Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, is also referred to as Neanderthals. When their fossils have firstly been discovered, they were treated as a chain in the process of modern human evolution. However, with more and more studies, scientists now believed that Neanderthals are a relative, or a cousin of the ancestors of modern human, and they have been extinct in about 40 thousand years ago. In terms of location, from the 120,000 years ago, they almost dominated the whole Europe, west Asia, and North Africa. In 2010, the DNA map of Neanderthals has been released based on their fossils, and scientists found that apart from African people, the modern human beings shared about 1% to 4% similar genes. Also, according to our lecture, the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans split about 500,000 years ago.
Much of their artifacts and fossils have been found, too. For the physical features of Neanderthals, they were slightly shorter than modern humans, and their limbs were much stronger. They have relatively short and stocky bodies What’s more, in terms of their brain, it was quite large, about 1520 cc, which is even larger than the brain capacity of modern humans. They have big faces and massive noses, very small back teeth and large front teeth, and most of which were adaptations of the ice age environment. For example, their large noses could help to humidify and warm the air. In terms of their diet, it was quite diversified, including meat, plants, fungi, shellfish and so forth.
Neanderthals are now believed to be our closest relatives, and what’s more, the DNA evidence revealed that a long time ago, we shared the same common ancestor with the Neanderthals. They were quite intelligent, and based on the skulls of a Neanderthal boy, they might develop even faster than humans at that time. They were also good at making and using tools and their stone technology is known as the Levallois technique. It is even more amazing to learn that the Neanderthals might already develop their languages, because they had the FOXP2 gene which is related to speech in humans.
I think it is quite mysterious about the disappearance of Neanderthals. Why did Neanderthals go extinct? According to Pobiner, a Smithsonian paleoanthropologist, though the exact reason is complicated and hard to know, scientists believed that competition and changes to their habitat due to climate change were two of the main factors. Based on their physical structure and their living environment, we could deduct that the Neanderthals were good at hunting large, Ice Age animals, while with the climate change, many of these Ice Age animals went extinct, which brought lots of difficulties for the Neanderthals to feed themselves. On the other hand, at that time, the Homo sapiens were the competitors of Neanderthals. Maybe early Homo sapiens were good at making other tools to survive the changing environments, and maybe we already involved in trading behaviors, and all these behaviors helped the survival of Homo sapiens. Also, maybe there were combat, wars or other forms of competitions.
References
Who were the Neanderthals? Retrieved from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-neanderthals.html
Why did Neanderthals go extinct? Retrieved from https://insider.si.edu/2015/08/why-did-neanderthals-go-extinct/
Hello, I found your post to be a great read. You were able to propose some great questions about neanderthals and how they went extinct. I think that being able to find great interest in such species speaks a lot from a scientist stand point. Scientist are able to conduct great research into how they are able to find out about great species like neanderthals and learning how they were very much similar to humans. To think now they have a lot of connection in the creation of humans as hominins does as well. Knowing that these creatures had to do for themselves is something that I found too to be very interesting. We were able to learn about their ways of survival and how they had to get through their day to day and as humans we have so many resources than extinct creatures do.
Hi!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts in this post! I really love how you have showcased the more interesting and complex facts about Neanderthals- that their comprehension skills are so minimal but their brain size is similar to our own. I was also shocked by how DNA allows for so much information to be gathered. The conclusions that have been made via the discoveries have allowed for us to develop conclusions and facts is truly fascinating! The larger brain cavity that was able to be discovered via the fossils found would have indicated an advanced thinking process however I am enlightened and intrigued by the actual facts that they were not on an equal level as us. I wonder what scientific advances will occur that will allow for even more conclusions and information to be gathered!
Hi! I was really happy to see you chose to focus on Neanderthals because I did too. I found this week interesting because we often talk about Neanderthals like they were the only species of early homo sapiens to exist. I am glad to know now that it is actually different than that belief. I liked reading your thoughts on the potential reasons why Neanderthals went extinct because that is a great thought. I think that is something you can probably ask about all of the earliest species if you still believe that all the different early homo sapiens in the different parts of the world evolved to kind of create the modern human. Did they all go extinct, or was the gene flow so large that they all just evolved? That was what interested me in the reading so I am glad you found it interesting too!