Neanderthals and Modern Humans

Author: Clive Finlayson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139449710
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
Neanderthals and Modern Humans develops the theme of the close relationship between climate change, ecological change and biogeographical patterns in humans during the Pleistocene. In particular, it challenges the view that Modern Human 'superiority' caused the extinction of the Neanderthals between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. Clive Finlayson shows that to understand human evolution, the spread of humankind across the world and the extinction of archaic populations, we must move away from a purely theoretical evolutionary ecology base and realise the importance of wider biogeographic patterns including the role of tropical and temperate refugia. His proposal is that Neanderthals became extinct because their world changed faster than they could cope with, and that their relationship with the arriving Modern Humans, where they met, was subtle.

Neanderthal Man

Author: Svante Pbo
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465020836
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
An influential geneticist traces his investigation into the genes of humanity's closest evolutionary relatives, explaining what his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome has revealed about their extinction and the origins of modern humans.

The Neandertals

Author: Erik Trinkaus
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780712660341
Category : Anthropology, Prehistoric
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Book Description
In 1856 - as Darwin was completing Origin of Species - the fossilized remains of a stocky, powerful human-like creature were discovered in a cave in the Neander Valley in Germany. This work offers an account of the search for man's beginnings and out of a particular man - dead for 40, 000 years - who began a revolution that changed the world.

Them and Us

Author: Danny Vendramini
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780908244775
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
Put aside everything you thought you knew about being human - about how we got here and what it all means. Australian theoretical biologist Danny Vendramini has developed a theory of human origins that is stunning in its simplicity, yet breathtaking in its scope and importance. Them and Us: how Neanderthal predation created modern humans begins with a radical reassessment of Neanderthals. He shows they weren't docile omnivores, but savage, cannibalistic carnivores - top flight predators of the stone age. Neanderthal Predation (NP) theory reveals that Neanderthals were 'apex' predators - who resided at the top of the food chain, and everything else - including humans - was their prey. NP theory is one of those groundbreaking ideas that revolutionizes scientific thinking. It represents a quantum leap in our understanding of human origins.

Assimilation Or Replacement - a Study about Neanderthals and Modern Humans

Author: Christian Schäfer
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640392302
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 37

Book Description
Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Biology - Evolution, grade: A (very good), Umea University (Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences), course: Evolutionary Ecology, 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The Neanderthals lived in Europe and the Near East for at least 250,000 years and they outdared several climate changes. They were capable of surviving in a harsh, cold environment and were well adapted to it - cultural and morphological. Thus, the Neanderthals have been proven to be a successful human kind. But why then did they disappear so quickly and without a trace just between 40,000 and 28,000 yr BP (= years before present) [8]? One possible answer is that modern humans starting to invade the Near East and Europe out of Africa 45,000 to 40,000 yr BP have outcompeted them, due to higher cultural and mental abilities, using the resources in a more efficient way than the Neanderthals. But is this really true? Have modern humans really had higher abilities? Did they admix with the local Neanderthal populations, integrating the native genes in their gene pool? Or did modern humans not interbreed with them? And - the big question: were Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans distinct species or just local variants of the same species? To bring more light into this scenario, these questions will be answered in the following chapters using genetic, morphological and simulation-data that has been brought up by several researchers over the last years. Answering these fundamental questions also lies in the range of basic needs of human mind: we all want to know where we come from, who was our ancestor and who was it not. To realize which strange ways evolution sometimes takes and to determine what really happened is for sure an exciting thing, and that is exactly what researchers do when they trace human evolution back to the point when Neanderthals and modern humans met in Europe during the last ice age. Only one of them shoul

The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (The Rediscovered Series)

Author: Dimitra Papagianni
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500771804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
“Even-handed, up-to-date, and clearly written. . . . If you want to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of Neanderthal controversies, you’ll find no better guide.” —Brian Fagan, author of Cro-Magnon In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthal has been transformed thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals’ behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and spoke. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies have forced a reassessment of the Neanderthals’ place in our own past. For hundreds of thousands of years, Neanderthals evolved in Europe very much in parallel to the Homo sapiens line evolving in Africa, and, when both species made their first forays into Asia, the Neanderthals may even have had the upper hand. Here, Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse look at the Neanderthals through the full dramatic arc of their existence—from their evolution in Europe to their expansion to Siberia, their subsequent extinction, and ultimately their revival in popular novels, cartoons, cult movies, and TV commercials.

The Invaders

Author: Pat Shipman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674425405
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
A Times Higher Education Book of the Week Approximately 200,000 years ago, as modern humans began to radiate out from their evolutionary birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving in Europe—descendants of a much earlier migration of the African genus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made their way to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly vanished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in 1856, scientists have been vexed by the question, why did modern humans survive while their closest known relatives went extinct? “Shipman admits that scientists have yet to find genetic evidence that would prove her theory. Time will tell if she’s right. For now, read this book for an engagingly comprehensive overview of the rapidly evolving understanding of our own origins.” —Toby Lester, Wall Street Journal “Are humans the ultimate invasive species? So contends anthropologist Pat Shipman—and Neanderthals, she opines, were among our first victims. The relationship between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis is laid out cleanly, along with genetic and other evidence. Shipman posits provocatively that the deciding factor in the triumph of our ancestors was the domestication of wolves.” —Daniel Cressey, Nature

Processes in Human Evolution

Author: Francisco José Ayala
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198739907
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 585

Book Description
The discoveries of the last decade have brought about a completely revised understanding of human evolution due to the recent advances in genetics, palaeontology, ecology, archaeology, geography, and climate science. Written by two leading authorities in the fields of physical anthropology and molecular evolution, Processes in Human Evolution presents a reconsidered overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from a range of inter-disciplinary fields. The authors pay particular attention to population migrations - since these are crucial in understanding the origin and dispersion of the different genera and species in each continent - and to the emergence of the lithic cultures and their impact on the evolution of cognitive capacities. Processes in Human Evolution is intended as a primary textbook for university courses on human evolution, and may also be used as supplementary reading in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also suitable for a more general audience seeking a readable but up-to-date and inclusive treatment of human origins and evolution.

When Neanderthals and Modern Humans Met

Author: Nicholas John Conard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description

Neanderthals Revisited

Author: Katerina Harvati
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402051212
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
This volume presents the cutting-edge research of leading scientists, re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative methods and exciting new theoretical approaches. Coverage includes the re-evaluation of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred adaptations and habitual activities, developmental patterns, phylogenetic relationships, and the Neanderthal extinction; new methods include computer tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, ancient DNA and bioenergetics. The book offers fresh insight into both Neanderthals and modern humans.