The Human Species

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.

The most recent ancestor to the modern human, Homo neanderthalensis existed between 300,000 and 35,000 years ago. Originating in Africa, ancestors of the early Neanderthals migrated northwards almost 800,000 years ago. These migrants colonized much of the Old World with the majority based in Europe and small groups scattered throughout the Middle East and Asia. Historically, the Neanderthals were among the most resiliant creatures to exist on Earth. As a population, they thrived during the European ice age 40,000 years ago. This ice age enveloped the majority of Northern and Central Europe and due to their physique were the Neanderthals were able to surive. Physcially, the Neanderthals were larger and more muscular than today’s human

The fossils which passed the amino acid tests were called “transitional” elements between the two species.  They represented a part of Europe where the Neanderthals and early humans would have more than likely encountered each other.  The same DNA sequence was found in Neanderthals and early humans, but also in ancient cave bears from Croatia and Austria.  This made the researchers skeptical of their findings and decided to test for mtDNA stands.  When the fossils were further analyzed, the researchers found that the mtDNA embedded in the Neanderthal fossils was of a different strain than that in the early humans, which was of course, different from that of the ancient cave bears.

The history of life on earth goes back to millions of years. Many species and creatures evolved and changed through time, leading up to what we know today as, modern man. One of the creatures most similar to modern man is the Neanderthals; they are sometimes referred to as “early modern humans.”

As recently as only five years ago, anthropology researchers found that humans and Neanderthals had interbred at some point in time simply based on the shapes of skulls found in caves buried beneath thousands of years of soil. This mirrors a 2010 study that has uncovered the first proven

The general consensus today is that any genetic and anatomical similarities between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals are coincidental and that the two species developed these similar traits independently

Decoding Neanderthals is an analysis of the Neanderthal genome shows that modern humans and Neanderthals had interbred some 60,000 years ago. It all started with our ancestors making their way from Africa to Europe. The ones who were in Africa evolved into humans and the ones who went to Europe developed into Neanderthals. They were also known as “Cavemen”. People saw them as some type of weird specie but the more you learn about them the more you start to realize that they are a lot like us humans.

Neanderthals, also known as Homo neanderthalensis, existed mainly in the time period known as the Middle Paleolithic in the regions of Europe and southwestern to central Asia. The Middle Paleolithic took place from about 200,000 years ago until around 45,000 years ago. However, the Neanderthals still existed for about 15,000 years after that. After the Middle Paleolithic, the Neanderthals existed alongside anatomically modern humans and most likely interbred with them. Although the species of Homo neanderthalensis became extinct around 25,000 years ago, their DNA is still present in humans today. Neanderthals are without a doubt the closest extinct human relatives to modern humans. The first Neanderthal fossil was not found until the year 1829. This discovery in Belgium would prove to be one of the most important archaeological findings in history. After several more of these findings occurred, we have been able to learn countless facts about Neanderthals. Scientists believe they had very short, stocky, and powerful bodies, along with very strong teeth and jaw bones and a surprisingly large brain. Neanderthals had the ability to walk bipedally as we do today, and it is believed that they matured much faster than modern humans. Dental fossil evidence shows that an eight year old Neanderthal possessed the same dental structure as that of a ten to twelve year old

While there were many genetic differences found between Neanderthal and modern human DNA, there was also a number of genetic overlap. Genomes were taken and sequenced from Africans, New Guinean, Han Chinese, and French (Green et al. 2010). Genetic overlap and similarity was found among the French, New Guinean, and Han Chinese but there was no significant similarity found between the African genomes (Green et al. 2010). In addition, data was taken based on haplotypic differences. If there was considerable gene flow from Neanderthals to modern humans, it would be suspected that there would be similarities between Neanderthals and non-African haplotypes when compared to African haplotypes. The data found that there were haplotypes found among

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

A new species of human called "Homo naledi," was discovered by Berger, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. What he didn’t know is that this discovery could change the progress of human evolution. After examining the fossils, Berger and his team came up with a new theory. They proposed that “the fossils -- consisting of infants, children, adults and elderly individuals -- were found, in a previously isolated chamber within the cave… the chamber, located 30 meters underground … was a burial ground -- and that Homo naledi could have used fire to light the way”. Naledi’s brain was said to be no bigger than an orange with hands locked in a curve and feet almost identical to ours. They were about 5 feet tall and had long legs. However, getting there wasn’t easy. Since the cave openings were so small, they had to use Underground Astronauts to help recover the evidence. Even with about 1,500 fossils found, they still believed that this chamber is not yet done and has even more Naledi bones to be discovered. This new discovery brought many questions of our true identity and where we came from, but it did remind us of all the things that are still yet to be discovered.

Homo neanderthalensis is the closest extinct relative of Homo sapien. They were named for the Neander valley region in Germany where some of the first Neanderthal remains where discovered. Lime miners stumbled across the remains in a cave belonging to a bear; the fossils were then given to a local teacher and amateur naturalist, Prof. Dr. Johann Carl Fuhlrott. (Tattersall) He identified them as being very old and distinctly different from any other human bones he had seen before. Fuhlorrt then brought a skullcap and partial skeleton to the Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bonn, Hermann Schaaffhausen. (Tattersall) They published their findings in 1857 that these remains belonged to a different people then modern humans.

The first Neanderthal fossils found in Europe, a fragmented child’s cranium in Belgium in 1830, and an adult cranium in Gibraltar, were not immediately recognized as a divergent kind of human. Only in 1856 after a partial skeleton was found in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany it became clear that these fossils belonged to an extinct human and our closest evolutionary relative (Hublin and Pääbo, 2006). Since then, questions about their relationship with modern humans have been fiercely debated between anthropologists. But what attracts most interest from scientists and popular media is the possibility of hybridization between Neanderthals and modern humans if, in other words, they were a genetically different specie or a

Sequencing data suggests that there has been some form of gene flow between Neandertals and their sister lineage, Denisovans, which resulted in modern humans. It is estimated that one to three percent of a non-African human’s genome has been inherited from Neandertals, with coalescent models suggesting that 35 to 70 percent of the Neandertal genome is present in the DNA of modern humans.

There is evidence to suggest that Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens had coexisted for approximately 35-40,000 years, (Fagan 2010) from around 60,000 years ago to 25,000 years ago when they finally went extinct (Gibbon 2001). Anthropologists are still uncertain what the cause of their extinction was. This paper will analyze three main theories of Neanderthal extinction. The first theory is the competition theory, which claims that the Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had to compete for resources, ultimately leading to their demise. The second theory I will discuss is the climate change theory, which claims that Homo sapiens lived while Neanderthals died because they were better adapted to the climate. The last theory I will discuss is