Читать книгу The Handy Psychology Answer Book - Lisa J. Cohen - Страница 307

The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were a species of the Homo genus that lived from about 200,000-300,000 years ago until they became extinct around 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals were not the ancestors of modern humans but rather shared a common ancestor with our species. In that way they were more like our cousins. The ancestors of Neanderthals and modern humans broke off from a common ancestor about 400,000 years ago. As modern humans (Homo sapiens) date back to about 200,000 years ago, Neanderthals overlapped with modern humans for about 170,000 years, although for most of that time (about 140,000 years), the two species lived on different continents: Neanderthals in Europe and Asia and modern humans in Africa. In fact, modern genetic studies tell us that our two species interbred to some extent and that many modern humans carry a small amount of Neanderthal genes. Evidence suggests the interbreeding took place from 60,000 to 30,000 years ago across Europe and Asia.

Neanderthal skeletons were first recognized as belonging to an earlier species in the nineteenth century. These skeletons had shorter, stockier bodies than those of modern humans, with heavier brows and larger jaws. Their brain casings were actually larger than ours. Originally it was thought that Neanderthals were much more primitive than modern humans—not much different from apes. However, advances in the science of paleontology as well as the new ability to decode the Neanderthal genome tells us much more about these fascinating relatives of ours. They ranged across Europe and Asia and ate a wide variety of foods, suggesting they could flexibly adapt to very different environments. They used sophisticated stone tools, hunted with wooden spears, and even buried their dead. While we have not yet established whether they used language or were capable of symbolic thought, the complexity of their tools suggests they had some form of complex communication. Scientists are not clear why Neanderthals became extinct or to what extent modern humans were a contributing factor to their disappearance.