Krijn () is the common name of a

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...

fossil discovered off the Dutch coast. The discovery is most notable for being the first evidence of a Neanderthal presence in the Netherlands. The fossil is estimated at 100,000-40,000 BP. The skull fragment was recovered from the North Sea in 2001 off the coast of

Zeeuws Vlaanderen Zeelandic Flanders ( ; zea, Zeêuws-Vlaonderen; vls, Zêeuws-Vloandern)''Vlaanderen'' in isolation: . is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in the south-western Netherlands. It lies south of the Western Scheldt that separates t ...

( province of Zeeland ). It was first publicly described in 2009.

Publication

The fossil was made public by

Ronald Plasterk Ronald Hans Anton Plasterk (; born 12 April 1957) is a Dutch scientist, entrepreneur and retired politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). He has earned a PhD degree in biology, specialised in molecular genetics. Being a former Minister of the Du ...

, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science at a press conference held in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. The fragment is currently the center piece of a special exhibition in the same museum. The Natural History Museum in London and

Boerhaave Museum Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is a museum of the history of science and medicine, based in Leiden, Netherlands. The museum hosts a collection of historical scientific instruments from all disciplines, but mainly from medicine, physics, and astronomy. Th ...

in Leiden also pay attention to the discovery. The scientific analysis of the skull fragment was published in the

Journal of Human Evolution The ''Journal of Human Evolution'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that concentrates on publishing the highest quality papers covering all aspects of human evolution. JHE was established in 1972 and is published by Elsevier. The Edi ...

Analysis

The fossil is a skull fragment. It was studied by a team from the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...

and

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...

. The shape of the

orbital bone In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. "Orbit" can refer to the bony socket, or it can also be used to imply the contents. In the adult human, the volume of the orbit is , of ...

reveals that the piece belonged to a male Neanderthal. A cavity in the bone was the result of a

benign tumor A benign tumor is a mass of cells (tumor) that does not invade neighboring tissue or metastasize (spread throughout the body). Compared to malignant (cancerous) tumors, benign tumors generally have a slower growth rate. Benign tumors have re ...

probably carried from birth. The bone structure showed that he had not yet fully matured.

Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

and

genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

proved impossible due to poor preservation, but an

isotope analysis Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds. Isotopic analysis can be used to understand the flow of energy through a food web ...

demonstrated that the young man had a diet consisting mostly of meat. This result is consistent with what was previously known of the Neanderthal diet.

Importance

The discovery marked both the first Dutch Neanderthal fossil, and the oldest human fossil discovered under water.

Wil Roebroeks Wil Roebroeks (born 5 May 1955) is the professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is widely considered to be the pre-eminent Dutch archaeologist. In 2001 he became a member of the influential Royal Netherland ...

, an archaeologist at

, commented that the find may convince Dutch and British authorities to better protect the archaeological archive in the North Sea. Other scientists echoed this wish. The fragment further provides a piece of the puzzle in the settlement history of Great Britain, adding weight to the theory that the region was recolonised from the current continent after a period of 100,000 years without human presence.

References

{{Homo neanderthalensis, state=expanded Archaeological discoveries in the Netherlands Neanderthal fossils 2009 archaeological discoveries

Publication

Analysis

Importance

See also

References