Representative species of late ape-man discovered so far

Neanderthals were strong and sturdy, and they could adapt well to cold weather, so they looked obviously different from modern people. But it is similar to modern people in some respects: they will bury the dead; Will take care of sick or injured companions; And may already have the ability of language and music. Scientists have assembled a complete Neanderthal skeleton and are studying the Neanderthal genome. Neanderthals (homo neanderthalensis in Latin, also translated as Neanderthals) were a kind of people who originally lived in Europe and West Asia during the Ice Age about1.20,000 to 30,000 years ago. According to the latest archaeological findings, modern people are not a kind of Neanderthals, that is, Neanderthals are different from modern people, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Modern humans appeared in Africa 6.5438+0.5 million years ago, arrived in Europe 35,000 years ago and left Africa about 50,000 years ago. Neanderthals and modern humans formed a parallel phylogenetic group. However, Homo sapiens is the only species below humans. The remains of Neanderthals were first discovered in the Neanderthal Valley of Germany in 1856. But at first they were not considered to belong to a different race from us. There was a heated discussion about the similarities and differences between the two races and what kind of contact (if any) they might have had. A Neanderthal from 1856 first discovered this kind of human remains in a cave above the Neanderthal Canyon near Dü sseldorf, Germany. The discovery of the remains immediately caused a heated debate. The focus of the debate is whether these remains are the remains of ancient humans or just the bones of modern people deformed by disease. (1) The origin of Neanderthals is uncertain. The ancestors of Neanderthals can be traced back to about 654.38 million years? 1.5 million years ago. The skull remains found in France belong to that period, but compared with earlier Homo erectus, they have some characteristics of homo sapiens and should be the ancestors of Neanderthals in age. However, Neanderthals may be the last interglacial period in Europe (Rhys-Yumulis-Umm) (1.5 million? 165438+500,000 years ago). In Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, the mandible, teeth and skull of Neanderthals were found. (2) Anatomical characteristics of Neanderthals The height of Neanderthals was about 65438 0.5 to 65438 0.6 meters. The skull capacity is 1200 to1750 cm&; Sup3. Modern people are1400-1600 cm&; sup3。 The figure is characterized by a flat forehead (that is, the distance from the eyebrow arch to the hairline is much shorter than that of modern people). The mandibular angle is smooth, and the chin does not protrude forward like modern people. Strong bones and cold-resistant physique, especially the ratio of humerus to ulnar flexion, and the ratio of femur to tibia and fibula is greater than that of modern people, which is a typical anatomical feature to adapt to cold climate. They live in Europe, and their skin color should be light. At the beginning of the 20th century, Neanderthals had dark skin and thick hair, which made stone tools look like "apes" (more animals). The last ice age in Europe was about 10000? 70,000 years ago, the largest and most complete skeleton remains of Neanderthals were found in these periods. These remains let us know the characteristics and habits of Neanderthals. Neanderthals were short, stocky and strong. Although their skulls are long, shallow, wide and flat at the back, their brain capacity is equal to or higher than that of modern people. Their supraorbital ridges are big, their teeth are big, their cheekbones are small, their chests are wide, their limbs are clumsy, and their hands and feet are big. Compared with modern people, Neanderthals walked more asymmetrically and horizontally (3) Neanderthal lifestyle Neanderthals seem to be quite rare animals. Neanderthal art has been found in northern France (a temporal bone was found in the art, and it was found to belong to a Neanderthal through research. As far as art is concerned, one end has been cut into a ditch, and someone should have tied it with a rope. Modern artworks, on the other hand, make holes in them and string them together with ropes. Most of the remains of its camp are tools. But Neanderthal tools have not been reformed for tens of thousands of years. Therefore, they are considered to be less intelligent than modern people. They don't have bows and arrows, so they should have a special strategy to round up animals. They will compete with animals such as bears for caves to live in. Neanderthals were cavemen, but occasionally they set up camps outdoors. The entrance to caves is sometimes made of small stones, and caves are often improved in this way. They kill some small and medium-sized animals (such as goats and deer) with fire and eat other large carnivores to eat the rest of their prey. They make and use all kinds of stone tools and wooden spears. Neanderthals buried