El Neanderthal known by the scientific name of Homo neanderthalensis it was a hominid that developed mainly in Europe from about 230.000 years ago to about 28.000 years ago. It is known by the name of Neanderthal and unlike other species of the genus Homo it has developed exclusively and has lived on the European continent.
In this article we are going to tell you everything you need to know about the Neanderthal and its characteristics.
Origin of the Neanderthal
The origin is exclusively European which evidence has been found indicating that it is a descendant of the A man from Heidelberg, which came to Europe from Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. There are several decades that she had a relationship, which although it is not too clear, with the Homo sapiens within the context of human evolution. There are numerous analyzes of deposits that have been found and there are doubts. The most normal thing is that they were two different species that, although they are of the same genus, lived together during the same period.
And it is that this species of the human being had anatomical differences with the Homo sapiens. The brain capacity was great, even greater than that of the modern human being. This is one of the reasons why there are doubts about the cause of its extinction among experts. The most prominent theory is the one that reveals that they were overwhelmed by the number of Homo sapiens that came from Africa. We know that this continent is the cradle of humanity since it is our species that emerged on this continent. Since then, the ancestors of the human being expanded to the rest of the planet coming to dominate it completely. They were not alone in the evolutionary process.
In this way, in Europe different species of human beings belonging to the same genus could arise. The Neanderthal had the ability to have become the species dominant. The species from which it descended had to change its habitat during a process of glaciation. This made them have to migrate south due to the extreme cold adverse environmental conditions. Over the centuries there were various isolation conditions that caused a need to adapt and evolved in hominids.
Once the ice age ended, they were beginning to resemble Neanderthals. This is where they will go from being a different species to another. Was born the Homo neanderthalensis.
Population discovery
Although it had a long existence, it never had a large population. It is estimated that during the 200.000 that it was living on the planet, it did not exceed populations of 7.000 individuals. This is a very small population, since today any small town has many more inhabitants. The moment in which this species suffers its splendor occurred approximately 100.000 years ago. The tools found allow scientists to affirm that they had quite high mental development capacities.
Although they had few populations, very scattered fossils have been found, which proves that they spread throughout most of the entire European continent. Some experts think they could have reached central Asia. The relationship between the Neanderthal and the Homo sapiens sometimes it goes against the idea of linear evolution. The reality is quite different. The human species have not developed and evolved in a linear way.
Various species of this genus have come to share the planet in different areas and have coexisted in some areas. The Neanderthal lived in Europe, the Sapiens in Africa and other species such as Homo erectus reached the East.
The research technique that has been used to learn more about this species greatly helped to unravel how the human being appeared. It is the technique of DNA analysis. It is known that Sapiens and Neanderthals coexisted in Europe when Sapiens left Africa. But little is known about their coexistence. We know from a published study on the Neanderthal genome that the current human being still has almost 3% of the DNA with the Neanderthal. This means that between the two species there were pairings, albeit in a specific way.
Neanderthal extinction
The crosses between the two species began much longer than previously thought. Individuals of the two species existed in the same place approximately 100.000 years ago. The extinction of Neanderthals is still being debated by some scientific circles. There are some theories, but none can be established as correct. New data has appeared that seems to go beyond the exact moment of the disappearance of this species.
It is estimated that they began to disappear when Europe began to cool down considerably, causing a decline in natural resources. As for the reason for his disappearance, there are some experts who point out that it could be the climatic changes that we have mentioned. Other experts say that the reason for the disappearance of the Neanderthal may be due to the arrival of Homo sapiens. This theory is not very well founded since we have seen that there were crosses between them.
For this reason, the last most valid hypothesis that is trying to corroborate is that the number of individuals of the Sapiens became 10 higher than that of the Neanderthals. This caused a fight for natural resources and some diseases affected the Neanderthal and not the Sapiens. To this we add the crossing between both species that implies the disappearance of the previous one.
Some curiosities
Among the fossils that have been found of Neanderthals, we find some of them that provide enough information to know their physical characteristics. They were adapted to the cold since they will have to survive in an environment marked by the last ice age. This caused them to have to adapt to extreme colder weather in order to survive. Among these adaptations we find being longer and shorter. The nose is also wider to be able to capture smells further away.
They did not stand out for its height since it had an average height of 1.65 meters.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the Neanderthal and its characteristics.