone to be over 60,000 years. At that time, the site was the sea off the Dutch coast, a tundra crossed by rivers . The find was examined by a team led by the paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Leiden.

The bone structure showed that the fragment came from the skull of a young male Neanderthal man. A depression in the bone was probably caused by a benign tumor that was probably present from birth. The radiocarbon dating and genetic analysis proved to be due to poor preservation impossible. The isotopic composition of the piece of bone suggests that the Neanderthals lived mainly on meat . This finding is in line with what is known about the Neanderthal diet.

meaning

The find is the first remnant of a Neanderthal man to be discovered on the territory of the Netherlands and the oldest human fossil found underwater.

The exhibition “Neanderthaler uit de Noordzee” showed this and other finds from the sea floor from June 16, 2009 to September 27, 2009 in the Rijksmuseum in Leiden.

Web links

Spectacular discovery of first-ever Dutch Neanderthal, the first fossil hominin ever yielded by a sub-marine site Press release from June 15, 2009, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig. (PDF file; 160 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Hannah Devlin: (June 16, 2009) 60,000-year-old Neanderthal skull fragment trawled up in the North Sea. Times Online (accessed August 18, 2009)
^ ^A ^b Paul Rincon (June 15, 2009): Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil. BBC (accessed August 18, 2009)
^ UPI (June 15, 2009): Neanderthal fossil found in North Sea. United Press International (accessed August 18, 2009)
↑ Silvan Schoonhoven (June 2, 2009): Een Neanderthaler: eingelijk. BN / De Stem (accessed August 18, 2009)
^ Neanderthal of the North Sea. ( Memento from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On: Natural History Museum (accessed August 18, 2009)
^ Jean-Jacques Hublin et al .: Out of the North Sea. The Zeeland Ridges Neanderthal. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 6, 2009, pp. 777-785, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.09.001 , ISSN 0047-2484
↑ Ben van Raaij (June 4, 2009): Neanderthaler mijlpaal voor Nederlandse archeologie. In: De Volkskrant of June 15, 2006 (accessed January 18, 2016)
↑ De eerste Nederlandse Neanderthaler. Leiden University (accessed August 18, 2009)
↑ Holland's first Neanderthal man lay on the bottom of the North Sea. On: archaeologie-online.de from June 19, 2009, accessed on September 16, 2019.
^ Theo Toebosch: Neanderthal discovered in the Netherlands. ( Memento of July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) NRC (accessed August 18, 2009)
^ Neanderthal of the North Sea. ( Memento from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On: Natural History Museum (accessed August 18, 2009)
↑ Eerste Nederlandse fossiel Neanderthals. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (accessed April 24, 2019)
↑ Jacqueline Borg: (June 15, 2009) Neanderthaler uit de Noordzee 'te zien in RMO Leiden 2009, Sleutelstad.nl (accessed May 1, 2010)

[Devlin-1] Hannah Devlin: (June 16, 2009) 60,000-year-old Neanderthal skull fragment trawled up in the North Sea. Times Online (accessed August 18, 2009)

[Rincon-2] A ^b Paul Rincon (June 15, 2009): Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil. BBC (accessed August 18, 2009)

[3] UPI (June 15, 2009): Neanderthal fossil found in North Sea. United Press International (accessed August 18, 2009)

[Schoonhoven-4] Silvan Schoonhoven (June 2, 2009): Een Neanderthaler: eingelijk. BN / De Stem (accessed August 18, 2009)

[5] Neanderthal of the North Sea. ( Memento from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On: Natural History Museum (accessed August 18, 2009)

[6] Jean-Jacques Hublin et al .: Out of the North Sea. The Zeeland Ridges Neanderthal. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 6, 2009, pp. 777-785, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.09.001 , ISSN 0047-2484

[Raaij-7] Ben van Raaij (June 4, 2009): Neanderthaler mijlpaal voor Nederlandse archeologie. In: De Volkskrant of June 15, 2006 (accessed January 18, 2016)

[8] De eerste Nederlandse Neanderthaler. Leiden University (accessed August 18, 2009)

[aonab-9] Holland's first Neanderthal man lay on the bottom of the North Sea. On: archaeologie-online.de from June 19, 2009, accessed on September 16, 2019.

[Toebosch-10] Theo Toebosch: Neanderthal discovered in the Netherlands. ( Memento of July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) NRC (accessed August 18, 2009)

[11] Neanderthal of the North Sea. ( Memento from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On: Natural History Museum (accessed August 18, 2009)

[12] Eerste Nederlandse fossiel Neanderthals. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (accessed April 24, 2019)

[13] Jacqueline Borg: (June 15, 2009) Neanderthaler uit de Noordzee 'te zien in RMO Leiden 2009, Sleutelstad.nl (accessed May 1, 2010)