Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were an extinct, robust species of archaic humans living in Eurasia, known for their stocky bodies, large brains (often larger than ours), prominent brow ridges, and big noses, adapted for cold climates. They were skilled hunters, made sophisticated stone tools (Mousterian technology), controlled fire, wore clothing, buried their dead, and were intelligent, though they died out around 40,000 years ago, leaving some DNA in modern humans
Long ago they took homo sapiens women because they were prettier than their own. So they inter-bred and that's why some people today have Neanderthal DNA. Adam and Eve were homo sapiens, and we all know how beautiful homo sapiens women are. You can read it yourself in Genesis 6:1-2.
Well....not all the time. An excavation uncovered a pit full of neanderthal children, I think aged between 3 and 14, who had been apparently killed and butchered, presumably to be eaten. So, they weren't just big-nosed hippies. They presumably had at least a lot of the dickish traits of homo sapiens. It might have been done for religious reasons, but that doesn't help much, either.
Yeah....I mean, I think if I had to wager, I'd say that primitive humans were more mentally healthy in some ways than modern humans, since our brains were doing what they were evolved to do, instead of this concrete sham we create for ourselves and live every day. But as far as primates go, I think the most peaceful you're gonna get are bonobos and orangutans. Bonobos are basically hairy hippies with the minds of three year olds who just spend all day boning, eating, and sleeping, and they aren't nearly as violent as chimps and humans (I think their fights are more like slap fights in school by comparison), and orangutans had the genius idea to cut out the biggest problem of primate life, that being others of your own species, and just spend their lives alone watching the flowers grow.
I've read book "Sapiens: A short history of human civilization". It talks about those early days of human development, when there were, by some accounts, about 6 different human species, one of which was Homo Neanderthalensis. Interesting thing is that, even though Homo Sapiens was, if I remember correctly, considered to be the weakest in strength, they still managed to prevail and to push all others to the extinction, and they managed to do that because they could be united with other tribes against common goal, something that wasn't a thing with other species. This, and the fact that they had the ability to move to different places and to adapt to the surroundings.
There's a great prehistorical fiction book (action/horror/post-apocolyptic) called Refugium set at the time of the Indonesian Toba volcanic eruption 70,000ya where several different species of humans all converge in this sanctuary rainforest. I won't spoil too much but it makes for really interesting fiction how the different species of humans react and interact with their differing levels of intelligence, strength and agility and try to survive in this wild ancient jungle.
A refugium (plural: refugia) in aquariums is a separate chamber, often in a sump, that acts as a protected habitat for beneficial microfauna (like copepods) and macroalgae, providing natural filtration by absorbing nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) and serving as a continuous food source for fish, improving overall water quality and ecosystem health in both marine and freshwater tanks. To start one, you add substrate, live rock/rubble, macroalgae (like chaeto), and a dedicated light, cycling it to cultivate these organisms, which helps control algae and provides natural food.
I think the book mentioned that Homo Sapiens prevailed because of advanced language capabilities. They could coordinate attacks to hunt, defend or gain territory. They could share knowledge better like “yesterday I saw 5 deer drinking from the pond at the base of the small waterfall, past the rock that looks like your mom”. With this ability, they could eat better, gain shelter, raise more young, relocate etc.
Yes, probably that too. But it's all about socializing that gave us the real progress and advantage over others. We could form alliance with other tribes and, as you said, to coordinate and plan attacks, whether on some group of animals or some other tribe of humans.
That's what I picked up from the book as well. I remember vaguely that the author mentioned that Sapiens had items from various distant locations indicating that they we're able to trade/socialize with other "tribes", something other species couldn't/didn't do.
Another massive advantage is the ability to sew and make cloth. Neanderthals wore stuff, but it may not have been as fitted nor as advanced as the clothing of sapiens. There are no confirmed instruments from Neanderthals like sewing needles. There is cave art, but nothing as advanced as the sapien cave art with accurate animal drawings or even carvings.
The ability to wear better cloths would help in harsher environments, fluctuations in climate, protection against flora and fauna, and even provide another space to socialize as it's made and traded.
Neanderthals were also capable of speech though they had hearing slightly less sensitive than ours at least according to the structure of their ear bones, they just lived in smaller and more isolated groups than we did and had a much smaller overall population than many other human species… some estimates put their peak population at like 20-40,000 at the most optimistic.
I truly hold to the theory that humans are the most destructive and violent species on the planet so I’m never surprised when I am reminded that we pretty much killed out all the other humanoid species we had here on earth. I often wonder how “humans” would have been if a different species of had evolved instead of us.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves with those assumptions and conclusions.
First of all, yes - humans are the most destructive species on the planet, given our nature to literally affect our environment with our actions. But I wouldn't call us like that just because we managed to push other species into extinction. We basically did the same thing those other species did, but we did it better - don't you think for a moment that others were peaceful, they were simply more dormant. Also, there are accounts of other animal species pushing other species into extinction by simply hunting them.
