Abstract
Vigilant and Langergraber (1) challenge the interpretation of the mtDNA analysis in a social contemporaneous group of 12 Neandertals from El Sidron site (Asturias, Spain) (2) by comparing the data with those obtained from a group of chimpanzees. We think this comparison is not appropriate and not only because of the large evolutionary distance between chimpanzees and Neandertals. Previous research has shown that relatedness in the male chimpanzees is negatively correlated to group size, and this is detected in groups of at least eight males (3). Archaeological evidence (4) indicates that Neandertal social units had, on average, a total of 8–10 individuals; thus, the number of males had to be much lower than in chimpanzee groups. In the case of El Sidron, there were only three adult males. Therefore, it is likely that relatedness among them was much higher than in chimpanzee groups.
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