Cold-adapted neanderthals: postcranially speaking...

FOSSILS. Back again. Last February the Journal of Human Evolution published an article where the authors concluded (well, this is the title): "The neanderthal face is not cold adapted". So, I must finally change that part of my neanderthals' lectures in my courses (ANTH 202 and ANTH 303). For the last 3-4 years I was challenging that idea (neanderthal face as an adaptation to cold weather) in my courses after reading different studies about neanderthals way of life, diet and their environments. But previous analyses (large sinuses and craniofacial pneumatization) suggested that the neanderthal face (some traits) evolved as an adaptation to cold environments. Christopher Stringer (one of the authors of the JHE article) wrote in his book about Neanderthals (back in 1993) that "...the Neanderthal nasal form might reflect a unique combination of the effects of low temperatures and humidity on an archaically modeled skull".
So, if the neanderthal face did not evolve as an adaptation to low temperatures.....how do we explain the morphological differences when comparing with anatomically modern humans? The authors of the JHE article do not disagree with the idea that some postcranial traits may reflect adaptation to glacial conditions, but one potential reason for the distinctive neanderthal face is biomechanical..... "...an adaptation to paramasticatory stress, such as the use of the anterior dentition as a vice". The authors do not rule out the potential role of "phenotypic drifting" (and I like that one too).
It is clear that the neanderthal face did not change in the last 20 years but new studies suggest that we must review how do we understand or explain (functionally) their face.