the dead individually or collectively and took care of the sick or injured. Sacrificial animals are often found with human bones, which shows that they have begun to practice some primitive religion. (4) The classification of Neanderthals is still controversial. At first, they were divided into a single category (Neanderthals, scientific name H. Neanderthals). Later, they were considered as a subspecies of Homo sapiens (scientific name H. sapiens Neanderthals), but some researchers have begun to agree with the original statement. The role of Neanderthals in human evolution is unclear. In some areas where they are distributed, they may have been integrated into modern people, while in other areas, they may have become extinct. (V) The Fate of Neanderthals The remains of Neanderthals have been found from the Middle East to Britain and south to the northern end of the Mediterranean. These relics include bones, camps, tools and even works of art. When the remains of Neanderthals disappeared, it was probably the time when modern people entered Europe. Early theories believed that Neanderthals were extinct under the invasion of Homo sapiens. Maybe it's because the weather suddenly turned cold. Neanderthals hid in the valley to avoid the cold, the contact between groups decreased, inbreeding increased, and the competition of modern people led to the extinction of Neanderthals. But according to the program broadcast by Discovery Channel, Neanderthals may not be extinct by Homo sapiens, but may be assimilated by modern people because of their genetic disadvantage. For example, the anatomy of a 4-year-old child found in Portugal shows many characteristics of Neanderthals, such as the ratio of humerus to radius and the shape of mandible. But his body is decorated with ornaments and the solid structure of his chin. He lived three thousand years after the extinction of Neanderthals, which shows that he is a modern man. But now some scholars believe that Neanderthals became the food of Homo sapiens because there is evidence that they had many struggles with Homo sapiens. This incredible conclusion is based on the jawbone fossils of Neanderthals found in Les Rois. It is reported that this jawbone fossil was discovered by Les Royce in southwest France when the Journal of Anthropology was conducting a study. The incision on the palatal bone is similar to the incision left on the bone when humans hunted deer and other animals in the early Stone Age. It is believed that Neanderthals' meat was eaten by humans and their teeth were used to make necklaces. (6) Other introductions about Nepalis appeared in early Homo sapiens in Europe. After Homo erectus walked out of Africa, Heidelberg people evolved in Europe about 600,000 years ago, and Heidelberg people evolved Neanderthals about 300,000 years ago. It was named after its fossil was found in a cave in the Neanderthal valley near Dü sseldorf, Germany in 1856. Nigerians are widely distributed, starting from Spain and France in Europe in the west, Uzbekistan in Central Asia in the east, Palestine in the south and the 53rd parallel in the north. The earliest age was about 200,000 years ago and the latest was about 40,000 years ago. Nepali fossils are often associated with the most cultural existence. Neanderthals in a narrow sense only refer to human fossils found in Neanderthal valleys. Neanderthal fossils in Neanderthal Valley include skulls and some limb bones, and their remains are rich, mainly skulls and body bones. According to the available data, Neanderthals have strong bones and muscular muscles, but they are not tall. Men are only 1.5 meters to 1.56 meters. Because their bodies are short and the curvature of their spine is not obvious, they are likely to bend their backs when walking and face the ground slightly when running. The characteristics of Neanderthal skull are: the forehead is low and inclined, as if sliding backwards, and the brow peak bone protrudes forward a lot, forming a complete brow ridge on the orbit. The brain of Neanderthals has been very developed, with a brain capacity of about 1230 ml. Neanderthals lived a hunting and gathering life, using relatively advanced stone tools. This shows that human beings at that time have made great progress in the struggle with nature. Neanderthals have been a mystery attracting public interest since the first discovery of Neanderthals in 1856, and various speculations about Neanderthals have been going on. In many ways, Neanderthals can be called dinosaurs in primitive human research. Like dinosaurs, Neanderthals suddenly disappeared, and the reason for their disappearance has always been a controversial topic among scholars. At the same time, dinosaurs and Neanderthals are the darlings of popular culture and often appear together in cartoons. However, popular culture has many misunderstandings about Neanderthals. Neanderthals are often regarded as outdated incarnations and slandered as a lower race that died because their intelligence was not enough to cope with environmental changes. The reality is that