Have you ever wondered how Neanderthals died? Do you even know the details of their existence? Join me, as we explore together what these species are and how they came and left with proof from published research.
There have been several published research on how diseases and humans played a crucial role, while some others tackle each other.
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Scientists have agreed that Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago, and this happened after there was a wave of modern humans who migrated out of Africa about 20,000 years earlier. For almost 350,000 years, Neanderthals were the inhabitants of Europe and Asia, until there was an evolutionary standard that made them disappear years ago.
The modern humans who appeared from Africa had distinctive sloped foreheads, they had wide noses, and large pelves, but at the time, they were not the only hominid species which means human-like species that existed at the time, other groups like the Homo floresiensis and Denisovans were also working the earth at the time.
According to Prof Stefano Benazzi of the University of Bologna, Italy.
‘At the time of the Neanderthals, there were several human species and suddenly 40 000 years ago, all disappeared but one.
But, does this mean home sapiens were the ones who made Neanderthals disappear, we cannot conclude o because there has been a lot of argument from scholars over the issue, some even argue that they disappeared as a result of climate change.
Prof Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum in London, however, said, the switch of existence was not an overnight happening, sometimes Neanderthals were at an advantage, and at other times, modern humans were at an advantage.
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At a site, Archaeologists found fossil evidence from several layers as they dug, as they tried to dig farther back in time, they were able to see more, the lowest layers according to their digging, showed the remains of Neanderthals who occupied the area for around 20,000 years, but while this formed the basis for their published thoughts, they were surprised to also find a modern human child's tooth in a layer which dates back to 54,000 years ago, alongside, they also found some stone tools that were made in a way that is not associated with Neanderthals. With this evidence, they were able to suggest that these early humans actually lived at a site for a relatively brief period, for maybe 2,000 years, and after that, the site was unoccupied again, this gave the Neanderthals room for occupancy, so they returned to the site occupying it for several thousand years until humans now cam back around 44,000 years ago. ref
If the case was not one of the new human race wiping out the Neanderthals completely, there must be something that probably made humans exist alongside Neanderthals, and that's something scientists have not been able to provide answers to. Some scientists say it could be the modern human art, some say it may be the language and some others say, there is even a possibility of a better brain but a professor known as Professor Stringer, says he believes the modern human was able to send the neanderthals into extinction because we were more organized. He buttressed more by saying, we were networking better, our social group was larger and we were able to store knowledge better, this knowledge that we choose to build upon he clarified.
Bear in mind that there was also a case of prolonged interaction of modern humans with the Neanderthals, could it be a case of inter-marriage amongst them or the case of the modern human adopting the baby of a lost Neanderthals? One cannot but think about these things as they could all happen and we do not know the full story yet.
The reason why the modern human was able to overpower Neanderthals in existence, is not something that scientists have been able to prove, but through mathematical models of disease transmission and gene flow, Greenbaum with an international team of collaborators was able to demonstrate how they believe there was a created unique disease that was harbored by Neanderthals and modern humans that could have created some method of coexisting that we do not have an explanation for.
So, amongst the different existing theories on the disappearance of Neanderthals, which of the theories do you believe? Do you think their disappearance was based on climate change, natural extinction, war, or the intelligence of modern man?
References.
nature. com/scitable/knowledge