This is one of those things I never quite imagined.

From the article:

… [T]he authors of a new study have reconstructed the fetal bone growth pattern of an unborn Neanderthal that died with a gestational age of about 8 months.

Discovered at the Sesselfelsgrotte Cave in Germany, the specimen is estimated to be between 50,000 and 60,000 years old and is known as Sesselfelsgrotte 1. A total of 12 bone fragments belonging to this prenatal Neanderthal have been unearthed, yet until now it was unclear how these compared with the bones of Homo sapiens fetuses and newborns.

The researchers used microcomputed tomography to analyze how the bones had formed in Sesselfelsgrotte 1 and compared it with two baby Neanderthal skeletons found at La Ferrassie and Le Moustier in France, as well as modern humans. Overall, they found that Sesselfelsgrotte 1 was most similar to Romano-British pre-term babies aged 30 to 36 weeks, recovered from archaeological sites under 2,000 years old.

“The micro-CT scans of bone microanatomy of fragments of the femur, humerus, ulna, fibula, three ribs, mandible, vertebra and frontal bone of Sesselfelsgrotte 1 revealed skeletal tissue structure partly consistent with late third trimester gestation in H. sapiens,” write the study authors. “All bones showed broad microanatomical patterns consistent with modern human fetal growth in the final trimester of pregnancy approaching eight–nine months,” they add.

It’s not so much the findings that are amazing as the entire process itself. Then again, it makes perfect sense – although I never thought about it before – that if a Neanderthal woman dies in late pregnancy and some of her bones are preserved, that some of her fetus’ bones will be preserved as well.

The findings themselves – that is, the similarity to the fetal development of later humans – are part of the growing trend of seeing Neanderthals as quite advanced and not so very different from later humans, as opposed to the earlier concept of Neanderthals as dim bulbs.