Neanderthals and modern humans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Modern Mind ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Mode 3

This chapter deals with the similarities and differences between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens, by considering genetic, brain, and cognitive evidence. The genetic differentiation emerges from fossil genetic evidence obtained first from mtDNA and later from nuclear DNA. With high throughput whole genome sequencing, sequences have been obtained from the Denisova Cave (Siberia) fossils. Nuclear DNA of a third species (“Denisovans”) has been obtained from the same cave and used to define the phylogenetic relationships among the three species during the Upper Palaeolithic. Archaeological comparisons make it possible to advance a four-mode model of the evolution of symbolism. Neanderthals and modern humans would share a “modern mind” as defined up to Symbolic Mode 3. Whether the Neanderthals reached symbolic Mode 4 remains unsettled.

scholarly journals Arguments that Prehistorical and Modern Humans Belong to the Same Species

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Kühne
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Out Of Africa

I argue that the evidence of the Out-of-Africa hypothesis and the evidence of multiregional evolution of prehistorical humans can be understood if there has been interbreeding between Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens at least during the preceding 700,000 years. These interbreedings require descendants who are capable of reproduction and therefore parents who belong to the same species. I suggest that a number of prehistorical humans who are at present regarded as belonging to different species belong in fact to one single species.  

scholarly journals The unidirectional phylogeny of Homo sapiens anchors the origin of modern humans in Eurasia

Hereditas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 158 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Úlfur Árnason
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Maternal Inheritance ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Before Present ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Origin Of Modern Humans ◽  
The Common ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
Mtdna Introgression

Abstract Background The Out of Africa hypothesis, OOAH, was challenged recently in an extended mtDNA analysis, PPA (Progressive Phylogenetic Analysis), that identified the African human populations as paraphyletic, a finding that contradicted the common OOAH understanding that Hss had originated in Africa and invaded Eurasia from there. The results were consistent with the molecular Out of Eurasia hypothesis, OOEH, and Eurasian palaeontology, a subject that has been largely disregarded in the discussion of OOAH. Results In the present study the mtDNA tree, a phylogeny based on maternal inheritance, was compared to the nuclear DNA tree of the paternally transmitted Y-chromosome haplotypes, Y-DNAs. The comparison showed full phylogenetic coherence between these two separate sets of data. The results were consistent with potentially four translocations of modern humans from Eurasia into Africa, the earliest taking place ≈ 250,000 years before present, YBP. The results were in accordance with the postulates behind OOEH at the same time as they lent no support to the OOAH. Conclusions The conformity between the mtDNA and Y-DNA phylogenies of Hss is consistent with the understanding that Eurasia was the donor and not the receiver in human evolution. The evolutionary problems related to OOAH became similarly exposed by the mtDNA introgression that took place from Hss into Neanderthals ≈ 500,000 YBP, a circumstance that demonstrated the early coexistence of the two lineages in Eurasia.

scholarly journals The challenge of the abstract mind: symbols, signs and notational systems in European prehistory

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 221-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Haarmann
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Symbiotic Interaction ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Cave Paintings ◽  
Naturalistic Pictures

Since the earliest manifestations of symbolic activity in modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic, there is evidence for two independent cognitive procedures, for the production of representational images (naturalistic pictures or sculptures) and of abstract signs. The use of signs and symbols is attested for archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) and for Homo erectus while art in naturalistic style is an innovation among modern humans. The symbiotic interaction of the two symbolic capacities is illustrated for the visual heritage of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Southwestern Europe, for rock engravings in the Italian Alps (Val Camonica) and for the vivid use of signs and symbols in Southeastern Europe during the Neolithic. Around 5500 BC, sign use in Southeastern Europe reached a sophisticated stage of organization as to produce the earliest writing system of mankind. Since abstractness is the main theme in the visual heritage of the region, this script, not surprisingly, is composed of predominantly abstract signs.

