They have an unwarranted image as brutish and uncaring, but new research has revealed just how knowledgeable and effective Neanderthal healthcare was. The study, by the University of York, reveals that Neanderthal healthcare was uncalculated and highly effective — challenging our … Continue reading
A characteristic feature of modern humans is the unusually round skull and brain, in contrast to the elongated shape seen in other human species. By studying Neanderthal DNA fragments found in the genomes of living Europeans, scientists have now discovered … Continue reading
Have Neanderthals gained an unfair reputation for having led highly violent lives? A comparison of skulls of Neanderthals and prehistoric humans in Eurasia reveals no evidence of higher levels of trauma in these hominins. Injuries are part of everyday life, … Continue reading
Much of our understanding of the Neanderthals has turned out to be wrong. Neanderthals created complex tools, buried their dead, had an organized use of space, probably cared for the infirm, and perhaps even conversed vocally. By the 1990s and early … Continue reading
In a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, University of York’s Dr. Penny Spikins and co-authors argue that Neanderthals embraced healthcare practices, such as assisting in cases of serious injury and the challenges of childbirth. “We have evidence … Continue reading
Yet cognition certainly took place in the Neanderthal brain — the largest in human evolution, housed in a long, distinctively shaped skull. In How to Think Like a Neandertal, archaeologist Thomas Wynn and psychologist Frederick Coolidge provide one of the … Continue reading
Neanderthals may have survived if they evolved to look out for each other like we humans did. Physically, there doesn’t seem to have been much of a difference between us and our evolutionary cousins. Aside from being a little stockier … Continue reading
Neanderthals went extinct in Europe about 40,000 years ago, giving them millennia to coexist with modern humans culturally and sexually, new findings suggest. This research also suggests that modern humans did not cause Neanderthals to rapidly go extinct, as some … Continue reading
Neanderthal extinction began around 40,000 years ago in Europe after anatomically modern humans had reached the continent. This date, which is based on research published in Nature in 2014, is much earlier than previous estimates, and it was established through … Continue reading
Most non-Africans possess at least a little bit Neanderthal DNA. But a new map of archaic ancestry–published March 28 in Current Biology–suggests that many bloodlines around the world, particularly of South Asian descent, may actually be a bit more Denisovan, … Continue reading
