Thomas Huxley, An Evolutionary Scholar Essay

In his essay, "The Method of Scientific Investigation" , T. H. Huxley argues that the scientific method is not just used in science or started in science. Instead, he believes the scientific method was formed based on the natural order of the human decision making process. His purpose is to show the readers that the scientific method is not complex at all, but that it is actually quite common and should be implemented directly in day to day decision making.

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.

Even though Neanderthals have many differences compared to Homo sapiens, they should be considered humans because of their ability to reason and have a conscience. Through scientific research, we have learned that Neanderthals organized the bodies of their dead and they buried their dead as well through. Through this act of sympathy for their fallen counterparts, we can see the compassion and sympathy shown from the Neanderthals’s concionse and ability to reason. From this act of burial we can see that from the U.N.’s decleration of human rights Neantherthals should be considered human.

Were Neanderthals the same as modern humans, or were they an entirely different species? This is a major topic of debate among Anthropologists, and many people strongly argue each view, backing their opinion with evidence from physical remains and inferred ideas about behavior.

Neanderthals are the predecessor to anatomically modern humans. They were hunters, cared for their wounded and the dead, lived rough lives, and are considered to be a highly successful species (who). Living between 180-40 thousand years ago, Neanderthals were considered to be a part of the middle paleolithic era (when). Living in both Europe and southern Asia, Neanderthals never migrated into Africa (where). They co-existed with anatomically modern humans; however the time of coexistence is debatable. Unlike today’s humans, they had a significantly larger head, accounting for a significantly larger brain (what). However, they were equipped with a much smaller frontal lobe, which means they had less capacity and ability for forethought. They

Superficially, anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals have much in common. Current data suggest Neanderthals had language, religion, and shared select genes with Homo-sapiens. The standing question is whether or not these similarities are a product of gene flow. This paper will be an extensive overview of the most substantial evidence that proves or disproves any genetic and anatomical relationships between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals.

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.

Professor Holliday also found out a new fact about the Neanderthal skeleton that it was much stronger on the right side than on the left; also the right forearm was much more powerful which allowed the Neanderthal a very strong grip. Professor Steve Churchill, from Duke University, carried out another experiment. The results of this and Holliday's work suggest Neanderthal was an ambush hunter; waiting in a forest for his prey to stray close, and then attacking with a thrusting spear. Neanderthal was possibly the most carnivorous form of human ever to have lived. (www.bbc.co.uk.com). Research of the skull shows that the Neanderthal skull is 20% larger than the average size of a modern human’s brain, and it also showed that the areas of the brain where complex thoughts are suppose to occur were just as advanced as ours. The vocal tract of a Neanderthal was shorter and wider than a modern person, which showed also that their voices could have been much more higher pitched then ours today. Neanderthals could produce a wide range of different voices just as we could. About 45,000 years ago Europe hit a major climate change, it was sudden random bursts between warm and cold conditions, which really messed with the Neanderthals environment. Neanderthals lived in forests with the weather change the forest began to recede, giving way to open plains; “On these plains,

Evidence indicates Neanderthals and Modern humans shared a common African ancestor and split on the evolutionary tree between 500,000 to 200,000 years ago. Neanderthals developed in the cold and harsh environment of Europe and western Asia. With a lot of water locked up in the polar ice caps, Africa was experiencing a severe drought. This arid and dry environment is where modern human’s direct ancestor was living. These people’s bodies were a lot taller and weaker (to allow heat to escape) in comparison to the Neanderthals. This severe drought placed modern humans on the brink of extinction. However, when a species is dying out only the most inventive and resourceful survive, this causes the fitness of the remaining population to increase. In Europe the Neanderthals toughness allowed them to be very successful. In Africa the modern humans developed something the Neanderthals did not have, imagination. In Africa to survive it was necessary to think ahead and this allowed them to make the final step in becoming modern humans. Every previous human ancestor had been limited to the confines of their environment, but these ancestors eventually made their way out of Africa, and their imaginative behavior is illustrated in the drawings they left behind for others to find. After they left Africa they could have very well come into contact with the Neanderthals. Neanderthals became

To begin this study, it will be useful to start with a brief discussion of the major differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, because as will be seen, these differences may have a played a key role in their eventual extinction. Neanderthals were not the brutish, ape-like creatures they are often depicted as in popular media, but they did have some noticeable anatomical differences from modern humans. In general they were stockier with shorter, more powerful limbs, but these limbs

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

Neanderthals, mankind’s assumed ancestral brute for the ages, were the pinnacle of scientific discovery since many of their redeeming qualities were highly underestimated. Originally classified in the species Homo as Homo neandethalensis after the first specimen was found in the Neanderthal Valley in Germany. Neanderthals roamed the lands of Western Europe from 250,000 years ago to about the time H. sapiens came of the scene in 39,000 years ago. When the word Neanderthal first comes to mind, it 's common to believe what scientist have been telling us throughout the year. Up until a few years ago, there had been no sufficient evident to support Neanderthals of being anything more than Icelandic brutes roaming the cold terrain for anything

According to the consensus view, the Neanderthals lived 250,000 to 30,000 years BP (Before the Present), they were very primitive, looked more like gorillas than men, led a short brutish life, and died on average at the age of forty-five. According to my research, they were built more powerfully than modern Humans. Their thicker tendons and ligaments, attached to heavier bones, gave them superior strength, and the capacity of leaping high to hunt large animals. One of their back muscles, that Humans have lost, added tremendous force and precision for throwing an object such as a lance, or for handling a sword. Their voluminous rib cage gave superior stamina during any effort. Their eyesight was much sharper than that of 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

Where did we come from? This question has plagued us as a species since our conception and it has been the pinnacle of humanity to discover what we are and how we came to be. Through the use of modern science and our understanding of evolution, we are closer to determining how our species evolved than we have ever been before. Our closest hominid relative, the Neanderthal, is one such link to our past that we study to understand how we came to be. In studying this species, it brings about questions that have puzzle scientist in recent years. These are questions that delve deeper into the differences and similarities between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Many modern humans migrated out of Africa around 125,000 to 60,000 years ago leaving behind what are now modern Africans in the continent. Those who migrated out of Africa dispersed over time, colonizing much of Europe and Asia. This theory is known as the Out of Africa Theory (Stringer, 2000).