0000000000306482
AUTHOR
Davorka Radovčić
Response to Letter to the Editor by Dr Rios and Dr Cardoso
We have read with interest the letter of Dr Rios and Dr Cardoso about our manuscript entitled “Krapina atlases suggest a high prevalence of anatomical variations in the first cervical vertebra of Neanderthals, ” by Palancar et al. (2020). Here, we respond to the issues raised in the Letter to the Editor by Dr Rios and Dr Cardoso
Krapina atlases suggest a high prevalence of anatomical variations in the first cervical vertebra of Neanderthals
The first cervical vertebra, atlas, and its anatomical variants have been widely studied in Homo sapiens. However, in Neanderthals, the presence of anatomical variants of the atlas has been very little studied until very recently. Only the Neanderthal group from the El Sidrón site (Spain) has been analysed with regard to the anatomical variants of the atlas. A high prevalence of anatomical variants has been described in this sample, which points to low genetic diversity in this Neanderthal group. Even so, the high prevalence of anatomical variations detected in El Sidrón Neanderthal atlases needs to be confirmed by analysing more Neanderthal remains. In this context, we analysed the possibl…