Neanderthals fill a prominent yet ambiguous position in studies of human origins. In the nineteenth century their discovery and less than flattering description was responsible for the popular view of cave men. The original description emphasized the anatomical differences from modern humans, particularly as short and brutish appearing individuals. Today it is known that anatomical differences were more obvious in the skull, shoulder blade, and pelvis. Their short and muscular build with short limbs is similar to modern peoples adapted to cold climates. A large number of stone tools and weapons have been found, more advanced than those of Homo erectus. Neanderthals are associated with the Middle Paleolithic in Europe, Near East, and West Asia. Their sites are found between England and Afghanistan and the temporal range is approximately 200,000 to circa 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals are the first people known to have buried their dead.
For many years anthropologists considered the Neanderthals as a variety of Homo sapiens occurring between Homo erectusand modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). It is now known that Neanderthals were contemporary with fully-modern humans. Today controversy exists whether Neanderthals were part of the gene pool that give rise to modern humans, and therefore our ancestors.
Some researchers believe that Neanderthals were an evolutionary divergent side-branch and played no ancestral role for modern humans. This problem is virtually impossible to solve from studying the fossil remains. A recent study extracted and isolated mitochondrial DNA from the bones of a Neanderthal. Next, the Neanderthal DNA sequences were compared to modern humans. The results indicate that Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA is much closer to modern human DNA than any other living species. Interpretation of this result is controversial. The differences between Neanderthal and modern DNA fall outside the range of variation established for modern humans. Taken literally, this result implies that Neanderthals are not our ancestors and had previously split off from the main line of human evolution. While the available data supports a claim that Neanderthals were a different species, it is not demonstrated by results from just one individual.
Researchers previously thought speech originated ca. 40,000 years ago with modern humans. A recent study argues that for thousands of years prior to this, Neanderthals had the ability to speak. This claim is based on the diameter of a nerve canal that connects the brain and tongue in Neanderthal skulls. This hypoglossal canal is roughly the same size as that in a modern human skull and implies Neanderthals had the necessary physical attributes for speech.
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