Species of the Upper Pleistocene

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Adaptive Strategy ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Morphological Differences ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes the two taxa of the Upper Pleistocene: Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. The first one is explored starting with the Feldhofer discovery and the early interpretations of that specimen. The next issue is the evolutionary model of the Neanderthals and their geographic range. The ensuing questions are the Neanderthal morphology, its ontogenetic development, and the relationship between its traits and its adaptive strategy. The morphological differences between Neanderthals and modern humans make it difficult to understand the relationships between the two taxa, which will be settled in Chapter 11 by means of molecular methods. But the present chapter already deals with the origin of modern humans by considering the coalescence of mitochondrial DNA and other factors facilitated by molecular genetics, in order to characterize the origin of our species. Finally, there is consideration of the fossil and archaeological evidence concerning the earliest modern humans from South African sediments.

scholarly journals Arguments that Prehistorical and Modern Humans Belong to the Same Species

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Walter Kühne
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Out Of Africa

I argue that the evidence of the Out-of-Africa hypothesis and the evidence of multiregional evolution of prehistorical humans can be understood if there has been interbreeding between Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens at least during the preceding 700,000 years. These interbreedings require descendants who are capable of reproduction and therefore parents who belong to the same species. I suggest that a number of prehistorical humans who are at present regarded as belonging to different species belong in fact to one single species.

scholarly journals Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis and the Denisova specimen: new insights on their evolutionary histories using whole-genome comparisons

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (4 suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 904-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Rodrigues Paixão-Côrtes ◽  
Lucas Henrique Viscardi ◽  
Francisco Mauro Salzano ◽  
Tábita Hünemeier ◽  
Maria Cátira Bortolini
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Genome Comparisons

Hominin transition to Upper Pliocene

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Ayala ◽  
Camilo J. Cela-Conde
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Evolutionary Significance ◽  
Australopithecus Afarensis ◽  
Phylogenetic Significance ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
Surprising Discovery

This chapter analyzes the transition of the hominins from the Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. Two alternative models are explored, the “Multiregional Hypothesis” (MH) and the “Replacement Hypothesis,” and how each model evaluates the existing relationships between the taxa Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Next is the investigation of the transitional (or “archaic,” if this grade is taken into account) exemplars found in Europe, Africa, and Asia and their evolutionary significance. In particular, the comparison between H. erectus and H. sapiens in China and Java is investigated, as the main foundation of the MH. The chapter ends with the surprising discovery of Homo floresiensis and its description and interpretations concerning its taxonomic and phylogenetic significance. The correlation between brain development and technological progress is at odds with the attribution of perforators, microblades, and fishing hooks to a hominin with a small cranial volume, similar to that of Australopithecus afarensis.

scholarly journals Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry

Nature ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 592 (7853) ◽  
pp. 253-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateja Hajdinjak ◽  
Fabrizio Mafessoni ◽  
Laurits Skov ◽  
Benjamin Vernot ◽  
Alexander Hübner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data

AbstractModern humans appeared in Europe by at least 45,000 years ago1–5, but the extent of their interactions with Neanderthals, who disappeared by about 40,000 years ago6, and their relationship to the broader expansion of modern humans outside Africa are poorly understood. Here we present genome-wide data from three individuals dated to between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria1,2. They are the earliest Late Pleistocene modern humans known to have been recovered in Europe so far, and were found in association with an Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefact assemblage. Unlike two previously studied individuals of similar ages from Romania7 and Siberia8 who did not contribute detectably to later populations, these individuals are more closely related to present-day and ancient populations in East Asia and the Americas than to later west Eurasian populations. This indicates that they belonged to a modern human migration into Europe that was not previously known from the genetic record, and provides evidence that there was at least some continuity between the earliest modern humans in Europe and later people in Eurasia. Moreover, we find that all three individuals had Neanderthal ancestors a few generations back in their family history, confirming that the first European modern humans mixed with Neanderthals and suggesting that such mixing could have been common.

The emergence of bone-working and ornamental art in the Caucasian Upper Palaeolithic

Antiquity ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (324) ◽  
pp. 299-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liubov V. Golovanova ◽  
Vladimir B. Doronichev ◽  
Naomi E. Cleghorn
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
New Work ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Early Modern Humans ◽  
Ornamental Art

New work from the Caucasus is revolutionising the timing and character of the shift from Neanderthals to early Modern humans in Eurasia. Here the authors reveal a powerful signal of that change from excavations at Mezmaiskaya: the abrupt appearance of a well-formed bone industry and ornaments.

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