Ancestral ancestors

While the ice age covered the Earth 30,000 years ago in the ice shelf, in the caves of Gibraltar, the Neanderthal caveman eventually found refuge to survive another 10,000 years. New archaeological discoveries in Europe have forced scientists to reconsider ancestors' ancestors.

10,000 years survived

Gorham Cave in Gibraltar (Photo: donsmaps.com)

Although once considered the ancestor of mankind, the Neanderthals were later regarded by science as a dead end of evolution, unrelated to our ancestors - like the clever Homo sapiens. The Neanderthals existed in the confirmed fossils dating back about 230,000 years, and at the time of their flourishing development, these powerful, lumpy prehistoric hunters have set foot wandering throughout Europe today, to Israel in the south and Uzbekistan in the east.

And the Homo sapiens evolving from Africa entered Europe about 40,000 years ago and gradually took the place of the exterminating Neanderthals.

But two months ago, British, Spanish and Japanese researchers identified the dates of coal from an old stove buried in the Gorham cave in Gibraltar - a peninsula in southwestern Europe. was ceded to Britain by Spain since 1713. These prehistoric coal cohorts of the excavation floor that archaeologists had previously dug up a lot of stone tools of the ancient European ancient man, Mousterian, was a member of like Neanderthals. These pieces of coal date back to about 24,000 years ago, while previous scientific evidence has concluded that the Neanderthal breed has been extinct since 10,000 years ago. Where did those last Neanderthal generations of those 10,000 years go?

Love or die!

Neanderthal skulls are found in Gibraltar
(Photo: personales)

The results of new research published in early November from the prehistoric fossils discovered in Romania continue to heat up the constant debate about the origins of humanity.Why is it that such a strong Neanderthal is so easy to perish? Many scientists were content with the theory that it was the same Homo sapiens from Africa who arrived in Europe massacred Neanderthals to scramble for hunting and gathering lands in their survival. Is the intelligent but full of warlike instincts murdering a healthy but peaceful person?

But new studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences support the more sentimental idea that the Neanderthals were eventually merged with the Homo breed. sapiens through breeding. Romanian and American researchers have identified fossilized bones found in the Petera Muierii cave (Romania) dating back about 30,000 years ago - the period when parallel Neanderthal and Homo sapiens exist. While most skeletal forms are like modern humans, many details have the characteristics of Neanderthals - especially the shape of the lower jaw and the back of the skull.

Anthropologist Erik Trinkaus of the University of Washington said: "Neanderthal jaw bones have unique anatomical properties, unrelated to the evolution of the modern human jaw when move from hunting raw meat to cooked meat ". The shoulder joints of the prehistoric human skeletons in Romania have not yet developed completely, it is impossible to make the movements of the arms to throw javelins, shooting arrows or throwing stones. According to Trinkaus, these characteristics are evident in the Neanderthal fossils and the first human varieties from millions of years ago.

Neanderthals instead of genocide mate with Homo sapiens. To reinforce this hypothesis, Trinkaus presented many other hybrid evidence from European archaeological sites such as the Mladec site in Czech. Even the 24,500-year-old skeleton of a prehistoric boy discovered in 1998 in the Abrigo cave by Lagar Velho (Portugal) also has mixed traits between the two prehistoric breeds. Obviously, Neanderthals have contributed to adorning the face of modern people.

Fossil fragments of the skull, upper jaw, lower jaw, and 30,000-year-old shoulder blade of the recently discovered Homo sapiens in Romania show many inherited traits of the Neanderthals (Photo: SGTT)

Integration for survival

The 24,500-year-old skeleton model of a prehistoric boy discovered in 1998 in the Abrigo cave by Lagar Velho (Portugal) shows mixed features between two prehistoric Neanderthal and Homo sapiens.(Photo: SGTT)

New discoveries of human origins have always been a scientific event noted by the media. The hypothesis of a " non-superior " Homo sapiens that has been mixed with the Neanderthal is the predecessor of the modern human being that has made many experts unhappy.

Rejecting Trinkaus's hypothesis, studies of DNA genes of prehistoric humans are cited. From fossils known to have analyzed genes, previous research results show that the Neanderthal DNA codes have no effect on modern humans. The similarities between Neanderthal and our predecessors ended 400,000 years ago.

But Fred Spoor, a professor of evolutionary anatomy at University College London, said that the results of DNA analysis do not prove that breeding between two ancient species did not happen. "Neanderthals and Homo sapiens are fully capable of intercourse and the offspring can live independently , " Spoor said. The problem is not how Neanderthals have been destroyed by Homo sapiens but how Neanderthals have " integrated " into the world of Homo sapiens.

Tran Ngoc Dang

SPECIALISTS GOING TO TIME

The prehistoric anthropology (paleoanthropology) was born in the nineteenth century with the discovery of caveman skeletons in the Neanderthal valley in Germany in 1856. The place was named for a genus of Homo prehistoric humans. neanderthal although fossil skeletons of the same breed have been discovered in many other places in Europe since 1830.

The hypothesis is that humans originating from gibbons have existed for a long time, but the idea of ​​biological evolution of species was officially recognized only when Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species (Origin). species) in 1859.

It was not until the 1920s that new prehistoric fossils were found in Africa. In 1924, Raymond Dart described the caveman Australopithecus africanus through a skeleton fossil, a baby named Taung Child, discovered in Taung cave in Africa. The most distinctive feature of this fossil is that the round skull is more intact like the shape of a human skull today than it does the apes. Other parts also showed evidence of Australopithecus africanus' ability to walk on two legs and eat meat.

The African prehistoric breed has long been considered a direct ancestor of our predecessor Homo sapiens, but new discoveries and research findings have questioned this hypothesis.

A fossilized tooth of the Neanderthals found deep inside
Petera Muierii cave (Romania) - (Photo: stanford.edu)

The artist reproduced the face of a Neanderthal woman
(Photo: wikimedia.org)