Neanderthals successfully faced the climate challenge for at least 200,000 years, more than modern Homo sapiens 1.25 million years to 1.5 million years. (7) The Death of Neanderthals One of the most fascinating mysteries in human history is the fate of Neanderthals who have propagated in Europe for thousands of years. As glaciers spread all over Europe, Neanderthals became extinct more than 30,000 years ago. Tyinder van Andel, a geological archaeologist at Cambridge University in England, published a book entitled Neanderthals and Modern People in the Last Ice Age in Europe, arguing that Neanderthals came to an end because they could not adapt to the changes in food intake. The content of Neanderthals and modern people in the last ice age in Europe is taken from all the data of a seven-year plan that combines climate, environment, archaeology and other disciplines. For the first time, this project conducted a comprehensive study from 65,000 to 2000. At that time, modern people gradually took the lead in anatomy, while Neanderthals completely disappeared. Wen Anluo and others reported that the ice age in Europe was not always ice. The climate was relatively mild before the arrival of the cold period about 30 thousand years ago. By 20 thousand years ago, half of Europe was covered with ice. But according to Wen Anluo and others, the decline of Neanderthals was not caused by the weather, but by the decrease of herbivores such as tame bison and huge elk. Animals in barren land have become very scarce, and a few wild animals are constantly migrating, so they must try their best to catch their prey. At this time, Neanderthals obviously could not adapt to the changes in the feeding environment. At the same time of the extinction of Neanderthals, the early modern "Orgna people" adapted well to the same environment and food, which Wen Anluo and others expressed "great surprise". Wen Anluo and others believe that this shows that the failure of Neanderthals in adapting to the environment is mainly due to cultural reasons, not the anatomical reasons of the brain. Neanderthals are actually as smart as everyone else. About 35,000 years ago, there appeared a kind of "Gravit people" with more advanced culture. Because of their heavy spears and knives and strict family organization, they could effectively chase and capture migrating wild animals, thus surviving. According to Qiu Ti-Laner, an archaeologist at Boston University in the United States, most archaeologists assume that Europe was uniformly cold during this period. Wen Anluo and others have conducted a comprehensive study on the climate and human settlements in Europe in the past 5000 years, showing that Neanderthals died of climate change in the last few thousand years of their lives. In any case, the theory that the change of food intake led to the extinction of Neanderthals is a new viewpoint, and we must pay full attention to it. Neanderthals lived in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East 654.38+70 million years ago. Archaeologists have evidence that Neanderthals still exist. It is said that they lived in Siberia on the border between Mongolia and Russia. According to data, Neanderthals are close relatives of modern European ancestors. From 200,000 years ago, they ruled the whole of Europe and West Asia, but 28,000 years ago, these ancient humans disappeared. For a long time, scientists have been exploring the reasons why Neanderthals disappeared. According to the latest theory, there may be two reasons for the disappearance of Neanderthals: sudden climate change; The ancestors of modern people were superior to Neanderthals in some biological characteristics and gradually replaced them. About 28,000 years ago, in what is now British Gibraltar, a small group of Neanderthals trudged along the rocky Mediterranean coast-they may be the last Neanderthals. In other parts of Europe and West Asia, Neanderthals disappeared thousands of years ago, although they had a glorious past of more than 200,000 years here. Due to the relatively mild climate and abundant animal and plant resources, the Iberian Peninsula became the last base camp of Neanderthals. However, the Neanderthals in Gibraltar did not last long, and soon went extinct, leaving only a few stone tools and bonfires. Since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossil in 1856, scientists have been arguing about where these early humans came from and where they are in the human pedigree. This debate is mainly a confrontation between two theories: one theory holds that Neanderthals are an ancient variant of human beings, and they were gradually evolved or assimilated into modern humans by modern European Homo sapiens; Another theory holds that Neanderthals are completely different species from H. Neanderthals, and modern people soon destroyed them after entering their territory. But in the past ten years, because of two important discoveries, the focus of this debate-whether Neanderthals had sexual intercourse or war with modern people-has shifted. Many scientists hope