What happened to Neandertals Why did they extinct - Essay Example

Neandertals are the most well-studied representatives of the ancient Homo sapiens. The transition from archaic to modern humans is documented in Europe, however, what has caused the disappearance of these people is still not known to the science. There are numerous theories explaining their disappearance. One of hypothesis suggests that Homo sapiens migrated into Neandertal lands and caused their extinction. Homo sapiens had bigger brain and more advanced in technology. Another theory suggests that populations of that time merged and mixed, which resulted in the evolution of the new human species. Archeologists are still not sure which theory is right, even though more Neandertal skeletons have been found compared to other human species. It is well known that Neandertals lived in Europe and Asia more than 150,000 years ago. Neandertals managed to adopt physically and cultural to the ice age conditions, however, their disappearance still cannot be explained. These ancient people are not considered Homo sapiens, and even if they were the representatives of human species, they were of the different race. Neandertals disappeared 30,000 years ago and have left only traces of their living. Scientists from advanced countries are analyzing DNA samples from bones trying to find the cause of Neandertal extinction. It is not an easy task because genetic material is much degraded and mixed with other types of DNA. New technologies in this field gives scientists the hope to collect new valuable information from Neandertal's DNA. The first bones of Neandertal were discovered in 1820s in Europe (Green 2006). Later the skulls of a child and a female were found and stored in the museums. The discovery which recognized the existence of human-like species was made in Germany. After examination by paleontologists and medical pathologists, the agreement was reached that those fossils were not of animal origin as well as not of human as of modern Europe. After publication of Darwin's works, the society was convinced that Neandertals were very ancient humans and disappeared in the result of the natural selection process. Neandertals were not humans as the investigation of two skeletons found in Belgium cave demonstrated. It was found out that these two Neandertals were associated with food bones from animals and stone tools which were more advanced. In general, more than 400 skeletons were found and majority of which were excavated in France. At first, Neandertals were described as dull-witted and ape-like creatures. However, the further analysis showed that this depiction was wrong and Neandertals were much like humans (Shreeve 1996). However, the question whether Neandertals were of human origin or whether they were the representatives of other species. The evidence is still searched in the genes and bones. In 2004, the researchers conducted several tests and reached the conclusion that modern humans are much different genetically from Neandertals. Nevertheless, based on the current research, as much as 25 percent of Neandertal DNA is the same as of modern humans. Thus, it is possible that Neandertals did not disappear but rather evolved into the modern human species. Last year, the team of professors at Max Planck Institution have sequenced approximately 1/3 of the DNA from Neandertal bones and hope that within the next two years it will be possible to draft the entire genome and compared it with human. The Neandertal disappearance is critically analyzed by scientists all over the world. Additional information was gathered in 1999 when the skeleton of the four year old boy dating 25,000 years ago was found. This child has the mixture of Neandertal and modern human features (Tattersall 1999). Therefore, he was the hybrid of two species. Scientists note that such hybrid was possible only if the genetic differences between modern humans and Neandertals was not very great. In other words, it means that Neandertals were not the representatives of the other species, but shared at some features and DNA with humans. It was estimated that the population of Neandertals was not very big and the last date of Neandertal presence is considered to be approximately 28,000 years ago. It is not known what happened to their generation, but some archeologists relate their disappearance to the rapid growth of modern humans. Thus, the most reliable version of Neandertal disappearance is their inability to compete with the larger and advanced human population. There is another version that Neandertal just did not survive because, unlike humans, they lacked labor division. The pregnant women of human generation had less risky tasks such as collecting fruits while men were hunting. Thus, the loss of the men was not significant and population was steadily increasing. While in the Neandertal society, both men and women were hunting on animals. Neandertal population was uncompetitive and weak. It is also possible that Neandertals did not survive the ice age and when the temperature went below 0 F, they were unable to deal with the winter conditions (Stringer 1995). Thus, Neandertals have disappeared because they did not have the