Posted on Aug 17, 2024
What's the Difference Between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals?
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Fossil and genetic evidence indicates that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens evolved from a common ancestor between 700,000 and 300,000 years ago. And Neanderthal DNA is 99.7% identical to present-day human DNA. But the similarities don’t end there. Like Homo sapiens, Neanderthals lived in shelters, used fire in a controlled manner, and hunted and used tools. They may have even made art, including engravings and jewelry, although that remains an ongoing debate. We also know that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred, and that all modern humans likely have some Neanderthal DNA. Despite these similarities, there are a number of differences between Neanderthals and our early ancestors, ranging from their physical features to their way of living.
What's the Difference Between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals?
Posted from historyfacts.com
Ancient History
Archaeology
Science
Posted 3 mo ago
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After being called a knuckle dragging Neanderthal by a hippie chick, I went and got my DNA tested. And what do you know? She was right. I have more Neanderthal DNA than 85% of people. Who knew?!!
Even if that wasn't the case, I still find anthropology a fascinating subject because when you observe Chimp behavior, there are a lot of similarities. We haven't changed a whole lot. The males play politics and hug babies to win the affection of the females. They have their pecking orders and where you are at is based on who your parents are, who you associate with, who you groom, who you go to war with, etc. These all are determiners of your social standing. If you're a good hunter other chimps will suck up to you hoping to share in the monkey you caught. Some try to get along with everyone and are peaceful; others are just freakishly mean bullies. They squabble and have their dramas. If you're the offspring of a dominant parent, you will be treated well by the others. Chimp males routinely go on patrols of their territory and will go to war against neighboring groups competing over resources.
People today from different races share 99.9% of our DNA. Neanderthals share 99.7% of our DNA and there are some plusses and downsides to that much difference. People with a lot of Neanderthal DNA are more prone to have healthier immune systems, red hair, be depressed, be night owls, have less fear of heights, and be hoarders. We share 95% of DNA with chimps.
Studies stating we share 99% with chimps were based on studying overlapping sections and ignored junk DNA which we discovered is not junk but actually serves a purpose. We once thought the appendix was a vestigial organ but now, we know it works as part of our immune system. So junk DNA wasn't junk. We thought it was nonfunctional but now understand that it does serve a purpose, and it IS part of what makes us different from Chimps and should be included in determining our genetic differences.
Neanderthals were probably smarter than us in some ways and dumber in others just as we are with other animals. Chimps seem to have a better memory for matching than we do and beat us on matching tests. I believe the Neanderthals had to rely more on memory for navigating and so they probably needed a larger portion of their brain devoted to remembering how to navigate through the forests and find their way. They didn't have written language, so everything taught had to be remembered and passed on. So I believe Neanderthals were more sophisticated in many ways than we give them credit for, but they lost the evolutionary arms race to humans because we civilized, and they didn't. And civilization brought humans an enormous competitive advantage over the Hunter Gatherer Neanderthal tribes that were limited to family units that would periodically run into other family units, exchange females, and so on. As they got outcompeted, groups became more isolated, and inbreeding may have taken a toll.
Even though the Neanderthals had larger brains, size alone is not the greatest determiner of intelligence. It's how densely packed the neurons are and how many folds there are in the brain exposing the neurons to nutrients. The Neanderthals were superb athletes, but they weren't really that abstract of thinkers. They really didn't have art or music. While they could speak, they probably didn't have well developed vocabularies and thus were not as articulate. So, music and arts probably took a back seat; it just wasn't something they had time for. Their life was tough, and they had to devote all their energies to survival. They stayed on the move and followed the animals they preyed upon. They would make crude hunting lodges or find caves that they would come back to and visit every so often in their migrations. They also developed a manufacturing process that extracts pitch from birch bark and it has to be done in the absence of oxygen. The sticky pitch made a glue that helped hold the flint spear tips on the shaft. And their ability to strike flint and create knives and spear tips is a difficult thing to master -- even for us now. It takes a while to get good at it. So, yes, they weren't just a bunch of knuckle draggers that walked like apes and lived in caves; they had a lot more going on than we give them credit for. They were intelligent and beastly strong, but their social structure was not as advanced as Homo Sapiens, and I believe they simply got outcompeted by humans (whose social groups could number in the hundreds and thousands) and ended up being killed off in some cases and in other cases absorbed into the human population.