that by analyzing the DNA of Neanderthals, they can find evidence of the intercourse between Neanderthals and modern humans, so as to find out whether the two groups have significantly merged. However, no such evidence has been found so far. In another study, scientists used improved dating technology to find that Neanderthals did not disappear quickly after modern humans entered the European continent more than 40,000 years ago, but continued to exist for nearly 6.5438+0.5 million years-unlike the "Blitzkrieg" theory, modern humans quickly replaced Neanderthals. These findings have prompted scientists to be more cautious about other factors that may lead to the extinction of Neanderthals. Various studies show that the extinction of Neanderthals may be the result of various environmental pressures. Scientists have studied Neanderthals far more than other ancient humans, but why they disappeared from the earth remains a mystery. A changing world. Scientists have found a series of latest evidences to prove how Neanderthals disappeared, and the data provided by paleoclimatology research is one of them. We know that Neanderthals experienced cold ice ages and relatively warm interglacial periods in the past 200,000 years. In recent years, scientists have accurately recovered the climate change process of the "third stage of oxygen isotope" by analyzing the isotopes in marine sediments, pollen and original ice cores collected from Greenland, Venezuela, Italy and other places. This geological period began 60 thousand years ago and ended 20 thousand years ago. At first, the climate was warm, and the whole Nordic continent was covered with glaciers when the temperature was the lowest. At the beginning of oxygen isotope 3, Neanderthals were the only primitive humans living in Europe. At the end of this period, modern humans became the only race in Europe. Scientists speculate that Neanderthals could not find enough food or effective warm-keeping facilities because of the sudden drop in temperature, and eventually disappeared from the earth. However, an important fact makes it difficult to establish this guess: Neanderthals had survived the ice age before. In fact, many biological and behavioral characteristics show that Neanderthals can adapt to the cold environment well. Although Neanderthals needed to make clothes out of animal fur to resist the cold, their barrel-shaped chests and stout limbs were good for keeping warm. Strong bodies are the result of Neanderthals' adaptation to hunting methods, because they often ambush large mammals living alone, such as long-haired rhinos living in northern and central Europe during cold periods. Other distinctive features of Neanderthals, such as prominent brow bones, may be neutral features formed by genetic drift, rather than the result of natural selection. However, isotopic data show that climate change is by no means a stable transition from warm to cold. The closer the time is to the last maximum ice age (about 20,000 years ago), the more unstable the climate is, and it often changes violently and suddenly. Great changes have taken place in the ecological environment: forests in Ma Pingchuan have given way to grasslands, and elk have replaced rhinos ... The speed of change can be described as follows: in a person's life, the plants and animals he saw when he was a child disappeared when he grew up and were replaced by other plants and animals. Then, the natural environment may change back to its original appearance at the same speed. Clive Finlayson, an evolutionary ecologist at the Gibraltar Museum, presided over the excavation of many caves in Gibraltar. He speculated that the rapid changes in environmental conditions gradually pushed Neanderthals to desperation. The faster the environment changes, the shorter the time for Neanderthals to accept a new way of life. When the forest becomes an open grassland, hunters who hunt by ambush have no forest to hide. If they want to survive, they must change their hunting methods. The change of tools and prey shows that some Neanderthals did adapt to the changing world, but more Neanderthals died in the change, leaving only a very scattered group. Under normal circumstances, these ancient humans are likely to rise again because of similar experiences, as long as the environmental changes are not too frequent and the interval is not too short. This time, however, the environment changed so fast that Neanderthals didn't have enough time to restore their population. Finleyson believes that the number of Neanderthals has decreased sharply under repeated attacks of climate, and they are heading for extinction. In April 2009, Virginia Fabre of French Mediterranean University and her colleagues published a genetic study in PLoS One, which confirmed Finlaisen's view that Neanderthals eventually dispersed into scattered groups. When analyzing mitochondrial DNA, they found that Neanderthals may have formed three branches, living in western Europe, southern Europe and western Asia, with a high and low total population. Neanderthals