Meeting the Neanderthal Man - Term Paper Example

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to this very day still brings a stir to researchers, historians, anthropologists and scientists alike as they discover more ways to prove or disprove the theory. More noise was created in 1848 when a skull that belonged to a then undetermined creature having the features of both man and ape (bbc.co.uk, 2005) This further strengthened Darwin’s theory especially when meticulous studies were undertaken to learn what kind of mammal the discovered skeleton was. As more similar skeletons were unearthed, scientists proved that there had been another species that may be different from modern human beings but in many ways are considered similar. The group of mammals was named Neanderthals under homo sapiens as dubbed homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Trinkaus, 1978).

From the studies conducted on the skeletons, it has been theorized that the Neanderthals lived during the ice age, thus their name. Researchers based their conclusions basically on the general features of the skeletal remains where it was observed that the Neanderthals had short limbs and a deep, wide ribcage which allowed lesser surface area exposed to the atmosphere and made the internal organs embedded deep within the body to make them warm (bbc.co.uk, 2005). Aside from showing their ability to adapt to the extreme cold during the ice age because of their physical features, they also tell about their way of living. For instance, the bone structures show an exaggerated massiveness in the trunk and limbs of Neanderthal males and females (Trinkaus, 1978). This could be traced to how they got their food, through hunting. Professor John Shea (bbc.co.uk, 2005) concludes from studying the hunting materials of the Neanderthals that the spears they used were not purposely shot from afar but were used in a face-to-face encounter with their prey. Because the tools were not as sharp to have been used in attacking from a distance, the theory is that the Neanderthals had to wait on the wild animals until they get near before attacking them. This explains the muscle development of the Neanderthals as shown by the skeletons and also helps to give light to the fractures found in some of the Neanderthal bones. For instance, Shanidar 3 (Trinkaus, 1978) has a scar o the rib which, based on studies, is theorized to be from an injury during a fight with a fellow Neanderthal or an accidental injury.

The predecessors of the homo sapiens were found to have a similar brain size to the modern man (bbc.co.uk, 2005; Tattersall & Schwartz, 1998) which makes the connection even closer. BBC records the finding of Professor Ralph Holloway from Columbia University; that the Neanderthal’s brain was twenty per cent bigger than the average size of the human brain (bbc.co.uk, 2005). With this difference, researchers believed that the extinct species might have talked as the humans who use their brains primarily for this function. Therefore, there had been an in-depth study of how the Neanderthal might have sounded.

A tiny bone in the throat called a hyoid was modelled in an attempt to find out the sound of the ice age man. With the belief that they were as intelligent as modern man, able to converse and make sounds, the Neanderthal man was found to have a high pitch based on the experiments performed by the researchers. With the species being extinct, there could never be a way this could ever be proven however, piecing together the puzzle might somehow someday, shed light on all the mysteries surrounding this subject of study. Read More