“What A Neanderthal!” This essay explores the widespread misconception regarding Homo Neanderthalensis, an extinct ‘cousin’ of the early modern human ancestors. The commonly held idea is that they were a drastically unintelligent species. The lesser known reality is that the Neanderthal was just as intelligent as the early modern humans that existed around the same time. The fallacies involved are bias consideration of evidence, overgeneralization, and common belief.…
My theory is that it was an ancient civilization with technology far beyond anyone else at that time. Unfortunately if that is true it has been washed away. In a documentary I watched, scientist captured footage of the underwater location that they believe atlantis was. Under water there were patterns that they believed were not formed naturally, They looked like building structures.…
1. Paleo- Indians were the first people to migrate to the new world. They were to have followed other animals from their home to the new world. They were very smart, archaeologist found tools they created and used for various aspects of their lives.…
Tools for both were used for complex tasks such as, hunting, sewing, Building shelters and building and controlling fires (Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History). The two had basic verbal communication skills and could use tools which distinguishes Humans and Neanderthals from apes and other primates. These skills helped Humans and Neanderthals coexist with each other until they started battling for territory as Humans became more prominent in Europe and eventually killed many of the Neanderthals living there (Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History). When Jaime Shreeve, An expert on human evolution and biology was asked what he thinks happened when the two species met, he…
This episode helped me understand how important the finding of Turkana Boy was, the 1st earliest Homo-erectus skeleton ever to be discovered. The finding of this skeleton lets us know besides having a smaller brain, wider hips, and a small bit of longer arms homo erectus are very much like us. The main difference though is their growth rate represented a chimpanzee rather than a human. This allowed me to stop for a moment and reflect on my thinking and perception on what I have learned in anthropology so far and made me realize the major change from homo erectus from us was brain size and like the video stated what allowed this increase of brain size was longer juvenile periods. The part of this episode that really stuck out to me where…
In a book titled “Lone Survivors” by Chris Stringer, Stringer presents to us his interpretations of the origin of modern humans. Previously, there were two fossils including a tooth and a finger of a female and male, found in the Denisova cave of Siberia which revealed a species that was perhaps indirectly related to both the Neanderthals as well as Homo Sapiens. In addition, they have unique features that are enough to separate them to their own distinct species. These fossils convinced Stringer that perhaps modern humans today are not a pure species but rather a mixture of other hominid groups. Neanderthal genes may still be in us.…
Introduction Neanderthals, though extinct, are the closest relatives of modern humans (Szalay 2013). Their appearance was similar to that of Homo sapiens, but they came with a few minor differences including larger brow ridges, shorter height, and a more muscular build. However, an aspect of Neanderthals has often sparked heated debates among researchers and anthropologists: Were Neanderthals intelligent, or unintelligent? This paper will evaluate the two sides of this debate, with a focus on anthropologist John D. Speth’s position, and determine which opposition is more convincing based on the logic of given evidence.…
In the search for answers to the past, we have come across clues that bring us closer to understanding our origin. No clues have brought us closer to understanding our past than the discoveries of; Lucy, the first hominoid discovered in near completed form. The Taung Child, discovered in the 1920’s, the discovery of “The Hobbit”, homo-erectus, and Turkana Boy, the most complete skeleton ever found. In discovering various fossilized remains early hominids, our past begins to unravel itself and history lends us its records to try to help us find out about our past, and in turn closing the gap of the evolutionary line.…
Evidence suggests that Neanderthals were adapted to steppe-tundra woodlands. Archaeologists studied the evidence above, and found that Neanderthals occupied a huge swath of Europe and Asia during the ice-age. Scientists found that they were adapted to woodlands.(Parmer)…
Croods Caveman, have always been something I was fascinated with watching documentaries about things they would find that could possible conclude cavemen actually existed. Findings of fossils have contributed to great discoveries among species. One unique fossil found was the Neanderthal. This fossil is considering the early human life formation, with having some traits of Homo sapiens species now. Upon being found in Germany around 1856 no one had ever seen anything in this nature.…
They are believed to have been a species in the genus homo that became extinct 40,000 years ago. Scientists also believe that we share DNA with them and that we’re closely related to them. An interesting fact about the species is that during their time, they made and used a diverse set of tools, were able to control fire, made and wore clothing, were skilled at hunting, and would occasionally create symbolic objects. One similarity between the Neanderthal species and the Homo sapiens species is that scientists believe we share 99.7% of their DNA or carry at least some portion of it. This basically means that us, homo sapiens, have Neanderthal within each of us.…
There is enough information to back up the research that has been done by the scientist. The result also supports the hypothesis stated, that modern human drove Neanderthals to extinction through competition, due to the cultural associated advantage the modern human have over the…
Throughout our history, homo sapiens grown and developed into the dominate species of today. From hominids such as Australopithecus afarensis, our species has migrated and cultivated the Earth. Though modern society superficially resembles nothing of our ancestors, archeologists, anthropologists, and sumerologists such as Samuel Kramer have noted striking similarities between the past and present. Kramer, specifically, has stated in regards to the ancient Sumerian society and modern society, that the two groups are “fundamentally analogous, comparable, and reciprocally illuminating.” There is noteworthy evidence to his contention that ancient Sumerians and modern man were strikingly similar philosophically, socially, and institutionally.…
When I went to the Smithsonian Human Origins Exhibit, it made me realize how much more I am informed about human evolution compared to most of the people at the exhibit. One thing was I saw on one the displays that Neanderthals were classified as part of the Homo sapiens lineage, which is not true. During our lecture you already told us that Neanderthals are not part of the lineage. Neanderthals are consider more like sisters than one of us. Also one of the speakers was saying how Homo heidelbergensis were 99.9% closely related to us, which is also false.…
In human history, we came to find that there are many different species relating to the human species. One of these species is called the Neanderthals or also known as cavemen. Approximately 40,000 years ago the neanderthals lived but, they vanished instantly at a period of time. Not many people know why or how this happened, who really were the neanderthals and finally what they were like. Neanderthals were a species that branched off of our ancestral tree.…