Neanderthal

For thousands of years, Neanderthals were the only hominids living in Europe and parts of Asia.

But once we did, it was only a matter of time before we ran into the inhabitants of this continent: The Neanderthals .

That it was division of labour which gave modern humanity its edge over the Neanderthals is not a completely new idea.

One of science's most puzzling mysteries - the disappearance of the Neanderthals - may have been solved.

"By the time the classic Neanderthals had emerged, " Finlayson laments, "they were already a people doomed to extinction. "

I feel like the defense attorney for the Neanderthals sometimes.

For a hundred and fifty years, scientists have been puzzled by the fate of the Neanderthals.

Based on these findings, several anthropologists questioned whether Neanderthals should continue to be considered a separate species.

Neanderthals turn out to have the same version of FOXP2 as Homo sapiens (and thus a different one from chimpanzees).

Not just in modern humans , but in one of our distant unrelated ancestors, the Neanderthals .

Perhaps not coincidentally, the rise of figurine-carving modern human cultures in Europe coincided with the decline of Neanderthals.

Neanderthals are believed to be modern humans' closest ancestor, and some scientists view both as the same species.

It used to be thought that Neanderthals lacked the capacity for human speech.

Then the most interesting scientific work could begin, examining the genetic differences that distinguished Neanderthals from Homo sapiens.

Whatever happened, modern humans, our ancestors, won out. Today, it's obvious who dominates the planet. Neanderthals are no more.

The inhabitants, apparently Neanderthals, selectively used pine for heating in preference to more available types of wood.

Finlayson does not rule out the possibility that Neanderthals and H. sapiens met.

But now, DNA extracted from a Neanderthal bone found in Croatia demonstrates that Neanderthals possessed exactly the same gene we have.

Instead of killing them, perhaps we out-competed the Neanderthals. We may have been better at finding different sources of food.

Researchers found grain and cooked vegetable in Neanderthals' teeth, and concluded they cooked and ate plants and vegetables.

DNA analysis of ancient remains shows that Neanderthals shared with modern humans the gene that gives the ability to taste bitter flavours.

He told Discovery News that "it is certainly possible that they (the Neanderthals at Sima de las Palomas) were buried. "

The fossil evidence shows that Neanderthals were restricted to Europe and Asia, whereas Homo sapiens originated in Africa.

The remains of six to seven other Neanderthals, including one baby and two juveniles, have also been excavated at the site.

Yet today, although Neanderthals and Homo erectus are widely known, Boskops are almost entirely forgotten.

We ate our picnic lunch on the lawn of the museum, and then plunged in again for birds and alligators and Neanderthals.

Others have argued that modern humans wiped out Neanderthals by out-competing them for resources and by waging war.

Some scientists have argued that when modern humans left Africa, they interbred with Neanderthals.

He quotes Richard Klein, an anthropologist at Stanford, about Neanderthals: "Are you going to put them in Harvard or in a zoo? "

It may also have given them a big advantage over the resident Neanderthals they encountered.

It remains uncertain how long we interacted with Neanderthals because when and how they went extinct is still debated.

Dr Pä ä bo's research suggests precisely that: the FOXP2 genes from modern humans and Neanderthals are essentially the same.

Analysis of DNA extracted from the fossil reveals it is significantly different from the DNA of Neanderthals or of modern humans.

Some even argued that Neanderthals didn't go extinct at all, but interbred with H. sapiens.

Wait . . . what? Neanderthals.

There are traces of the Neanderthal genome in humans today, meaning Neanderthals and humans probably mated.

There has been much speculation about Neanderthals' ability to speak.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to look at the expression pattern of genes in Neanderthals, and it probably never will be.

There is absolutely no reason to believe that Neanderthals were any hairier than modern man.

Here's the idea: Neanderthals disappeared about thirty-five-thousand years ago.

By 35, 000 years ago, the Neanderthals, a sub-species of humans whose own origins were in Africa, were mostly extinct.

Between 1 and 4 percent of the genes of non-Africans match those found in Neanderthals, making it difficult to draw the species line.

Neanderthals 200, 000 years ago were shorter and stockier than we are now, but, again, there's no evidence that they were obese.

Even Neanderthals, who lived in relatively cold regions of ancient Europe, used caves only for temporary shelter.

Bad enough I have to deal with those Neanderthals.

We don't know, but it's possible that neanderthals didn't do this.

I'm not dissing the neanderthals .

Neanderthals were primitive beings that lived alongside modern man 30, 000 years ago.

But here's a different theory: Neanderthals died out because they lacked skills in clothing design.

The team estimates Denisovans split from the parent group of Neanderthals about 350, 000 years ago.

The two species coexisted for 10, 000- 12, 000 years before Neanderthals eventually died out.

We know that Neanderthals had big brains like ours.

They are about 9 feet long, date back 400, 000 years and were probably made by Neanderthals.

For example, a group in Spain published a paper this week analyzing the DNA from 12 Neanderthals found in a single cave.

Neanderthals, who lived from 200, 000 to 30, 000 years ago, likely could speak rather well.

At that time, Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans also lived in that region of Siberia, deep in the Altai Mountains.

Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia from 400, 000 to some 30, 000 years ago.