What are Neanderthals?

The Homo neanderthalensis , also referred to as the Neanderthal, is also translated as the Neanderthal, often used as a general term for representative populations in the middle stages of human evolutionary history. It is named for its fossils found in the Neandertal Valley in Germany.

Neanderthals (the Latin literary name homo neanderthalens , also translated as Neanderthals) are ancient humans who lived in Europe and West Asia about 120,000 to 30,000 years ago, and belong to the late Homo sapiens. Neanderthal skull fossils were first discovered in Belgium in 1829, but it was not until 1856 that craniums and other bones were found in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany, and were named Homo neanderthalensis ) Before becoming widely known (Wolpoff, 1996). Fossil evidence shows that it is slightly shorter than the early modern people but has stout bodies and limbs, and the average brain volume is slightly larger. It was widely spread in Europe in the Late Pleistocene and was also distributed in West Asia and Central Asia. It appeared at least 230,000 years ago. The ice age flourished and went extinct about 30,000 years ago (Hublin, 2009).

Animal fossils and stone tools were not found in the cave where the Neanderthal fossils were found. At that time, the age of human bones could not be determined, and the world's conclusions about this research were mixed. Twenty years later, two more skulls were discovered in the Spies of Belgium in 1886. The shape is very similar to that excavated in the Neander Valley 30 years ago, and is obviously different from modern people. Unlike Neander's discovery, a large number of animal fossils were also unearthed with human bones this time. Animal fossils include bones and teeth belonging to cave bears, reindeer, woolly rhinoceros and ancient elephants. At that time, paleontology had recognized that many of these animals had long since become extinct, and the perception that these human bones represented ancient humans that were clearly different from modern humans was widely accepted. The Neanderthals have the same morphological characteristics, and their position in the history of human evolution has also stood.

In 1908, a basically complete skeleton of a man's skeleton was found in a cave near the village of Saint-Chabelle, France. Its skull is similar to those of the Neanderthal skulls that have been found, so scientists regard this skeleton as a typical representative of the Neanderthals, and began to compare the structure and morphology of the bones of various parts of the Neanderthals. fully understand.

Neanderthals and modern people have coexisted in space and time for a long time. Whether Neanderthals are separate species or a subspecies of Homo sapiens has long been controversial in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Although fossil-based morphological studies have long shown that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have been crossed (Duarte et al., 1999; Trinkaus et al., 2003), it was not until Green et al. (2010) that they used ancient DNA information to confirm Nian Only after the genetic communication between the Dete and Homo sapiens, scientists reached a consensus that Neanderthals were a subspecies of Homo sapiens.

The taxonomic division of Neanderthals is still under debate. Initially they were painted into a separate category (the Neanderthal race, scientific name H. neanderthalensis ), and later they were considered a subspecies of Homo sapiens (scientific name H. sapiens neanderthalensis ). Although fossil-based morphological studies have long shown that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have been crossed (Duarte et al., 1999; Trinkaus et al., 2003), it was not until Green et al. (2010) that they used ancient DNA information to confirm Nian Only after the genetic communication between the Dete and Homo sapiens, scientists reached a consensus that Neanderthals were a subspecies of Homo sapiens. ^[4]

Neanderthals have been an attraction since they were first discovered in 1856.

Neanderthal skeletons (2 photos)

The mystery of public interest, and various speculations about the Neanderthals. In many ways, Neandertals can be called dinosaurs in primitive human studies. Like dinosaurs, Neanderthals suddenly disappeared, and the reason for their disappearance has been a topic of debate among scholars. At the same time, dinosaurs and Neanderthals are darlings of popular culture and often appear together in comics.

However, popular culture has many misunderstandings about Neanderthals. Neanderthals are often seen as obsolete and outdated, and are slandered into lower races that are debilitated by inadequate intelligence to cope with changes in the environment. The reality is that Neanderthals have been very successful in meeting the climate challenge for at least 200,000 years, which is 125,000 to 150,000 years longer than modern Homo sapiens that continue to this day. ^[7]

Neanderthal harmful genes

Chinanews.com, February 13th. According to the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po report, a recent US study found that depression, obesity, and smoking habits appear to be modern problems. They are actually inherited from prehistoric Neandertals. Genes. The findings are published in the journal Science.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University found that when Neanderthals and modern humans reproduced offspring, they left behind harmful genetic inheritance. In fact, the DNA of Neandertals seems to affect many disease characteristics, increase the risk of stroke, heart attack and depression, and even increase the risk of smoking.

Scientists discovered in 2010 that modern people with Eurasian ancestry have inherited about 2% of the DNA of Neanderthals, but they are not sure how much it will affect modern people.

However, the first study to directly compare Neanderthal DNA with the health records of 28,000 people showed that the former has a biologically significant impact on modern people. Researchers have found that Neandertals have a specific DNA that significantly increases their chances of becoming addicted to cigarettes, and that several DNAs can increase or decrease the risk of depression.

The first Neandertal jewelry

The reference news network reported on April 5th that the Effie reported on April 3rd that according to the latest discovery of the director of the Croatian Museum of Natural History and anthropologist Davorka Radovcic, Neanderthals in The earliest human jewellery was made using eagle claws 10,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years before modern humans appeared in Europe. ^[8]

The study showed that Homo sapiens 100,000 years ago was not the first human to make decorative items. The relevant results have been published in the American Science Public Library Comprehensive Volume magazine.

Radovcic said: "It was previously thought that the earliest human jewellery was made by Homo sapiens 100,000 years ago. These jewellery were found in present Israel and southern Africa, but new research has pushed this threshold forward 10,000 to 30,000 years. "But she believes that the most important thing is that the earliest jewelry was related to Neanderthals.

Some experts believe that Neanderthals lack symbolic thinking skills, so the above findings are strong evidence that Neanderthals have a higher cognitive ability to make jewelry.

These eagle claws are from white-tailed sea eagles, and the traces on them indicate that Neanderthals had been stringed together to make jewelry such as necklaces and bracelets.

The fossilized claw fossils were discovered 115 years ago at the Krapinani Ende ruins in northern Croatia and have since been kept in the Croatian Museum of Natural History. The Krapina site is one of the most found fossils of Neanderthals in the world.

Neanderthals are often associated with rough, brutal, and mentally inferior images, but this latest finding suggests that these Paleolithic humans were closer to modern humans than we thought.

Radovcic said that the ability to make such jewelry shows that the Neanderthals have reached a certain level of abstract cognitive ability, and it is likely to have symbolic thinking and language skills.

For Neanderthals, a white-tailed sea eagle with a wingspan of two meters is likely to have some special significance.

An expert group formed by Radovcic has studied all the claw fossils in the Krapina site. "We found traces of cutting and grinding left by humans on the claw fossils," she said.

The team also found traces of exposure to acidic environments (such as human sweat) on a total of eight eagle claw fossils. This once again confirms Radovcic's point of view.

The shape of the talons allows Neanderthals to string them together without drilling. "We're not sure this is a necklace, but we think it's some kind of ornament that you can wear on your body," Radovcic said.

The eight eagle claw fossils came from at least three white-tailed sea eagles. Based on this, the scientists believed that making ornaments at that time should be a wide-ranging group behavior, not an individual accident. ^[9]