Scientists pretend to be Neanderthals to understand how they hunted

[FfFfFfFF 58,118]

Neanderthals, our closest relatives, became extinct between 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossil 165 years ago, scientists have learned more about Neanderthals than about any other hominin

Here, Spanish researchers use a highly original approach—scientific "role play"—to reconstruct a novel element of Neanderthal behavior: cooperating with group members while using fire and tools to catch choughs, birds from the crow family, from their night roosts inside caves.

"We sow that Neanderthals likely preyed on choughs, birds that spend the night in caves, the preferred shelter of Neanderthals.

The authors and their coworkers then used a kind of scientific 'role play' to find the best way to catch choughs through trial and error. In teams of two to ten, the 'Neanderthals' sneaked up at night on roosts with rope nets, ladders, and lamps to mimick torches—all tools that Neanderthals could probably construct.

They recorded the characteristics of the roost, the size of the team, the strategy and tools used, the choughs' reaction, and the number caught. The birds were always released unharmed.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/47849178041/posts/10158470299893042/

[Shipper 13,114]

I bet they just wanted to do it in the cave like those Neanderthals. 

[Dojo 19,823]

i am reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind and when i tell you that i am SHOOKETH about some facts of our closer relatives wow

Did we outsmarted them? Did we kill them? Did we bred with them? Answers please OP sincd you seem smart af

 

[GovernmentHookah 910]

31 minutes ago, dojo said:

i am reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind and when i tell you that i am SHOOKETH about some facts of our closer relatives wow

Did we outsmarted them? Did we kill them? Did we bred with them? Answers please OP sincd you seem smart af

 

Or maybe aliens might’ve had a hand in altering our DNA? 

[PartySick 172,507]

51 minutes ago, dojo said:

Did we outsmarted them? Did we kill them? Did we bred with them? Answers please OP sincd you seem smart af

Yes, maybe, and yes

There are people alive today with neanderthal DNA in them so we definitely interbred.

As for killing them, there's a theory out there that relates to the "uncanny valley" and how we have an almost instinctual urge to avoid or harm something that seems vaguely human but not human enough to actually be human. Some suggest it stems from the time when our ancestors were competing with other hominids for resources.

[GooberChill 456]

2 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Yes, maybe, and yes

There are people alive today with neanderthal DNA in them so we definitely interbred.

As for killing them, there's a theory out there that relates to the "uncanny valley" and how we have an almost instinctual urge to avoid or harm something that seems vaguely human but not human enough to actually be human. Some suggest it stems from the time when our ancestors were competing with other hominids for resources.

According to my 23 and Me i have more Neanderthal DNA than 95% of users so 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻 Fred Flintstone realness. 

[SlowLoris 1,203]

Sounds like a convenient excuse to LARP tbh

[A MESS 3,938]

2 hours ago, dojo said:

i am reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind and when i tell you that i am SHOOKETH about some facts of our closer relatives wow

Did we outsmarted them? Did we kill them? Did we bred with them? Answers please OP sincd you seem smart af

 

as someone else said, homo sapiens mostly interbred with neanderthal, as they interacted with previous hominids whose existence overlapped with the homo sapiens one. there are also proof of homo sapiens occupying lands and stripping resources from Neanderthal, as the latter moved more north and east than before in their last centuries, probably looking for new land and more food. there were probably communities that didn't want to mix, as it happened later when nomadic factions of a population interacted with sedentary ones or decided to keep living moving around.

[Gabi001 2,470]

not me reading "Netherlanders" in title  

[FfFfFfFF 58,118]

8 hours ago, dojo said:

i am reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind and when i tell you that i am SHOOKETH about some facts of our closer relatives wow

Did we outsmarted them? Did we kill them? Did we bred with them? Answers please OP sincd you seem smart af

 

I am flattered, however the field in which I studied is not history/ anthropology. But I have an opinion based on the articles I read.

I do think Neanderthals mated with the humans, and because were fewer numerically got assimilated/ 'absorbed' into the bigger Homo sapiens population (they were probably already on their way to extinction before the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe due to the changing climate). This doesn't negate that some Neanderthlans were probably killed by the competing Homo sapiens , however, the main theory seems to be that of interbreeding, and is one that makes sense.

In Romania's ''Pestera cu Oase'' was found one of the oldest human fossils in Europe (probably one of the first Homo sapiens to arrive in Europe from Western Asia/ Anatolia) and it already showed signs of interbreeding. Up to 11% of its genes were Neanderthal, which means it likely had a great-great grand parent that was Neanderthal.

All Europeans alive today/ everybody with European ancestry (northern Africans, Middle Easterns, people of Latin America, Black Americans - almost all African Americans have varrying degrees of European ancestry, etc) have some Neanderthal genes. And all Asians have some Denisovan ancestry. So, in a sense, these ''non-human'' species never dissapeared. 

Sidenote: This is just me but I consider all hominids 'humans' because one of the things that define a species is the ability of specimens to mate and produce fertile offspring.  Neanderthals/ Homo sapiens could do that.