The Neanderthal Man In Retrospect

We get under ones skin always been fascinated by Darwin and his theories of evolution. With so many schools of thought of how the solid ground came into existence, it seemed im feasible to narrow down our choices, analyze each theory, and prove everything that it postulates. It was a clear indication that the research for our ancestors, and the missing link will continue until an answer is sought. But, will we ever find out? For now, that form to be seen.The hoggish man is believed to be one of the missing links in our ancestry. Like the Cro-Magnon man, capital of Red China man, and Java man, this species became extinct 32,000 years ago. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize the reader with the loutish man and the possible theories that might have led to his liquidation.The remains of the Neanderthal man, also known as homophile (sapiens) neanderthalensis, was sight in 1856 by workers quarrying for limestone in Neander Valley, Dusseldorf, Germany. These fossils were al so found in other parts of atomic number 63 and Asia. They were con emplacementred a subspecies of humans be spring upon examination, they had features that be almost similar with humans, except for heavy forehead ridges, a long low skull, and a robust skeleton (Foley, 2002).Neanderthals were shorter than the modern man, and as previously stated, had prominent brow ridges. Aside from that, they had low, sloping foreheads, a chinless and heavy, forward-jutting jaw, extremely large front teeth, wider shoulders and pelvis, more(prenominal) conical clapperclaw cage, and shorter forearms and lower legs (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2005). Some scientists, majority of which are paleoanthropoloists, claim that these were not a subspecies of humans because of their more primitive appearance. harmonize to Stringer and Gamble (1993), the Neanderthals are a late form of Homo erectus or a descendant of that species.It was believed that the Neanderthals have been living in Europe 200,000 years be fore the Homo sapiens arrived (BBC News, 2007).In van der Dennens Book Review Essay on Neanderthal Man (2005), he stated thatThis was the primary evidence of a distinct (and now extinct) species or subspecies of human, Homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis, that lived during the later part of the ice age epoch, more familiarly known as the Ice Age, some 200,000 to 30,000 years ago.During 1917, Emil Bachler, in one of his excavations in the mountains of Switzerland, found no fossils of the Neanderthals (Van der Dennen, 2005). However, Mousterian tools and the remains of many cave bears were in abundance. Mousterian tools were most closely associated with Neanderthals. Bachler also matt-up that the trick outs and the tools were part of a ritual, and believed that the Neanderthals practice some sort of bear cult (Van der Dennen, 2005). This led to the plan that the Neanderthals, like humans, had some form of communication and culture.When the fossil of this subspecies was studied by wor ld-renowned pathologist and anatomist, Rudolf Virchow, he found out that the remains had evidence of rickets and osteoporosis, and he attributed this to the ape-like appearance of Neanderthals. Rickets and Osteoporosis is a manifestation of Vitamin D deficiency. Francis Ivanhoe (1970) in his paper supported Virchows statement and postulated that the disease causes skeletal deformities and intricacy of the liver and spleen (Thompson, 2002).This maybe true because in the Pleistocene epoch, more commonly referred to as the IceAge, sunlight was a rarity. Vitamin D, in itself is stored in an inactive form and in order for it to be utilized by the body, it needs to be converted to its active form by UV rays (good source, sunlight). Therefore, it is not surprising that a number of fossils recovered during this era had evidence of bone deformities.However, Trinkaus and Shipman (1992), claimed that Neanderthal features are not caused by these bone diseases and argued that the bones of the 1st Neanderthal, were about 50% thicker than the average modern man. Klein (1989), supported this idea by equivalence the long bones of Neanderthals and those of rickets victims. He claimed that both of their long bones are more trend than normal but rickets causes a sideways curvature of the femur, while Neanderthal femurs curve backwards.If Neanderthals are more human than ape, then it should follow that these subspecies should have survived today. Surprisingly, this is not the case.One of the earliest theories of the defunctness believe that the Ice Age era, with its harsh climate, could have killed the Neanderthals. It points out that during this period, it was not only the climate that impact them, but the scarcity of resources were a factor as well. However, Professor Katerina Harvati, a palaeoanthroplogist from the Max Planck Institute for evolutionary Biology, Germany, said The more controversial date of circa 24,000 years ago, places the last Neanderthals just before a major climate shift that would have been characterised by a large expansion of ice sheets and the onset of common cold conditions in northern Europe (Morrelle, 2007).Another theory is is the candelabra model or multiregional evolution theory. According to Trinkaus and Shipman (1992)Though the evidence in different regions of the Old World records genuinely different events, nowhere is at that place evidence for violent confrontations between Neandertals and modern humans (myths notwithstanding). The mosaic of local evolution, migration, admixture, absorption, or local extinction of Neandertals was a complex process that occurred over the last 10,000 years (p.416).But, Tattersall (2005), in his book, had another theory. He is convinced that the extinction of Homo neanderthalensis was brought about by the arrival of the more intelligent and more adaptable Homo sapiens, and that the latter killed the race of the former. On his book he wroteIt is vanishingly unlikely, however, that pe aceful assimilation was an overall option, with groups of the both kinds of humans the resident Homo neanderthalensis and the invading Homo sapiens or Cro-Magnons exchanging members when they met and going their separate ways, or joining forces. More likely, perhaps, if intermixing is to be considered at all, is a scenario of well-equipped and cunning Homo sapiens descending on Neanderthal groups, killing the males through strategy and guile, certainly not through strength and abducting the females(p. 202).However, thither was no evidence of large scale killings (Richards, 1987), and the theory of Biological displacement was proposed. It states that the Neanderthals and modern man (Cro-Magnons), coexisted and lived side by side. But, due to the fact that humans are much more intelligent than these subspecies, they might have indirectly led to the extinction of Neanderthals by driving them away from their territories. These led to occasional violence between the groups, but, as ex pected the humans won, driving them to places with insufficient resources for sustenance. Ironicallly, the very species that are studying these Neanderthals are the cause of their extinction.Works CitedNeanderthal Man. Columbia Encyclopedia 6th edition. 2005.Foley, Jim. Creationist Arguments Neandertals 31 October 2002. Talkorigins. 14September 2007 http//www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/a_neands.htmlIvanhoe, Francis. Was Virchow Right close Neanderthal? 1970. Nature, 227577-579Klein, Richard. The Human Career Human Biological and Cultural Origins. 1989.Morrelle, Rebecca. Neanderthal Climate Link Debated. 13 September 2007 BBCNews. 15 September 2007 http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6992721.stmRichards, G. Human Evolution An founding for the Behavioural Sciences. 1987.Stringer, Andrew and Clive Gamble. In Search of Neanderthals. 1993.Tattersall, Ian. The Last Neanderthal The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives. 2005.Thompson, Bert. Neanderth al Man Another Look. May 2002. Apologetics Press. 15September 2007 http//www.apologeticspress.org/articles/491Trinkaus, E., and P. Shipman. The Neanderthals Changing the Images of Mankind.1992.Van der Dennen, Johan. The Continuing Essay of Neanderthal Man Book Essay. 2005.Rechten University of Goningen. 15 September 2007 http//rechten.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/departments/Algemeen/overigepublicaties/2005enouder/NEANDER/NEANDER.pdfThe Day We Learned To Think Programme Summary. 20 February 2007. BBCNews. 14 September 2007http//www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/learnthink.shtml