The age at death, estimated from dental wear and skeletal features, suggests an older adult — a Neanderthal who had lived long enough for significant wear to accumulate on her teeth, for bone changes associated with aging to be visible in the skeleton.

Neither of these facts is extraordinary on its own.

Female Neanderthals were half the population, and older adults are known from multiple sites.

But in the context of Shanidar Cave, where the original excavator Ralph Solecki had documented the cluster of burials — Shanidar 1 through 9 — the addition of Shanidar Z as a confirmed older female adds a dimension to what the cave community looked like.

Shanidar 1, the individual associated with the original flower burial hypothesis, was a male who had survived serious injuries and disabilities — a healed crushing injury to the skull, a withered right arm, arthritis.