The Sexual Attribution of the La Quina 5 Neandertal

Abstract

Morphological and paleobiological assessments of the Neandertals are improved by appropriate sexual attributions of fossil remains. The La Quina 5 partial Neandertal skeleton has usually been considered as female, despite the absence of its pelvis and recognition of its large and robust facial skeleton. Its sexual affinities were therefore reassessed relative to pelvically sexed and unsexable Neandertal remains, using its neurocranial, facial, and appendicular dimensions. Its endocranial capacity and parietal thickness, although small, appear undiagnostic with regard to sex. Its radial length, femoral diaphyseal size, mandibular corpus dimensions, and supraorbital torus thickness are intermediate between those of males and females. Its mandible length and mastoid process projection and its humeral length, articular size, and diaphyseal hypertrophy align it with male Neandertals. On the basis of these comparisons, La Quina 5 appears to be either male or indeterminate with regard to its sex, the latter conclusion being the more cautious one. It is unlikely to have been a female.