I watch the Science channel alot and they just had a special on the evolution of man. They speculated that Neanderthals went extinct due to the fact that they were replaced by a superior species -Homosapiens. What are your thoughts on this and why?
2006-08-09 05:01:01 · 6 answers · asked by legalbambino 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Even though I believe that we were created, I also believe that we have evolved and we are not the same today as we were when the Neanderthals were around.
2006-08-09 05:29:30 · update #1
Some dude is right...Humans are adapted for more warmer climates, Neandertals were adapted for much colder climates. Neandertals did have larger brains, but this only resulted in better sense of smell, hearing, sight, etc.....Humans had a larger pre-frontal cortec, which made them more intelligent. Humans also eventually invented new types of tools, spears, and even a more complex language.....all of which worked in our favor. Homo sapeins are superiorly adapted to warmer climated, although our intelligence would eventually let us overcome just about any climate or obstacle. (Even today, no other animal on the planet can live in as many areas as humans). Neandertals inhabited a niche environment, and when global temperatures started rising, that environment was gone. That is the ultimate reason Neandertals went extinct.
2006-08-11 10:47:30 · answer #1 · answered by cognitively_dislocated 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
First, we're not necessarily a superior species. Our species just happened to survive, and theirs didn't.
Second, not all taxonomists place the Neanderthals as a separate species. We're Homo sapiens sapiens. They're Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.
Third, the Neanderthals disappeared about 35,000 years ago. By that time, our species was pretty much what it is today -- you know, the Australian aborigines are fully human with an integrated consciousness just like you, but they'd been isolated from European/African/Asian humanity since well before the Neanderthals disappeared.
2006-08-09 12:01:35 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's important to keep in mind that in instances like this 'superior' simply means that the survivor happened to survive and reproduce more effectively than the other species, it does not actually connote any actual superiority over the other species other than ability to survive - which often has more to do with luck than skill or biological adaptations.
There's no doubt that Homo sapiens sapiens out-competed Homo sapiens neandertalensis in Europe, but how and why that came about remains a matter of speculation.
There is some evidence in the morphology of a few skulls, and habitation sites in the Near East that modern humans and Neandertals may have lived in the same regions, and possibly even interbred. In which the Neandertals may not have so much gone extinct as their genetic heritage was folded into the genetic make-up of Homo sapiens sapiens itself.
2006-08-09 05:10:37 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Neanderthals were adapted to Ice Age Europe, whereas our ancestors (who looked identical to us) were better adapted to warmer climes. As the Ice Ages ebbed, the Neanderthals couldn't keep up.
2006-08-09 07:24:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sounds perfectly reasonable considering there's fossilized evidence suggesting that we evolved from a primate much more different than a neanderthal, that both primates coexisted for a brief period, and that then the neanderthal fossil records stopped (they died out).
2006-08-09 05:09:39 · answer #5 · answered by ymingy@sbcglobal.net 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
All humans are the same you can see the ancient Egyptian Aztec the are just like us so the other xtenct races they are just like us human doesn't evuloted from any ancestor
2006-08-09 05:16:27 · answer #6 · answered by BioProf 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