Neanderthals Lived Fast, Died Young

November 15, 2010

Our slower development and longer lives could have given humans an evolutionary edge over Neanderthals..
THE GIST
Analysis of Neanderthal teeth suggests these archaic humans matured quickly but died at an early age.
By contrast, our species has a lengthy childhood and longer period of development than all other primates.
Our slow maturation may permit greater learning, better conservation of energy and other benefits.

Neanderthals reached full maturity faster than humans do today, suggests a new examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils. The findings, detailed in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, portray Neanderthals as a live fast and die young species

The fossilized skull of a 90,000- to 100,000-year-old Homo sapiens child appears in this photo.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4b09e15ef927.jpg[/atsimg]

news.discovery.com...

Neanderathal Males Had Popeye Like Arms

Neanderthals, Humans Interbred, DNA Proof

There is more and more information coming out on the Neanderthals these days, it is rather curious why there is no much focus on this today, it's a good thing as it may finally tell us how we evolved. I realize now that there seems to be proof that we share some DNA doesn't mean we are part Neanderthal, we also share DNA with much of the animal kingdom which tell me we are all connected in some way.

It has been discovered that anatomically modern human groups that left Africa some 100,000 years Primates have shorter gestation, faster childhood maturation, younger age at first reproduction, and a shorter overall lifespan then the Neanderthal, why are they assuming that they were Primates like some assume we evolved from Primates, I am not ready to embrace that theory.

My understanding was that the Neanderthal God returned as promised and took them all to Neanderthal Heaven to live with him forever and ever!



I would think though that there was likely some inbreeding between Neanderthals and Humans. How far back does ligour date again?

But mom! It's the lack of facial hair that makes her beautiful, I don't care what you say I love her!

Now I think what we really need to discover is, were some humans taken to Neanderthal Heaven when the Neanderthal God returned to save them?

I read the article twice. It does a good job of generfalizing and NEVER actually says just how long those shorter lives were. Given the fact that even Homo sapiens rarely lived into their thorties I wonder just how 'young' these speculations are. More meat' less sizzle.

reply to post by schuyler


Know what you are saying, there has been a lot of articles on this topic in the news this past year, seems it's a topic for major research from every which way.

Ha and i thought this was common knowledge before some scientists decided to confirm it to us, the life expectancy of humans has always been gradually increasing over the generations. That's how evolution works. To think that in their time they would be able to live up to 80 or even 40 would be ridiculous to say the least.

reply to post by iamAccnrh



I think they are referring to the "elastic" period of human growth. Childhood and adolescence.
When the bones, and the brains are still growing.
Seems that Modern human types have a longer period of time to be influence by teachers, and the environment.
This probably made us a more flexible species, overall.

Originally posted by Aquarius1
reply to post by schuyler

 

Know what you are saying, there has been a lot of articles (sic) on this topic in the news this past year, seems it's a topic for major research from every which way.

I'm sorry. My degree in anthropology is outdated, so I'll have to defer to your superior knowledge, but I do know that the average age during the stone age was something like 28 years. In fact, that was the average life expectancy in Chad up until a few years ago. That's in "the literature." I would expect that an article that purports to claim that Neanderthal had an accelerated life cycle of some sort could at least answer the question of how long it was WITHOUT the necessity of looking up research elsewhere. With a 28 year lifespan for Homo sapiens, there's not a lot of leeway here. The article asks the question and never answers it. It's the only real question that matters and the article managed to avoid it.

If you have a PhD in paleontology or something, my apologies, but I really don't think it is fair for you to castigate me for asking the question. Your response doesn't answer the question either.

December 05, 2010

Neanderthals: how needles and skins gave us the edge on our kissing cousins

The Neanderthal genome tells us we were very similar: in fact we interbred. But intellect and invention meant that we lived while they perished, says Robin McKie

On the ground floor of the Natural History Museum in London, arrays of Formica-covered cabinets stretch from floor to ceiling and from one end of the great building to the other. Some of nature's finest glories are stored here: pygmy hippo bones from Sicily, mammoth tusks from Siberia and skulls of giant sloths from South America.

However, the Swanscombe find is important for another, crucial reason: the skull is that of a Neanderthal, that race of shadowy, evolutionary cousins of our own species who made complex stone tools and who once thrived in Europe before being wiped about 35,000 years ago, not long after modern humans had emerged from their African birthplace and had begun to spread across the planet.

www.guardian.co.uk...

The Neanderthal seems to be very important these days, they keep popping up, there are scientists out there who would like to prove we evolved from them but at the same time scientists who are trying to prove that we didn't.