Neanderthals

Creatures > Neanderthal Man

or Homo neanderthalensis

Neanderthals have been a much-maligned species: a beetle-browed, hulking brute, incapable of much thought and condemned to be replaced by the much superior Homo sapiens. Part of the reason for this is that the first specimen found was not typical of his species, but the main reason is of course the whole "Man is superior" thing.

Let's start by noting that Neanderthals survived successfully for at least 200,000 years (perhaps 400-500,000 years) -- a longer period of time than the 125,000-150,000 years Homo sapiens can lay claim to.

Then let's note that their brains were if anything slightly bigger than our own!

They did have heavier brows, heavier bones, broader shoulders, a wider pelvis, a broader trunk and virtually no waist. Their ribcage was more bell-shaped, instead of tapering off as it does with us. If you put a Neanderthal and an early human of the same era next to each other, you would be able to tell the difference.

But the importance of any differences for survival is another question. Maybe the reason they died out and Homo sapiens didn't was just the luck of the draw.

We now know they had a small hyoid bone, meaning that they could have had speech. Although long condemned as incapable of any symbolic behavior, such as art, we now have examples of cultural expression. Derided as clumsy, there is now evidence that their manual dexterity equalled that of Homo sapiens.

Neanderthals were found throughout Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, and finally died out, it seems, around 28,000 years ago. They may have proved unable to survive the encroaching cold.

News

13 September 2006

Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe

Neanderthals lived in Gibraltar at least as recently as 28,000 years ago, long after Neanderthals elsewhere in southwest Europe appear to have become extinct, and after Homo sapiens moved into western Europe (about 40,000 years ago). 240 stone tools and artefacts have been dated between 28,000 and 24,000 years old.

The finding gives more credence to a skeleton found in Portugal (the Lagar Velho child) that is purported to be a hybrid of a Neanderthal and a modern human, which was dated to 24,500 years ago.

The finding also supports the view that rapid climate change may have been responsible for their extinction.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10070

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5343266.stm

August 28, 2006

How Modern Were European Neanderthals?

Re-examination of decorated bone points and personal ornaments found in the Châtelperronian culture of France and Spain has pointed to them belonging to Neandertals around 44,000 years ago, rather than acquired from Homo sapiens. This adds to the evidence from other sites that the Neandertals already had the capacity for symbolic thinking before the arrival of modern humans into western Europe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060824222042.htm

22 February 2006

Humans vs. Neanderthals: Game Over Earlier

New radiocarbon dating techniques suggest the first modern humans arrived in the Balkans from Israel around 46,000 years ago, about 3,000 years earlier than thought, and spread west to the Atlantic coast in around 2,500 to 3,000 years, about 1,000 years quicker than believed. Because this shortens the period of interaction between modern humans and Neanderthals to 6,000 years instead of 10,000, it’s suggested that Neanderthals were indeed killed off by the advance of modern humans. It’s also suggested that modern humans were better equipped to deal with the dramatic fall in temperatures around 40,000 years ago, because of their better technology (such as clothing and better control of fire).

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060222_neanderthals.html

1 February 2006

Neanderthals: Top-Notch Hunters

Evidence from animal remains hunted by Neanderthals in the southern Caucasus clearly indicates that they were great hunters, casting doubt on the theory that they died out because modern humans were better hunters.

http://www.thesupernaturalworld.co.uk/index.php?act=main&code=01&type=00&topic_id=9048 (original Discovery News article can still be read here, although it’s disappeared from the Discovery site)

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA/journal/issues/v47n1/110417/110417.web.pdf (the original academic journal article)

11 September 2005

Neanderthal Man was not a hairy oaf but a sensitive kinda guy

Although a complete skeleton of Neanderthal man has never been found, scientists have now reconstructed a complete Neanderthal using bones from seven incomplete skeletons. The reconstructions supports the view that Neanderthals were inferior to modern humans in long-distance running, and consequently developed different survival strategies.

http://www.ezilon.com/information/article_9522.shtml

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article311816.ece

1 September 2005

'Tragic end' for Neanderthals

New evidence has emerged that Neanderthals co-existed with Homo sapiens for at least a thousand years in central France. No signs of them have been found from around 28 000-30 000 years ago. There are two possible reasons for this (aside from the obvious, that we have simply not yet found more recent remains): the Neanderthals might have become extinct; or they interbred with Homo sapiens, becoming indistinguishable from them.

