Neandertal Share Planet Modern Humans

Neandertal Share Planet with Modern Human

Neandertal’s physical formation differed from modern humans in terms of muscles, skeletal structure, and height. They were stronger, had muscular bodies, and a height of 1.50 m to 1,75 m (Hendry). They weighed approximately between 64-82 kg on average. Even if their height extended to even taller meters in later life, their weight remained almost the same. They had wide hips and shoulders. Also, they had long and low skulls, which are not common these days in humans who have more round and globular skulls (Hendry).

The facial features noted from the discovered skull of Neandertal humans showed bigger and wider noses, and the face being bulged a bit outwards (Hendry). Nowadays, human faces have been inside from the lower lip, with noses slimmer than before. Researchers have a proposition that such face features for Neandertal could be due to dry and cold weather during those times. The large nose size could have helped to moisten the inner structure of the nasal cavities for convenient breathing in cold weather conditions (Wroe et al., 2018).

Modern humans lack the prominent brow ridge evident in Neandertal civilization, whereas the human skull is more round now. Neandertal has no prominent chin that is now more conspicuous among modern humans (Hendry). Their legs were short, which is no more found in modern humans with taller legs. Even their lower arms were short, which is absent in modern humans who have slightly longer lower and upper arms with equal lengths of joint for both (Hendry).

They were skilled at making tools, especially hand axes, spears, and flint (Hendry). They formulated a stone technology named the Levallois technique in which tools were shaped from pre-shaped stones. They made jewelry with some pierced animal teeth and decorated camouflaged bodies with pigment. Neandertals were mostly carnivorous, and their diet included the meat of large mammals as they were ice age hunters (Hendry). Sometimes they ate plants and sea animals (Fienman and Price 67).

The first interactions with modern humans took place when hominins like Neandertals moved to the northern continents of Asia to experience changed environmental conditions. Tools and hunting equipment changed since fire was adopted as they moved from cold areas and hunting requirements led to adaptations of hunting tools (Fienman and Price 73).

It isn’t easy to discern whether Neandertals had a spoken language as their voice box characteristics reveal anything explicitly. However, it is proposed that they might have a language to interact with themselves and the modern humans when they traveled to new continents, along with a hypothesis that their language might have been simpler than modern humans (Hendry).

The reason why Neanderthals went extinct is also still unknown; however, some rough estimations suggest that the advent of modern humans in Europe that happened more than 40,000 years ago could have put them in strict competition for food and natural resources, making it difficult for them to survive after having lived for over 350,000 years (Hendry).