Homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted for a time
Apparently modern humans (Homo sapiens) and Neanderthals coexisted for a period of nearly 1,000 years. This contradicts previous understanding of Neaderthals, which has traditionally held that they mingled and faded into modern man’s lineage.
It shows that the two hominids did indeed co-exist for a long time but there is no evidence of any intermingling.
Indeed, it points to the likelihood that the Neanderthals petered out, their lineage expiring in starvation and Ice Age cold.
The overlap was found when examining a cave, la Grotte aux Fees, which had archeological layers showing that the cave started out inhabited by Neanderthals. When the temperatures dropped during the last Ice Age, the Neanderthals moved out and Homo sapiens moved in. When the temperatures warmed again, Homo sapiens left and H. neanderthalensis returned. The period of overlap lasted about 1,000 years.
The question now, is what happened to Neanderthals? Modern humans are taller, thinner, and smarter than our ancient cousins, and more capable of adapting to climate and world changes than Neatherthals were, which would seem to make that answer obvious: we destroyed them.
“People point out that Neanderthals were biologically better adapted to living in glacial conditions than modern humans, that they were built a bit like eskimos and were better anatomically at coping with cold conditions, whereas modern humans came in from Africa, where they evolved with bodies that were taller and thinner and did not conserve heat so well,” he said.
“Yet the evidence is here that modern humans could cope with cold conditions better than the Neanderthals thanks to culture and technology, for instance with better clothing, better fire control and perhaps better shelters.”
DNA tests have revealed no Neanderthal genes from 1,000 samples taken from Europeans, which leads researchers to believe that there was little to no mixing of the gene pools. This is hardly surprising given humanity’s racism past and present. I’m sure that ancient Homo sapiens (and probably Neanderthal) society was no different. One could easily imagine forbidden romances being highly “discouraged” by any means necessary — if even this happened because it is postulated that Neanderthals didn’t have spoken language. It is suspected that modern humans destroyed Neanderthals on the road to becoming the dominant species on the planet; unsurprising given the animal kingdom’s propensity to make war on those who have dissimilar genetic background. It’s called “survival of the fittest.”
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[...] The researchers caution that the two genes are linked to increased brain size, but not necessarily greater intelligence. I would speculate that they are but a small piece in the evolving of the modern human brain. Consider that Neanderthals were better physically suited to a harsh environment, but that Homo sapiens outlasted Neanderthals and became the dominant species on Earth. Neanderthals had no speech or written language, whereas their bigger-brained Homo sapiens cousins did. Perhaps these two genes are but one part of a larger evolutionary picture that we are just now discovering. [...]
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