Mystery may be solved when entire Neanderthal genome is reported
By Charles Q. Choi
updated 11:36 a.m. ET Nov. 6, 2009
We are currently the only human species alive, but as recently as maybe 24,000 years ago another one walked the earth — the Neanderthals.
These extinct humans were the closest relatives we had, and tantalizing new hints from researchers suggest that we might have been intimately close indeed. The mystery of whether Neanderthals and us had sex might possibly get solved if the entire Neanderthal genome is reported soon as expected. The matter of why they died and we succeeded, however, remains an open question.
K. Mowbray, / Ian Tattersall
Comparison between Neanderthal and modern human skeletons.
First recognized in the Neander Valley in Germany in 1856, Neanderthals revealed that modern humans possess a rich and complex family tree that includes now-extinct relatives.
Neanderthals — also called Neandertals, due to changes in German spelling over the years — had robust skeletons that gave them wide bodies and short limbs compared to us. This made them more like wrestlers, while modern humans in comparison are more like long-distance runners.
They were probably less brutish and more like modern humans than commonly portrayed. Their brains were at least as large as ours. They controlled fire, expertly made stone tools, were proficient hunters, lived complex social groups and buried their dead. The discovery of the remains of an adult male Neanderthal with severely deformed arm bones, suggesting a major disability perhaps since childhood, hints they may have taken care of their sick. Genetic research even suggests they might have shared basic language capabilities with modern humans.
"They were a lot more closely related to us than anything alive today," said paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
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