I recently mentioned some research that suggested that Neanderthals were good at sprinting. Well, now it seems that our kin was (is) instead much better than Neanderthals at long distance running. However our European aboriginal cousins were good at walking and at strength-demanding exercises.
All this based on the proportions of the heel bone, the calcaneus.
David A. Raichlen et al., Calcaneus length determines running economy: Implications for endurance running performance in modern humans and Neandertals. Journal of Human Evolution, 2011. Pay per view.
Neanderthal heel was taller than ours and would hence have been quite worse for the spring action that is critical in running performance.
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