Essay on Neanderthals and Homo sapiens

The first Neanderthal remains, discovered in Germany in 1856, were presented to the world of science at a meeting of the Lower Rhine Medical and Natural History Society held in Bonn in February 1857 and named a species, Homo neanderthalensis, by William King in 1864. Some Neanderthal fossils and other remains are in excellent condition, giving a good idea of Neanderthal culture. In 1887, two complete skeletons were found in a cave near Spy in Belgium, and more from sites in France in 1887, 1908 and 1911. These and other finds showed that the Neanderthals had populated Europe widely from about 130,000 to 28,000 years ago after which they became extinct. Most of these fossils were found in caves. Usually they are associated with cold

What evidence shows the changing from the early hominids to the modern humans? Throughout the human evolution body parts like legs and harms have changed for the better. By the early hominids being biped, meaning they are able to stand and even walk on two feet, it helped them to be able to do more things like getting around more and help with their tool making and hunting. A lot of the fossils discovered were found in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, which contained many different lakes and small rivers. For many years researchers have been finding new species. These species have been named Australopithicus, robust australopithecines , Orrorin tugenensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, neanderthal, and Homo sapiens. These early

In a skeleton found in Asia, the discovery of a hyoid bone in the the throat raised the question of whether or not Neanderthals had language capabilities. There has been much debate over this and many different theories, but the most widely accepted is that they were capable of producing human speech sounds, but whether or not they used this speech to communicate in any kind of language is still largely up for debate. In height, Neanderthals were roughly about the same size as modern humans, but did not live as long as modern humans. A Neanderthal who lived into his or her 40's was considered to be long lived, which is comparatively short to our much longer lives of roughly double that. Genetically, Neaderthals and humans differ in their DNA structure both in the mitochondrial DNA and in the nuclear DNA. The significance of the DNA evidence is that it is crucial in determining whether remains that are found are truly Neanderthal or an older hominin relative.

Research speculates that the modern humans and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe for around 5,000 years. To put that into perspective, 5,000 years is around 250 generations in “human-time.” Sharing about 99.5% DNA with the Neanderthals, the largest bone in the foot may be one of the biggest differences that set the modern humans apart to out-live the Neanderthals. Both Neanderthals and modern humans have arched feet, but the height of heal differs. Dr David Raichlen found that because the heal of the Neanderthal was taller, it proved less spring during running and also stabilized the ankle. This made the Neanderthals known for walking, and to which why the lower heal increased the ability for modern humans to out run its closest cousin.

Human evolution is the biological and cultural development of humans. A human is any member of the species Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man." Since at least the Upper Paleolithic era, some 40,000 years ago, every human society has devised a creation myth to explain how humans came to be. Creation myths are based on cultural beliefs that have been adopted as a legitimate explanation by a society as to where we came from.

Neanderthals were a species of archaic humans who migrated out of Africa and into Europe and Asia. However, around 40,000 years ago the large populations of Neanderthals died off and became extinct. The mysterious circumstances that surrounded their extinction drove various research teams to undertake the task of excavating numerous Neanderthal sites to collect fossilized bones, and artifacts in order to learn more about this group of ancestral humans. Over the past years, major technological advances have allowed researches to analyze the fossilized remains of the Neanderthals which led to major discoveries. For example, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that the ear ossicles of Neanderthals and modern humans had similar functions but differed in terms of structure. In the study, the researchers used high-resolution computer tomography (CT) to scan numerous Neanderthal skulls from different sites in order to determine if there are ossicles present in the middle ear cavity (tympanic membrane). The scans revealed ossicles in fourteen different skulls which came as a surprise to the researchers since the bones of the ossicles are fragile and break down easily in the soil. The researchers then used microcomputed tomography scans and 3D geometric morphometrics in order to virtually reconstruct the bones of the ossicles which are composed of the malleus, incus and stapes. The 3D reconstructions of the ossicles allowed the scientists to

The upbringing of Neanderthal children is believed by some scientists to have been harsh. High activity levels and frequent periods of scarcity form part of the basis for this interpretation. However, such trials in childhood may not be distinctive from the normal experiences of early modern human children, or those of hunter-gatherers in particularly cold environments. There is a crucial distinction to be made between a harsh childhood and a childhood lived in a harsh environment. Anatomical analyses of Neanderthal long bones have revealed that survival depended on adapting to high levels of activity and a rugged terrain. However, there is little to distinguish Neanderthal physical stamina from that of early modern humans. Both populations

Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted for well over 100,000 years.  Then suddenly Homo neandertalensis began to die out and surrender the earth to Homo sapiens.  Paleontologists and anthropologists have entertained several possibilities to the causes of this event: interbreeding among Neanderthals and humans, competition for natural resources, and Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest.”  What the real cause has been has plagued scientists for years. Now, due to an international research team from Germany, those possibilities have been even further deduced, making it easier to pinpoint the exact reason Homo neandertalensis became extinct.

