Modern humans and Neanderthals interacted over a 200,000-year period, says geneticist Joshua Akey.

Discoveries from the genomes of the last Neanderthals are rewriting the story of how our own species came to replace them

A genetic study of nearly 2700 individuals has revealed the ancestry of Indian people, and gets scientists closer to reconstructing the genomes of ancient Neanderthals

The skull of Shanidar Z was found in the Shanidar cave in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and has been painstakingly put back together

Genetic analysis of 50,000-year-old Neanderthal skeletons has uncovered the remnants of three viruses related to modern human pathogens, and the researchers think they could be recreated

A fossil bone displaying features consistent with Down’s syndrome belonged to a Neanderthal child who survived beyond 6 years old, adding to evidence that these extinct humans cared for members of their community

In an effort to understand ancient Neanderthal food preparation techniques, researchers butchered five wild birds using flint stone tools and roasted them

Analysis of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil found in a French cave indicates that it belonged to a group that was isolated for more than 50,000 years

Spear-throwing tools called atlatls allow humans to launch projectiles over great distances, but Neanderthals apparently never used them – and an experiment involving a 9-metre-tall platform may explain why

Discoveries from the genomes of the last Neanderthals are rewriting the story of how our own species came to replace them

Title: Tools Test Debunks 'Dumb Neanderthals' Theory
Category: Health News
Created: 8/27/2008 2:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2008 12:00:00 AM

Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) were widespread across Europe and Western Asia for a long time, starting about 400,000 years ago. But things began to change when […]

The post Why did Neanderthals go extinct? appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Neanderthals might be extinct, but their genes still live on inside of us.

Neanderthals were more sophisticated and similar to humans than you might expect.

After sequencing the Neanderthal genome, scientists discovered all modern humans carry some Neanderthal ancestry in their DNA — including Africans, which was previously not known. 

A new study reveals that some European Neanderthals might have displaced their relatives in Siberia, while others mingled with another, still mysterious, ancient human population.

New findings bolster the argument that the two groups of early humans had a lot of behavioral similarities.

(Aarhus University) An international team of researchers has put together a new image of Neanderthals based on the genes Neanderthals left in the DNA of modern humans when they had children with them about 50,000 years ago. The researchers found the new information by trawling the genomes of more than 27,000 Icelanders. Among other things, they discovered that Neanderthal children had older mothers and younger fathers than the Homo-Sapien children in Africa did at the time.

When it came to selecting bones for leather-making tools, Neanderthals were surprisingly choosy. New archaeological analysis shows Neanderthals preferentially selected bovine rib bones to make a tool called a lissoir.

A rare cache of aquatic animal remains suggests that like early humans, Neanderthals were exploiting marine resources

The fossilised remains of the food found in one of the few remaining coastal Neanderthal sites in Europe show they ate plenty of seafood, fish and nuts

A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in a cave in Iraq shows signs of having been deliberately buried – more evidence our cousin species behaved a little like we do

A prehistoric human species that lived in Europe 1.2 million to 800,000 years ago is emerging as a contender to be our last common ancestor with Neanderthals

A piece of string found in a cave in France is the oldest ever discovered and shows that Neanderthals knew how to twist fibres together to make cords

Evidence continues to mount that the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until about 40,000 years ago, were more sophisticated people than once thought. A new study shows that Neanderthals chose to use bones from specific animals to make a tool for specific purpose: working hides into leather.

Based on fossils and artifacts, archaeologists try to understand the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

We make a big deal about modern humans being smarter than Neanderthals, but, really, are we?

A new study investigates our ancient cousins' hunting abilities.

Singapore : Springer, [2019]

In 1968, Science published the now-famous paper “The Tragedy of the Commons” by ecologist Garrett Hardin. In it, Hardin questioned society’s ability to manage shared resources, concluding that individuals will act in their self-interest and ultimately spoil the resource. Host Meagan Cantwell revisits this classic paper with two experts: Tine De Moor, professor of economics and social history at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and Brett Frischmann, a professor of law, business, and economics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. They discuss how premodern societies dealt with common resources and how our current society might apply the concept to a more abstract resource—knowledge. Not all human skulls are the same shape—and if yours is a little less round, you may have your extinct cousins, the Neanderthals, to thank. Meagan speaks with Simon Fisher, neurogeneticist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, about why living humans with two Neanderthal gene variants have slightly less round heads—and how studying Neanderthal DNA can help us better understand our own biology. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download a transcript of this episode (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Phillip Gunz; Music: Jeffrey Cook]