labor division and because of the cold temperature. Humans managed to survive cold age because they were more advanced and were able to deal with the cold temperature. This hypothesis seems to be logical because Neandertals were disappearing gradually. Nevertheless, it is still not clear why Neandertals living in the warmer regions have also vanished. Moreover, the assumption that humans were smarter and more advance is also not proved. Neandertals were the first human creatures who lived in the almost artic environment and were smart enough to migrate to the warmer regions. Returning to the DNA analysis, it is important to note that genetic information gathered from Neandertal skeletons, helps to understand what has happened to Neandertals. Notably, as much as 95 percent of genetic material from Neandertal bones is microbial. Sequencing experiments (used to separate the bacterial forms from Neandertal) make it possible to generate the numerous based of Neandertal DNA. Moreover, the DNA is very degraded and the pieces are not enough to make the sense our of experiments. Another concern deals with the worry that there is the chance of human DNA contamination. With the help of the DNA experiments, scientists hope to learn what has happened to Neandertal population. They are trying to find the human genes in Neandertal bones and support the theory of evolution. For example, the comparison of chimp genome with human has showed that there are more than 35 million base pairs that are different (Lambert 2006). According to the theory of evolution, chimps and humans have more than 5 million years between, while the time span between humans and Neandertals is only 5 hundred years. According to the already performed DNA sequencing, it is possible to say that Neandertals share approximately 95 percent of human features. Thus, it is possible to state that Neandertals did not disappear, they mixed with humans and eventually evolved. Neandertal features disappeared and were replaced by the human. Interestingly, there is also the correlation between the DNA of chimps and Neandertal. There is four percent that Neandertals were more chimps rather than humans. Scientists are now working on examination of the genes for talking and cognition. If Neandertals did not evolve into humans, they have failed to survive the ice age and died. Recently, two teams of scientists united and decided instead of studying small fragments of DNA, they try to combine the fragments together to get the more complete picture (Lambert 2006). This technique did not provide the new insights on the life of Neandertals, however, it has the potential to discover the secrets of evolution. Although the genome is still not complete, the question about the evolution of humans and Neandertals can be partially answered. In particular, it was found out that during 10,000 to 20,000 years humans and Neandertals have shared the same territory in western Asia. And even though it is still not known whether humans and Neandertals were interbreeding, it had been analyzed that these two species might have been mixed. There are several characteristics of Neandertals which are unique for them only, for example lack of chin and morphology of the mandible. The comparison of Neandertals and humans has showed that derived traits of face and brain of Neandertals indicate that they were the separate species from modern humans. It is unlikely that their unique traits have reversed in the course of evolution and thus, they could not evolve into humans and have died out because of the ice age and lack of competitiveness. Interestingly, it was researched that Neandertals had some social and cultural support, but their actions were led purely by biological factors (Cuozzo 1998). Even in the period when they co-existed with humans, they led the isolated life. As the result, humans managed to adopt to the ice age, while Neandertals did not. In conclusion, the disappearance of Neandertals is still not explained by science, however, the recent investigates indicate that there are two reliable theories of their extinction. First, they failed to cope with the ice age and died because of the low temperature. Second, due to the fact of their co-existence with humans, they mixed with the human race and their unique characteristics vanished. Scientists still have to decide which theory is more trustworthy and the recent developments in DNA analysis give the hope that the answer will be found in the nearest time. References Cuozzo, J 1998, Buried Alive: The Startling Truth About Neanderthal Man, Master Books. Green RE, Krause J, Ptak SE, Briggs AW, Ronan MT, Simons JF, Du L, Egholm M, Rothberg JM, Paunovic M, Pbo S 2006, "Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA", Nature, 444, pp. 330-336. Lambert DM, Millar CD 2006, "Evolutionary biology: Ancient genomics is born", Nature, 444, pp. 275-276. Shreeve, J 1996, The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins, Harper Perennial Press. Stringer, C, Gamble, C 1995, In Search of the Neanderthals: Solving the Puzzle of Human Origins, Thames & Hudson Publishing. Tattersall, I 1999, The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives, Westview Press. Read More