A study of the inner ear bones of Neanderthals shows a significant loss of diversity in their shape around 110,000 years ago, suggesting a genetic bottleneck that contributed to Neanderthals' decline.

The skeleton allows movement ... The smallest bones in the body are called the ossicles in the ear. Bone is a living tissue with a blood supply. It is constantly being dissolved and formed ...

Sir David Attenborough befriends a lifelike diplodocus as its towering skeleton replica comes ... But it's the tiny bones in Dippy's inner ear that can give us a clue as to what she sounded ...

Adult teeth are worn down by chewing, and sometimes the amount a skeleton’s teeth are worn down can be used to estimate age. However, factors like a rough diet can mean an inaccurate age estimate.

But in this case, the team used the reduced variation in the Neanderthals' ear bones as a proxy. They focused on the semicircular canals, a set of bony tubes in the inner ear that are fully formed ...