Neanderthals and primates – the mortality of our closest relatives

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Going beyond our own species (homo sapiens), researchers have also attempted to measure the mortality rates at young ages for our closest relatives.

Studies that focussed on the Neanderthals, our very closest relatives who lived within Eurasia from circa 400,000 until 40,000 years ago, suggest that they suffered infant mortality rates similar to our species before modernization: it is estimated that around 28% died in the first year of life. [have a look]

Atkinson and Volk also compared human child mortality rates across species with other primates. Bringing together many different sources the authors find the mortality rates of young chimpanzees and gorillas to be similar to the mortality rates of humans of the past, while other primates differ: orangutans and bonobos appear to have somewhat lower mortality rates and baboons, macaques, colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, lemurs and other primates suffer from higher mortality rates.

• The 28% infant mortality rate is reported in Volk and Atkinson based on Trinkaus (1995)
• Erik Trinkaus (1995) – Neanderthal mortality patterns. Journal of Archaeological Science, 22 (1995), pp. 121-142. Online here 
• Chamberlain (2006) also reports very high mortality rates for subadult Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis).
• Andrew T. Chamberlain (2006) – Demography in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology).