Instant Genius: Neanderthals

Everything you need to know about Neanderthals, including how we are recreating their brains and why they weren't the primitive, brutish species we imagine.

Published: April 2, 2020 at 11:00 pm

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Early human shows signs of right-handedness

10/19/2016
Cut marks on teeth suggest human evolution developed handedness 1.8 million years ago.
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Why did the Neanderthals die out?

12/17/2009
We once lived alongside Neanderthals, but interbreeding, climate change, or violent clashes with rival Homo sapiens led to their demise.
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Fossilised skull reveals face of early human ancestor

10/2/2019
The skull belonged to the oldest-known member of Australopithecus – a group of east African hominins that preceded the emergence of the Homo genus by around two million years.
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The invention of spears and bows and arrows may have helped early humans drive Neanderthals to extinction

10/5/2019
Early humans' complex weaponry helped them out-compete their cousins.
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Did humans and Neanderthals interbreed?

1/15/2018
Homo Neanderthalensis may have gone extinct, but a part of them still lives on inside our DNA.
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Great apes probably smarter than early human Australopithecus species

11/13/2019
Despite having a similar-sized brain to modern apes, scientists believe Australopithecus had a lower rate of blood flow to the brain.
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Early humans tucking into cooked carbs as long as 170,000 years ago

1/3/2020
Archaeologists have found charred remains of starchy plant parts at an archaeological site in South Africa.
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Early humans feasted on fish in the Sahara Desert 10,000 years ago

2/22/2020
Archaeologists excavated bones of fish, toads, frogs, crocodiles and birds from the Tadrart Acacus mountains in the Saharan Desert.
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Why did the Neanderthals go extinct?

11/6/2017
Although we are descended from Neanderthals, the species does not exist today – it might help the future of homo-sapiens to understand why.
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Human diseases from Africa could have wiped out Neanderthals

4/11/2016
DNA opens up new theory as to how disease spread from Africa to Europe and from Homo sapiens to Neanderthals.
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Human population purged Neanderthal genes

11/9/2016
Current levels of Neanderthal inheritance in modern humans a result of long-term difference in population sizes.
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Could we clone a Neanderthal?

7/20/2017
The Neanderthal, also known as homo neanderthalensis, could be up for making a come-back.
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Neanderthals weren't the strong, strapping cavepeople we imagine

9/16/2019
Neanderthals were often ill or disabled, and many were cared for by the group.
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Neanderthals may have died out without help from modern humans

11/30/2019
Inbreeding and declining health in small populations could account for the Neanderthals' demise.
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Are we descended from Neanderthals?

6/22/2009
Homo neanderthalensis was a close cousin, but not our ancestor.
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Neanderthals collected shells at the beach, just like us

1/16/2020
Archaeologists have found a collection of seashells and volcanic rock once owned by Neanderthals in Grotta dei Moscerini in central Italy.
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Neanderthal ancestry found in African populations' DNA for the first time

1/31/2020
Researchers estimate that Europeans and Asians to have more equal levels of Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought, and say that for the first time they have found evidence in African populations too.
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Shanidar skeleton discovery sheds light on Neanderthal 'flower burial'

2/19/2020
Pollen found around 70,000-year-old remains reopens the debate as to whether ancient humans buried their dead.
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Could Neanderthals speak?

6/23/2017
Unrgh ugg, uh unnngh argh - or something like that...
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