उपशीर्षक (93)
0:06In 1856, quarriers working a cave
in Germany’s Neander Valley
0:12discovered several mysterious fossils.
0:15The remains changed hands
until being identified
0:19as the skullcap and femur bones
0:22of something ancient and human,
but not quite us.
0:28It soon became clear they belonged
to an extinct human species—
0:33the first ever known to science:
0:36Homo neanderthalensis,
or simply, Neanderthals.
0:41Not long before the discovery,
0:43many believed the world was only
about 6,000 years old.
0:48However, by the mid-1800s,
0:51naturalists were more comfortable
with geological timelines
0:55and evolutionary theory.
0:57The idea that ancient remains could belong
to another human species
1:03was finally becoming conceivable.
1:06But misconceptions persisted,
and much “Neander slander” ensued.
1:12Early on, Neanderthals were
depicted as dim-witted oafs
1:17who died out because of their inferiority
to modern humans,
1:24One popular illustration suggested that,
1:27in addition to being hairy
and club-carrying,
1:31Neanderthals stooped
and had ape-like opposable toes,
1:36even though this wasn’t reflected
in skeletal findings.
1:41Over the next century, however,
1:43archaeologists discovered
more hominin species,
1:47as well as the remains of over 300
Neanderthal individuals.
1:53Compared to modern humans,
Neanderthals had larger, deeper-set eyes;
1:59were shorter and more muscular,
2:01had higher caloric needs
with slightly bigger bodies,
2:06including their hearts and brains.
2:09For over 350,000 years,
they lived across Europe and Western Asia.
2:16For at least their final 10,000 years,
2:19they spatially overlapped
with Homo sapiens.
2:23And archaeological finds have suggested
that they led much more complex lives
2:29than initially suspected.
2:31In the 1950s, scientists unearthed
the remains of a Neanderthal
2:36in a cave in northern Iraq who had
a severed right arm, injured leg,
2:42and was likely partially blind and deaf.
2:46Yet, he survived long after
these injuries,
2:49suggesting his community provided him
extensive, daily support.
2:54And another skeleton from a French cave
belonged to an older Neanderthal
3:00who probably had trouble walking
3:02and had lost so many teeth he may
have needed his food ground up.
3:07Both excavation sites
also showed signs of burial,
3:12all suggesting that Neanderthals
went beyond
3:16immediate, practical concerns for survival
3:19and cared for their ailing and dead.
3:23Teeth analyses also indicate
that Neanderthals
3:26might have used anti-inflammatory
and antibiotic plants medicinally.
3:32For a while, researchers assumed
that Neanderthals hunted big game
3:37with unsophisticated, brute force
ambush attacks.
3:42But cut marks on rabbit bones
3:45and tools with apparent traces
of scales and feathers
3:49suggest Neanderthals were capable of the
skill required to capture small game,
3:55perhaps utilizing snares
and fast-moving projectiles.
4:00In fact, we know they fashioned
and wielded many types of tools,
4:06sometimes affixing them with glue
they made from heated birch bark.
4:11They also shaped hardwood
digging sticks with fire
4:14and created reinforced, 3-ply string
using bark fibers.
4:21Other findings have also raised questions
4:23about whether Neanderthals
thought symbolically,
4:27seeing beyond direct utility,
into realms like art and language,
4:32long considered a hallmark
of Homo sapiens.
4:36Potentially for personal adornment,
there’s evidence of Neanderthals
4:41selectively removing
bird’s flight feathers,
4:44painting and perforating shells,
4:47and wrapping eagle talons in what seems to
have been another kind of animal tissue.
4:53They likewise made markings
on a giant elk’s toe bone
4:58and created three cave paintings in Spain,
5:02if the original 65,000-year-old
dating estimate holds.
5:08Meanwhile, broken, rearranged,
and burned stalagmites
5:13deep within a French cave
5:15left scientists wondering if the
mysterious structures
5:18held spiritual or ceremonial significance
to Neanderthals.
5:24Clearly, they weren’t as different
as originally believed.
5:29And following the first fully sequenced
Neanderthal genome in 2010,
5:34researchers realized
our species interbred.
5:38All modern humans retain some
Neanderthal DNA—
5:46the result of hundreds of discrete
interbreeding events.
5:51So, what happened to Neanderthals?
5:55Theories from rampant cannibalism,
to disease and climate change,
6:01to aggressive Homo sapiens
have been floated.
6:04But another idea is that,
6:06because Neanderthals lived
in smaller groups,
6:09as they interbred with larger populations
of Homo sapiens,
6:13they just sort of got gradually absorbed.
6:18Overall, consensus has begun shifting away
6:22from representing human evolution
as tree-like
6:25and more towards a kind
of braided stream,
6:29with different hominin groups separating
and rejoining at various junctures.
6:36As we continue to learn more
about our evolutionary cousins,
6:40each discovery raises questions
about just how much we share.
