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NEANDERTHALS:
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Timothy Hefner
What are Neanderthals?
What are Neanderthals?
Estimates:
First ancestor from apes receiving “homo”: 10 – 4 mya
Neanderthals: 550,000 – 30,000 years ago
What are Neanderthals?
What do we know about them?
■ It is hard to discuss Neanderthals because they lived over 30,000 years ago and for
a relatively short period of time. Any discussion relies on archaeological evidence.
■ We do know they died out , but we do not know how. Theories include:
1. Simple quirk of fate
2. Direct competition with H. sapiens
3. Neanderthal’s own (unadaptable) behavior
4. Disease
5. Resource availability
6. They were assimilated into the H. sapiens population
7. Etc.
What are Neanderthals to H. sapiens?
■ Some people believe that Neanderthals and H. sapiens shared no significant
differences
– This would suggest the “unlucky” excuse to their extinction
■ I believe that to be a cope out answer.
– Looking only at the anatomical evidence there are some potentially small
differences that could of had large effects.
■ In an anatomical comparison, the Neanderthal brain is 10% larger than the H.
sapiens brain (in pure size)
– At first glance this could mean that they had better brain capacity than us.
– Neanderthals also had larger bodies.
– Combined this means that the larger bodies and larger brains had a much
larger caloric need!
– It also suggests that more neural tissue was needed for somatic purposes
■ i.e. regulating and monitoring the body.
What are Neanderthals to H. sapiens?
Neanderthal vs Anatomically Modern Human Skulls