Neanderthals not incompetent dimwits: study | The Japan Times
I’m with stupid: An exhibit shows the life of a Neanderthal family in a cave in a museum in Krapina, Croatia, in February 2010. | REUTERS
WASHINGTON - No offense, but your ancestors probably were no brighter than a Neanderthal.
That is the message a pair of researchers have delivered after analyzing archaeological evidence detailing the capabilities of Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relatives, compared to the early modern humans who first crossed their path about 40,000 years ago.
These include: complex hunting methods that required a group effort and planning in advance; likely use of spoken language; use of pigments, probably for body painting; use of symbolic objects such as eagle claws and perforated animal teeth, probably for pendants; and the sophisticated use of fire.
“We found no data in support of the supposed technological, social and cognitive inferiority of Neanderthals compared to their modern human contemporaries,” said Wil Roebroeks, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Genetic evidence shows that there was interbreeding between Neanderthals and the early modern humans, Villa noted.
Male offspring resulting from interbreeding were likely infertile, which may have contributed to a Neanderthal population decline, Villa said.
The remnants of the Neanderthal population eventually may have been assimilated into the larger modern human population in a process that unfolded over a period of a few thousand years, she added.
There were some anatomical differences between the robust, large-browed Homo neanderthalensis and the sleeker Homo sapiens. For example, the bodies of Neanderthals were shorter and stockier than modern humans, and the middle part of the face was bigger, with a larger nose.
At a Channel Islands site, fossil remains of mammoths and woolly rhinos that most likely had been the target of an organized hunt by Neanderthals were found at the base of a ravine.
evolution, intelligence, Neanderthals
Neanderthals not incompetent dimwits: study | The Japan Times
I’m with stupid: An exhibit shows the life of a Neanderthal family in a cave in a museum in Krapina, Croatia, in February 2010. | REUTERS
WASHINGTON - No offense, but your ancestors probably were no brighter than a Neanderthal.
That is the message a pair of researchers have delivered after analyzing archaeological evidence detailing the capabilities of Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relatives, compared to the early modern humans who first crossed their path about 40,000 years ago.
These include: complex hunting methods that required a group effort and planning in advance; likely use of spoken language; use of pigments, probably for body painting; use of symbolic objects such as eagle claws and perforated animal teeth, probably for pendants; and the sophisticated use of fire.
“We found no data in support of the supposed technological, social and cognitive inferiority of Neanderthals compared to their modern human contemporaries,” said W
il Roebroeks, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Genetic evidence shows that there was interbreeding between Neanderthals and the early modern humans, Villa noted.
Male offspring resulting from interbreeding were likely infertile, which may have contributed to a Neanderthal population decline, Villa said.
The remnants of the Neanderthal population eventually may have been assimilated into the larger modern human population in a process that unfolded over a period of a few thousand years, she added.
There were some anatomical differences between the robust, large-browed Homo neanderthalensis and the sleeker Homo sapiens. For example, the bodies of Neanderthals were shorter and stockier than modern humans, and the middle part of the face was bigger, with a larger nose.
At a Channel Islands site, fossil remains of mammoths and woolly rhinos that most likely had been the target of an organized hunt by Neanderthals were found at the base of a ravine.
evolution, intelligence, Neanderthals