For this weeks lecture and class materials that we were given, we have had the opportunity to learn a lot more about more recent history when it comes to modern human evolution. For example, we learned a lot more about the more recent Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis. All over the world, scientists have been able to uncover and study many samples of human remains such as bones or even tools which has allowed them to learn and understand many different things such as the type of environment they lived in, what they hunted or ate, and even what they did day to day. One particular fact that i found interesting that i did not know that i learned in our third lecture is that there was small amount of interbreeding between neanderthals and anatomically modern day humans. Personally, when i thought about these two different groups, i always thought of them as being in completely different areas of time, so when i heard this during lecture it really took me by surprise. I also enjoyed learning about the Homo heidelbergensis. What i found most interesting was their brain size. For comparison, the size of neanderthals brian were 1520 ccs, and modern humans brains are around 1350 to 1400 ccs. In regards to the Homo heidelbergensis, this was the first species that had fully modern brain sizes, which was 400000 years ago, which is incredible.

When Paleoanthropologists discovered and uncovered fossil remains to study them, they were able to find many things out about their environment. For example, the neanderthals in specific were found to have short tibias and long femurs, which paleoanthropologists have indicated that that means they were living in a cold climate, which plays an incredibly large part on how certain parts of the body evolved over time and grew generation by generation based on what was favorable. another thing that they have found in neandertals is their uniquely small molars and larger front teeth, which can tell us a lot about the way that these groups were living and eating. These features can be compared to modern day humans and therefore connections can me made between genetic similarities between neanderthals and modern humans.

Tools such as spears and different carved stones can also tell us a lot about how a certain population lived. For example, the remains of many Homo heidelbergensis have been tied together and linked with many different tools such as wooden javelins. These javelins are great for killing much larger game such as deer and horses. That, and finding the bones of hundreds of horses in the caves of these species can tell us a lot about how this species lived and ate on a day to day bases. It can also tell us a lot about their general level of intelligence. Not only did they have the brain size of a modern human, this shows an ability to form an organizational team to hunt and make tools that can fly in the air and that are effecting weapons.