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Cranio-cervical integration and the role of posture: From extant anthropoids to Neanderthals

Intégration cranio-cervicale et rôle de la posture : des anthropoïdes actuels aux Néandertaliens
Mikel Arlegi, Aurélien Mounier et Emma Pomeroy

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1The cranio-cervical complex plays a central role in balancing the head, transmitting forces, and integrating posture with locomotor demands. Recent redundancy analyses (RDA) of anthropid primates reveal that posture exerts a strong and significant effect on cranio-cervical morphology. Importantly, this influence follows a common pattern across all primate groups examined: although species differ markedly in their mean morphology, the way in which morphology covaries with posture is conserved, pointing to shared biomechanical principles underlying head–neck integration.

2Previous analyses of cranial morphology and the fifth cervical vertebra (C5) showed that cranial and cervical form are tightly integrated, with modern humans showing a distinct covariation pattern compared with other hominoids and cercopithecoids. In this context, Neanderthals exhibited an intermediate position between both groups suggesting that a human-like configuration of head balance and cervical curvature may have arisen within the genus Homo prior to the divergence of modern humans and Neanderthals.

3In the present study, we expand this framework by examining the covariation between the cranium and various cervical vertebrae across the primate neck, including new Neanderthal specimens in the study. Three-dimensional (3D) landmark data were collected from virtual models of crania and cervical vertebrae of a broad comparative sample representing diverse postures and locomotor repertoires. Patterns of integration were quantified using geometric morphometric approaches and compared across vertebral levels.

4Preliminary results suggest that the strength and orientation of cranio-cervical covariation vary along the cervical column, especially between upper and lower vertebral levels. These findings expand previous research analysing extant hominids, shedding light on the origin of upright posture in the genus Homo.

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Mikel Arlegi, Aurélien Mounier et Emma Pomeroy, « Cranio-cervical integration and the role of posture: From extant anthropoids to Neanderthals »Bulletins et mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris [En ligne], 38(S) | 2026, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2025, consulté le 08 mars 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/bmsap/16612 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15hh7

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Auteurs

Mikel Arlegi

HNHP UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France ; McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom ; mikel.arlegi13[at]gmail.com

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Aurélien Mounier

HNHP UMR 7194, CNRS, MNHN, UPVD, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France ; Turkana Basin Institute, Nairobi, Kenya ; UMIFRE, Maison Française d’Oxford, CNRS, UAR 3129, Oxford, United Kingdom

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Emma Pomeroy

Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des autorisations d’usage spécifiques.

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