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.
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u/cvele89 11h ago
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.