Study on Ötzi the Iceman's Ribcage Just Changed Human Evolution Forever

#Ötzi #Iceman #Archaeology
Study on Ötzi the Iceman's Ribcage Just Changed Human Evolution Forever

For decades, scientists believed modern humans evolved with fragile, slender, gracile ribcages, distinct from our Neanderthal cousins. When Ötzi emerged from the ice, his chest seemed to confirm that story.

But a groundbreaking digital reconstruction has just revealed evidence that changes everything we thought about our evolution. If our own ancestors sometimes rivaled Neanderthals in physical form, what else have our bones concealed?

Mind-blowing ancient mysteries await! Subscribe now! 👉 :    / @originsrevealedyt  

SOURCES

Primary Study:
López-Rey, J. M., Crevecoeur, I., May, H., Nadel, D., Palancar, C. A., Gómez-Recio, M., García-Martínez, D., & Bastir, M. (2025). Fossil ribcages of Homo sapiens provide new insights into modern human evolution. Communications Biology, 8(1), 1–9.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08...

Full Study (Open Access):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4200...

PMC Full Text:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Related Research:
López-Rey, J. M., García-Martínez, D., & Bastir, M. (2024). How to make a digital reconstruction of the human ribcage. Journal of Anatomy, 245, 27–34.
López-Rey, J. M., García-Martínez, D., & Bastir, M. (2025). Shanidar 3 "rings the bell": Virtual ribcage reconstruction and its implications for understanding the Neanderthal Bauplan. Journal of Human Evolution, 199, 103629.
Wang, K., Prüfer, K., Krause-Kyora, B., et al. (2023). High-coverage genome of the Tyrolean Iceman reveals unusually high Anatolian farmer ancestry. Cell Genomics.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...

Institutions:
National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, Spain
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano, Italy