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So let me get this straight. The whole of Eurasia was already inhabited by human-like creatures as early as 650,000 years ago, but homo sapiens didn't leave Afr
by hugh4 11y ago
So let me get this straight. The whole of Eurasia was already inhabited by human-like creatures as early as 650,000 years ago, but homo sapiens didn't leave Africa until about 100,000 years ago?
- ajuc 11y agoWhat's strange about this? Homo sapiens evolved later. Also the dates depends on your definition of human-like. Homo erectus migrated to Euroasia 1.2 mln years ago already.
- hugh4 11y agoIt's just weird to think that we drove them all to extinction so quickly and so effectively in a relatively short space of time. Long before we had agriculture or non stick-and-rock technology. How did we do it? A few Homo sapiens wander into Eurasia, which already has a population of millions of Homo, and all the other Homos die off? I'm not advancing an alternative theory or saying its wrong, I'm just saying its surprising.
- ams6110 11y agoSurvival of the fittest.
- mc808 11y agoIt's also possible that Neanderthals prevented modern humans from leaving Africa until their populations were already in decline for other reasons (disease? inbreeding? infighting? overhunting?). In that case we may have just sped up the inevitable.
- ajuc 11y agoClimat changes were very important, populations varied greatly, and many regions became uninabited and inhabited again many times over. There are minor "ice ages" on 40 000 and 100 000 year long cycles. Every time these happen (especially when they combine) - animals and plants change, and hunter-gatherers have to migrate or starve (most starve anyway). It's almost like game reset. So neanderthals advantage wasn't that big.
- BurningFrog 11y agoSince we have ~2% Neanderthal DNA, I don't think you can say they're quite extinct.
- rootbear 11y agoExactly. The current theory, I believe, is that humans didn't "exterminate" Neanderthals, we just out bred them. This might be due to differences in "character". I can't reproduce the argument here, and I don't have a link, so I'm being a bit vague but the point is, something in the Human mental make up caused us to form more successful communities than the Neanderthals. The several Hominins running around Europe in the past seem to have coexisted for some time, and interacted enough that some interbreeding took place. Over time, Neanderthal faded away, leaving only the bits of DNA we got from them.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoThere were never more than a few thousands Neanderthals. The rising tide from Africa just diluted them to 2%. They're not gone; they're here in you and me and Aunt Hilda.
- ajuc 11y agoWe have 99% of chimpansee DNA and 60% of banana DNA. I don't understand how they measure the 2%, obviously it's a different metric. EDIT: so apparently there is a way to distinguish DNA that originated in Neanderthals and we got it from them as opposed to DNA we both got froum common ancestors.
- hyperbovine 11y agoYes. ...?
- PopeOfNope 11y agoYup. Neanderthals lived in Europe during the last ice age and followed a K-selected breeding pattern. Sapiens were in Africa and followed an R-selected breeding pattern. When the ice finally melted, Sapiens flooded into Europe and wiped the neanderthal out, apparently by eating them.