Both the Neanderthals and Homo floresiensis provide an ample amount of information that has affected how scientists think about the fossil record and human evolution. This week’s information has further allowed me to understand the road of evolution that has happened in order for modern day humans to evolve to where they are today. It is interesting that paleoanthropologists have been able to uncover fossilized remains that have actually determined that a lot of species were greatly related to the modern Homo sapiens. This is why I have chosen to focus on the Neanderthals. A lot has been learned from Neanderthals, in general, “modern [humans] tend to be a slimmer, taller breed: “gracile,” in scientific parlance, rather than “robust,” like the heavy-boned Neanderthals” (Smithsonian). Not only this, but by being able to look at the fossil records, we know that the Neanderthals had very large brains, and based on their skeletal remains they were somewhere around 1520 ccs. Whereas, modern humans brains average somewhere around 1350-1400 ccs. The large brain size suggested that in general they grew at a heightened speed compared to the modern human, it also could be assumed by researches that they were thus unable to absorb as much information as we can today.
Another thing that sticks out to me that has been found out about the Neanderthals is how easily they were able to adapt to cold weather, this is because they had to adapt and deal with cold conditions due to the ice age. This is probably why they had some of the features that they did, and why modern humans have adapted in different ways to other climates. All of this tells us how much we have evolved today, and how much diversity and natural selection has played a role in that. Something else that also tells us a lot about evolution is how the Neanderthals “had prominent jaws and a straight forehead without heavy brow ridges” (Smithsonian). This is a lot different from the way they way that modern human face structure is set up. Fossil records also showed that they had a lot of harsh injuries from hunting, suggesting that they did not make the best weapons possible for defending themselves or for killing prey.
Overall the biggest contribution that these findings have been able to give us is knowledge. The knowledge that we are more closely linked with species that we did not even know existed before paleoanthropologist’s studied fossilized remains. We are able to learn how interconnected we are with all kinds of species, and what exactly makes us human, and what types of traits have been carried on throughout evolution and over time as well. Although, the Neanderthal vanished from the earth around 30,000 years ago, we still carry up to four percent of Neanderthal genes.
I really enjoyed reading your post because of how it was structured and how you introduced your topic of focus. Personally, I wrote about Homo floresiensis so I was happy to see Neaderthals from someone else’s perspective. I was pretty surprised to find out that Neanderthals had larger brains than current day humans. I’m not really sure what I thought because I anticipated they had bigger skulls but just neglected to infer that information in accordance to their brain size. I find your closing comment especially intriguing because I had no idea that we shared so much DNA with Neanderthals. Forty percent is a lot when it comes to being related to another species that was alive 30,000 years ago and we have managed to conserve that much DNA over that long of a time is very fascinating.
Interesting post. The brain size difference stuck out to me a lot as well. The fact that their brain was larger than ours. But I can understand how living such a hard complex life can force you to have to take in a lot of information, especially hunting and making tools all the time , those are hard skill to developed and they must have had to be perfect seeing that those things could mean life or death for them. Yes! How did they adapt to such cold conditions, it’s fascinating? I am guessing their large bones helped to keep them warm and maybe their heavy brow ridges kept snow out of their eyes. It’s interesting how our physical features change to help fight our conditions.
Hi jenna! i enjoyed your blog as well! I also did my blog on the neanderthals, but i didnt touch on brain size much in comparison to humans. Their environment forced them to grow up faster, and they had a big brain that allowed this, but was confused me is their brains were larger than humans while sharing a lot of other physical characteristics to us, but their mental capacity is suspected to be much less. This was a hard idea for me to wrap my head around. You’d think if they were able to mature younger, they would be able to learn more. The fact that there were a lot of injuries present means their tools for hunting could have been better and its interesting that there isn’t really an evidence of them or any other species having more advanced tools until you reach the time of humans.