Neanderthals are the hominin species that share the most recent common ancestor with our species, Homo sapiens. This last common ancestor of anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals dates back to 500 thousand years ago. Neanderthals are a particularly interesting species of hominin due to the fact that they lived alongside anatomically modern homo sapiens for possibly 15,000 years. This means that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens would have been competing to fill the same niche, whether they were aware of this competition or not. What is even more fascinating is anthropologists finding of Neanderthal mtDNA in the mtDNA of humans living today, suggesting interbreeding among Homo sapiens and Neanderthals at some point.
The discovery of Neanderthals teach scientists about the similarities and differences we have with other hominin species that have existed over time. Neanderthals, like homo sapiens, were also hunters. The Mousterian tool culture, which is associated with Neanderthals in Europe, included things such as small hand axes, flake tools, and denticulate flakes that served different functions such as for hunting, butchering, and food preparation. These tools were also produced by anatomically modern humans in Northern Africa and the near East, demonstrating and adaptation of advanced tool use in both populations. Both populations used these tools for hunting. Neanderthals had more close-range weapons such as stabbing spears, evidenced by the serious injuries they suffered from, while modern human populations had more sophisticated long-range weaponry that kept them relatively safe. Both species require the use of speech in order to hunt. Scientists have recently identified the FOXP2 gene, which is related to speech in anatomically modern humans, in Neanderthal specimens. This informs scientists that our brain’s evolution of speech could be a shared trait among the two hominin species. In my opinion, this is the greatest contribution the findings of Neanderthal remains have made on the study of hominin diversity.
Neanderthals had slightly larger brains which developed faster than in anatomically modern humans. As many Neanderthals were adapted to living in the Ice Age Bergmann’s rule predicts larger brains to occur in this species. Neanderthals were also slightly shorter and stockier than modern humans which could again be predicted by Bergmann’s rule. Another major physical difference between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans is the shape of the crania. Neanderthals have a skull that is long and low with an occipital bun. The skulls of anatomically modern humans are more rounded with no occipital bun and a forehead that rises vertically above the eye. This informs scientists that the skulls of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans likely developed in different environments.
Many remains of Neanderthals are found in buried in carefully arranged graves. Scientists are able to study the remains of Neanderthals fairly well because of how well they were preserved. These graves were also found in association with things such as food and flowers which shows the use of symbolism in Neanderthal culture. We can learn more about our own evolution by studying the evolution of species that are more closely related to us, and this is what makes Neanderthals such an interesting species of hominin.
Hi Matthew! I love that throughout your post, you mention the similarities and differences of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens consistently; putting them back to back like that made it real easy to retain the information you learned from this week’s lesson. When you were mentioning weaponry, I find it interesting in the differences of environment each group had to deal with, and therefore tailored their weapons differently in order to survive each of their conditions. Reading on, I feel like we had the same idea when organizing our blog format — discussing the Neanderthal way of life through evidence found that was used to describe their culture and behavior, and then including the differences in their anatomy. Including each of these aspects to describe most of the traits that made up Neanderthals is very important to help one understand, and I appreciate that!
Personally, I think it’s really bizarre when we learn about neanderthals because we can so clearly understand that they’re our predecessors. They have their own culture and diversity, and they even had the ability to communicate and understand language. It’s weird that even though they had larger brains than us, they weren’t as developed as us. I wonder what people of the future will understand about our anatomy, based on the environment we live in. I think this is interesting because of what we know about neanderthals living during an ice age period. Additionally, I think it’s really weird that they arranged their dead in graves sort of similar to ours. I think we see neanderthals as closer to animals than to us, and I would quite agree. I chose to study the hobbit-creatures of Flores instead of neanderthals, so this was an really illuminating post!
Hi Matthew, I find the interactions between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals to be very interesting. It is surprising that they were similar enough that they were able to inter mate and that evidence of the DNA from Neanderthals can still be seen in some humans today. Certain aspects of the Neanderthal lifestyle seems to be advanced and on par with the homo sapiens of the time while other areas seem to be lacking. For example, you mentioned how there is evidence of neanderthals having a gene involved in language and even evidence of them burying the dead, but there is little evidence of them expressing art. It is clear they were adapted to live in times like the ice age. It is unfortunate that we will never know all of the information regarding the lifestyle of Neanderthals and their interactions with Homo sapiens.
Hi,
I liked your insight this week into the Neanderthals. I too found it interesting that lately we have found some similarities in the mtDNA of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Although until this week lectures, I honestly didn’t know that we didn’t specifically derive from Neanderthal’s as they went extinct parallel to the evolution of the Homo sapien. With the idea of the Ice Age it makes you wonder if within human history we would see another rotation of extreme cold weather causing humans to evolve yet again into a different form from our present modern-day human. Or if the other way in extreme heat would we still retain our efficient bodies for this current weather. I do hope that paleoanthropologists continue to work and discover new things about our human past!