There is another group of human ancestors, the Denisovans, that likewise died out in Asia and were absorbed into the human genome. They may have interbred with the Neanderthals as well. Denisovan DNA helps one breathe rarified air at high altitudes and deal with cold better.
Even if that wasn't the case, I still find anthropology a fascinating subject because when you observe Chimp behavior, there are a lot of similarities. We haven't changed a whole lot. The males play politics and hug babies to win the affection of the females. They have their pecking orders and where you are at is based on who your parents are, who you associate with, who you groom, who you go to war with, etc. These all are determiners of your social standing. If you're a good hunter other chimps will suck up to you hoping to share in the monkey you caught. Some try to get along with everyone and are peaceful; others are just freakishly mean bullies. They squabble and have their dramas. If you're the offspring of a dominant parent, you will be treated well by the others. Chimp males routinely go on patrols of their territory and will go to war against neighboring groups competing over resources.
People today from different races share 99.9% of our DNA. Neanderthals share 99.7% of our DNA and there are some plusses and downsides to that much difference. People with a lot of Neanderthal DNA are more prone to have healthier immune systems, red hair, be depressed, be night owls, have less fear of heights, and be hoarders. We share 95% of DNA with chimps.
Studies stating we share 99% with chimps were based on studying overlapping sections and ignored junk DNA which we discovered is not junk but actually serves a purpose. We once thought the appendix was a vestigial organ but now, we know it works as part of our immune system. So junk DNA wasn't junk. We thought it was nonfunctional but now understand that it does serve a purpose, and it IS part of what makes us different from Chimps and should be included in determining our genetic differences.
Neanderthals were probably smarter than us in some ways and dumber in others just as we are with other animals. Chimps seem to have a better memory for matching than we do and beat us on matching tests. I believe the Neanderthals had to rely more on memory for navigating and so they probably needed a larger portion of their brain devoted to remembering how to navigate through the forests and find their way. They didn't have written language, so everything taught had to be remembered and passed on. So I believe Neanderthals were more sophisticated in many ways than we give them credit for, but they lost the evolutionary arms race to humans because we civilized, and they didn't. And civilization brought humans an enormous competitive advantage over the Hunter Gatherer Neanderthal tribes that were limited to family units that would periodically run into other family units, exchange females, and so on. As they got outcompeted, groups became more isolated, and inbreeding may have taken a toll.
Even though the Neanderthals had larger brains, size alone is not the greatest determiner of intelligence. It's how densely packed the neurons are and how many folds there are in the brain exposing the neurons to nutrients. The Neanderthals were superb athletes, but they weren't really that abstract of thinkers. They really didn't have art or music. While they could speak, they probably didn't have well developed vocabularies and thus were not as articulate. So, music and arts probably took a back seat; it just wasn't something they had time for. Their life was tough, and they had to devote all their energies to survival. They stayed on the move and followed the animals they preyed upon. They would make crude hunting lodges or find caves that they would come back to and visit every so often in their migrations. They also developed a manufacturing process that extracts pitch from birch bark and it has to be done in the absence of oxygen. The sticky pitch made a glue that helped hold the flint spear tips on the shaft. And their ability to strike flint and create knives and spear tips is a difficult thing to master -- even for us now. It takes a while to get good at it. So, yes, they weren't just a bunch of knuckle draggers that walked like apes and lived in caves; they had a lot more going on than we give them credit for. They were intelligent and beastly strong, but their social structure was not as advanced as Homo Sapiens, and I believe they simply got outcompeted by humans (whose social groups could number in the hundreds and thousands) and ended up being killed off in some cases and in other cases absorbed into the human population.
There is another group of human ancestors, the Denisovans, that likewise died out in Asia and were absorbed into the human genome. They may have interbred with the Neanderthals as well. Denisovan DNA helps one breathe rarified air at high altitudes and deal with cold better.
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