Neanderthal Misconceptions

Neanderthals were our closest relatives and have a fascinating history that we are only just now beginning to uncover however ever since an initial discovery in the mid 19th century the species has been surrounded by numerous misconceptions which in some cases have completely warped the perception of our closest relatives into a negative and more primitive light and this is something that is not true in the slightest the under thoughts were just as fascinating as us and in this video I want to clear up some misconceptions that some of you may or may not still believe hope you enjoy this is one misconception that for most of us in the scientific community is very obviously not true but for people who don't quite grasp how evolution works I'll explain it to you Neanderthals weren't the ancestors of us Homo sapiens but instead our species evolved alongside that the under thor's with both of our species splicing off from Homo erectus around three hundred and fifty thousand years ago the evolution of us and the under Thals is not just a linear path which strives towards a predetermined goal evolution is more than that evolution is more along the lines of a tree with branches springing out from a base with some branches falling off and some continuing to grow and diversify each branch carrying with it its unique story and adaptations the march of progress the image you'll see all the time when looking at images of human evolution falls into this category of a linear and oversimplified view into evolution this image was based off of the theory of Auto genetic evolution where scientific minds of the time believe that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in one definite direction with each newly evolved organism becoming gradually more advanced as time progresses this thinking however is completely flawed as I mentioned prior life in the past was just as advanced and as complex as our modern world and to assume that all these long dead organisms are inferior to us is just plain wrong evolution is much more complex in this image would lead you to believe and it is something that needs to be out of focus for us as a species to grasp what evolution truly is as Stephen Gould once said life is a copiously branching Bush continually pruned by the Grim Reaper of extinction not a ladder of predictable progress one prevalent myth about Neanderthals and their life appearance is that Neanderthals would have had to have possessed thick hair to survive in their freezing northern habitats but this is certainly far from the truth despite Neanderthals being on average stronger and stockier than modern humans they more than likely didn't possess vast amounts of hair as commonly thought large amounts of integumentary thing required for living in a colder climate by looking at modern animals that live in colder climates today or even during the time of the Neanderthals like mammoths possessed thicker levels of fat compared to other elephant species something that alongside with their thick hair allow them to survive all across Eurasia during the Pleistocene Neanderthals on the other hand due to their close relation to humans as well as a complete lack of evidence more than likely did not possess such fat levels with the recent evidence it is evident that Neanderthals wore simple cape like clothing whilst archaic humans that arrived into Europe or more complex styles of clothing with stitching and needles likely already being in place by the time our ancestors arrived in Europe and whilst modern humans had more sophisticated clothes and tools Neanderthals were not dumb brutes because of this more on that later and there is no reason to believe that they were less sophisticated than us simply by which method their clothing was created by not to mention if Neanderthals really did have large amounts of hair this excess hair would have resulted in an overproduction of sweat which in the cold conditions of Pleistocene Europe would have frozen on the on the Y and earth ores potentially leading to the death of an individual this is one misconception that is among the most widespread when it comes to Neanderthal life reconstructions in the early days of Neanderthal discovery the then prevalent notion of Neanderthals being brutish hunched over eight men was reinforced with the discovery of a Neanderthal specimen which was given the name la chapelle orc Saints one or as it is simply known the old man which seemed to further reinforce the preconceived thoughts of early anthropologists the specimen was in band health and such the initial reconstruction of the specimen was that of an individual with a thrust forward skull a spine without curvature as well as bent hips and a divergent big toe this find being among the best preserved in the under Thals of the time heavily influenced the now a common interpretation of Neanderthals being primitive creatures but there was a problem though discoverers anj boy Sony and Elle Barden were completely wrong in how they hypothesize Neanderthals to look the old man was fittingly old being an estimated forty years old at the time of his death the equivalent to an 80 year old in terms of a modern equivalent he was in bad health with the Neanderthal having lost most if not all of his teeth as well as suffering from an advanced case of arthritis this is what made the old man hunched over and this bad posture was figured out later in 1957 to be advanced arthritis unbeknownst to bowl the discoverer of the specimen with the relatively fragmentary nature of the fossil likely being the cause of bowls errors unfortunately this image of hunched over Neanderthals has continued to this day in pop culture depictions and is likely to remain that way for some time this misconception is arguably the most widespread when it comes to Neanderthals and that is not Neanderthals were brutish unfeeling sub humans that were unintelligent and thus inferior to us however this is most definitely not the case