In the Spotlight

Wesley Niewoehner

Anthropology

The idea of Neanderthal man being a dim-witted, ham-handed brute needs to be rethought, according to Wesley Niewoehner, a Cal State San Bernardino anthropology professor who led a five-person team looking into the anatomy of the hand one of modern man’s forerunners. Using computer scans of thumb and index-finger bones of a Neanderthal’s remains, Niewoehner’s team was able to come up with a three-dimensional model that suggests the primitive man had more dexterity than previously thought. The findings were published in the journal “Nature.” That led to the conclusion that the demise of the Neanderthals cannot be attributed to any physical shortcomings that prevented therm from manufacturing tools needed to survive. Niewoehner, who joined the CSUSB faculty in fall 2002, is interested in the behavioral and biological evolution of late Pleistocene humans, including the Neanderthals. He believes that we must use all the information available to us, both archeological and anatomical, in order to understand human evolutionary history.