How Did We Outsmart The Neanderthals

Humans Didn’t Outsmart the Neanderthals. We Just Outlasted Them, written by Sarah Kaplan and published by the Washignton Post on November 1st, 2017, analyzes the relationship between the Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. During the Paleolithic age, which is dated from approximately 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago (Britannica, 2017), the Neanderthals were identified to be “the height of sophistication”, according to author Kaplan Washington Post, 2017). These hominids displayed exceptional evolutionary strides. They produced tools, jewelry, and paintings. Researchers also believed they cared for the sick and elderly, and may have even offered a simplistic kind of dentistry. The Neanderthals appeared to be thriving off the land. The Homo sapiens then appeared, however. Although the groups would co-exist for 11,000 years, the Neanderthals eventually disappeared, and

As Darwin would describe the hominid transition, us humans were better fit to survive and reproduce on Earth’s landscape. Our superiority drove the Neanderthals to extinction. An article published in Science compares the 4 billion nucleotide DNA sequence of the Neanderthals to modern day humans. The researchers identify a number of genomic regions that may have been affected by positive selection, including genes involved in metabolism and in cognitive and skeletal development. Genetic sequencing studies support this claim as well. According to Recent and Ongoing Selection in the Human Genome published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the human genome appears to be targeted by selection. The researchers estimate that at least 38% of all new amino-acid altering mutations in the human genome are being eliminated by negative selection. As Homo sapiens outlived Homo neanderthalensis, it is a plausible conclusion that genetically humans are more adapted to Earth’s