Were The Neanderthals our Ancestor’s?
Neanderthals are thought to have gone extinct some 35 thousand years ago. They were given that name because some of the first of their bones were found in Neander Valley in Germany.
The mitochondria DNA says that we have around 3% of their DNA. Their fossils have been found over a large swath of the earth.
The first people to find their skulls just thought they were looking at human skulls. They didn’t recognize how different they actually were.
Today because of modern scientific techniques, especially Mitochondria DNA testing, we can tell if bones are human or something else.
A distinctive characteristic of Neanderthals is their larger thicker eyebrow ridge bones. Actually all of their bones are thicker than ours.
Scientist believe that bones will become thicker if they are used for hard work. This is evidenced by weight lifters who bones become thicker if they lift weights regularly.
Do we have some of their Traits
The reason that scientist believe that we have as much as 3% of their DNA extends back some 300 thousand years. They say that they can detect what they were eating back then. That their teeth tell us as to what grains they ate back then.
Scientist believe that as much as 300 thousand Neanderthals lived on the earth. They have found some evidence that they had large trade routes. They have been found over large parts of Eurasia.
The question is what happened to them?
There are still many questions to be answered about these people. Who lived so long ago hopefully science will be able to answer many using the technologies available to us toady. Questions like how did they live, and why aren’t they still here today? These are good questions and if you want to know more about who these people were and what they were like, just follow one of the link here in this article.
Enjoy,
