While the Homo floresiensis species is very interesting and important to how scientists think about fossil records, I think that Neaderthals play a much bigger role in explaining human evolution and the reason behind human diversity. Neanderthals had very unique features, including a very large brain size (which was around 1520ccs), a rounded crania, and extremely prominent noses and brow ridges. They also seemed to have developed faster than modern humans, as scientists have been able to look at the dental structure to determine that a three year old Neanderthal has the same cranial anatomy as a modern four to five year old human. This shows how paleoanthropologists are able to use fossilized remains to make startling conclusions that would otherwise never be known about. One particular feature of the Neanderthals that shows evolution is the length of their tibias. Neanderthals had very long femurs with short tibias, meaning they were short and stocky in general. Having a short tibia is beneficial when living in cold climates, as people living in cold conditions nowadays, such as eskimos, also have short tibias. This means that Neanderthals, like humans, evolved to survive in their environment. Another interesting discovery about Neanderthals was that they showed signs of compassion by caring for the elderly and helping them survive. This is very different than any other early species and shows a potential indicator of where humans got the idea of compassion from. I think that this discovery shows how complex and insightful studying fossils is for paleoanthropologists, as they are able to identify behavior through fossilized remains. Being able to do this allows paleoanthropologists to get the full picture of the species they are studying, which is very important. Lastly, the discovery of the tools of the Neanderthals suggests to scientists that while Neanderthals were relatively intelligent, there was still a limit to what they could learn. Neanderthals developed tool culture known as Mousterian tool culture, in which they used small, sharp rocks as hunting tools. What’s interesting is that while this time period included modern humans who had developed much better tool types and had to interact with Neanderthals at times, Neanderthals never changed from their tool culture. Scientists believe that this suggests Neanderthals were simply not intelligent enough to understand the tools of modern humans, thus making the exposure they received to the better tools useless. This is very compelling because it shows how paleoanthropologists are able to take fossilized remains from different species and then draw conclusions from them.

The biggest contribution these findings have made to understanding human diversity is showing how the environment plays a big role in the behavior and evolution of species. This is seen in Neanderthals by their short tibias because of the cold climate they live in and by how they didn’t spend time on symbolic behavior such as art because they needed to spend most of their time getting food and surviving. I think this correlates to human diversity because different groups of humans live in different places and face separate conditions which affects both body features and behavior. This needs to be understood by everyone, so that diversity is not seen as a bad thing but as something normal and good.