Neanderthals were not the brutish animals they have been portrayed as throughout the years quite the contrary in fact from the vast amount of evidence we have found of Neanderthal remains it is evident that Neanderthals not only cared for their old and sick but also possessed cognitive abilities that were remarkably similar to our own there is in fact evidence to suggest that Neanderthals were not unfeeling towards their own kind and that they treated each other with the same level of compassion that we trees her own families then the under thought specimen known as Shanna Diwan otherwise known as Nandi by his discoverers showed that he was not exactly in the best of conditions by the time of his death Nandi was between forty through fifty years at the time of his death making him remarkably old for his kind but he didn't reach this age easily at an unknown time in his life Nandi had suffered a violent blow to the left side of his head which whilst it is unknown how this strike was inflicted this blow created a crushing fracture to Nanda's left orbit likely leaving him completely blind in his left eye not to mention analysis has revealed that Nandi likely suffered from profound hearing loss as his left ear canal was partially blocked and his right ear canal was completely blocked by bone growth essentially forming bone over his right ear canal which would have been exceptionally painful for him in life he also suffered from a withered right arm which had been fractured in numerous places losing him the use of his lower arm and hand this is sought to either be congenital a result of childhood diseases or even from an amputation at some point later in life this injury would have likely caused paralysis down the right side of his body which would have led to eventual deformities in his lower legs and foot which would have left him with a pronounced painful limp but even with all these terrible injuries and deformities that would have made his life a misery Nandi lass is surprisingly long for an individual with such pronounced physical defects and this is all jus from the underfill companionship for all the evidence we have accumulated all of Anandi's injuries were acquired long before his death showing extensive healing in damaged areas Nandi is the prime case for the under fools looking after their sick and aged showing that Neanderthals clearly expressed group concern when it came to their weaker members Nandi isn't even the only Neanderthal at this site or in the entire archaeological record who despised both trauma and healing and it goes to show that Neanderthal compassion was a clearly widespread across their species and that nandi's case was most definitely not just a one-time thing us only this evidence has piled up that Neanderthals also had an affinity for the arts that which includes cave painting a study published earlier in 2018 revealed that cave paintings from three different sites in Spain were not only made sixty-four thousand years ago but that Neanderthals must have certainly created them not only are these currently the oldest paintings ever found in the world their date of creation predates the arrival of modern humans in Europe by at least 20,000 years highly suggesting that the under thor's made this selection of art the cave art itself comprises of mainly red and black paintings that includes representations of animals geometric shapes and handprints alongside many others this goes to show that the under Thor's possessed a much deeper and sophisticated culture than we could have ever imagined prior and it gives us a hint in two times long past the grunting sounds that are now associated with our relatives are most definitely a case of our Mis judgment on how we view our cousin's yonder Thals like us most definitely had some form of language and while still being unknown to us they could definitely engage in complex conversation and come up with plants just like we do today it was long believed that Neanderthal simply liked the necessary cognitive capacity and vocal Hardware for speech and language rendering them incapable of little more than a series of grunts recent studies however through three-dimensional x-rays of a Neanderthal hyoid bone have revealed that Neanderthals possessed a hyoid bone that was practically identical to that of us Homo sapiens meaning that language and complex communication was not implausible at all for them hypotheses about how they might have sat in life become more prevalent over the years and now assists of Neanderthal throats revealed that their throats were more squats than ours and with the dimensions of a Neanderthals chest and skull taken into account it is fair to conclude that the other Thor's would have made very interesting high-pitched sounds and while unusual would not exactly be too alien to us while this theory is yet to be solely proven as of yet the study of how Neanderthals may have sounded is continually fascinating to this very day all said and done the menagerie of misconceptions based around the under Thor's are well and truly false and their existence continues to plague the modern view of our close cousins in an unfair light and that is something that needs to be fixed and restored if we as a species are to truly appreciate the under Thor's for what they really are [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Henry the PaleoGuy

Views: 468,245

Rating: 4.7334104 out of 5

Keywords: Neanderthals, evolution, neanderthal, human evolution, neanderthals, homo sapiens, TREY the Explainer, Mammoth, Wolly Mammoth, Cloning, Wolly Rhino, Study, Music, Art, mysterious discoveries, ancient art, historical discoveries, amazing discoveries, Homo Sapien, homo neanderthalensis documentary, Anthropology, History, Biology, Paleontology, Archaeology, Fossils, Mummified, Paleolithic, Evolution, last neanderthal alive, neanderthal voice, human species, ancient history, Donald Trump

Id: MCK4GRSNhpg

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018