Table 1.

Selected Neandertal cranial features

Anatomical region	Features
Cranial vault	Receding frontal squama
	Long, low braincase, sometimes with a posteriorly bulging occipital (″bun″)
	Globular (″en-bombe″) braincase when viewed from behind
	Occipital torus with a suprainiac fossa above it
Cranial base	Fairly unflexed ectobasicranium
	Large juxtamastoid eminence and relatively small mastoid process
	Tubercle on mastoid process adjacent to the external auditory meatus
	Anteroposteriorly elongated foramen magnum
Acoustic cavities	Large lateral, small anterior, and small and inferiorly positioned posterior semicircular canal
Facial skeleton	Pronounced, double-arched supraorbital torus
	Projecting midface
	Minimally angled zygomatic bone
	Absence of infraorbital concavity and canine fossa
	Wide, tall nasal aperture
	Wide, projecting nasal bridge
	Depressed nasal floor
Mandible	Retromolar space
	Inferiorly positioned and laterally expanded condyle
	Asymmetric sigmoid notch
	Large coronoid process
	Horizontal-oval mandibular foramen
	Large medial pterygoid tubercle
	Absence of mental eminence