However, this has been rendered less plausible by the finding in France of site where Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived sequentially. The Neanderthals lived there around 40,000 to 38,000 years ago, when the climate was relatively mild. Then came a sudden and prolonged cold snap, and the Neanderthal left and Homo sapiens moved in for about 1,000—1,500 years. When the climate warmed again, Homo sapiens left and the Neanderthals returned, staying from around 36,500 years ago to 35,000 years ago, before finally disappearing for good.

The finding also provides evidence of the Neanderthals' vulnerability to climate change.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1763055,00.html

16 August 2005

Neanderthals Craved Bison, Mammoths

A study of Neanderthals living in France 35,000 years ago indicates that, despite being surrounded by small prey animals, woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth dominated their diet.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050815/biggame_print.html

March 17, 2005

New Neanderthal knowledge

Comparison of the oldest fossil hominid protein (osteocalcin), from a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil, with that of chimpanzees, old world monkeys, orangutans, gorillas and modern humans, has revealed that the protein sequence was the same in modern humans and Neanderthal.

http://www.geotimes.org/current/WebExtra031705.html

25 November 2004

Neanderthals and the modern human colonization of Europe

Mitochondrial DNA from seven Neanderthal specimens is distinctly different from those of all known present-day human populations and also from that recovered from five early specimens of anatomically modern humans. This supports the view that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens did not interbreed. The DNA also indicates that the initial evolutionary separation of the Neanderthals from the populations which eventually gave rise to genetically modern populations must reach back at least 300,000 years.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v432/n7016/abs/nature03103.html

21 January 2004

Big chill killed off the Neanderthals

Why did the Neanderthals die out? As with the similar question re dinosaurs, there’s been lots of suggestions, including (in this case) the idea that humans were responsible. Now a team of 30 archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists and climate modellers have compiled a broad-ranging view of life during the period and concluded that the culprit was the climate.

This is the story they paint:

Huge variations in Europe’s climate in the period between 70,000 and 20,000 years ago
30,000 years ago, ice sheets marched south and winter temperatures plummeted to -10°C, and Neanderthals retreated south from northern Europe
The earliest modern humans (Aurignacians), who appeared around 40,000 years ago, also retreated south
A group of technologically superior modern humans (Gravettians) appeared in eastern Europe 29,000 to 30,000 years ago, and with the help of that new technology, clothing, proved able to tough out the cold. Their coming revitalised the human population.
The Neanderthals, however, couldn’t survive and died out, probably around 28,000 years ago.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18124311.600

http://www.meta-religion.com/Archaeology/Europe/big_chill.htm

2 December 2003

Neanderthal face found in Loire

A 35,000 year old “mask” — a flint object showing signs of having been chipped to produce a striking likeness to a human face — "should finally nail the lie that Neanderthals had no art."

Although a number of examples of Neanderthal art have been found, each one has typically been dismissed as a “one-off”. "With Neanderthals, there may have been the odd da Vinci-like genius, but their talents died with them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3256228.stm

27 March 2003

Neanderthals capable of fine handiwork

Another slur on Neanderthals has been that they didn’t have the dexterity to make and use tools. A new computer analysis of their finger bones, however, finds that they were perfectly capable of producing the same grips humans can. Indeed, it’s been suggested that their grasp may have been superior. Neanderthal hands were more heavily muscled than modern human hands, with broad finger tips.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/030324/030324-6.html

http://www.versiontech.com/origins/news/news_article.asp?news_id=178

19 January 2002

Neanderthals clever enough to make 'superglue'

A new analysis of two 80,000-year-old samples of blackish-brown pitch discovered in a lignite mining pit in the Harz mountains in Germany has revealed signs that the pitch was used as a sort of glue to secure a wooden shaft to a flint stone blade. The pitch, moreover, was a birch pitch, which can be only be produced at temperatures of 300-400C, suggesting that the Neanderthals possessed a high degree of technical and manual abilities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1766683.stm

Studies of the DNA structure of present-day human populations in different areas of the world and traces of ancient DNA extracted from a number of Neanderthal and early anatomically modern human remains point to modern humans originating from one limited area of Africa around 150,000 years ago, followed by their dispersal to other regions of the world between about 60,000 and 40,000 years ago.