Fossilized heel bones suggest that Neanderthals were not built to run long distances.
By observing contemporary human distance runners on a treadmill, David Raichlen at the University of Arizona in Tucson and his team found that athletes with shorter heel bones, or calcanei (pictured, white line), tended to run more economically — consuming less oxygen to maintain the same speed — than those with longer ones. Calcanei from 7 Neanderthals were, on average, longer than the same bone from 13 ancient humans and the 8 treadmill runners.
Our African-dwelling ancient ancestors may have evolved feet adapted to chasing animals to the point of heat exhaustion. Neanderthals, who lived in colder, forested European and Asian habitats, may instead have attacked prey at close range, the authors say.
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No marathons for Neanderthals. Nature 470, 439 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/470439d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/470439d
