 |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
| Neanderthals Conservation status: Fossil |
||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reconstruction of a Neanderthaler shown in the Neandertal museum in Mettmann |
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||
| Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 |
The Neandertal1 or Neanderthal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis4) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago.
The first Neanderthal fossils were found in August, 1856, three years before Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. The fossils were found in a limestone quarry near Düsseldorf in the Neanderthal, Germany. The type specimen, dubbed Neanderthal 1, consisted of a skull cap. Other material found were two femora, the three right arm bones, two of the left arm bones, part of the left ilium, and fragments of a scapula and ribs.
Recovered by workers who thought the remains may have been that of a bear, gave the material to amateur naturalist Johann Karl Fuhlrott. Fuhlrott turned the fossils over to anatomist Hermann Schaaffhausen and in 1857 the discovery was jointly announced. The discovery is marked as the beginning of paleoanthropology.In the 1850’s, the prospect of an extinct human species was almost inconceivable. However, the fact that “Origins” was published in 1859 and other important fossil discoveries ultimately led to the idea that remains were of ancient Europeans and played an important role in modern human origins. The term “Neanderthal Man” was coined in 1863 by Irish anatomist William King. Over 400 Neanderthals have been found since.
Neanderthals were cold adapted, evidenced by their larger brains, short but robust builds and large nose. These traits are generally selected for in cold climates, a trend observed in modern sub arctic populations. Their brains were roughly 10 percent larger than those of modern humans. On average, Neanderthals stood about 1.65m tall (just under 5' 6") and were very well-muscled, comparable to modern weight-lifters.
Their characteristic style of stone tools is called the Mousterian Culture (middle paleolithic), after another prominent archaeological
site.
| Contents |
Anatomically, Neanderthals are known for their unique cranial features as well as their greater size compared to modern humans. Much of their size is understood to be an adaptation to the cold climate of Europe during the Pleistocene epoch. The following is a list of physical traits that distinguish Neanderthals from modern humans; however, not all of them can be used to distinguish Neanderthals from other extinct populations. Also, many of these traits can occasionally occur in modern humans. Nothing is known about the skin color, the hair, or the shape of soft parts such as eyes, ears, and lips of Neanderthals.
Neanderthal (Middle Paleolithic) archeological sites show both a smaller and a less flexible toolkit than in the Upper Paleolithic sites, occupied by modern humans, that replaced them. There is little evidence that Neanderthals used antlers, shell, or other bone materials to make tools. Their burials are less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans, though much has been made of the Neanderthals' burial of their dead5. In some cases, Neanderthal burials include grave goods such as bison and aurochs bones, tools, and the pigment ochre. Also, while they had weapons, they did not have spears or other projectile weapons; these were first used by Homo sapiens.3
Neanderthals performed a sophisticated set of tasks normally associated with humans alone. For example, they constructed complex shelters, controlled fire, and skinned animals. Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with four holes in the diatonic scale deliberately bored into it. This flute was found near a Mousterian Era fireplace used by Neanderthals, but its significance is still a matter of dispute.
Popular literature has tended to greatly exaggerate the ape-like gait and related characteristics of the Neanderthals. It has been determined that some of the earliest specimens found in fact suffered from severe arthritis. The Neanderthals were fully bipedal and had a slightly larger average brain capacity than that of a typical modern human (though the brain structure was organised somewhat differently).
In popular idiom the word Neanderthal is sometimes used as an insult, to suggest that a person combines a deficiency of intelligence and an attachment to brute force. Counterbalancing this are sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding and Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series or the more serious treatment by palaeontologist Björn Kurtén. Science fiction has depicted Neanderthals brought into the present via time travel, most notably in The Ugly Little Boy by Isaac Asimov.
Michael Crichton's 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead places a small Neanderthal population in Europe as the source of the battles recorded in Beowulf.
In the Riverworld series, Philip José Farmer introduces an interesting Neanderthal character, named Kazz.
Robert Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy imagines contact with an alternate world where Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens, became the dominant species. The first book in this series, Hominids, won the Hugo Award in 2003.
|
||||
| View Live Article | This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License | |
||
