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Palaeontology

Neanderthals a victim of their own success ?

By T.K. Randall
November 21, 2011 · Comment icon

18 comments

Image Credit: Ryan Somma

Neanderthals may have been more of a victim of their own adaptability than to competition from humans.

Researchers at the Arizona State University and the University of Colorado have used complex computer models to analyse how early human hunter-gatherers would have responded to the changes that took place during the last ice age. The results suggested that neanderthals may have not been driven to extinction due to competition with modern humans but would have instead been gradually absorbed in to the modern human populations.

The researchers used the archeological record to track human behavioral changes in Late Pleistocene (126,000 - 10,000 B. P. ) Western Eurasia over a period of 100,000 years and across the equivalent of 1,500 generations of human hunter-gatherers.

Source: Popular Archaeology | Comments (18)

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#9 Posted by AsatroGubbe 13 years ago

one observation i must make regarding the neanderthal skulls i have seen is that many have a "trademark" wear on the molars. as if they used their teeth to strip bark or leather or ???. another observation is that compared to homosapiens they seem to have retained most if not all of their teeth until they died. curious.

#10 Posted by Erikl 13 years ago

4% to 6% on average although I bet theres a few higher and lower by chance. I wish to contribute Biblical accounts of people living to several thousand years old. Also I wish to point out European folklore about trolls living under bridges and in caves. A longer lifespan may have meant a much lower birth rate per year allowing them be absorbed into the population. I would also be interested in finding out if the places where advanced civilization appeared - Europe, Babylon, Persia, Eygpt, India, China, Central America have more than the average 4% to 6% neanderthal dna. And I would refer you t... [More]

#11 Posted by Erikl 13 years ago

From wikipedia, about the book Guns, Germs and Steel: Although agriculture arose in several parts of the world, Eurasia gained an early advantage due to the greater availability of suitable plant and animal species for domestication. In particular, Eurasia had the best collection of plants and animals suitable for domestication – barley, two varieties of wheat and three protein-rich pulses for food; flax for textiles; goats, sheep and cattle provided meat, leather, glue (by boiling the hooves and bones) and, in the case of sheep, wool. As early Middle Eastern civilizations began to trade, th... [More]

#12 Posted by Mr Right Wing 13 years ago

And I would refer you the excellent book called "Gun, Germs and Steel", which explains exactly why civilizations evolved in certain areas while in others they didn't. One of the things I do not except, though, is that the Maya people lived in conditions as the Africans did, that is - thick tropical forests of Meso-America, however they did develop a very advance civilization. My take, is that the people that left Africa had to go through very harsh conditions to adapt to the alien territory they arrived, couple that with intermixing with well adapted people that lived there for hundreds of tho... [More]

#13 Posted by Erikl 13 years ago

Has the book been peer reviewed? The only advanced civilization to appear in Africa was the Eygptians. If you look at the picutres of their people on their temples many of them are pale skiined. Now this isnt about racism but I'm suggesting Homosapiens are the inferior species compared to Neanderthals. Neanderthal dna leads to civilization and those regions with the most Neanderthal DNA created the most impressive civilizations. In those regions where there is none (Central and Southern Africa) there is no civilization just tribal peoples until the Europeans arrived and setup their states. Loo... [More]

#14 Posted by Mr Right Wing 13 years ago

Look, I suggested the same, but after reading the book I must say it has some strong points. Also I lived in Africa (Congo) for a year and a half, and have seen the people there, and I think it's a classic case of "Resource curse" - Africa, especially tropical Africa and it's surrounding, is where Homo Sapiens evolved and so there were no environmental pressures or evolutionary bottleneck that favoured the most adaptable. In these regions, the climate barely change, food is everywhere, and it is extremely difficult to cultivate long lasting agricultural products. Europe, for a bunch of hunter ... [More]

#15 Posted by Erikl 13 years ago

I havent read about any evidence which indicates war between both species in Europe. Have you come across any reliable sources? No, and I don't think there was a war. I think they intermixed, it's just that the more advanced and ingenious homo sapiens eventually survived better and so their culture triumphed.

#16 Posted by Pachycephaloid 12 years ago

I havent read about any evidence which indicates war between both species in Europe. Have you come across any reliable sources? I remember reading a scholarly article several years ago that proposed that social structure differences between Neanderthals and sapiens sapiens were a major reason one species survived and the other didn't. I don't have the references handy, but it basically described Neanderthal tribes being little more than immediate family whereas sapiens sapiens typically lived in larger bands. Living in a larger band meant that knowledge-sharing and group-hunting resulted in mo... [More]

#17 Posted by H.H. Holmes 12 years ago

#18 Posted by Paracelse 12 years ago

We know Neanderthals cared for their dead so we can assume they had a form of consciousness http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/neanderthals.html

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Neanderthals a victim of their own success ?

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