If Neanderthals did in fact comport themselves in ways once thought to distinguish anatomically modern humans and enable the latter’s rise to world domination, that similarity makes the Neanderthals’ decline and eventual extinction all the more mystifying. One theory is that H. sapiens had a broader variety of tools that may have enhanced their ability to forage. When they brought their superior technology with them out of Africa and into Eurasia, they were thus better able to exploit the environment more effectively than the resident Neanderthals could. Still, the arrival of H. sapiens did not equal an instant demise for Neanderthals. The latest attempt to track their decline, carried out by Thomas Higham of Oxford and his colleagues, applied

The evolutionary of human living has taken place over millions of years of geological time. It has evolved millions of generations, and billions of individuals. The human evolution is not understandable completely yet. Evolutionary change within a population can take place at different time and different rates, which yield different consequences. This process still taking place in the natural selection and human evolution. One species may be merged to the new species or developed to the next stage of the same species. Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis, and Neanderthals were the close ancestors of modern human, which developed from Australopithecus afarensis.

Though in this paleo diet it limits the amount of meat allowed to be eaten for daily intake. Neanderthals would consume a sizeable amount of meat and only consume a small portion of plants. Though this diet presumably is based off the paleolithic period, it is for some reason primarily based off non-meat foods. So eating only a small portion of meat to us sounds the opposite to paleo. Yes, the Neanderthals would consume plants, but only due to meat being scarce and difficult to hunt during the Ice Age.

While it is important to understand the significance of each hypothesis, the questions surrounding the Neanderthal extinction takes on assorted factors that are not mutually exclusive. Numerous studies have been conducted focusing exclusively on climate, competition or disease as a function of Neanderthal extinction. However, conflicting conclusion suggest that there are several factors involved that overlap and/ or arising from one another. This paper will attempt to better understand how climate, competition, and disease might operate together to account for Neanderthal extinction. First by summarizing each argument of the three arguments and identifying the potential implications for father research. Secondly, aim to develop a framework that will include the most relevant hypothesis.

Throughout the documentary “Decoding Neanderthals” there was a push of research to push the human view of Neanderthals. Over the year’s research showed that we coexisted with Neanderthals and out beat their species. Many believed that Neanderthals where like the stereotypical unintelligent and wild caveman. With new technology, enhanced research, and the exposing documentary “Decoding Neanderthals” pushed the boundaries of these past ideologies. Through this we have learned how intelligent, symbolic, and closely related this species is to homo-sapiens species. This research proved that the Neanderthal may have not became extent due to in ability to create weapons but, due to inter breading with humans

The first answer could be as simple as they wiped them out through warfare. Neanderthals are thought to have lived in smaller groups and not to have reproduced as much as modern humans due to exploiting fewer resources, this would have given the Aurignacian people an easy advantage, but it is also commonly accepted that it would not have been needed. It is thought that through better use of resources and a willingness to take more resources that H.Sapiens Sapiens could have merely slowly taken over from Neanderthals by taking up all the resources for their growing population resulting in slowly starving the remaining Neanderthals. A good example of the different mindset between the two groups when it came to food is what happened to cave bears when modern humans arrived. “Neanderthals and cave bears seem to have coexisted in a dynamic equilibrium with both species able to survive in the same region over long periods of time. With the arrival of modern humans this dynamic equilibrium was disturbed. Cave bear hunting was intensified and more bones show anthropogenic modifications and even direct evidence of hunting” (Münzel et al. 2001; Münzel and Conard 2004b), (Nicholas J. Conard 2011). It wasn’t only food that the groups would have had to compete for, but also resources for crafting of tools, art, and instruments as well as fire wood. “The Middle Paleolithic and Aurignacian are characterized by concentrations of burnt bone, indicating that the environment did not always contain sufficient quantities of wood for the heating and lighting needs of both populations” (Nicholas J. Conard 2011). It is commonly thought that without the introduction on modern humans Neanderthals would not have gone extinct. Neanderthal culture was not necessarily inferior, merely different and not suited to compete in the style it was forced

Several different hypotheses have been formulated to explain the extinction of Neanderthals, from climate changes to intoxication from cave-associated contaminants like smoke, from cannibalism to diseases (Herrera et al., 2009). It is only certain that Neanderthals disappeared from fossil record after the arrival of modern humans, around 40,000 years in Asia, and 10,000-15,000 years in Europe (Shreeve, 1995). Fossil evidence shows the presence of modern humans in Middle East from 130,000 to 75,000 years ago, in the same areas where Neanderthals retreated between 65,000 and 47,000 years ago (Mellars, 2004).