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A new study of a Neanderthal child's skeleton has suggested that Neanderthal brains developed more slowly than previous studies had indicated:
A new study shows that Neanderthal brains developed more slowly than ours. An analysis of a Neanderthal child's skeleton suggests that its brain was still developing at a time when the brains of modern human children are fully formed. This is further evidence that this now extinct human was not more brutish and primitive than our species. The research has been published in the journal Science.
Until now it had been thought that we were the only species whose brains develop slowly. Unlike other apes and more primitive humans modern humans have an extended period of childhood lasting several years. This is because it takes time and energy to develop our large brain. Previous studies of Neanderthal remains indicated that they developed more quickly than modern humans - suggesting that their brains might be less sophisticated.
But a team led by Prof Antonio Rosas of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid found that if anything, Neanderthal brains may develop more slowly than ours. "It was a surprise," he told BBC News. "When we started the study we were expecting something similar to the previous studies," he told BBC News.
Also at Science Magazine, NYT, and Discover Magazine.
The growth pattern of Neandertals, reconstructed from a juvenile skeleton from El Sidrón (Spain) (open, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6463) (DX)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @09:42PM (12 children)
Were Neanderthals more intelligent than homo sapiens, but they died out because of slow growth and short lifespans limiting their potential?
(Score: 2) by driven on Saturday September 23 2017, @10:19PM (2 children)
Or maybe we just developed a better immune system? Given human similarity with Neanderthals, we could have infected them with diseases they couldn't handle.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @02:05AM (1 child)
We could have murdered them for being smarter than us, and once all the neanderthals were gone, begun doing the same thing to smarter homo sapiens until there was mostly idiots, and a few smart individuals who hid among the idiots until their time to rise to power happened, leading to tribalism and then feudalism, before finally reaching a point where the idiots needs the false veneer of freedom of choice to live happily. Leading to today where the freedom of choice is actually considered a bad thing and the backpedalling into authoritarianism is taking place so that the mindless masses can once again feel comfortable with their uncomfortable lot in life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @10:06AM
We obviously didn't murder enough of them, as Detroit and Somalia clearly demonstrate.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday September 23 2017, @11:31PM (3 children)
More intelligent on what scale? If the Neanderthals developed the test, odds are that they would score more highly on it than other species.
How intelligent are homo sapiens on the dolphin scale?
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(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @11:35PM
You're being dishonest with that comparison. Use that tiny homo sapien brain of yours to figure out why your comment was stupid.
(Score: 2) by unauthorized on Sunday September 24 2017, @05:58AM (1 child)
The sale which most accurately predicts greater problem solving ability.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 25 2017, @02:08AM
What problems are being solved? How good are you at catching fish?
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(Score: 2) by bart9h on Sunday September 24 2017, @01:06AM (1 child)
They haven't "died out". They were driven to extinction by the invasion of the Sapiens.
The tribes at the time were only around 100 to 150 strong. One theory says that the Sapiens developed a more abstract language first, and that allowed them to coordinate larger groups of people.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:37AM
quote>They haven't "died out". They were driven to extinction by the invasion of the Sapiens.
A distinction without a difference.
They couldn't compete or chose not to, or they had genes that became recessive in interbreeding. There's no end of theories.
There's not a lot of evidence for inter species warfare. If anything they were probably "inter-bred to extinction".
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by unauthorized on Sunday September 24 2017, @06:02AM (1 child)
Probably not. Were they more intelligent than us, they would have developed advanced society much quicker than we did. If they did half as well as we did over the thousands of years of their existence, we wouldn't have been able to wipe them out.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 24 2017, @05:10PM
Not true, because they lived in smaller groups that were more widely dispersed. They evolved that way to survive when the glaciers moved into Europe. Similar adaptations occurred among Sapiens tribes that later moved into the Arctic regions, but they had by then a more advanced technology, and weren't cut off from the gene flow with tribes living further south.
Living in small groups tends to retard cultural change even if you are slightly more intelligent. (I also disagree with the concept of "general intelligence", but that's only slightly relevant here.) If a Neanderthal invents something and shows it around, a wandering tradr may carry it elsewhere. When he visits a CroMagnon site he'll carry it to a lot more people than when he visits a Neanderthal site. He'll also trade with more customers. So ideas/artifacts would naturally tend to travel towards CroMagnon sites, and traders would prefer to go between them, only stopping by Neanderthal sites in passing. The idea of "network effect" may also apply.
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(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 24 2017, @04:59PM
Well, possibly. But not likely.
Neanderthals had shoulders that weren't designed for throwing, so they needed to get in close to kill their prey. Or drive them off cliffs, but that's only possible in a few places and is very wasteful. Also the head of Neaderthal babies were thinner (and longer) so a cross between a Neanderthal woman and a CroMagnon man was quite likely to end in the woman's death. (Hence the lack of Neanderthal mitochondria.) Etc.
Neanderthals were also specialized to live in harsh climates with minimal technology (compared to modern Innuits), so they were adapted to live in small groups widely dispersed. This made cultural change slow.
None of the things I've mentioned even address the basic intelligence. They were probably smarter about some things and slower about others than CroMagnons were. But then I don't accept the concept of "general intelligence". I think capabilities are always developed to address needs, but can often be repurposed. (Were I to accept general intelligence, it would be for the capability used to repurpose other capabilities.)
Neanderthals didn't have a pronouncedly shorter lifespan, but they had a shorter expected lifespan because they couldn't use distance weapons, i.e. throwing spears. (There's no evidence that bow and arrow yet existed, and I doubt that the Neanderthal shoulder would allow the use of a spear thrower, though I've heard no analysis of that...just that they probably couldn't throw spears.)
As to why they died out...I think it was because of competition for resources against hominids that *could* throw spears, and therefore were more successful hunters. (They didn't need to be able to get as close to be successful.) There are places where both varieties existed for a long, and probably overlapping, time. Given the uncertainties of dating it's impossible to be sure that they occupied the same place at the same time, and they probably didn't, because all tribal groups tend to avoid strangers (except as occasional visitors, and many even then).
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