So, what happened to the Neanderthals? Does anyone really know? If you were wondering too then lets walk through this now. Did they die out, were they killed off, or do some of them still live among us to this day? These are the key questions that I will try to answer here. It was only 21,000 years ago that Neanderthals were thought to have died out.

About 40,000 years ago Cor-Magnon Man explode onto the landscape in Europe.70,000 years ago there were modern man else where in the old world when the Neanderthals come into existence around 68,000 years ago, and seem to be living side-by-side with Modern man. Although the two groups seem to be human they are different enough that it is thought that there could not be any interbreeding between the two. This is what most of the scientists believe now, although this can change with new evidence. Still the evidence is very strong that the two groups stayed separate. But, there is some small chance that there was some interbreeding early on when the two groups whee closer together on the evolutionary tree. The DNA between Humans a Neanderthals has some 'markers' that seem to match, suggesting that there was some kind of interbreeding going on. Either way Humans continued to breed faster and grow stronger over taking the Neanderthals. The expanded their population to every part of the globe. The neanderthals on the other hand, at some point were no longer viable, and dropped off the face of the world. Some scientist believe that Humans wiped out the Neanderthals in some kind of war, or hunted them like animals till they were extinct. Others believe that the two groups were able to co-exist, but in the end, the neanderthals just could not deal with the changing climate and died out. So, lets look at these ideas and together we may find out what really happened to the neanderthals.

Neanderthals were very robust homo sapiens (Homo neanderthalensis) that live 21,000 to 68,000 years ago. They had large brains similar in size to Modern Man. Their large bones suggest that they had powerful arms, legs and jaws. They might have looked like a cross between an ape and a modern man. They may have lived to be approximately 30 years old, on average. They may have even buried the dead in shallow graves. Showing they had a sense of what death was.

Living in small social groups, it is unknown if they had language as we do today, or some sort of grunts and growls. They had large enough brains and the vocal capacity to speak. They were known to have some sort of social network. They also had some simple forms of art and were able to use tools. The tool they used ranged from simple scrapers to more complex task-oriented tools. The Neanderthals hunted for their food. They used spears at a very short rang for hunting. They used fire to a limited extent. This use of fire may have allowed them to be the first homo sapiens to leave the temperate zone.

Modern man(Humans) are anatomically the same 40,000 years ago as they are today. They lived in small to medium sized social groups. The seemed to even trade with outside groups for needed resources. They might have has enough language to live in lager social groups then did the neanderthals. The early modern Man also had a form simple art. They had simple tools, like scrapers, but they were able to make much more complicated tool as well. They also used spears for hunting. There use of fire helped the to survive the inclement weather and climate change.

Environment, 70,000 years ago the world started cooling down into an Ice Age that lasted from 70,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago, with the Glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago. The change in the environment might have forced the neanderthals out of existence. Modern Man on the other hand was able to weather the coming changes. As the climate became colder it forced both Neanderthals and modern Man to travel farther to hunt for fool. The Neanderthals did not have the social networks to support such long joints. Modern Mans ability to communicate worked towards having the social networks to the travel far outside his normal hunting areas. Weather is always changing from hot to cold back to hot again. At some time 45,000 years ago the weather was quickly getting colder. The food was getting scarce and both Neanderthals and Humans had to fight for the same sources of food. The Neanderthals had to get up close to their target making them vulnerable to injury. It is thought that Modern man was Starting to make Throwing weapons and maybe even bow and arrows giving them a better chance of avoiding injury or even death. They had to fight over shelter or make their own. As the hunted moved farther away the hunters had to make their own shelter and move with the food. It is unclear if the Neanderthals were able to make their own Shelter Modern man clearly did. Neanderthals were unable to adapt to the climate Change and died out, While Modern Man was able to change along with the environment and make his way to all parts of the globe.

Did modern Man interact with the neanderthals? Some scientists believe that the two groups lived side-by-side. That they might have been interbreeding and working together. The two would be communicating with each other in a limited way. The theory is unlikely because the two groups separated genetically from each other by more then 490,000 years, which is about the last time they shared a common ancestor. The thought is Modern man came out of Africa on the final Way of migrations.

What is DNA? We hear about DNA all the time on TV Crime Shows. All the crime show solve a murder here and a murder there using it. So, why can't we use it to find out if we are related to the Neanderthals? DNA is the 'Blue Print' for live. It tell the Amino Acids what to do in order to build the particular cells that make up all living things. Well, this is what they tried to do.

In 1856, fragments from a Neanderthal were dug up outside a small town in Germany. The fossils were found to have a small amount of DNA. The type of DNA that they used to compare with modern man was Mitochondrial DNA. This type of DNA is transmitted only from the mother and there is little chance of outside mutations. What they found was, the date for the last common ancestor between Modern Man and Neanderthal is around 550,000 years ago and 690,000 years ago. This doesn't show any interbreeding between the two groups. There is now major difference between DNA patterns in Europe where the Neanderthal population subsisted longer then in other places and the DNA patterns of people else where. This does not mean that Modern Man and Neanderthals did not interbreed, but it makes it seem less likely that they did.

The emergence of Modern Man on the scene in Europe and Asia forced the Neanderthal out. At some point in the past Modern Man exploded out of Africa in a massive wave. The flow into Europe and Asia is called “The Single Origin Theory.” This theory stats there was one woman in Africa whom gave birth to all Modern Man. So, from a common ancestor all of us can trace our roots back to this place in Africa in which she lived. Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe and Asia at the same time modern man was in Africa.

Summary

Neanderthals and Modern Man lived side-by-side some 65,000 years ago. Although they are both considered human they are separated by 550,000 years. The chances of them interbreeding is quit slim as we do not share any unique genetic 'markers'. The ability to survive rests on the ability to adapt. They had to change either the environment around them or the way in which they lived. This is true of any and all groups living through Climate Change. Modern man was able to adapt better to many different environments and move to all parts of Europe and Asia. The ability to adapt is the chief reason they survived the changing climate of 150,000 years ago. The Neanderthals died off because of poor social networks, was not able to adapt fast enough to the changing climate. I believe that Modern Man moved into areas that were inhabited by the Neanderthals. As they did so it put a strain on the resources of those areas. At the same time food resources were being strained the earth was getting colder making it harder to hunt and gather food. Neanderthals burned too many calories for the amount of food they were able to obtain leaving them weak and unable to breed in numbers necessary to maintain the group. Heavy snow and longer hunting trips exasperated the problem. They slowly dwindled in numbers and eventually died out. Modern Man on the other hand was able to use its social networks and superior tools to gather more food and make better use of what little resources they could find. They made it through the tough cold period and was able to flourish as the globe began to warm. I don't think that Modern Man hunted them to extinction as some have suggested. In the end, Modern Man was just able to survive the changes in climate better then the Neanderthals.

Bibliography

associated Press, The. “Humans vs. neanderthals: Game Over Earlier”.

22 February 2006 <http://LiveScience.com>

Choi, Charles Q. “Neanderthals May Have Hung On Longer Then Thought”.

16 September 2006 <http://foxnews.com>

Jacobs, James Q. “Neanderthal DNA Sequencing”.

2000 <http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/neanderthal.html>

Newitz, Annalee. “interbreeders” Alternet.

14 February 2006 <http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/32237>

Rose, Mark. “Neanderthal DNA”.

<http://www.archaeology.org/9709/newsbriefs/dna.html>

*'Marker' is a genome sequence that has special traits.

• Next