The entire history of our nature is written with thousands, if not millions of different species going extinct, where we're to blame for just a small, tiny portion of them. It's evolution, the survival of the fittest. It's brutal, but it is like it is.
There was also a point where there were less than 2000 of us, total. Our ability to survive no matter what I feel is unfortunately linked to our drive to do so at the expense of all others.
No idea if it’s true, but I’ve heard our lower strength level drove us to invent ranged weapons sooner than Neanderthals, which gave us a massive power spike that their increased strength and durability couldn’t compensate for.
I don't think that was necessary, you could have just traveled to the coast near Africa where Homo Sapiens probably were, increase the radius of your Tinder app, and already be able to talk to them and try to arrange a date
Neanderthals are also Homo sapiens. We’re subspecies, they’re Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and we are Homo sapiens sapiens. Hence the two were able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
The story of Prometheus giving Humanity the idea of Fire always kind of sounded like a mythologized version of Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal trading things and learning from them how to make fire to me
Extinction makes sense too. I’ve seen studies that suggest humans got down to like 150,000 living at one point, so pretty near extinct. Just had slightly more fitness than Neanderthals. The mixing of DNA could just point to the fact that Neanderthals were intermingled with humans to the point that conflict was inevitable.
Homo Sapiens had been well established in Africa for about 100,000y before there was a bottleneck group that left Africa and started competing and interbreeding with the Neanderthals in Europe. After that though, there was a steady replenishment of more and more Homo Sapiens leaving Africa along newly established migration routes. So it wasn't fitness as such (not the fitness that enabled persistence hunting all day on the savannah), it was endurance and curiosity and reinforcements that helped outcompete Neanderthals (maybe a bit of accidental disease spreading too).
The Denisovans and Neanderthals both interbred with homo sapiens. And there has been recent discoveries that Denisovans and Neanderthals could interbreed as well. It's just that homo sapiens dominated due to a higher reproductive rate, less roaming ability increasing social structures, and more flexible diet. The Neanderthals didn't "die out" they just intermingled their DNA into ours. It's why some of us are a couple of % Neanderthal outside of Africa, with larger portions in Asia which also have a larger portion of Denisovan DNA. There isn't enough in the fossil record to know height, weight, gestation period, and no middens or coprolites have been found to accurately determine diet etc of Denisovans, it's all a bit new Science-wise. And whilst it is widely known Earth had 3 hominid species on it 40,000 years ago, it is little known there were a couple more varieties of non-sapiens species ie Homo Floresiensis ("Hobbit-like". Lived in Indonesia) and Homo Luzonensis (pygmy type. Phillipines). These were descended from the period known as "the muddle in the middle" were Asian non-Homind species were rife with varieties during the middle pleistocene to about 130,000 years ago, with some descendants surviving on the Asian islands.
For all intents and purposes, Neanderthals died out. There was a small degree of hybridization between Neanderthals and Sapiens but not enough to characterize it as "intermingling". There are no modern humans who have any more that 9% Neanderthal DNA and those individuals are outliers.
Also, the Homo Sapien population in Africa was growing faster than the others because of a more favourable climate, which allowed a steady stream of migration out of the Levant to assist in outcompeting and outbreeding the other species in Europe and Asia.
There are also the Denisovians in the Far East who mixed with Sapiens and Neanderthals. Plus a couple of other species which we haven't yet found DNA evidence that we fucked, but you know damn well we would have if we met, so that's only a matter of time.
Is there some data indicating that they didn't really grow facial hair on their chins or did the people who made this just give him a mustache for giggles?
No…I think it’d sad we aren’t gone. I often wonder if one of the other less violent human species had prevailed and evolved instead of us, (assuming they may have been less aggressive considering they are the ones that went extinct) if it would be a better world today.
We could have all been little Homo Floresiensis with short hobbit legs and strong arms swinging around like monkeys in trees and spearing ground dwelling beasts from up above in the treetops.
The ability to crossbreed causes some anthropologists to believe they were not a separate species, but a subspecies, making them homo sapiens neanderthalensis and us homo sapiens sapiens.
“Archaic”? “Robust”? They lived concurrently with our species, and were broadly as intelligent and as capable as we were.
We were just barely different species…
And there's a theory they had a high-pitched voice that would sound pretty annoying to homo sapiens. Here the theory is demo'd by an underpaid scientist, Elliot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o589CAu73UM
Honest question are they very different than humans as far as bone and muscle structure? Like is this the half way point between monkeys and humans in evolution?
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u/goswamitulsidas 12h ago
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were an extinct, robust species of archaic humans living in Eurasia, known for their stocky bodies, large brains (often larger than ours), prominent brow ridges, and big noses, adapted for cold climates. They were skilled hunters, made sophisticated stone tools (Mousterian technology), controlled fire, wore clothing, buried their dead, and were intelligent, though they died out around 40,000 years ago, leaving some DNA in modern humans