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