[Pharmboy]

You or anyone on your ping list venture a guess as to what function that bell-shaped thoracic cage served?

[Sabertooth]

You or anyone on your ping list venture a guess as to what function that bell-shaped thoracic cage served?

Beer gut. We're devolving.

[PatrickHenry]

You or anyone on your ping list venture a guess as to what function that bell-shaped thoracic cage served?

Off hand, I'd say that ol' Neandy could have had one whopping big colon in there. Yet another link to Hillary.

[Ku Commando]

Uh, maybe protection of the internal organs in their quest for food.....y'know, they weren't exactly raisin' cattle in those times !!

[null and void]

With the wider hips, provided support/protection for a larger gut for digesting coarser food? Compare the gut from a grass eater to a carnivore...

[stanz]

Old wisdom has it that since Neanderthals lived in ice-age climates, they needed more lung capacity (and nasal capacity)to take in more air than H. Sapiens. There must be references in the literature somewhere which discusses this.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Larger lung capacity? Perhaps even more than one stomach?

[Thommas]

The bell shaped thoracic cage is a typical ape construct. Chimps, gorillas and orangutans all have them. And, as with many anatomical features, this is not a homo sapiens trait.

The main reason apes have such a chest? Let your imagination run wild...