are smart. Other scientists still believe that Neanderthals disappeared completely after modern humans entered Europe. This fact shows that modern humans are inseparable from the extinction of Neanderthals, even though they did not directly kill these early humans. Scientists who support this view speculate that Neanderthals eventually had to compete for food with "newcomers" modern humans and became losers in this competition. Why can modern humans win in the competition? The answer remains a mystery. It is possible that modern humans are not so picky about food. Bone chemistry research conducted by Herve Bocherens of the University of Tubingen in Germany shows that Neanderthals ate relatively rare large mammals, such as mammoths and hairy rhinoceroses, but for early modern humans, many animals and plants were delicacies. Therefore, when modern humans enter the territory of Neanderthals and start preying on large animals, Neanderthals may encounter the problem of food shortage, while modern humans will not be troubled by food problems, because even if the number of large animals decreases, they can still eat other small animals and plants. Curtis Marean, an archaeologist at Arizona State University in the United States, said: "Neanderthals have their own cave lifestyle. As long as there is no competition from modern humans, this lifestyle is quite good." Modern humans have evolved in a tropical environment. After entering a completely different environment, they can quickly come up with innovative ways to deal with the environmental problems they encounter. Marion said: "The key difference is that the cognitive ability of Neanderthals is far less than that of modern humans." Marion is not the only scientist who thinks that Neanderthals had almost no survival skills. A long-standing view is that modern humans are smarter than Neanderthals, not only because they have mastered more advanced tool-making technology and survival strategies, but also because they are good at communication and can form a stronger social network-stupid Neanderthals can't compete with modern humans at all. However, more and more evidence shows that Neanderthals were much smarter than we thought. Scientists used to think that only modern people had many behaviors, but so did Neanderthals. Christopher B. Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural Museum in London, said: "The boundaries between Neanderthals and modern humans have become increasingly blurred." In some archaeological sites in Gibraltar, the latest discoveries of scientists have blurred the boundaries between the two human groups. In September 2008, stringer and his colleagues published an article saying that they found evidence that Neanderthals hunted dolphins, seals and collected shellfish food in Gorham Cave and the adjacent Pioneer Cave. There are even some unpublished research reports that Neanderthals also ate birds and rabbits. Undoubtedly, these discoveries have subverted people's long-held understanding that only modern people know how to exploit marine resources and hunt small animals. At the archaeological site in HoLefel, Germany, scientists found more evidence that the behavioral boundaries between Neanderthals and modern humans were blurred. Here, scientists not only unearthed the utensils used by Neanderthals who lived in caves 36,000 ~ 40,000 years ago, but also found the artifacts left by modern humans who lived in this area 33,000 ~ 36,000 years ago under similar climatic and environmental conditions. In April 2008, Bruce Hardy, a paleoanthropologist from Kenyon College in the United States, pointed out at the Paleoanthropology Conference held in Chicago, USA, by comparing the remains of two human groups, that the analysis of the worn texture and residual materials on the tools left behind showed that the Neanderthals in Hollerfield were basically the same as the daily activities of modern humans, although the latter had more kinds of tools. The activities of these ancient people included some complicated and exquisite handicrafts, such as sticking sharp stones on wooden handles with resin, making sharp stones into weapons for stabbing or throwing, and making daily utensils with bones and wood. Hardy speculated that Neanderthals in Hollerfield didn't have as many kinds of tools as modern people who lived here later, because the former didn't need too many tools to complete their work. "You don't need a spoon to eat grapefruit, do you?" According to the latest findings, the view that "Neanderthals didn't develop language" seems untenable: scientists now know that at least some Neanderthals have learned to dress themselves up with jewels and even pigments-when reconstructing ancient people's behavior according to archaeological records, symbolic behavior through material forms often represents the appearance of language. The research team led by Johannes Klaus of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany also confirmed this point: DNA analysis shows that Neanderthals and modern people have the same language genes.